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Author: Monica Emelko
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Drinking water
Languages : en
Pages : 25
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Book Description
Author: Monica Emelko
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Drinking water
Languages : en
Pages : 25
Get Book Here
Book Description
Author: Monica Emelko
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 36
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Book Description
Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 109
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Book Description
Wildland fires in the contiguous United States (CONUS) have increased in size and severity, but much remains unclear about the impact of fire size and burn severity on water supplies used for drinking, irrigation, industry, and hydropower. While some have investigated large-scale fire patterns, long-term effects on runoff, and the simultaneous effect of fire and climate trends on surface water yield, no studies account for all these factors and their interactions at the same time. In this report, we present critical new information for the National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy—a first-time CONUS-wide assessment of observed and potential wildland fire impacts on surface water yield. First, we analyzed data from 168 fire-affected locations, collected between 1984 and 2013, with machine learning and used climate elasticity models to correct for the local climate baseline impact. Stream gage data show that annual river flow increased most in the Lower Mississippi and Lower and Upper Colorado water resource regions, however they do not show which portion of this increase is caused by fire and which portion results from local climate trends. Our machine learning model identified local climate trends as the main driver of water yield change and determined wildland fires must affect at least 19 percent of a watershed >10 km2 to change its annual water yield. A closer look at 32 locations with fires covering at least 19 percent of a watershed >10 km2 revealed that wildfire generally enhanced annual river flow. Fires increased river flow relatively the most in the Lower Colorado, Pacific Northwest, and California regions. In the Lower Colorado and Pacific Northwest regions, flow increased despite post-fire drought conditions. In southern California, post-fire drought effects masked the flow enhancement attributed to wildfire, meaning that annual water yield declined but not as much as expected based on the decline in precipitation. Prescribed burns in the Southeastern United States did not produce a widespread effect on river flow, because the area affected was typically too small and characterized by only low burn severity. In the second stage of the assessment, we performed full-coverage simulations of the CONUS with the Water Supply Stress Index (WaSSI) hydrologic model (88,000 HUC-12-level watersheds) for the period between 2001 and 2010. This enables us to fill in the gaps of areas with scarce data and to identify regions with large potential increases in post-fire annual water yield (+10 to +50 percent): mid- to high-elevation forests in northeastern Washington, northwestern Montana, central Minnesota, southern Utah, Colorado, and South Dakota, and coastal forests in Georgia and northern Florida. A hypothetical 20-percent forest burn impact scenario for the CONUS suggests that surface yield can increase up to +10 percent in most watersheds, and even more in some watersheds depending on climate, soils, and vegetation. The insights gained from this quantitative analysis have major implications for flood mitigation and watershed restoration, and are vital to forest management policies aimed at reducing fire impact risk and improving water supply under a changing climate.
Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309499909
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 161
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Book Description
California and other wildfire-prone western states have experienced a substantial increase in the number and intensity of wildfires in recent years. Wildlands and climate experts expect these trends to continue and quite likely to worsen in coming years. Wildfires and other disasters can be particularly devastating for vulnerable communities. Members of these communities tend to experience worse health outcomes from disasters, have fewer resources for responding and rebuilding, and receive less assistance from state, local, and federal agencies. Because burning wood releases particulate matter and other toxicants, the health effects of wildfires extend well beyond burns. In addition, deposition of toxicants in soil and water can result in chronic as well as acute exposures. On June 4-5, 2019, four different entities within the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine held a workshop titled Implications of the California Wildfires for Health, Communities, and Preparedness at the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at the University of California, Davis. The workshop explored the population health, environmental health, emergency preparedness, and health equity consequences of increasingly strong and numerous wildfires, particularly in California. This publication is a summary of the presentations and discussion of the workshop.
Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Eutrophication
Languages : en
Pages : 258
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Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Author: Supasiri Rittiron
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Dissertations, Academic
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Increase in contaminants in soil caused by wildfires is poorly understood, despite it being a significant source of pollutants to receiving waters and reservoirs (Abraham et al., 2017). This study assesses the potential longer-term impacts of a small-scale wildfire that occurred in September 2018 on soil and leachate chemistry in the San Gabriel Mountains, Los Angeles County, California. Soils were collected from five sites within the burned and unburned areas in March 2019, following the post-fire runoff, for sediment and total element analyses. Batch leaching tests were conducted at different temperatures to determine the extent of size partitioning and mobilization of the major (Na, Mg, Al, K, Ca, and Fe) and minor/trace (Mn, Cu, Zn, Cr, and As) elements in order to understand solute transport as a result of changes in chemical bonding and physical characteristics of the soils. The results showed that burned soils were relatively finer than the unburned soils. For soil chemistry, the burned and unburned soils had similar composition of major and minor elements with the average range of the four interested minor elements being between 105 and 1,250 ppm, except As (4 ppm). Nevertheless, the batch leaching tests showed burned soils had significantly higher concentrations for some elements (e.g. Mg and Ca by more than six-fold and sevenfold, respectively, compared to that of the unburned soils within four-week period). These results potentially imply that size partitioning and the rate of the elements released into the water, could be impacted. Chromium amended experiments showed the opposite trend with Cr(VI) concentrations decreasing over time for both burned and non-burned soils. The was likely due to sorption of Cr(VI). These results would be valuable for predicting the fate of the contaminants and broader impacts could also include more effective pre- and post-fire mitigation plans.
Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309471699
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 207
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Book Description
Climate change poses many challenges that affect society and the natural world. With these challenges, however, come opportunities to respond. By taking steps to adapt to and mitigate climate change, the risks to society and the impacts of continued climate change can be lessened. The National Climate Assessment, coordinated by the U.S. Global Change Research Program, is a mandated report intended to inform response decisions. Required to be developed every four years, these reports provide the most comprehensive and up-to-date evaluation of climate change impacts available for the United States, making them a unique and important climate change document. The draft Fourth National Climate Assessment (NCA4) report reviewed here addresses a wide range of topics of high importance to the United States and society more broadly, extending from human health and community well-being, to the built environment, to businesses and economies, to ecosystems and natural resources. This report evaluates the draft NCA4 to determine if it meets the requirements of the federal mandate, whether it provides accurate information grounded in the scientific literature, and whether it effectively communicates climate science, impacts, and responses for general audiences including the public, decision makers, and other stakeholders.
Author: Joe H. Scott
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Fire management
Languages : en
Pages : 84
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Book Description
This report describes a new set of standard fire behavior fuel models for use with Rothermels surface fire spread model and the relationship of the new set to the original set of 13 fire behavior fuel models. To assist with transition to using the new fuel models, a fuel model selection guide, fuel model crosswalk, and set of fuel model photos are provided.
Author: Dannele E. Peck
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317614267
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 186
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Book Description
Demand for water in agricultural, municipal, industrial, and environmental uses is growing. More frequent and severe extreme weather conditions now exacerbate water shortages in many locations and existing infrastructure to store and release water rarely has the capacity to both prevent floods during wet periods and meet demand during drought periods. Competition among sectors adds pressure not only on water infrastructure, but also on management policies and allocation institutions. This book of contributed chapters assesses the performance of existing infrastructure, institutions and policies under different climate variability scenarios. It also provides suggestions for minimizing conflict over scarce water resources. More flexible water-allocation institutions and management policies, and better tools for decision-making under uncertainty will be required to maximize society’s net benefit from less reliable water resources. The chapters show how incentives for individuals to conserve water, and policies for helping vulnerable populations prepare for and recover from extreme events, will also need to be improved. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Natural Resources Policy Research.
