Coccolithophore response to the 1997-1998 El Niño in Santa Barbara Basin (California)

NARCIS (Netherlands)

De Bernardi, B.; Ziveri, P.; Erba, E.; Thunell, R.C.

2005-01-01

The response of coccolithophore export production to non-El Niño and El Niño conditions was monitored during a two year period (26 March 1996-3 April 1998) in the centre of the Santa Barbara Basin (34°14′ N; 120°02′ W), California borderland. During the 1997-1998 El Niño the seasonal cycle of the

Laser fluorosensor overflights of the Santa Barbara oil seeps

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Brown, C. E.; Nelson, R. D.; Fingas, M. [Environment Canada, Ottawa, ON (Canada). Emergencies Science Div.; Mullin, J. V. [Minerals Management Service, Herndon, VA (United States)

1997-10-01

Environment Canada`s Laser Environmental Airborne Fluorosensor (LEAF) system was tested in a series of overflights over naturally occurring oil seeps off Santa Barbara, California. The objective was to test the system`s ability to detect oil in actual marine environments and to distinguish petroleum oil from biogenic oils released by kelp beds in and around these naturally occurring oil seep areas. High resolution colour reconnaissance camera images and down-looking video images were collected concurrently with the fluorescence data for documentation purposes. Results of the experiment were analyzed in detail. They confirmed the system`s ability to produce geo-referenced oil contamination location maps in real-time. The fluorescence data obtained during overflights was most similar to typical crude oil, i. e. the system successfully distinguished between biogenic oil and typical petroleum oil. 9 refs., 1 tab., 3 figs.

Laser fluorosensor overflights of the Santa Barbara oil seeps

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Brown, C. E.; Nelson, R. D.; Fingas, M.

1997-01-01

Environment Canada's Laser Environmental Airborne Fluorosensor (LEAF) system was tested in a series of overflights over naturally occurring oil seeps off Santa Barbara, California. The objective was to test the system's ability to detect oil in actual marine environments and to distinguish petroleum oil from biogenic oils released by kelp beds in and around these naturally occurring oil seep areas. High resolution colour reconnaissance camera images and down-looking video images were collected concurrently with the fluorescence data for documentation purposes. Results of the experiment were analyzed in detail. They confirmed the system's ability to produce geo-referenced oil contamination location maps in real-time. The fluorescence data obtained during overflights was most similar to typical crude oil, i. e. the system successfully distinguished between biogenic oil and typical petroleum oil. 9 refs., 1 tab., 3 figs

Dad's in the Garage: Santa Barbara Physicists in the Long 1970s

Science.gov (United States)

Mody, Cyrus

2013-03-01

American physicists faced many challenges in the 1970s: declining research budgets; public skepticism of scientific authority; declining student enrollments; and pressure to shift to topics such as biomedicine, environmental remediation, alternative energy, public housing and transport, and disability technologies. This paper examines the responses to these challenges of a small group of Santa Barbara physicists. While this group is not representative of the American physics profession, the success and failure of their responses to changed conditions tells us something about how American physicists got through the 1970s, and about the origins of some features of American physics today. The three physicists examined here are Philip Wyatt, David Phillips, and Virgil Elings. In the late `60s, Wyatt left a defense think tank to found an instrumentation firm. The Santa Barbara oil spill and other factors pushed that firm toward civilian markets in biomedicine and pollution measurement. Phillips joined Wyatt's firm from UCSB, while also founding his own company, largely to sell electronic devices for parapsychology. Phillips was also the junior partner in a master's of scientific instrumentation degree curriculum founded by Elings in order to save UCSB Physics' graduate program. Through the MSI program, Elings moved into biomedical research and became a serial entrepreneur. By the 1990s, Wyatt, Phillips, and Elings' turn toward academic entrepreneurship, dual military-civilian markets for physics start-ups, and interdisciplinary collaborations between physicists and life scientists were no longer unusual. Together, their journey through the `70s shows how varied the physics' profession's response to crisis was, and how much it pivoted on new interactions between university and industry.

33 CFR 167.452 - In the Santa Barbara Channel: Between Point Conception and Point Arguello.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

....452 In the Santa Barbara Channel: Between Point Conception and Point Arguello. (a) A separation zone... 120°30.16′ W. 34°18.90′ N 120°30.96′ W. 34°25.70′ N 120°51.81′ W. 34°23.75′ N 120°52.51′ W. (b) A traffic lane for westbound traffic is established between the separation zone and a line connecting the...

Report on data from the Nearshore Sediment Transport Study experiment at Leadbetter Beach, Santa Barbara, California, January-February 1980 (NODC Accession 8200080)

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — THIS DATA SET CONSISTS OF THE RESULTS OF THE NEARSHORE SEDIMENT Nearshore Sediment Transport Study at Leadbetter Beach, Santa Barbara, California. These data from 28...

76 FR 60376 - Revisions to the California State Implementation Plan, Santa Barbara Air Pollution Control...

Science.gov (United States)

2011-09-29

...EPA is taking direct final action to approve revisions to the Santa Barbara Air Pollution Control District (SBAPCD), Sacramento Municipal Air Quality Management District (SMAQMD) and South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) portions of the California State Implementation Plan (SIP). These revisions concern volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions from solvent cleaning machines and solvent cleaning operations and oil and gas production wells. We are approving local rules that regulate these emission sources under the Clean Air Act as amended in 1990 (CAA or the Act).

76 FR 60405 - Revisions to the California State Implementation Plan, Santa Barbara Air Pollution Control...

Science.gov (United States)

2011-09-29

...EPA is proposing to approve revisions to the Santa Barbara Air Pollution Control District (SBAPCD), Sacramento Municipal Air Quality Management District (SMAQMD) and South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) portions of the California State Implementation Plan (SIP). These revisions concern volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions from solvent cleaning machines and solvent cleaning operations and oil and gas production wells. We are proposing to approve local rules to regulate these emission sources under the Clean Air Act as amended in 1990 (CAA or the Act).

76 FR 5319 - Revisions to the California State Implementation Plan, Santa Barbara Air Pollution Control...

Science.gov (United States)

2011-01-31

...EPA is proposing to approve revisions to the Santa Barbara Air Pollution Control District (SBAPCD), Placer County Air Pollution Control District (PCAPCD), Antelope Valley Air Quality Management District (AVAQMD), and Ventura County Air Pollution Control District (VCAPCD) portion of the California State Implementation Plan (SIP). These revisions concern volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions from gasoline bulk plants, terminals and vehicle dispensing facilities. We are proposing to approve local rules to regulate these emission sources under the Clean Air Act as amended in 1990 (CAA or the Act).

Effect of wildfires on physicochemical changes of watershed dissolved organic matter.

Science.gov (United States)

Revchuk, Alex D; Suffet, I H

2014-04-01

Physicochemical characterization of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) provides essential data to describe watershed characteristics after drastic changes caused by wildfires. Post-fire watershed behavior is important for water source selection, management, and drinking water treatment optimization. Using ash and other burned vegetation fragments, a leaching procedure was implemented to describe physicochemical changes to watershed DOC caused by wildfires. Samples were collected after the 2007 and 2009 wildfires near Santa Barbara, California. Substantial differences in size distribution (measured by ultrafiltration), polarity (measured by polarity rapid assessment method), and the origin of leached DOC (measured by fluorescence) were observed between burned and unburned sites. Recently burned ash had 10 times the DOC leaching potential, and was dominated by large size fragments, compared to weathered 2-year-old ash. Charged DOC fractions were found to positively correlate with DOC size, whereas hydrophobic and hydrophilic DOC fractions were not. Proteins were only observed in recently burned ash and were indicative of recent post-fire biological activity.

76 FR 5277 - Revisions to the California State Implementation Plan, Santa Barbara Air Pollution Control...

Science.gov (United States)

2011-01-31

...EPA is taking direct final action to approve revisions to the Santa Barbara Air Pollution Control District (SBAPCD), Antelope Valley Air Quality Management District (AVAQMD), Ventura County Air Pollution Control District (VCAPCD) and Placer County Air Pollution Control District (PCAPCD) portion of the California State Implementation Plan (SIP). These revisions concern volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions from gasoline bulk plants, terminals and vehicle dispensing facilities. We are approving local rules that regulate these emission sources under the Clean Air Act as amended in 1990 (CAA or the Act).

78 FR 21581 - Revisions to the California State Implementation Plan, Santa Barbara County Air Pollution Control...

Science.gov (United States)

2013-04-11

...EPA is proposing to approve revisions to the Santa Barbara County Air Pollution Control District (SBCAPCD) and South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) portions of the California State Implementation Plan (SIP). These revisions concern volatile organic compound (VOC) and oxides of nitrogen (NOX) emissions from gas-fired fan-type central furnaces, small water heaters, and the transfer and dispensing of gasoline. We are proposing to approve local rules to regulate these emission sources under the Clean Air Act (CAA or the Act).

Ground-water quality in the Santa Rita, Buellton, and Los Olivos hydrologic subareas of the Santa Ynez River basin, Santa Barbara County, California

Science.gov (United States)

Hamlin, S.N.

1985-01-01

Groundwater quality in the upper Santa Ynez River Valley in Santa Barbara County has degraded due to both natural and anthropogenic causes. The semiarid climate and uneven distribution of rainfall has limited freshwater recharge and caused salt buildup in water supplies. Tertiary rocks supply mineralized water. Agricultural activities (irrigation return flow containing fertilizers and pesticides, cultivation, feedlot waste disposal) are a primary cause of water quality degradation. Urban development, which also causes water quality degradation (introduced contaminants, wastewater disposal, septic system discharge, and land fill disposal of waste), has imposed stricter requirements on water supply quality. A well network was designed to monitor changes in groundwater quality related to anthropogenic activities. Information from this network may aid in efficient management of the groundwater basins as public water supplies, centered around three basic goals. First is to increase freshwater recharge to the basins by conjunctive surface/groundwater use and surface-spreading techniques. Second is to optimize groundwater discharge by efficient timing and spacing of pumping. Third is to control and reduce sources of groundwater contamination by regulating wastewater quality and distribution and, preferably, by exporting wastewaters from the basin. (USGS)

78 FR 21542 - Revisions to the California State Implementation Plan, Santa Barbara County Air Pollution Control...

Science.gov (United States)

2013-04-11

...EPA is taking direct final action to approve revisions to the Santa Barbara County Air Pollution Control District (SBCAPCD) and South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) portions of the California State Implementation Plan (SIP). These revisions concern volatile organic compound (VOC) and oxides of nitrogen (NOX) emissions from gas-fired fan-type central furnaces, small water heaters, and the transfer and dispensing of gasoline. We are approving local rules that regulate these emission sources under the Clean Air Act (CAA or the Act).

Developing and Validating a Santa Ana Wildfire Threat Index

Science.gov (United States)

Capps, S. B.; Rolinski, T.; DAgostino, B.; Vanderburg, S.; Fovell, R. G.; Cao, Y.

2014-12-01

Santa Ana winds, common to southern California during the fall through spring, are a type of katabatic wind that originates from a direction generally ranging from 360°/0° to 100° and is usually accompanied by very low humidity. Since fuel conditions tend to be driest from late September through the middle of November, Santa Ana winds occurring during this period have the greatest potential to produce large, devastating fires when an ignition occurs. Such catastrophic fires occurred in 1993, 2003, 2007, and 2008. Because of the destructive nature of these fires, there has been a growing desire to categorize Santa Ana wind events in much the same way that tropical cyclones have been categorized. The Santa Ana Wildfire Threat index (SAWT) is an attempt to categorize such events with respect to fire activity, based on surface wind velocity, dew point depression, and forecasted fuel conditions. The index, a USDA Forest Service product, was developed by the Forest Service in collaboration with San Diego Gas and Electric Utility (SDG&E), the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at UCLA, The Desert Research Institute (DRI), and Vertum Partners. The methodology behind the SAWT index, along with the index itself will be presented in detail. Also, there will be a discussion on the construction of a 30-year climatology of the index, which includes various meteorological and fuel parameters. We will demonstrate the usefulness of the index as another decision support tool for fire agencies and first responders, and how it could assist the general public and private industry in the preparation of critical Santa Ana wind events.

Bathymetry and acoustic backscatter-outer mainland shelf, eastern Santa Barbara Channel, California

Science.gov (United States)

Dartnell, Peter; Finlayson, David P.; Ritchie, Andrew C.; Cochrane, Guy R.; Erdey, Mercedes D.

2012-01-01

In 2010 and 2011, scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center (PCMSC), acquired bathymetry and acoustic-backscatter data from the outer shelf region of the eastern Santa Barbara Channel, California. These surveys were conducted in cooperation with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM). BOEM is interested in maps of hard-bottom substrates, particularly natural outcrops that support reef communities in areas near oil and gas extraction activity. The surveys were conducted using the USGS R/V Parke Snavely, outfitted with an interferometric sidescan sonar for swath mapping and real-time kinematic navigation equipment. This report provides the bathymetry and backscatter data acquired during these surveys in several formats, a summary of the mapping mission, maps of bathymetry and backscatter, and Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) metadata.

Hydrocarbon Plume Dynamics in the Worldś Most Spectacular Hydrocarbon Seeps, Santa Barbara Channel, California

Science.gov (United States)

Mau, S.; Reed, J.; Clark, J.; Valentine, D.

2006-12-01

Large quantities of natural gas are emitted from the seafloor into the coastal ocean near Coal Oil Point, Santa Barbara Channel (SBC), California. Methane, ethane, and propane were quantified in the surface water at 79 stations in a 270 km2 area in order to map the surficial hydrocarbon plume and to quantify air-sea exchange of these gases. A time series was initiated for 14 stations to identify the variability of the mapped plume, and biologically-mediated oxidation rates of methane were measured to quantify the loss of methane in surface water. The hydrocarbon plume was found to comprise ~70 km2 and extended beyond study area. The plume width narrowed from 3 km near the source to 0.7 km further from the source, and then expanded to 6.7 km at the edge of the study area. This pattern matches the cyclonic gyre which is the normal current flow in this part of the Santa Barbara Channel - pushing water to the shore near the seep field and then broadening the plume while the water turns offshore further from the source. Concentrations of gaseous hydrocarbons decrease as the plume migrates. Time series sampling shows similar plume width and hydrocarbon concentrations when normal current conditions prevail. In contrast, smaller plume width and low hydrocarbon concentrations were observed when an additional anticyclonic eddy reversed the normal current flow, and a much broader plume with higher hydrocarbon concentrations was observed during a time of diminished speed within the current gyre. These results demonstrate that surface currents control hydrocarbon plume dynamics in the SBC, though hydrocarbon flux to the atmosphere is likely less dependent on currents. Estimates of air- sea hydrocarbon flux and biological oxidation rates will also be presented.

Precipitation in Santa Barbara, CA on varying timescales and the relationships with the El Niño Southern Oscillation, the Madden-Julian Oscillation, and atmospheric rivers

Science.gov (United States)

Harris, S. M.; Carvalho, L. V.; Jones, C.

2013-12-01

This study aimed to understand the patterns and variations of extreme precipitation events that occur in Santa Barbara County and determine the relationships with various phenomena that affect the region. Santa Barbara, CA is an area with complex topography that is disposed to numerous hazard events including landslides and flooding, particularly during the region's rainy season (Nov.-Apr.). These incidents are especially frequent in the seasons after fire-events, another hazard common to the region. In addition, Santa Barbara is affected by several tropical phenomena that influence precipitation on varying timescales including the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO), the Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO), and atmospheric rivers (ARs). It is well known that ENSO and the MJO influence storms that occur in southern California through processes such as the modulation of the upper level jet and the low level moisture flux. ARs have been revealed to be responsible for the movement of large quantities of water vapor from tropical areas to the midlatitudes and have been linked to high-intensity storms throughout the western coast of North America. We examined rainy season (Nov.-Apr.) precipitation within Santa Barbara County using hourly rainfall data spanning approximately forty years (~1971-2010) from seven, local, rain gauge stations. The distributions as well as totals of precipitation on varying timescales (hourly, daily, seasonal, and yearly) were defined for specified intensities of rainfall based upon the 75th, 90th, 95th, and 99th percentiles. Persistence, expressed as the number of consecutive hours (or days) including intense precipitation defined according to the percentiles, was investigated on the hourly and daily timescales. In addition, specified storm episodes identified in this study were examined with data from the Tropical Rainfall Measurement Mission in order to assess the spatial features of high-intensity storms. Results from this analysis will be

Biotic response to late Quaternary rapid climate switches in Santa Barbara Basin: Ecological and evolutionary implications

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cannariato, K.G.; Kennett, J.P.; Behl, R.J.

1999-01-01

Benthic foraminiferal assemblages from Santa Barbara Basin exhibit major faunal and ecological switches associated with late Quaternary millennial- to decadal-scale global climate oscillations. Repeated turnovers of entire faunas occurred rapidly (<40--400 yr) without extinction or speciation in conjunction with Dansgaard-Oeschger shifts in thermohaline circulation, ventilation, and climate, confirming evolutionary model predictions of Roy et al. Consistent faunal successions of dysoxic taxa during successive interstadials reflect the extreme sensitivity and adaptation of the benthic ecosystem to the rapid environmental changes that marked the late Quaternary and possibly other transitional intervals in the history of the Earth's ocean-atmosphere-cryosphere system. These data support the hypothesis that broad segments of the biosphere are well adapted to rapid climate change

Submarine landslides in the Santa Barbara Channel as potential tsunami sources

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

H. G. Greene

2006-01-01

Full Text Available Recent investigations using the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institutes (MBARI Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs 'Ventana' and 'Tiburon' and interpretation of MBARI's EM 300 30 kHz multibeam bathymetric data show that the northern flank of the Santa Barbara Basin has experienced massive slope failures. Of particular concern is the large (130 km2 Goleta landslide complex located off Coal Oil Point near the town of Goleta, that measures 14.6-km long extending from a depth of 90 m to nearly 574 m deep and is 10.5 km wide. We estimate that approximately 1.75 km3 has been displaced by this slide during the Holocene. This feature is a complex compound submarine landslide that contains both surfical slump blocks and mud flows in three distinct segments. Each segment is composed of a distinct head scarp, down-dropped head block and a slide debris lobe. The debris lobes exhibit hummocky topography in the central areas that appear to result from compression during down slope movement. The toes of the western and eastern lobes are well defined in the multibeam image, whereas the toe of the central lobe is less distinct. Continuous seismic reflection profiles show that many buried slide debris lobes exist and comparison of the deformed reflectors with ODP Drill Site 149, Hole 893 suggest that at least 200 000 years of failure have occurred in the area (Fisher et al., 2005a. Based on our interpretation of the multibeam bathymetry and seismic reflection profiles we modeled the potential tsunami that may have been produced from one of the three surfical lobes of the Goleta slide. This model shows that a 10 m high wave could have run ashore along the cliffs of the Goleta shoreline. Several other smaller (2 km2 and 4 km2 slides are located on the northern flank of the Santa Barbara Basin, both to the west and east of Goleta slide and on the Conception fan along the western flank of the basin. One slide, named the Gaviota slide, is 3.8 km2, 2.6 km long and 1

Reseña de Gaspar Aguilar, «La comedia segunda de Los agravios perdonados», ed. C. George Peale, Santa Barbara, University of California, Publications of «eHumanista», 2016, 128 pp., edición digital

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ariel Núñez Sepúlveda

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Reseña de Gaspar Aguilar, La comedia segunda de Los agravios perdonados, ed. C. George Peale, Santa Barbara, University of California, Publications of eHumanista, 2016, 128 pp., edición digital

75 FR 81846 - Expansion of the Santa Maria Valley Viticultural Area

Science.gov (United States)

2010-12-29

... decision. SUMMARY: This Treasury decision expands the Santa Maria Valley viticultural area in Santa Barbara... may purchase. DATES: Effective Date: January 28, 2011. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Elisabeth C... origin of their wines to consumers and helps consumers to identify wines they may purchase. Establishment...

Initial source and site characterization studies for the U.C. Santa Barbara campus

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Archuleta, R.; Nicholson, C.; Steidl, J.; Gurrola, L.; Alex, C.; Cochran, E.; Ely, G.; Tyler, T. [University of California, Santa Barbara (United States)

1997-12-01

The University of California Campus-Laboratory Collaboration (CLC) project is an integrated 3 year effort involving Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and four UC campuses - Los Angeles (UCLA), Riverside (UCR), Santa Barbara (UCSB), and San Diego (UCSD) - plus additional collaborators at San Diego State University (SDSU), at Los Alamos National Laboratory and in industry. The primary purpose of the project is to estimate potential ground motions from large earthquakes and to predict site-specific ground motions for one critical structure on each campus. This project thus combines the disciplines of geology, seismology, geodesy, soil dynamics, and earthquake engineering into a fully integrated approach. Once completed, the CLC project will provide a template to evaluate other buildings at each of the four UC campuses, as well as provide a methodology for evaluating seismic hazards at other critical sites in California, including other UC locations at risk from large earthquakes. Another important objective of the CLC project is the education of students and other professional in the application of this integrated, multidisciplinary, state-of-the-art approach to the assessment of earthquake hazard. For each campus targeted by the CLC project, the seismic hazard study will consist of four phases: Phase I - Initial source and site characterization, Phase II - Drilling, logging, seismic monitoring, and laboratory dynamic soil testing, Phase III - Modeling of predicted site-specific earthquake ground motions, and Phase IV - Calculations of 3D building response. This report cover Phase I for the UCSB campus and incudes results up through March 1997.

The Upper Santa Ynez River as Habitat for a Diverse Riparian Flora and Fauna

Science.gov (United States)

M. Violet Gray; James M. Greaves; Thomas E. Olson

1989-01-01

The upper Santa Ynez River, Santa Barbara County, provides habitats for a relatively large population of least Bell's vireos (Vireo bellii pusillus), as well as diverse riparian flora and fauna. Of particular interest is the richness of the species within particular guilds. Four species of vireos: least Bell's, warbling (Vireo...

Determination of the content of aluminium, manganese, fluorine, lead and cadmium in water for human consumption in a sector of Santa Barbara of Heredia

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Arias Sanchez, F.

1995-01-01

This study developed an analytical procedure dependable and precise, for the determination of manganese and aluminum by means of the technique of Atomic Emission with Plasma Fountain Coupled Inductively (Icp-Aes), and applied to the water that they supply to a sector of the community of Santa Barbara of Heredia. For the determination of aluminum and manganese, the samples showed that they don't need any prior mineralization or preconcentration processing, for which the analysis is rapid and economic. It determined the concentrations of lead and cadmium in the samples, by means of the volt amperometric method of Anodic Spoils with Differential Pulse, and the technique of standard addition for the quantization of the samples. It also determined the concentrations of fluorine by the colorimetric method of SPANDS. (author) [es

75 FR 9827 - Proposed Expansion of the Santa Maria Valley Viticultural Area (2008R-287P)

Science.gov (United States)

2010-03-04

...,'' by Harry P. Bailey, University of California Press, 1966). The maritime fringe climate derives from... California Press, 1975.) Soils: According to the petition, the current Santa Maria Valley viticultural area... viticultural area in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo Counties, California, by 18,790 acres. We designate...

Natural Offshore Oil Seepage and Related Tarball Accumulation on the California Coastline - Santa Barbara Channel and the Southern Santa Maria Basin: Source Identification and Inventory

Science.gov (United States)

Lorenson, T.D.; Hostettler, Frances D.; Rosenbauer, Robert J.; Peters, Kenneth E.; Dougherty, Jennifer A.; Kvenvolden, Keith A.; Gutmacher, Christina E.; Wong, Florence L.; Normark, William R.

2009-01-01

Oil spillage from natural sources is very common in the waters of southern California. Active oil extraction and shipping is occurring concurrently within the region and it is of great interest to resource managers to be able to distinguish between natural seepage and anthropogenic oil spillage. The major goal of this study was to establish the geologic setting, sources, and ultimate dispersal of natural oil seeps in the offshore southern Santa Maria Basin and Santa Barbara Basins. Our surveys focused on likely areas of hydrocarbon seepage that are known to occur between Point Arguello and Ventura, California. Our approach was to 1) document the locations and geochemically fingerprint natural seep oils or tar; 2) geochemically fingerprint coastal tar residues and potential tar sources in this region, both onshore and offshore; 3) establish chemical correlations between offshore active seeps and coastal residues thus linking seep sources to oil residues; 4) measure the rate of natural seepage of individual seeps and attempt to assess regional natural oil and gas seepage rates; and 5) interpret the petroleum system history for the natural seeps. To document the location of sub-sea oil seeps, we first looked into previous studies within and near our survey area. We measured the concentration of methane gas in the water column in areas of reported seepage and found numerous gas plumes and measured high concentrations of methane in the water column. The result of this work showed that the seeps were widely distributed between Point Conception east to the vicinity of Coal Oil Point, and that they by in large occur within the 3-mile limit of California State waters. Subsequent cruises used sidescan and high resolution seismic to map the seafloor, from just south of Point Arguello, east to near Gaviota, California. The results of the methane survey guided the exploration of the area west of Point Conception east to Gaviota using a combination of seismic instruments. The

Coccolithophore response to climate and surface hydrography in Santa Barbara Basin, California, AD 1917–2004

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. Grelaud

2009-10-01

Full Text Available The varved sedimentary AD 1917–2004 record from the depositional center of the Santa Barbara Basin (SBB, California was analyzed with monthly to triannual resolution to yield relative abundances of six coccolithophore species representing at least 96% of the coccolithophore assemblage. Seasonal/annual relative abundances respond to climatic and surface hydrographic conditions in the SBB, whereby (i the three species G. oceanica, H. carteri and F. profunda are characteristic of the strength of the northward flowing warm California Counter Current, (ii the two species G. ericsonii and G. muellerae are associated with the cold equatorward flowing California Current, (iii and E. huxleyi appears to be endemic to the SBB. Spectral analyses on relative abundances of these species show that all are influenced by the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO and/or by the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO. Increased relative abundances of G. oceanica and H. carteri are associated with warm ENSO events, G. muellerae responds to warm PDO events and the abundance of G. ericsonii increases during cold PDO events. Morphometric parameters measured on E. huxleyi, G. muellerae and G. oceanica indicate increasing coccolithophore shell carbonate mass from ~1917 until 2004 concomitant with rising pCO₂ and sea surface temperature in the region of the SBB.

The Great Southwest of the Fred Harvey Company and the Santa Fe Railway, edited by Marta Weigle and Barbara A. Babcock. The Heard Museum, Pheonix (printed by The University of Arizona Press, Tucson, for The Heard Museum, 1996

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Douglas R. Givens

1997-11-01

Full Text Available One of the more colorful eras in American Southwestern archaelogy is reflected in The Great Southwest of the Fred Harvey Company and the Santa Fe Railway. Marta Weigle and Barbara A. Babcock, editors of the volume, have done a superb job weaving in early Southwestern archaeological activities with the role of the Fred Harvey Company and the Santa Fe Railway in bring the American Southwest to those "east of the Mississippi River". Many early Southwestern archaeologists made their way throughout the Southwest on the Santa Fe Railway while the "outposts of civilization" that the Fred Harvey Company provided in many railroad stations served as a " bit of home" to the traveler. This book describes the collaboration of both Fred Harvey and the Santa Fe Railroad tourism in the American Southwest and provides an excellent look into the Native American artists and their comumnities which were transformed on a massive scale by the Fred Harvey Company as it bought, sold, and popularized Native American art. Also part of the volume is an excellent discussion of the network of major museums that hold art collections which were purchased through the Harvey Company's Indian Department.

D/H Ratios of Marine Lipids from Santa Barbara Basin Sediments

Science.gov (United States)

Li, C.; Sessions, A.; Kinnaman, F.; Valentine, D.

2006-12-01

With the early successful application of compound-specific D/H analyses to reconstructing paleoclimate records, most subsequent research has focused on understanding organic D/H fractionations in terrestrial environments. Thus we still know very little about natural D/H variations in lipids derived from marine organisms, or indeed if any such variations exist. We have therefore conducted an extensive survey of lipid δD values in two sediment cores collected in the Santa Barbara Basin. These data allow us to examine 1) variations between the lipid products of different organisms, 2) down-core variations due to diagenesis, and 3) differences between sediments deposited under oxic or anoxic bottom-water conditions. Our results show that considerable D/H variability between different marine products does exist. δD values of n-alkanes (except n-C35) ranged from -94 to -175 ‰, and exhibit a systematic offset between odd and even carbon numbers. The δD value of n-C35 is anomalous at -220‰. Isotopic compositions of n-alkanols range from -126 to -221 , with a pattern of progressive D depletion with chain length observed for free alcohols. δD values of sterols range from -215 to -309‰, and show no systematic variation with carbon number. However, offsets do exist between the saturated, monounsaturated, and diunsaturated sterols. Sterols as a group are strongly depleted in D relative to the bacterial-derived hopanols (-166 to -232‰), suggesting possible differences in biosynthetic fractionations by bacteria and eukaryotes. Phytol and phytane δD values roughly ranged from -360 to -410‰, while phytanol was systematically enriched at -300 to -340‰. Fatty acids encompassed much greater variability, with dD values ranging from -55 to -270‰. In general, saturated fatty acids are enriched in D relative to their unsaturated analogs, and long-chain (>C24) acids are enriched in D relative to short-chain (

Orbital- to Sub-Orbital-Scale Cyclicity in Seismic Reflections and Sediment Character in Early to Middle Pleistocene Mudstone, Santa Barbara Basin, California

Science.gov (United States)

Peterson, C. D.; Behl, R. J.; Nicholson, C.; Lisiecki, L. E.; Sorlien, C. C.

2009-12-01

High-resolution seismic reflection records and well logs from the Santa Barbara Channel suggest that large parts of the Pleistocene succession records climate variability on orbital to sub-orbital scales with remarkable sensitivity, much like the well-studied sediments of the last glacial cycle (ODP Site 893). Spectral analysis of seismic reflection data and gamma ray logs from stratigraphically similar Pleistocene sections finds similar cyclic character and shifts through the section. This correlation suggests that acoustic impedance and physical properties of sediment are linked by basin-scale, likely climatically-driven, oscillations in lithologic composition and fabric during deposition, and that seismic profiling can provide a method for remote identification and correlation of orbital- and sub-orbital-scale sedimentary cyclicity. Where it crops out along the northern shelf of the central Santa Barbara Channel, the early to middle Pleistocene succession (~1.8-1.2 Ma) is a bathyal hemipelagic mudstone with remarkably rhythmic planar bedding, finely laminated fabric, and well-preserved foraminifera, none of which have been significantly altered, or obscured by post-depositional diagenesis or tectonic deformation. Unlike the coarser, turbiditic successions in the central Ventura and Los Angeles basins, this sequence has the potential to record Quaternary global climate change at high resolution. Seismic reflection data (towed chirp) collected on the R/V Melville 2008 Cruise (MV08) penetrate 10's of meters below seafloor into a ~1 km-long sequence of south-dipping seismic reflectors. Sampling parallel to the seafloor permits acquisition of consistent signal amplitude for similar reflectors without spreading loss. Based on established age ranges for this section, sedimentation rates may range from 0.4 to 1.4 meters/kyr, therefore suggesting that the most powerful cycles are orbital- to sub-orbital-scale. Discrete sets of cycles with high power show an abrupt shift

Macroinvertebrados bentônicos como indicadores de qualidade de água na Barragem Santa Bárbara, Pelotas, RS, Brasil Zoobenthics as indicators of the water quality in the Santa Bárbara Dam, Pelotas, RS, Brazil

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sérgio Renato Noguez Piedras

2006-04-01

Full Text Available O objetivo deste trabalho foi estudar o impacto de dois afluentes da barragem Santa Bárbara sobre o ambiente da mesma, utilizando a ocorrência de invertebrados bentônicos e características químicas da água. Durante nove meses foram realizadas coletas e análises da água e de invertebrados bentônicos nos afluentes Sanga da Barbuda e Sanga do Passo do Cunha e também no interior da bacia de acumulação da barragem. Os resultados mostram que, embora a Sanga da Barbuda e a Sanga do Passo do Cunha apresentem características químicas abaixo do recomendável, no limite aceitável pela legislação que determina os padrões de qualidade da água para abastecimento público, estes afluentes estão, ainda, sendo diluídos de forma satisfatória na bacia de acumulação da barragem. O estudo das relações entre variáveis químicas e invertebrados bentônicos mostra haver correlação significativa entre os baixos níveis de oxigênio dissolvido e a presença de Oligochaeta, sendo que o aumento do número de Oligochaeta indica uma situação de anoxia na barragem Santa Bárbara.The objective of this work was to study the impact of two tributaries from the Santa Bárbara Dam on this environment using the occurrence of zoobenthics and some water chemical characteristics. Monthly gathering and analysis from the water and zoobenthics were done during nine months in the tributaries Sanga da Barbuda and Sanga Passo do Cunha as well as in the inner part of the accumulation basin in the Santa Barbara dam. The results demonstrate that, though Sanga da Barbuda and Sanga Passo do Cunha present chemical characteristics lower than the recommended but still in the limits acceptable by the law that regulates the water quality standards for the supply, these tributaries are being diluted in a satisfactory way in the accumulation basin in the Santa Barbara dam. The study of the relations between chemical variables and zoobenthics show a significant correlation

Preliminary three-dimensional geohydrologic framework of the San Antonio Creek Groundwater Basin, Santa Barbara County, California

Science.gov (United States)

Cromwell, G.; Sweetkind, D. S.; O'leary, D. R.

2017-12-01

The San Antonio Creek Groundwater Basin is a rural agricultural area that is heavily dependent on groundwater to meet local water demands. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is working cooperatively with Santa Barbara County and Vandenberg Air Force Base to assess the quantity and quality of the groundwater resources within the basin. As part of this assessment, an integrated hydrologic model that will help stakeholders to effectively manage the water resources in the basin is being developed. The integrated hydrologic model includes a conceptual model of the subsurface geology consisting of stratigraphy and variations in lithology throughout the basin. The San Antonio Creek Groundwater Basin is a relatively narrow, east-west oriented valley that is structurally controlled by an eastward-plunging syncline. Basin-fill material beneath the valley floor consists of relatively coarse-grained, permeable, marine and non-marine sedimentary deposits, which are underlain by fine-grained, low-permeability, marine sedimentary rocks. To characterize the system, surficial and subsurface geohydrologic data were compiled from geologic maps, existing regional geologic models, and lithology and geophysical logs from boreholes, including two USGS multiple-well sites drilled as part of this study. Geohydrologic unit picks and lithologic variations are incorporated into a three-dimensional framework model of the basin. This basin (model) includes six geohydrologic units that follow the structure and stratigraphy of the area: 1) Bedrock - low-permeability marine sedimentary rocks; 2) Careaga Formation - fine to coarse grained near-shore sandstone; 3) Paso Robles Formation, lower portion - sandy-gravely deposits with clay and limestone; 4) Paso Robles Formation, middle portion - clayey-silty deposits; 5) Paso Robles Formation, upper portion - sandy-gravely deposits; and 6) recent Quaternary deposits. Hydrologic data show that the upper and lower portions of the Paso Robles Formation are

77 FR 48582 - Culturally Significant Objects Imported for Exhibition Determinations: “Plants of Virtue and...

Science.gov (United States)

2012-08-14

...'' by Shitao to be imported by The Santa Barbara Museum of Art from abroad for temporary exhibition... exhibit object at The Santa Barbara Museum of Art in Santa Barbara, California from on or about October 20...

Forecast skill of synoptic conditions associated with Santa Ana winds in Southern California

Science.gov (United States)

Charles Jones; Francis Fujioka; Leila M.V. Carvalho

2010-01-01

Santa Ana winds (SAW) are synoptically driven mesoscale winds observed in Southern California usually during late fall and winter. Because of the complex topography of the region, SAW episodes can sometimes be extremely intense and pose significant environmental hazards, especially during wildfire incidents. A simple set of criteria was used to identify synoptic-scale...

Effects of the Relaxation of Upwelling-Favorable Winds on the Diurnal and Semidiurnal Water Temperature Fluctuations in the Santa Barbara Channel, California

Science.gov (United States)

Aristizábal, María. F.; Fewings, Melanie R.; Washburn, Libe

2017-10-01

In the Santa Barbara Channel, California, and around the Northern Channel Islands, water temperature fluctuations in the diurnal and semidiurnal frequency bands are intermittent, with amplitudes that vary on time scales of days to weeks. The cause of this intermittency is not well understood. We studied the effects of the barotropic tide, vertical stratification, propagation of coastal-trapped waves, regional wind relaxations, and diurnal-band winds on the intermittency of the temperature fluctuations during 1992-2015. We used temperature data from 43 moorings in 10-200 m water depth and wind data from two buoys and one land station. Subtidal-frequency changes in vertical stratification explain 20-40% of the intermittency in diurnal and semidiurnal temperature fluctuations at time scales of days to weeks. Along the mainland north of Point Conception and at the Northern Channel Islands, the relaxation of upwelling-favorable winds substantially increases vertical stratification, accounting for up to 55% of the subtidal-frequency variability in stratification. As a result of the enhanced stratification, wind relaxations enhance the diurnal and semidiurnal temperature fluctuations at those sites, even though the diurnal-band wind forcing decreases during wind relaxation. A linear model where the background stratification is advected vertically explains a substantial fraction of the temperature fluctuations at most sites. The increase of vertical stratification and subsequent increase in diurnal and semidiurnal temperature fluctuations during wind relaxation is a mechanism that can supply nutrients to the euphotic zone and kelp forests in the Channel in summer when upwelling is weak.

Barbara Trenholm | IDRC - International Development Research ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

Barbara is a professor emerita at the University of New Brunswick (UNB). She holds an Institute of Corporate Directors designation (ICD.D), and a FCPA and FCA with Chartered Professional Accountants (CPA) New Brunswick. Barbara is currently a member of the Plaza Retail REIT board of trustees and the New Brunswick ...

Rannus mängitakse suvel Barbara lugu

Index Scriptorium Estoniae

2007-01-01

Augustis on Rannus näitlejate ja näitejuhtide suvekool, mille tipphetk on ühine vabaõhuetendus "Barbara lugu", lavastajaks Jüri Lumiste. Artiklis ka lühidalt Barbara von Tiesenhuseni, kes oli Rannu lossi Tiesenhusenite 12 lapsest noorim, saatusest

Barbara Cooney.

Science.gov (United States)

Horne, Jackie C.

2000-01-01

Profiles the life/work of the award winning picture-book author-illustrator Barbara Cooney. Includes her early development as an artist; early attempts at the picture-book form; experimentation with different media: watercolor, pen/ink with wash, charcoal, acrylics, pastels, and collage; later work that draws upon folk-art traditions; her love of…

Barbara McClintock, Jumping Genes, and Transposition

Science.gov (United States)

McClintock Honored * Woman of Science * Educational Material * Resources with Additional Information Barbara McClintock's remarkable life spanned the history of genetics in the twentieth century. ... [T]he science of Dedicate Famous Scientist Stamps ... Woman of Science: McClintock, Barbara and the Jumping Genes, 4,000

Decoro, engenho e maravilha nos largos e igrejas de Santa Bárbara e Catas Altas Decorum, wit and wonder on villages, squares and churches of Santa Bárbara and Catas Altas (Brazil

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rodrigo Almeida Bastos

2011-12-01

Full Text Available O texto é a base da palestra itinerante que encerrou a II Semana de Música Antiga da UFMG (entre 27/10 e 02/11/2009. A palestra se realizou em visita comentada aos povoados, largos e igrejas de Santa Bárbara e Catas Altas, onde foram analisados aspectos como a implantação no sítio, planta, frontispícios e ornamentação, que conformaram sua formosura, seu engenho e sua maravilha.The text is the basis of the speech that closed the Second Week of Early Music of UFMG. The lecture took place in the shape of commented visits to squares and churches of Santa Barbara and Catas Altas (Brazil, analyzing issues such as eployment of the site, blueprint, façades and ornamentation, which shaped their beauty, their wit and their wonder.

Environmental Impact Analysis Process. Volume 3. Preliminary Final Environmental Impact Statement Construction and Operation of Space Launch Complex 7

Science.gov (United States)

1989-10-23

been introduced into Honda Creek, about two miles north of SLC-6 and about three miles north of the Cypress Ridge, Boathouse Flats, and Vina Terrace...Fish and Wildlife Service, Laguna Niguel Deborah Pontifex, Santa Barbara County APCD, Santa Barbara Jeffrey Harris, Santa Barbara County Resource...on the Channel Islands. In addition, an analysis of acidic deposition into Honda Creek from launch operations was performed. This analysis showed that

santa_barbara.grd

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — NGDC builds and distributes high-resolution, coastal digital elevation models (DEMs) that integrate ocean bathymetry and land topography to support NOAA's mission to...

Effects of Wildfire on Fluvial Sediment Regime through Perturbations in Dry-Ravel

Science.gov (United States)

Florsheim, J. L.; Chin, A.; Kinoshita, A. M.; Nourbakhshbeidokhti, S.; Storesund, R.; Keller, E. A.

2015-12-01

In steep chaparral ecosystems with Mediterranean climate, dry ravel is a natural process resulting from wildfire disturbance that supplies sediment to fluvial systems. When dense chaparral vegetation burns, sediment accumulated on steep hillslopes is released for dry-season transport (dry ravel) down steep hillslopes during or soon after the wildfire. Results of a field study in southern California's Transverse Ranges illustrate the effect of wildfire on fluvial sediment regime in an unregulated chaparral system. Big Sycamore Canyon in the steep Santa Monica Mountains burned during the May 2013 Springs Fire and experienced one small sediment-transporting stormflow during the following winter. We conducted pre- and post-storm field campaigns during the fall and winter following the fire to quantify the effect of wildfire on the fluvial sediment regime. We utilized a sediment mass balance approach in which: 1) sediment supply, consisting primarily of dry ravel-derived deposits composed of relatively fine grained-sediment, was measured in the upstream basin and in the hillslope-channel margin adjacent to the study reach; 2) changes in storage in the study reach were quantified by analyzing the difference between pre- and post-storm channel topography derived from Terrestrial LiDAR Scanning (TLS) and field surveys; and 3) transport from the study reach was estimated as the difference between supply and change in storage where uncertainty is estimated using calculated sediment transport as a comparison. Results demonstrate channel deposition caused by changes in the short-term post-wildfire sediment regime. The increased sediment supply and storage are associated with significant changes in morphology, channel bed-material characteristics, and ecology. These results suggest that dry-ravel processes are an important factor to consider in post-wildfire sediment management.

Mentors, Muses, and Mutuality: Honoring Barbara Snell Dohrenwend

Science.gov (United States)

Mulvey, Anne

2012-01-01

I describe feminist community psychology principles that have the potential to expand and enrich mentoring and that honor Barbara Snell Dohrenwend, a leader who contributed to the research, theory, and profession of community psychology. I reflect on the affect that Barbara Dohrenwend had on life and on the development of feminist community…

78 FR 59080 - Culturally Significant Objects Imported for Exhibition Determinations: “Delacroix and the Matter...

Science.gov (United States)

2013-09-25

... ``Delacroix and the Matter of Finish,'' imported from abroad for temporary exhibition within the United States... objects at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, California, from on or about October 27, 2013...

Constraining the variability of optical properties in the Santa Barbara Channel, CA: A phytoplankton story

Science.gov (United States)

Barron, Rebecca Katherine

The research presented in this dissertation evaluates the direct relationships of phytoplankton community composition and inherent optical properties (IOP); that is, the absorption and scattering of light in the ocean. Phytoplankton community composition affect IOPs in both direct and indirect ways, thus creating challenges for optical measurements of biological and biogeochemical properties in aquatic systems. Studies were performed in the Santa Barbara Channel (SBC), CA where an array of optical and biogeochemical measurements were made. Phytoplankton community structure was characterized by an empirical orthogonal functional analysis (EOF) using phytoplankton accessory pigments. The results showed that phytoplankton community significantly correlated to all IOPs, e.g. phytoplankton specific absorption, detrital absorption, CDOM absorption and particle backscattering coefficients. Furthermore, the EOF analysis was unique in splitting the microphytoplankton size class into separate diatom and dinoflagellate regimes allowing for assessment optical property differences within the same size class, a technique previously not systematically achievable. The phytoplankton functional group dinoflagellates were particularly influential to IOPs in surprising ways. Dinoflagellates showed higher backscattering efficiencies than would be predicted based on Mie theory, and significantly influenced CDOM absorption via direct association with dissolved mycosproine-like amino acid absorption (MAA) peaks in CDOM spectra. A new index was developed in this work to quantify MAA absorption peaks in CDOM spectra, and was named the MAA Index. Prior to this research dissolved MAA absorption in natural waters was never quantified, and CDOM data containing these peaks were often disregarded and discarded from analysis. CDOM dynamics in the SBC were assessed for a 15-year study period, and this work shows that significantly large MAA Index values, e.g. MAA Index > 1, were present in

Subversive Foundations

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Thomsen, Mads Rosendahl

2010-01-01

www.frit.ucsb.edu/WorldLitConf/video.php?id=007 ; video af konferencebidrag UC Santa Barbara 19.11.2009.......www.frit.ucsb.edu/WorldLitConf/video.php?id=007 ; video af konferencebidrag UC Santa Barbara 19.11.2009....

Tracking Identity: Opportunity, Success, and Affiliation with Science among Fifth-Grade Latina/o Youth of Santa Barbara, California

Science.gov (United States)

Maas, Grayson Ford

This dissertation is an investigation into the American public education system at the elementary school level. It highlights important factors that shape the organizational structure of schools and classrooms, and in turn, how they engender disparities in the ways students experience education, namely, in the opportunities made available to them to achieve and succeed at a high level. This dissertation operates at the confluence of notions about class, gender, language, and race, especially as they revolve around public education and the hegemonic meritocratic discourse on which it is founded. This dissertation engages and contributes to scholarship within the following areas: The political economy of education; discourse and the dialectical relationship between agency and structure; cultural perspectives on identity, voice, and learning; and, Latinas/os in science education. The data that serve as the basis for the findings presented in this dissertation were collected throughout a three-phase yearlong ethnographic study of the two tracked fifth-grade classrooms at Amblen Elementary School, serving a socioeconomically disadvantaged Latina/o student population in Santa Barbara, California. In classrooms all across the nation, while it remains true that Latina/o students disproportionally take up space in the lower-tracked courses and not in the higher ones, this study does not examine inequality in tracking assignments made along ethnic/racial lines (as 100% of the students that participated in this research identify as Latina/o), rather, it investigates the consequences of what happens when Latina/o students are tracked according to symbolic markers of their ethnic/racial identity, that is, their varying levels of English language competency. Using data from participant observation, semi-structured interviews, students' drawings, as well as free-list and rank-order exercises, I was able to answer the following central research questions: In what ways do the

77 FR 65621 - Security Zone; Cruise Ships, Santa Barbara Harbor, Santa Barbara, CA

Science.gov (United States)

2012-10-30

... able to locate the cruise ships visually, due to the small geographic size and depth restrictions of... entities because vessel traffic can pass safely around the zones. If you think that your business... significant economic impact on it, please submit a comment (see ADDRESSES) explaining why you think it...

Assessing influences on social vulnerability to wildfire using surveys, spatial data and wildfire simulations.

Science.gov (United States)

Paveglio, Travis B; Edgeley, Catrin M; Stasiewicz, Amanda M

2018-05-01

A growing body of research focuses on identifying patterns among human populations most at risk from hazards such as wildfire and the factors that help explain performance of mitigations that can help reduce that risk. Emerging policy surrounding wildfire management emphasizes the need to better understand such social vulnerability-or human populations' potential exposure to and sensitivity from wildfire-related impacts, including their ability to reduce negative impacts from the hazard. Studies of social vulnerability to wildfire often pair secondary demographic data with a variety of vegetation and wildfire simulation models to map potential risk. However, many of the assumptions made by those researchers about the demographic, spatial or perceptual factors that influence social vulnerability to wildfire have not been fully evaluated or tested against objective measures of potential wildfire risk. The research presented here utilizes self-reported surveys, GIS data, and wildfire simulations to test the relationships between select perceptual, demographic, and property characteristics of property owners against empirically simulated metrics for potential wildfire related damages or exposure. We also evaluate how those characteristics relate to property owners' performance of mitigations or support for fire management. Our results suggest that parcel characteristics provide the most significant explanation of variability in wildfire exposure, sensitivity and overall wildfire risk, while the positive relationship between income or property values and components of social vulnerability stands in contrast to typical assumptions from existing literature. Respondents' views about agency or government management helped explain a significant amount of variance in wildfire sensitivity, while the importance of wildfire risk in selecting a residence was an important influence on mitigation action. We use these and other results from our effort to discuss updated

76 FR 67395 - Port Access Route Study: In the Approaches to Los Angeles-Long Beach and in the Santa Barbara...

Science.gov (United States)

2011-11-01

... defined limits where vessels must navigate with particular caution and within which the direction of... approach to the San Pedro Channel from the Pacific Ocean, particularly the area south of San Miguel, Santa...

The 2003 and 2007 wildfires in southern California: Chapter 5 in Natural Disasters and Adaptation to Climate Change

Science.gov (United States)

Keeley, Jon E.; Syphard, Alexandra D.; Fotheringham, C.J.; Boulter, Sarah; Palutikof, Jean; Karoly, David John; Guitart, Daniela

2013-01-01

Although many residents of southern California have long recognised that wildfires in the region are an ongoing, constant risk to lives and property, the enormity of the regional fire hazard caught the world’s attention during the southern California firestorms of 2003 (Figure 5.1). Beginning on 21 October, a series of fourteen wildfires broke out across the five-county region under severe Santa Ana winds, and within two weeks, more than 300,000 ha had burned (Keeley et al., 2004). The event was one of the costliest in the state’s history, with more than 3,600 homes damaged or destroyed and twenty-four fatalities. Suppression costs for the 12,000 firefighters have been estimated at US$120 million, and the total response and damage cost has been estimated at more than US$3 billion (COES, 2004). [Excerpt

Interview: William and Barbara Christopher.

Science.gov (United States)

Teaching Exceptional Children, 1986

1986-01-01

Asserting that the biggest mistake educators can make is to set themselves up as experts vis-a-vis parents as amateurs, Barbara and William Christopher emphasize the importance of continued education for the autistic individual and relate their experiences with the educational community as they sought help for their autistic son. (JC)

Analysis of the effects of combustion emissions and Santa Ana winds on ambient ozone during the October 2007 southern California wildfires

Science.gov (United States)

A. Bytnerowicz; D. Cayan; P. Riggan; S. Schilling; P. Dawson; M. Tyree; L. Wolden; R. Tissell; H. Preisler

2010-01-01

Combustion emissions and strong Santa Ana winds had pronounced effects on patterns and levels of ambient ozone (O3) in southern California during the extensive wildland fires of October 2007. These changes are described in detail for a rural receptor site, the Santa Margarita Ecological Reserve, located among large fires in San Diego and Orange counties. In addition,...

Risk preferences in strategic wildfire decision making: a choice experiment with U.S. wildfire managers.

Science.gov (United States)

Wibbenmeyer, Matthew J; Hand, Michael S; Calkin, David E; Venn, Tyron J; Thompson, Matthew P

2013-06-01

Federal policy has embraced risa management as an appropriate paradigm for wildfire management. Economic theory suggests that over repeated wildfire events, potential economic costs and risas of ecological damage are optimally balanced when management decisions are free from biases, risa aversion, and risa seeking. Of primary concern in this article is how managers respond to wildfire risa, including the potential effect of wildfires (on ecological values, structures, and safety) and the likelihood of different fire outcomes. We use responses to a choice experiment questionnaire of U.S. federal wildfire managers to measure attitudes toward several components of wildfire risa and to test whether observed risa attitudes are consistent with the efficient allocation of wildfire suppression resources. Our results indicate that fire managers' decisions are consistent with nonexpected utility theories of decisions under risa. Managers may overallocate firefighting resources when the likelihood or potential magnitude of damage from fires is low, and sensitivity to changes in the probability of fire outcomes depends on whether probabilities are close to one or zero and the magnitude of the potential harm. © 2012 Society for Risk Analysis.

Barbara Fraticelli, Paradigmi urbani

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lucia Faienza

2017-05-01

Full Text Available I saggi raccolti all’interno del volume Paradigmi urbani. Forme e scritture della città contemporanea, di Barbara Fraticelli, offrono un variegato excursus storico e geografico sulle rappresentazioni della città in letteratura, dal Rinascimento sino ai nostri giorni. Gli autori compresi nella raccolta conducono il lettore da Lisbona a Bucarest, da Calcutta a Nuoro: l’autrice delinea un panorama che congiunge generi letterari e punti di vista molteplici, con una particolare cura della sezione dedicata alle rappresentazioni della città di Bucarest.

Multiple UAV Cooperation for Wildfire Monitoring

Science.gov (United States)

Lin, Zhongjie

Wildfires have been a major factor in the development and management of the world's forest. An accurate assessment of wildfire status is imperative for fire management. This thesis is dedicated to the topic of utilizing multiple unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to cooperatively monitor a large-scale wildfire. This is achieved through wildfire spreading situation estimation based on on-line measurements and wise cooperation strategy to ensure efficiency. First, based on the understanding of the physical characteristics of the wildfire propagation behavior, a wildfire model and a Kalman filter-based method are proposed to estimate the wildfire rate of spread and the fire front contour profile. With the enormous on-line measurements from on-board sensors of UAVs, the proposed method allows a wildfire monitoring mission to benefit from on-line information updating, increased flexibility, and accurate estimation. An independent wildfire simulator is utilized to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method. Second, based on the filter analysis, wildfire spreading situation and vehicle dynamics, the influence of different cooperation strategies of UAVs to the overall mission performance is studied. The multi-UAV cooperation problem is formulated in a distributed network. A consensus-based method is proposed to help address the problem. The optimal cooperation strategy of UAVs is obtained through mathematical analysis. The derived optimal cooperation strategy is then verified in an independent fire simulation environment to verify its effectiveness.

Living with wildfire in Colorado

Science.gov (United States)

Patricia A. Champ; Nicholas Flores; Hannah Brenkert-Smith

2010-01-01

In this presentation, we describe results of a survey to homeowners living in wildfire-prone areas of two counties along the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. The survey was designed to elicit information on homeowners' experience with wildfire, perceptions of wildfire risk on their property and neighboring properties, mitigation efforts undertaken...

UAS Developments Supporting Wildfire Observations

Science.gov (United States)

Ambrosia, V. G.; Dahlgren, R. P.; Watts, A.; Reynolds, K. W.; Ball, T.

2014-12-01

Wildfires are regularly occurring emergency events that threaten life, property, and natural resources in every U.S. State and many countries around the world. Despite projections that $1.8 billion will be spent by U.S. Federal agencies alone on wildfires in 2014, the decades-long trend of increasing fire size, severity, and cost is expected to continue. Furthermore, the enormous potential for UAS (and concomitant sensor systems) to serve as geospatial intelligence tools to improve the safety and effectiveness of fire management, and our ability to forecast fire and smoke movements, remains barely tapped. Although orbital sensor assets are can provide the geospatial extent of wildfires, generally those resources are limited in use due to their spatial and temporal resolution limitations. These two critical elements make orbital assets of limited utility for tactical, real-time wildfire management, or for continuous scientific analysis of the temporal dynamics related to fire energy release rates and plume concentrations that vary significantly thru a fire's progression. Large UAS platforms and sensors can and have been used to monitor wildfire events at improved temporal, spatial and radiometric scales, but more focus is being placed on the use of small UAS (sUAS) and sensors to support wildfire observation strategies. The use of sUAS is therefore more critical for TACTICAL management purposes, rather than strategic observations, where small-scale fire developments are critical to understand. This paper will highlight the historical development and use of UAS for fire observations, as well as the current shift in focus to smaller, more affordable UAS for more rapid integration into operational use on wildfire events to support tactical observation strategies, and support wildfire science measurement inprovements.

Rebuilding and new housing development after wildfire

Science.gov (United States)

Patricia M. Alexandre; Miranda H. Mockrin; Susan I. Stewart; Roger B. Hammer; Volker C. Radeloff

2015-01-01

The number of wildland-urban interface communities affected by wildfire is increasing, and both wildfire suppression and losses are costly. However, little is known about post-wildfire response by homeowners and communities after buildings are lost. Our goal was to characterise rebuilding and new development after wildfires across the conterminous United States. We...

Mitigation of wildfire risk by homeowners

Science.gov (United States)

Hannah Brenkert; Patricia Champ; Nicholas Flores

2005-01-01

In-depth interviews conducted with homeowners in Larimer County's Wildland-Urban Interface revealed that homeowners face difficult decisions regarding the implementation of wildfire mitigation measures. Perceptions of wildfire mitigation options may be as important as perceptions of wildfire risk in determining likelihood of implementation. These mitigation...

Post-wildfire recovery of water yield in the Sydney Basin water supply catchments: An assessment of the 2001/2002 wildfires

Science.gov (United States)

Heath, J. T.; Chafer, C. J.; van Ogtrop, F. F.; Bishop, T. F. A.

2014-11-01

Wildfire is a recurring event which has been acknowledged by the literature to impact the hydrological cycle of a catchment. Hence, wildfire may have a significant impact on water yield levels within a catchment. In Australia, studies of the effect of fire on water yield have been limited to obligate seeder vegetation communities. These communities regenerate from seed banks in the ground or within woody fruits and are generally activated by fire. In contrast, the Sydney Basin is dominated by obligate resprouter communities. These communities regenerate from fire resistant buds found on the plant and are generally found in regions where wildfire is a regular occurrence. The 2001/2002 wildfires in the Sydney Basin provided an opportunity to investigate the impacts of wildfire on water yield in a number of catchments dominated by obligate resprouting communities. The overall aim of this study was to investigate whether there was a difference in water yield post-wildfire. Four burnt subcatchments and 3 control subcatchments were assessed. A general additive model was calibrated using pre-wildfire data and then used to predict post-wildfire water yield using post-wildfire data. The model errors were analysed and it was found that the errors for all subcatchments showed similar trends for the post-wildfire period. This finding demonstrates that wildfires within the Sydney Basin have no significant medium-term impact on water yield.

Standardization of the process of smelting for sands with self-forgeling resins in the Military Industry Santa Bárbara Factory

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lina Consuelo Carvajal-Fernández

2014-12-01

Full Text Available This article describes the standardization of the smelting process for sands with self-forgeling resins in the Military Industry Santa Barbara Factory. The molding process was studied in the Smelter for six months, to set standards for workforce and raw materials, so that would allow truthfully evaluate the costs per kilogram of casting. 41 pieces of civil and military sectors throughout the development of the project were worked. Finally both standards were evaluated, labor as raw material for different parts, with results was evidenced improved process, essentially in workforce, while in raw material standards did not show significantly change, in this case is corroborated that existing ones are applicable to the process

Predicting the effect of climate change on wildfire behavior and initial attack success

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Riley, William; Fried, Jeremy S.; Gilless, J. Keith; Riley, William J.; Moody, Tadashi J.; Simon de Blas, Clara; Hayhoe, Katharine; Moritz, Max; Stephens, Scott; Torn, Margaret

2007-12-01

This study focused on how climate change-induced effects on weather will translate into changes in wildland fire severity and outcomes in California, particularly on the effectiveness of initial attack at limiting the number of fires that escape initial attack. The results indicate that subtle shifts in fire behavior of the sort that might be induced by the climate changes anticipated for the next century are of sufficient magnitude to generate an appreciable increase in the number of fires that escape initial attack. Such escapes are of considerable importance in wildland fire protection planning, given the high cost to society of a catastrophic escape like those experienced in recent decades in the Berkeley-Oakland, Santa Barbara, San Diego, or Los Angeles areas. However, at least for the three study areas considered, it would appear that relatively modest augmentations to existing firefighting resources might be sufficient to compensate for change-induced changes in wildland fire outcomes.

High-resolution paleoclimatology of the Santa Barbara Basin during the Medieval Climate Anomaly and early Little Ice Age based on diatom and silicoflagellate assemblages in Kasten core SPR0901-02KC

Science.gov (United States)

Barron, John A.; Bukry, David B.; Hendy, Ingrid L.

2015-01-01

Diatom and silicoflagellate assemblages documented in a high-resolution time series spanning 800 to 1600 AD in varved sediment recovered in Kasten core SPR0901-02KC (34°16.845’ N, 120°02.332’ W, water depth 588 m) from the Santa Barbara Basin (SBB) reveal that SBB surface water conditions during the Medieval Climate Anomaly (MCA) and the early part of the Little Ice Age (LIA) were not extreme by modern standards, mostly falling within one standard deviation of mean conditions during the pre anthropogenic interval of 1748 to 1900. No clear differences between the character of MCA and the early LIA conditions are apparent. During intervals of extreme droughts identified by terrigenous proxy scanning XRF analyses, diatom and silicoflagellate proxies for coastal upwelling typically exceed one standard deviation above mean values for 1748-1900, supporting the hypothesis that droughts in southern California are associated with cooler (or La Niña-like) sea surface temperatures (SSTs). Increased percentages of diatoms transported downslope generally coincide with intervals of increased siliciclastic flux to the SBB identified by scanning XRF analyses. Diatom assemblages suggest only two intervals of the MCA (at ~897 to 922 and ~1151 to 1167) when proxy SSTs exceeded one standard deviation above mean values for 1748 to 1900. Conversely, silicoflagellates imply extreme warm water events only at ~830 to 860 (early MCA) and ~1360 to 1370 (early LIA) that are not supported by the diatom data. Silicoflagellates appear to be more suitable for characterizing average climate during the 5 to 11 year-long sample intervals studied in the SPR0901-02KC core than diatoms, probably because diatom relative abundances may be dominated by seasonal blooms of a particular year.

Perception of the population of city of Santa Bárbara (MG about the minerary activity and contamination of soil and water by arsenic

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rosiméia Aparecida da Silva

2017-07-01

Full Text Available Mining, as well as various other economic activities, causes environmental problems. Thus, through questionnaires given to 380 respondents Santa Barbara (MG, we evaluated the perception of this population about mining and its impacts. As a result, 38% mentioned it as being a negative activity because of the environmental consequences for it triggered. On the other hand, 60% of respondents considered it as positive, highlighting the creation of jobs and the development of the municipality. Regarding the participants' knowledge of arsenic, 38.9% of respondents said they did not know and 39.5% said they know it. Worryingly, 87.9% of respondents said they ignore their toxicity.

Wildfires in Siberian Mountain Forest

Science.gov (United States)

Kharuk, V.; Ponomarev, E. I.; Antamoshkina, O.

2017-12-01

The annual burned area in Russia was estimated as 0.55 to 20 Mha with >70% occurred in Siberia. We analyzed Siberian wildfires distribution with respect to elevation, slope steepness and exposure. In addition, wildfires temporal dynamic and latitudinal range were analyzed. We used daily thermal anomalies derived from NOAA/AVHRR and Terra/MODIS satellites (1990-2016). Fire return intervals were (FRI) calculated based on the dendrochronology analysis of samples taken from trees with burn marks. Spatial distribution of wildfires dependent on topo features: relative burned area increase with elevation increase (ca. 1100 m), switching to following decrease. The wildfires frequency exponentially decreased within lowlands - highlands transition. Burned area is increasing with slope steepness increase (up to 5-10°). Fire return intervals (FRI) on the southfacing slopes are about 30% longer than on the north facing. Wildfire re-occurrence is decreasing exponentially: 90% of burns were caused by single fires, 8.5% by double fires, 1% burned three times, and on about 0.05% territory wildfires occurred four times (observed period: 75 yr.). Wildfires area and number, as well as FRI, also dependent on latitude: relative burned area increasing exponentially in norward direction, whereas relative fire number is exponentially decreasing. FRI increases in the northward direction: from 80 years at 62°N to 200 years at the Arctic Circle, and to 300 years at the northern limit of closed forests ( 71+°N). Fire frequency, fire danger period and FRI are strongly correlated with incoming solar radiation (r = 0.81 - 0.95). In 21-s century, a positive trend of wildfires number and area observed in mountain areas in all Siberia. Thus, burned area and number of fires in Siberia are significantly increased since 1990th (R2 =0.47, R2 =0.69, respectively), and that increase correlated with air temperatures and climate aridity increases. However, wildfires are essential for supporting fire

La lecture de Merleau-Ponty par Renaud Barbaras

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Pechar, Jiří

2015-01-01

Roč. 11, č. 2 (2015), s. 1-6 ISSN 1336-6556 Institutional support: RVO:67985955 Keywords : Merleau-Ponty * Husserl * phenomenology * linguistics of Ferdinand de Saussure Subject RIV: AA - Philosophy ; Religion http://www.ostium.sk/sk/la-lecture-de-merleau-ponty-par-renaud-barbaras/

2017-2018 Travel Expense Reports for Barbara Lucille Trenholm ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

. Incidentals: $765.00. Other: $441.04. Total: $10,676.95. Comments: From her residence in Fredericton, NB. 2017-2018 Travel Expense Reports for Barbara. Lucille Trenholm, Governor, Chairperson of the. Finance and Audit Committee.

Economic optimisation of wildfire intervention activities

Science.gov (United States)

David T. Butry; Jeffrey P. Prestemon; Karen L. Abt; Ronda Sutphen

2010-01-01

We describe how two important tools of wildfire management, wildfire prevention education and prescribed fire for fuels management, can be coordinated to minimise the combination of management costs and expected societal losses resulting from wildland fire. We present a long-run model that accounts for the dynamics of wildfire, the effects of fuels management on...

The effects of wildfire on the peak streamflow magnitude and frequency, Frijoles and Capulin Canyons, Bandelier National Monument, New Mexico

Science.gov (United States)

Veenhuis, J.E.

2004-01-01

In June of 1977, the La Mesa fire burned 15,270 acres in and around Frijoles Canyon, Bandelier National Monument and the adjacent Santa Fe National Forest, New Mexico. The Dome fire occurred in April of 1996 in Bandelier National Monument, burned 16,516 acres in Capulin Canyon and the surrounding Dome Wilderness area. Both canyons are characterized by extensive archeological artifacts, which could be threatened by increased runoff and accelerated rates of erosion after a wildfire. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in cooperation with the National Park Service monitored the fires' effects on streamflow in both canyons. Copyright 2004 ASCE.

Wildfire risk and home purchase decisions.

Science.gov (United States)

Patricia Champ; Geoffrey Donovan; Christopher Barth

2008-01-01

In the last 20 years, wildfire damages and the costs of wildfire suppression have risen dramatically. This trend has been attributed to three main factors: climate change, increased fuel loads from a century of wildfire suppression, and increased housing development in fire-prone areas., There is little that fire managers can do about climate change, and current fuel...

Wildfire Smoke Health Watch

Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Podcasts

2012-07-23

Smoke from wildfires can be dangerous to your health. In this podcast, you will learn the health threats of wildfire smoke and steps you can take to minimize these effects.  Created: 7/23/2012 by Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response (PHPR).   Date Released: 7/23/2012.

Review of Barbara K. Seeber, Jane Austen and Animals

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lucinda Cole

2015-03-01

Full Text Available In this review of Barbara K. Seeber's Jane Austen and Animals (Ashgate, 2013 Lucinda Cole summarizes this foundational book and emphasizes the role of animal studies scholars in linking feminism and environmental issues.

Before, During, and After a Wildfire

Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Podcasts

More and more people are making their homes in woodland settings – in or near forests, rural areas, or remote mountain sites - areas in which wildfires are more likely to occur. Wildfires often begin unnoticed. They spread quickly, igniting brush, trees, and homes. CDC recommends taking steps before, during, and after local wildfires to reduce the effect they have on your life.

Barbara Ryder to head Department of Computer Science

OpenAIRE

Daniilidi, Christina

2008-01-01

Barbara G. Ryder, professor of computer science at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, will become the computer science department head at Virginia Tech, starting in fall 2008. She is the first woman to serve as a department head in the history of the nationally ranked College of Engineering.

Modeling Wildfire Hazard in the Western Hindu Kush-Himalayas

Science.gov (United States)

Bylow, D.

2012-12-01

Wildfire regimes are a leading driver of global environmental change affecting a diverse array of global ecosystems. Particulates and aerosols produced by wildfires are a primary source of air pollution making the early detection and monitoring of wildfires crucial. The objectives of this study were to model regional wildfire potential and identify environmental, topological, and sociological factors that contribute to the ignition of wildfire events in the Western Hindu Kush-Himalayas of South Asia. The environmental, topological, and sociological factors were used to model regional wildfire potential through multi-criteria evaluation using a method of weighted linear combination. Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and geographic information systems (GIS) data were integrated to analyze regional wildfires and construct the model. Model validation was performed using a holdout cross validation method. The study produced a significant model of wildfire potential in the Western Hindu Kush-Himalayas.; Western Hindu Kush-Himalayas ; Western Hindu Kush-Himalayas Wildfire Potential

Net benefits of wildfire prevention education efforts

Science.gov (United States)

Jeffrey P. Prestemon; David T. Butry; Karen L. Abt; Ronda Sutphen

2010-01-01

Wildfire prevention education efforts involve a variety of methods, including airing public service announcements, distributing brochures, and making presentations, which are intended to reduce the occurrence of certain kinds of wildfires. A Poisson model of preventable Florida wildfires from 2002 to 2007 by fire management region was developed. Controlling for...

The economic benefits of wildfire prevention education

Science.gov (United States)

L.A. Hermansen-Baez; J.P. Prestemon; D.T. Butry; K.L. Abt; R. Sutphen

2011-01-01

While there are many activities that can limit damages from wildfires, such as firefighting efforts and prescribed burning, wildfire prevention education programs can be particularly beneficial. This was confirmed through a study conducted by the Southern Research Station and the National Institute of Standards and Technology that demonstrated that wildfire prevention...

Assessing the hydrologic response to wildfires in mountainous regions

Science.gov (United States)

Havel, Aaron; Tasdighi, Ali; Arabi, Mazdak

2018-04-01

This study aims to understand the hydrologic responses to wildfires in mountainous regions at various spatial scales. The Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) was used to evaluate the hydrologic responses of the upper Cache la Poudre Watershed in Colorado to the 2012 High Park and Hewlett wildfire events. A baseline SWAT model was established to simulate the hydrology of the study area between the years 2000 and 2014. A procedure involving land use and curve number updating was implemented to assess the effects of wildfires. Application of the proposed procedure provides the ability to simulate the hydrologic response to wildfires seamlessly through mimicking the dynamic of the changes due to wildfires. The wildfire effects on curve numbers were determined comparing the probability distribution of curve numbers after calibrating the model for pre- and post-wildfire conditions. Daily calibration and testing of the model produced very good results. No-wildfire and wildfire scenarios were created and compared to quantify changes in average annual total runoff volume, water budgets, and full streamflow statistics at different spatial scales. At the watershed scale, wildfire conditions showed little impact on the hydrologic responses. However, a runoff increase up to 75 % was observed between the scenarios in sub-watersheds with high burn intensity. Generally, higher surface runoff and decreased subsurface flow were observed under post-wildfire conditions. Flow duration curves developed for burned sub-watersheds using full streamflow statistics showed that less frequent streamflows become greater in magnitude. A linear regression model was developed to assess the relationship between percent burned area and runoff increase in Cache la Poudre Watershed. A strong (R2 > 0.8) and significant (p statistics through application of flow duration curves revealed that the wildfires had a higher effect on peak flows, which may increase the risk of flash floods in post-wildfire

Understanding change: Wildfire in Larimer County, Colorado

Science.gov (United States)

Hannah Brenkert-Smith; Patricia A. Champ

2013-01-01

Wildfire activity continues to plague communities in the American West. Three causes are often identified as key contributors to the wildfire problem: accumulated fuels on public lands due to a history of suppressing wildfires; climate change; and an influx of residents into fire prone areas referred to as the wildland-urban interface (WUI). The latter of these...

Understanding change: Wildfire in Boulder County, Colorado

Science.gov (United States)

Hannah Brenkert-Smith; Patricia A. Champ; Amy L. Telligman

2013-01-01

Wildfire activity continues to plague communities in the American West. Three causes are often identified as key contributors to the wildfire problem: accumulated fuels on public lands due to a history of suppressing wildfires; climate change; and an influx of residents into fire prone areas referred to as the wildland-urban interface (WUI). The latter of these...

2016-2017 Travel Expense Reports for Barbara Lucille Trenholm ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

Beata Bialic

Destination(s):. Peru/Colombia. Airfare: $3,662.66. Other. Transportation: $40.00. Accommodation: $1,941.64. Meals and. Incidentals: $608.10. Other: $93.22. Total: $6,345.62. Comments: 2016-2017 Travel Expense Reports for Barbara. Lucille Trenholm, Governor, Chairperson of the. Finance and Audit Committee.

2017-2018 Travel Expense Reports for Barbara Lucille Trenholm ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

Chantal Taylor

Purpose: Board Meetings. Date(s):. 2017-11-19 to 2017-11-22. Destination(s):. Ottawa. Airfare: $630.16. Other. Transportation: $135.19. Accommodation: $638.43. Meals and. Incidentals: $208.98. Other: $0.00. Total: ... Reports for Barbara. Lucille Trenholm, Governor, Chairperson of the. Finance and Audit Committee.

2017-2018 Travel Expense Reports for Barbara Lucille Trenholm ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

Airfare: $436.15. Other. Transportation: $98.00. Accommodation: $361.85. Meals and. Incidentals: $219.51. Other: $0.00. Total: $1,115.51. Comments: From her residence in Fredericton, NB. 2017-2018 Travel Expense Reports for. Barbara Lucille Trenholm, Governor,. Chairperson of the Finance and Audit. Committee.

Before, During, and After a Wildfire

Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Podcasts

2007-11-01

More and more people are making their homes in woodland settings – in or near forests, rural areas, or remote mountain sites - areas in which wildfires are more likely to occur. Wildfires often begin unnoticed. They spread quickly, igniting brush, trees, and homes. CDC recommends taking steps before, during, and after local wildfires to reduce the effect they have on your life.  Created: 11/1/2007 by Emergency Communications System.   Date Released: 11/1/2007.

Wildfire Risk Management: Challenges and Opportunities

Science.gov (United States)

Thompson, M.; Calkin, D. E.; Hand, M. S.; Kreitler, J.

2014-12-01

In this presentation we address federal wildfire risk management largely through the lens of economics, targeting questions related to costs, effectiveness, efficiency, and tradeoffs. Beyond risks to resources and assets such as wildlife habitat, watersheds, and homes, wildfires present financial risk and budgetary instability for federal wildfire management agencies due to highly variable annual suppression costs. Despite its variability, the costs of wildfire management have continued to escalate and account for an ever-growing share of overall agency budgets, compromising abilities to attain other objectives related to forest health, recreation, timber management, etc. Trends associated with a changing climate and human expansion into fire-prone areas could lead to additional suppression costs in the future, only further highlighting the need for an ability to evaluate economic tradeoffs in investments across the wildfire management spectrum. Critically, these economic analyses need to accurately capture the complex spatial and stochastic aspects of wildfire, the inherent uncertainty associated with monetizing environmental impacts of wildfire, the costs and effectiveness of alternative management policies, and linkages between pre-fire investments and active incident management. Investing in hazardous fuels reduction and forest restoration in particular is a major policy lever for pre-fire risk mitigation, and will be a primary focus of our presentation. Evaluating alternative fuel management and suppression policies could provide opportunities for significant efficiency improvements in the development of risk-informed management fire management strategies. Better understanding tradeoffs of fire impacts and costs can help inform policy questions such as how much of the landscape to treat and how to balance investments in treating new areas versus maintaining previous investments. We will summarize current data needs, knowledge gaps, and other factors

WILDFIRE IGNITION RESISTANCE ESTIMATOR WIZARD SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT REPORT

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Phillips, M.; Robinson, C.; Gupta, N.; Werth, D.

2012-10-10

This report describes the development of a software tool, entitled “WildFire Ignition Resistance Estimator Wizard” (WildFIRE Wizard, Version 2.10). This software was developed within the Wildfire Ignition Resistant Home Design (WIRHD) program, sponsored by the U. S. Department of Homeland Security, Science and Technology Directorate, Infrastructure Protection & Disaster Management Division. WildFIRE Wizard is a tool that enables homeowners to take preventive actions that will reduce their home’s vulnerability to wildfire ignition sources (i.e., embers, radiant heat, and direct flame impingement) well in advance of a wildfire event. This report describes the development of the software, its operation, its technical basis and calculations, and steps taken to verify its performance.

The occupational health of Santa Claus

OpenAIRE

Straube, Sebastian; Fan, Xiangning

2015-01-01

Previous publications in the field of Santa studies have not focused on health and safety issues arising from Santa?s workplace activities. However, it should be acknowledged that unique occupational hazards exist for Santa Claus. Major occupational health issues affecting Santa are discussed, along with suggestions for future research directions.

Parim Claptoni jäljendaja Eestis. Barbara Hendricks Pärnus Promfestil

Index Scriptorium Estoniae

2007-01-01

Eric Claptoni tribuutbändi Classic Clapton kontsertidest 4. ja 5. apr. Tartus ja Tallinnas. Ameerika laulja Barbara Hendricksi kontserdist 7. juunil Pärnu Kontserdimajas (kaastegev rootsi pianist Love Derwinger)

Risk preferences in strategic wildfire decision making: A choice experiment with U.S. wildfire managers

Science.gov (United States)

Matthew J. Wibbenmeyer; Michael S. Hand; David E. Calkin; Tyron J. Venn; Matthew P. Thompson

2013-01-01

Federal policy has embraced risk management as an appropriate paradigm for wildfire management. Economic theory suggests that over repeated wildfire events, potential economic costs and risks of ecological damage are optimally balanced when management decisions are free from biases, risk aversion, and risk seeking. Of primary concern in this article is how managers...

Timber resource statistics for the central coast resource area of California.

Science.gov (United States)

Karen L. Waddell; Patricia M. Bassett

1996-01-01

This report is a summary of timber resource statistics for the Central Coast Resource Area of California, which includes Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Monterey, San Benito, San Francisco, San Luis Obispo, San Mateo, Santa Barbara, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Solano, and Ventura Counties. Data were collected as part of a statewide multi-resource inventory. The inventory...

The Deserted Merced. Possesion and Duty of Properties in Maiz Gordo and Santa Barbara (Jujuy, Argentina, from 1850 to 1910

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cecilia A. Fandos

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Based on the processes of constitution of public land in the 19th century in Argentina, this article is focused in the particular case of Maíz Gordo y Santa Bárbara (province of Jujuy, where a special phenomenon of the state control occured due to ignore the private rights of a land that was supposed to be deserted. We intend to investigate the different forms and evolution of property rights during this whole event, considering, on the one hand, the expropriated actors and the new owners, and on the other hand, the people who effectively populated them (tenants, ocuppants of fact, etc..

2016-2017 Travel Expense Reports for Barbara Lucille Trenholm ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

Beata Bialic

2016-11-28 to 2016-11-30. Destination(s):. Ottawa. Airfare: $1,078.05. Other. Transportation: $135.00. Accommodation: $194.37. Meals and. Incidentals: $216.80. Other: $0.00. Total: $1,624.22. Comments: 2016-2017 Travel Expense Reports for Barbara. Lucille Trenholm, Governor, Chairperson of the. Finance and Audit ...

2016-2017 Travel Expense Reports for Barbara Lucille Trenholm ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

Beata Bialic

2016-06-20 to 2016-06-22. Destination(s):. Ottawa. Airfare: $603.34. Other. Transportation: $147.00. Accommodation: $393.40. Meals and. Incidentals: $154.83. Other: $0.00. Total: $1,298.57. Comments: 2016-2017 Travel Expense Reports for Barbara. Lucille Trenholm, Governor, Chairperson of the. Finance and Audit ...

2016-2017 Travel Expense Reports for Barbara Lucille Trenholm ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

Beata Bialic

2016-11-20 to 2016-11-23. Destination(s):. Ottawa. Airfare: $572.30. Other. Transportation: $130.00. Accommodation: $590.10. Meals and. Incidentals: $310.40. Other: $0.00. Total: $1,602.80. Comments: 2016-2017 Travel Expense Reports for Barbara. Lucille Trenholm, Governor, Chairperson of the. Finance and Audit ...

2016-2017 Travel Expense Reports for Barbara Lucille Trenholm ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

chantal taylor

Finance and Audit Committee meeting. Date(s):. 2017-02-07 to 2017-02-09. Destination(s):. Ottawa. Airfare: $492.53. Other. Transportation: $70.00. Accommodation: $696.25. Meals and. Incidentals: $69.60. Other: $0.00. Total: $1,328.38. Comments: 2016-2017 Travel Expense Reports for Barbara. Lucille Trenholm ...

Wildfire risk as a socioecological pathology

Science.gov (United States)

Fischer, A. Paige; Spies, Thomas A; Steelman, Toddi A; Moseley, Cassandra; Johnson, Bart R.; Bailey, John D.; Ager, Alan A; Bourgeron, Patrick S.; Charnley, Susan; Collins, Brandon M.; Kline, Jeffrey D; Leahy, Jessica E; Littell, Jeremy; Millington, James D. A.; Nielsen-Pincus, Max; Olsen, Christine S; Paveglio, Travis B; Roos, Christopher I.; Steen-Adams, Michelle M; Stevens, Forrest R; Vukomanovic, Jelena; White, Eric M; Bowman, David M J S

2016-01-01

Wildfire risk in temperate forests has become a nearly intractable problem that can be characterized as a socioecological “pathology”: that is, a set of complex and problematic interactions among social and ecological systems across multiple spatial and temporal scales. Assessments of wildfire risk could benefit from recognizing and accounting for these interactions in terms of socioecological systems, also known as coupled natural and human systems (CNHS). We characterize the primary social and ecological dimensions of the wildfire risk pathology, paying particular attention to the governance system around wildfire risk, and suggest strategies to mitigate the pathology through innovative planning approaches, analytical tools, and policies. We caution that even with a clear understanding of the problem and possible solutions, the system by which human actors govern fire-prone forests may evolve incrementally in imperfect ways and can be expected to resist change even as we learn better ways to manage CNHS.

The hidden cost of wildfires: Economic valuation of health effects of wildfire smoke exposure in Southern California

Science.gov (United States)

Richardson, L.A.; Champ, P.A.; Loomis, J.B.

2012-01-01

There is a growing concern that human health impacts from exposure to wildfire smoke are ignored in estimates of monetized damages from wildfires. Current research highlights the need for better data collection and analysis of these impacts. Using unique primary data, this paper quantifies the economic cost of health effects from the largest wildfire in Los Angeles County's modern history. A cost of illness estimate is $9.50 per exposed person per day. However, theory and empirical research consistently find that this measure largely underestimates the true economic cost of health effects from exposure to a pollutant in that it ignores the cost of defensive actions taken as well as disutility. For the first time, the defensive behavior method is applied to calculate the willingness to pay for a reduction in one wildfire smoke induced symptom day, which is estimated to be $84.42 per exposed person per day. ?? 2011.

Coupling the Biophysical and Social Dimensions of Wildfire Risk to Improve Wildfire Mitigation Planning.

Science.gov (United States)

Ager, Alan A; Kline, Jeffrey D; Fischer, A Paige

2015-08-01

We describe recent advances in biophysical and social aspects of risk and their potential combined contribution to improve mitigation planning on fire-prone landscapes. The methods and tools provide an improved method for defining the spatial extent of wildfire risk to communities compared to current planning processes. They also propose an expanded role for social science to improve understanding of community-wide risk perceptions and to predict property owners' capacities and willingness to mitigate risk by treating hazardous fuels and reducing the susceptibility of dwellings. In particular, we identify spatial scale mismatches in wildfire mitigation planning and their potential adverse impact on risk mitigation goals. Studies in other fire-prone regions suggest that these scale mismatches are widespread and contribute to continued wildfire dwelling losses. We discuss how risk perceptions and behavior contribute to scale mismatches and how they can be minimized through integrated analyses of landscape wildfire transmission and social factors that describe the potential for collaboration among landowners and land management agencies. These concepts are then used to outline an integrated socioecological planning framework to identify optimal strategies for local community risk mitigation and improve landscape-scale prioritization of fuel management investments by government entities. © 2015 Society for Risk Analysis.

Optimal timing of wildfire prevention education

Science.gov (United States)

D. T. Butry; J. P. Prestemon; K. L. Abt

2010-01-01

Public outreach and wildfire education activities have been shown to limit the number of unintentional human-caused ignitions (i.e., 'accidental' wildfires). Such activities include the airing of public service announcements, visiting with homeowners in at-risk areas, distributing informative brochures and flyers, hosting of public forums (with presentations...

A new species of Eimeria Schneider, 1875 (Apicomplexa: Eimeriidae) from Alectoris barbara (Aves: Phasianidae) from the Canary Islands (Spain)

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Fernández-Alvarez, A.; Modrý, David; Foronda, P.

2016-01-01

Roč. 115, č. 5 (2016), s. 1817-1825 ISSN 0932-0113 Institutional support: RVO:60077344 Keywords : Coccidia * Eimeria barbarae n. sp * Alectoris barbara * Canary Island Subject RIV: GJ - Animal Vermins ; Diseases, Veterinary Medicine Impact factor: 2.329, year: 2016

Legal IEPs: A Common Sense Approach with Barbara Bateman. [Videotape].

Science.gov (United States)

Council for Exceptional Children, Reston, VA. Div. for Learning Disabilities.

In this 2-hour videotape workshop designed for teachers, administrators, parents, and others, Dr. Barbara Bateman answers many key questions that have been raised about Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) since the 1997 amendments to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and the 1999 regulations. The videotape reviews the…

Geospatial Analysis Application to Forecast Wildfire Occurrences in South Carolina

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stephen L. Sperry

2012-05-01

Full Text Available Wildfire occurrence and intensity have increased over the last few decades and, at times, have been national news. Wildfire occurrence is somewhat predictable based on physical factors like meteorological conditions, fuel loads, and vegetation dynamics. Socioeconomic factors have been not been widely used in wildfire occurrence models. We used a geospatial (or geographical information system analysis approach to identify socioeconomic variables that contribute to wildfire occurrence. Key variables considered were population change, population density, poverty rate, educational level, geographic mobility, and road density (transportation network. Hot spot analysis was the primary research tool. Wildfire occurrence seemed to be positively related to low population densities, low levels of population change, high poverty rate, low educational attainment level, and low road density. Obviously, some of these variables are correlated and this is a complex problem. However, socioeconomic variables appeared to contribute to wildfire occurrence and should be considered in development of wildfire occurrence forecasting models.

Analyzing wildfire exposure on Sardinia, Italy

Science.gov (United States)

Salis, Michele; Ager, Alan A.; Arca, Bachisio; Finney, Mark A.; Alcasena, Fermin; Bacciu, Valentina; Duce, Pierpaolo; Munoz Lozano, Olga; Spano, Donatella

2014-05-01

We used simulation modeling based on the minimum travel time algorithm (MTT) to analyze wildfire exposure of key ecological, social and economic features on Sardinia, Italy. Sardinia is the second largest island of the Mediterranean Basin, and in the last fifty years experienced large and dramatic wildfires, which caused losses and threatened urban interfaces, forests and natural areas, and agricultural productions. Historical fires and environmental data for the period 1995-2009 were used as input to estimate fine scale burn probability, conditional flame length, and potential fire size in the study area. With this purpose, we simulated 100,000 wildfire events within the study area, randomly drawing from the observed frequency distribution of burn periods and wind directions for each fire. Estimates of burn probability, excluding non-burnable fuels, ranged from 0 to 1.92x10-3, with a mean value of 6.48x10-5. Overall, the outputs provided a quantitative assessment of wildfire exposure at the landscape scale and captured landscape properties of wildfire exposure. We then examined how the exposure profiles varied among and within selected features and assets located on the island. Spatial variation in modeled outputs resulted in a strong effect of fuel models, coupled with slope and weather. In particular, the combined effect of Mediterranean maquis, woodland areas and complex topography on flame length was relevant, mainly in north-east Sardinia, whereas areas with herbaceous fuels and flat areas were in general characterized by lower fire intensity but higher burn probability. The simulation modeling proposed in this work provides a quantitative approach to inform wildfire risk management activities, and represents one of the first applications of burn probability modeling to capture fire risk and exposure profiles in the Mediterranean basin.

A tale of two fires: The relative effectiveness of past wildfires in mitigating wildfire behavior and effects

Science.gov (United States)

Robert W. Gray; Susan J. Prichard

2015-01-01

The incidence of large, costly landscape-scale fires in western North America is increasing. To combat these fires, researchers and managers have expressed increased interest in investigating the effectiveness of past, stand-replacing wildfires as bottom-up controls on fire spread and severity. Specifically, how effective are past wildfires in mitigating the behavior...

Examining Atmospheric and Ecological Drivers of Wildfires, Modeling Wildfire Occurrence in the Southwest United States, and Using Atmospheric Sounding Observations to Verify National Weather Service Spot Forecasts

Science.gov (United States)

Nauslar, Nicholas J.

This dissertation is comprised of three different papers that all pertain to wildland fire applications. The first paper performs a verification analysis on mixing height, transport winds, and Haines Index from National Weather Service spot forecasts across the United States. The final two papers, which are closely related, examine atmospheric and ecological drivers of wildfire for the Southwest Area (SWA) (Arizona, New Mexico, west Texas, and Oklahoma panhandle) to better equip operational fire meteorologists and managers to make informed decisions on wildfire potential in this region. The verification analysis here utilizes NWS spot forecasts of mixing height, transport winds and Haines Index from 2009-2013 issued for a location within 50 km of an upper sounding location and valid for the day of the fire event. Mixing height was calculated from the 0000 UTC sounding via the Stull, Holzworth, and Richardson methods. Transport wind speeds were determined by averaging the wind speed through the boundary layer as determined by the three mixing height methods from the 0000 UTC sounding. Haines Index was calculated at low, mid, and high elevation based on the elevation of the sounding and spot forecast locations. Mixing height forecasts exhibited large mean absolute errors and biased towards over forecasting. Forecasts of transport wind speeds and Haines Index outperformed mixing height forecasts with smaller errors relative to their respective means. The rainfall and lightning associated with the North American Monsoon (NAM) can vary greatly intra- and inter-annually and has a large impact on wildfire activity across the SWA by igniting or suppressing wildfires. NAM onset thresholds and subsequent dates are determined for the SWA and each Predictive Service Area (PSA), which are sub-regions used by operational fire meteorologists to predict wildfire potential within the SWA, April through September from 1995-2013. Various wildfire activity thresholds using the number

A new species of Eimeria Schneider, 1875 (Apicomplexa: Eimeriidae) from Alectoris barbara (Aves: Phasianidae) from the Canary Islands (Spain).

Science.gov (United States)

Fernández-Alvarez, A; Modry, D; Foronda, P

2016-05-01

The present study was conducted with the objective of identifying the species of Eimeria present in a cynegetic farm. A new coccidian (Apicomplexa: Eimeriidae) species is described from Barbary partridge, Alectoris barbara, from the Canary Islands. Experimental infections were carried out in order to determine the prepatent period, sporulation time, site of infection, and morphology of endogenous stages. One species is described as new. Eimeria barbarae n. sp. has ellipsoidal oocysts, 20.0 × 14.4 (16-23 × 13-16) μm, with a shape-index (SI) of 1.39. Sporocysts are almond-shaped, 9.0 × 5.4 (6.5-11 × 4.5-6) μm, SI = 1.56. The endogenous development takes place along the intestine. The present study showed that E. barbarae causes severe pathologies in A. barbara chickens, with impact on their health condition. Control strategies needs to be implemented to reduce the loss due to coccidiosis at studied farm.

Wildfires and tourist behaviors in Florida

Science.gov (United States)

Brijesh Thapa; Ignatius Cahyanto; Stephen M. Holland; James D. Absher

2013-01-01

The impacts of wildfires on tourism have largely been examined with emphasis on economic losses and recovery strategies. Given the limited research from a demand perspective, this study examined tourist risk perceptions and reactionary behaviors toward wildfires in Florida. Data (N ¼ 771) was collected among a U.S. sample of non-resident overnight leisure travelers...

Harvesting morels after wildfire in Alaska.

Science.gov (United States)

Tricia L. Wurtz; Amy L. Wiita; Nancy S. Weber; David Pilz

2005-01-01

Morels are edible, choice wild mushrooms that sometimes fruit prolifically in the years immediately after an area has been burned by wildfire. Wildfires are common in interior Alaska; an average of 708,700 acres burned each year in interior Alaska between 1961 and 2000, and in major fire years, over 2 million acres burned. We discuss Alaska's boreal forest...

Probabilistic assessment of wildfire hazard and municipal watershed exposure

Science.gov (United States)

Joe Scott; Don Helmbrecht; Matthew P. Thompson; David E. Calkin; Kate Marcille

2012-01-01

The occurrence of wildfires within municipal watersheds can result in significant impacts to water quality and ultimately human health and safety. In this paper, we illustrate the application of geospatial analysis and burn probability modeling to assess the exposure of municipal watersheds to wildfire. Our assessment of wildfire exposure consists of two primary...

Ruth Rendell and Barbara Vine – family matters

OpenAIRE

Peters, F

2017-01-01

This article traces themes and preoccupations that work across Ruth Rendell’s work, writing both as Rendell and also as Barbara Vine. It investigates the ways in which the\\ud use of a pseudonym allows her to delve deeper into areas that she also explores as Rendell – the dysfunctional family and heredity, both in relation to physical disease and the fruitless search for origins, the latter discussed by her through the lens of Freudian psychoanalysis.

Proceedings of the CSNI specialists meeting on fuel-coolant interactions

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

None

1994-03-01

A specialists meeting on fuel-coolant interactions was held in Santa Barbara, CA from January 5-7, 1993. The meeting was sponsored by the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission in collaboration with the Committee on the Safety of Nuclear Installation (CSNI) of the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) and the University of California at Santa Barbara. The objectives of the meeting are to cross-fertilize on-going work, provide opportunities for mutual check points, seek to focus the technical issues on matters of practical significance and re-evaluate both the objectives as well as path of future research. Individual papers have been cataloged separately.

Proceedings of the CSNI specialists meeting on fuel-coolant interactions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1994-03-01

A specialists meeting on fuel-coolant interactions was held in Santa Barbara, CA from January 5--7, 1993. The meeting was sponsored by the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission in collaboration with the Committee on the Safety of Nuclear Installation (CSNI) of the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) and the University of California at Santa Barbara. The objectives of the meeting are to cross-fertilize on-going work, provide opportunities for mutual check points, seek to focus the technical issues on matters of practical significance and re-evaluate both the objectives as well as path of future research. Individual papers have been cataloged separately

Carbon recovery rates following different wildfire risk mitigation treatments

Science.gov (United States)

M. Hurteau; M. North

2010-01-01

Sequestered forest carbon can provide a climate change mitigation benefit, but in dry temperate forests, wildfire poses a reversal risk to carbon offset projects. Reducing wildfire risk requires a reduction in and redistribution of carbon stocks, the benefit of which is only realized when wildfire occurs. To estimate the time needed to recover carbon removed and...

Wildfire communication and climate risk mitigation

Science.gov (United States)

Robyn S. Wilson; Sarah M. McCaffrey; Eric. Toman

2017-01-01

Throughout the late 19th century and most of the 20th century, risks associated with wildfire were addressed by suppressing fires as quickly as possible. However, by the 1960s, it became clear that fire exclusion policies were having adverse effects on ecological health, as well as contributing to larger and more damaging wildfires over time. Although federal fire...

Investigating the Impacts of Wildfires on Air Quality in the Western US

Science.gov (United States)

Yates, E. L.; Iraci, L. T.; Singh, H. B.; Ambrosia, V. G.; Clements, C. B.; Gore, W.; Lareau, N.; Quayle, B.; Ryoo, J. M.; Schroeder, W.; Tanaka, T.

2015-12-01

Wildfire emissions are an important source of a wide range of trace gases and particles that can impact local, regional and global air quality, climate forcing, biogeochemical cycles and human health. In the western US, wildfires dominate over prescribed fires. However, limited sampling of wildfire emissions means western US emission estimates rely largely on data from prescribed fires, which may not be a suitable proxy for wildfire emissions. Further, interactions of wildfire emissions with urban pollution, commonly the case with California wildfires, are complex and poorly understood. The Alpha Jet Atmospheric eXperiment (AJAX) sampled a variety of Californian wildfire plumes during 2013 and 2014. In addition to wildfire plumes, flights sample upwind, background conditions allowing for an assessment of enhancement ratios of trace gas species (carbon dioxide, methane and ozone). This paper presents airborne measurements of multiple trace constituents downwind of a variety of Californian wildfires, with a focus on the exceptionally large Yosemite Rim wildfire during summer 2013. During its intense burning phases, the Rim wildfire was sampled by AJAX on 29 August as well as by the NASA DC-8, as part of its SEAC4RS mission, on 26 and 27 August. AJAX revisited the wildfire on 10 September when it had reached its smoldering phase. The more extensive payload of the DC-8 helped to bridge key measurements that were not available as part of the AJAX payload (e. g. carbon monoxide). The emission ratios (ER), emission factors (EF) and combustion efficiency are compared with previous wildfire studies. Integration of AJAX data with other available datasets, such as SEAC4RS, Lidar data from the California State University Mobile Atmospheric Profiling System (CSU-MAPS), MODIS/VIIRS Fire Radiative Power (FRP) and surface ozone and meteorology measurements is explored to assess the impacts of wildfires on downwind air quality including the densely populated California central

New Developments in Wildfire Pollution Forecasting at the Canadian Meteorological Centre

Science.gov (United States)

Pavlovic, Radenko; Chen, Jack; Munoz-Alpizar, Rodrigo; Davignon, Didier; Beaulieu, Paul-Andre; Landry, Hugo; Menard, Sylvain; Gravel, Sylvie; Moran, Michael

2017-04-01

Environment and Climate Change Canada's air quality forecast system with near-real-time wildfire emissions, named FireWork, was developed in 2012 and has been run by the Canadian Meteorological Centre Operations division (CMCO) since 2013. In June 2016 this system was upgraded to operational status and wildfire smoke forecasts for North America are now available to the general public. FireWork's ability to model the transport and diffusion of wildfire smoke plumes has proved to be valuable to regional air quality forecasters and emergency first responders. Some of the most challenging issues with wildfire pollution modelling concern the production of wildfire emission estimates and near-source dispersion within the air quality model. As a consequence, FireWork is undergoing constant development. During the massive Fort McMurray wildfire event in western Canada in May 2016, for example, different wildfire emissions processing approaches and wildfire emissions injection and dispersion schemes were tested within the air quality model. Work on various FireWork components will continue in order to deliver a new operational version of the forecasting system for the 2017 wildfire season. Some of the proposed improvements will be shown in this presentation along with current and planned FireWork post-processing products.

Santa Barbara, California Coastal Digital Elevation Model

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — NOAA's National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC) is building high-resolution digital elevation models (DEMs) for select U.S. coastal regions. These integrated...

Santa Barbara Littoral Cell CRSMP Beaches 2009

Data.gov (United States)

California Natural Resource Agency — Several criteria were used for beach selection. BEACON 's Coastal Regional Sediment Management Plan included all of the most popular beaches in the two counties...

Risk preferences, probability weighting, and strategy tradeoffs in wildfire management

Science.gov (United States)

Michael S. Hand; Matthew J. Wibbenmeyer; Dave Calkin; Matthew P. Thompson

2015-01-01

Wildfires present a complex applied risk management environment, but relatively little attention has been paid to behavioral and cognitive responses to risk among public agency wildfire managers. This study investigates responses to risk, including probability weighting and risk aversion, in a wildfire management context using a survey-based experiment administered to...

Mapping the Relationship Between Wildfire and Poverty

Science.gov (United States)

Kathy Lynn; Wendy Gerlitz

2006-01-01

Wildfires and related government roles and responsibilities for federal wildland management are prominent in our national consciousness because of the increased severity in the last decade of fires on and around public lands. In recent years, laws, strategies, and implementation documents have been issued to direct federal efforts for wildfire prevention, firefighting...

Santa and the Moon

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Barthel, P.

This article reflects on the use of illustrations of the Moon in images of Santa Claus, on Christmas gift-wrapping paper and in children's books, in two countries which have been important in shaping the image of Santa Claus and his predecessor Sinterklaas: the USA and the Netherlands. The

In ecoregions across western USA streamflow increases during post-wildfire recovery

Science.gov (United States)

Wine, Michael L.; Cadol, Daniel; Makhnin, Oleg

2018-01-01

Continued growth of the human population on Earth will increase pressure on already stressed terrestrial water resources required for drinking water, agriculture, and industry. This stress demands improved understanding of critical controls on water resource availability, particularly in water-limited regions. Mechanistic predictions of future water resource availability are needed because non-stationary conditions exist in the form of changing climatic conditions, land management paradigms, and ecological disturbance regimes. While historically ecological disturbances have been small and could be neglected relative to climatic effects, evidence is accumulating that ecological disturbances, particularly wildfire, can increase regional water availability. However, wildfire hydrologic impacts are typically estimated locally and at small spatial scales, via disparate measurement methods and analysis techniques, and outside the context of climate change projections. Consequently, the relative importance of climate change driven versus wildfire driven impacts on streamflow remains unknown across the western USA. Here we show that considering wildfire in modeling streamflow significantly improves model predictions. Mixed effects modeling attributed 2%-14% of long-term annual streamflow to wildfire effects. The importance of this wildfire-linked streamflow relative to predicted climate change-induced streamflow reductions ranged from 20%-370% of the streamflow decrease predicted to occur by 2050. The rate of post-wildfire vegetation recovery and the proportion of watershed area burned controlled the wildfire effect. Our results demonstrate that in large areas of the western USA affected by wildfire, regional predictions of future water availability are subject to greater structural uncertainty than previously thought. These results suggest that future streamflows may be underestimated in areas affected by increased prevalence of hydrologically relevant ecological

Estimating wildfire response costs in Alaska's changing climate

Science.gov (United States)

Climate change is altering wildfire activity across Alaska, with increased area burned projected for the future. Changes in wildfire are expected to affect the need for management and suppression resources, however the potential economic implications of these needs have not been ...

Spreading like wildfire

Science.gov (United States)

2017-11-01

The 2017 wildfire season has seen unusually high fire levels in many parts of the world, with extensive and severe fires occurring in Chile, the Mediterranean, Russia, the US, Canada and even Greenland. Is this a sign of things to come?

Population structure of Cicada barbara Stål (Hemiptera, Cicadoidea) from the Iberian Peninsula and Morocco based on mitochondrial DNA analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Pinto-Juma, G A; Quartau, J A; Bruford, M W

2008-02-01

We assess the genetic history and population structure of Cicada barbara in Morocco and the Iberian Peninsula, based on analysis of the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene. The divergence between Morocco and the Iberian Peninsula populations was strongly corroborated by the molecular data, suggesting genetically isolated populations with a low level of gene flow. The Ceuta population from Spanish North Africa was more similar to the Iberian populations than the surrounding Moroccan populations, suggesting that the Strait of Gibraltar has not been acting as a strict barrier to dispersal while the Rif Mountains have. The Iberian Peninsula specimens showed a signature of demographic expansion before that which occurred in Morocco, but some of the assumptions related to the demographic parameters should be considered with caution due to the small genetic variation found. The high haplotype diversity found in Morocco implies higher demographic stability than in the Iberian Peninsula populations. These results do not, however, suggest a Moroccan origin for Iberian cicadas; but the most northwest region in Africa, such as Ceuta, might have acted as a southern refuge for Iberian cicadas during the most severe climatic conditions, from where they could expand north when climate improved. The separation of two subspecies within C. barbara (C. barbara lusitanica and C. barbara barbara) finds support with these results.

Analyzing seasonal patterns of wildfire exposure factors in Sardinia, Italy.

Science.gov (United States)

Salis, Michele; Ager, Alan A; Alcasena, Fermin J; Arca, Bachisio; Finney, Mark A; Pellizzaro, Grazia; Spano, Donatella

2015-01-01

In this paper, we applied landscape scale wildfire simulation modeling to explore the spatiotemporal patterns of wildfire likelihood and intensity in the island of Sardinia (Italy). We also performed wildfire exposure analysis for selected highly valued resources on the island to identify areas characterized by high risk. We observed substantial variation in burn probability, fire size, and flame length among time periods within the fire season, which starts in early June and ends in late September. Peak burn probability and flame length were observed in late July. We found that patterns of wildfire likelihood and intensity were mainly related to spatiotemporal variation in ignition locations, fuel moisture, and wind vectors. Our modeling approach allowed consideration of historical patterns of winds, ignition locations, and live and dead fuel moisture on fire exposure factors. The methodology proposed can be useful for analyzing potential wildfire risk and effects at landscape scale, evaluating historical changes and future trends in wildfire exposure, as well as for addressing and informing fuel management and risk mitigation issues.

Evaluation of ground-water flow and solute transport in the Lompoc area, Santa Barbara County, California

Science.gov (United States)

Bright, Daniel J.; Nash, David B.; Martin, Peter

1997-01-01

Ground-water quality in the Lompoc area, especially in the Lompoc plain, is only marginally acceptable for most uses. Demand for ground water has increased for municipal use since the late 1950's and has continued to be high for irrigation on the Lompoc plain, the principal agricultural area in the Santa Ynez River basin. As use has increased, the quality of ground water has deteriorated in some areas of the Lompoc plain. The dissolved-solids concentration in the main zone of the upper aquifer beneath most of the central and western plains has increased from less than 1,000 milligrams per liter in the 1940's to greater than 2,000 milligrams per liter in the 1960's. Dissolved- solids concentration have remained relatively constant since the 1960's. A three-dimensional finite-difference model was used to simulate ground-water flow in the Lompoc area and a two-dimensional finite-element model was used to simulate solute transport to gain a better understanding of the ground-water system and to evaluate the effects of proposed management plans for the ground-water basin. The aquifer system was simulated in the flow model as four horizontal layers. In the area of the Lompoc plain, the layers represent the shallow, middle, and main zones of the upper aquifer, and the lower aquifer. For the Lompoc upland and Lompoc terrace, the four layers represent the lower aquifer. The solute transport model was used to simulate dissolved-solids transport in the main zone of the upper aquifer beneath the Lompoc plain. The flow and solute-transport models were calibrated to transient conditions for 1941-88. A steady-state simulation was made to provide initial conditions for the transient-state simulation by using long-term average (1941-88) recharge rates. Model- simulated hydraulic heads generally were within 5 feet of measured heads in the main zone for transient conditions. Model-simulated dissolved- solids concentrations for the main zone generally differed less than 200milligrams

Wind erosion of soils burned by wildfire

Science.gov (United States)

N. S. Wagenbrenner; M. J. Germino; B. K. Lamb; R. B. Foltz; P. R. Robichaud

2011-01-01

Wind erosion and aeolian transport processes are largely unstudied in the post-wildfire environment, but recent studies have shown that wind erosion can play a major role in burned landscapes. A wind erosion monitoring system was installed immediately following a wildfire in southeastern Idaho, USA to measure wind erosion from the burned area (Figure 1). This paper...

Is Managed Wildfire Protecting Yosemite National Park from Drought?

Science.gov (United States)

Boisrame, G. F. S.; Thompson, S. E.; Stephens, S.; Collins, B.; Kelly, M.; Tague, N.

2016-12-01

Fire suppression in many dry forest types has left a legacy of dense, homogeneous forests. Such landscapes have high water demands and fuel loads, and when burned can result in catastrophically large fires. These characteristics are undesirable in the face of projected warming and drying in the Western US. This project explores the potential of managed wildfire - a forest management strategy in which fires caused by lightning are allowed to burn naturally as long as certain safety parameters are met - to reverse the effects of fire suppression. The Illilouette Creek Basin in Yosemite National Park has experienced 40 years of managed wildfire, reducing forest cover and increasing meadow and shrubland areas. We have collected evidence from field measurements and remote sensing which suggest that managed wildfire increases landscape and hydrologic heterogeneity, and likely improves resilience to disturbances such as fire and drought. Vegetation maps created from aerial photos show an increase in landscape heterogeneity following the introduction of managed wildfire. Soil moisture observations during the drought years of 2013-2016 suggest that transitions from dense forest to shrublands or meadows can increase summer soil moisture. In the winter of 2015-2016, snow depth measurements showed deeper spring snowpacks in burned areas compared to dense forests. Our study provides a unique view of relatively long-term effects of managed wildfire on vegetation change, ecohydrology, and drought resistance. Understanding these effects is increasingly important as the use of managed wildfire becomes more widely accepted, and as the likelihood of both drought and wildfire increases.

Understanding IDEA 1997 and the 1999 Regulations with Barbara Bateman. [Videotape].

Science.gov (United States)

Council for Exceptional Children, Reston, VA. Div. for Learning Disabilities.

The United States Congress amended the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in 1997 to reflect changes in the special education field over the previous twenty years. In this 2-hour videotape recording designed for teachers, administrators, parents, and others, Dr. Barbara Bateman presents her insights about changes in IDEA law and…

Wildfire: distributed, Grid-enabled workflow construction and execution

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Issac Praveen

2005-03-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background We observe two trends in bioinformatics: (i analyses are increasing in complexity, often requiring several applications to be run as a workflow; and (ii multiple CPU clusters and Grids are available to more scientists. The traditional solution to the problem of running workflows across multiple CPUs required programming, often in a scripting language such as perl. Programming places such solutions beyond the reach of many bioinformatics consumers. Results We present Wildfire, a graphical user interface for constructing and running workflows. Wildfire borrows user interface features from Jemboss and adds a drag-and-drop interface allowing the user to compose EMBOSS (and other programs into workflows. For execution, Wildfire uses GEL, the underlying workflow execution engine, which can exploit available parallelism on multiple CPU machines including Beowulf-class clusters and Grids. Conclusion Wildfire simplifies the tasks of constructing and executing bioinformatics workflows.

The Impact of CO2-Driven Vegetation Changes on Wildfire Risk

Science.gov (United States)

Skinner, C. B.; Poulsen, C. J.

2017-12-01

While wildfires are a key component of natural ecological restoration and succession, they also pose tremendous risks to human life, health, and property. Wildfire frequency is expected to increase in many regions as the radiative effects of elevated CO2 drive warmer surface air temperatures, earlier spring snow melt, and more frequent meteorological drought. However, high CO2 concentrations will also directly impact vegetation growth and physiology, potentially altering wildfire characteristics through changes in fuel amount and surface hydrology. Depending on the biome and time of year, these vegetation-driven responses may mitigate or enhance radiative-driven wildfire changes. In this study, we use a suite of earth system models from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project 5 with active biogeophysics and biogeochemistry to understand how the vegetation response to high CO2 (CO2 quadrupling) contributes to future changes in wildfire risk across the globe. Across the models, projected CO2 fertilization enhances aboveground biomass (about a 30% leaf area index (LAI) increase averaged across the globe) during the spring and summer months, increasing the availability of wildfire fuel across all biomes. Despite greater LAI, models robustly project widespread reductions in summer season transpiration (about -15% averaged across the globe) in response to reduced stomatal conductance from CO2 physiological forcing. Reduced transpiration warms summer season near surface temperatures and lowers relative humidity across vegetated regions of the mid-to-high latitudes, heightening the risk of wildfire occurrence. However, as transpiration goes down in response to greater plant water use efficiency, a larger fraction of soil water remains in the soil, potentially halting the spread of wildfires in some regions. Given the myriad ways in which the vegetation response to CO2 may alter wildfire risk, and the robustness of the responses across models, an explicit simulation of

Female Athlete Triad/Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport: A Perspective Interview With Professor Barbara Drinkwater.

Science.gov (United States)

Carter, Susan

2018-06-07

Barbara Drinkwater has been a lifelong champion of equality for women in many areas of life well before it was widely accepted. Her "walking the walk" of women breaking barriers in traditional male roles in administration and leadership is exemplified by her election as the first woman president of the American College of Sports Medicine in 1988. Some of the controversial areas in which Barbara was vocal in the arena of women in sport, besides triad/relative energy deficiency in sport, include increased opportunity and participation, total equality, acceptance of diversity, intolerance of harassment and abuse, and fairness with transgender athletes. She co-founded the evidence-based advocacy group on the international stage known as Women Sport International. As a physiologist, Barbara has had a major influence on attention to the health of the female athlete, and she produced the original pioneering work in the field. Her impactful study, "Bone mineral density after resumption of menses in amenorrheic athletes," was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 1986. Since that time, the female athlete triad has set the stage for research and treatment to enhance women in physical activity at all levels.

Real-time estimation of wildfire perimeters from curated crowdsourcing

Science.gov (United States)

Zhong, Xu; Duckham, Matt; Chong, Derek; Tolhurst, Kevin

2016-04-01

Real-time information about the spatial extents of evolving natural disasters, such as wildfire or flood perimeters, can assist both emergency responders and the general public during an emergency. However, authoritative information sources can suffer from bottlenecks and delays, while user-generated social media data usually lacks the necessary structure and trustworthiness for reliable automated processing. This paper describes and evaluates an automated technique for real-time tracking of wildfire perimeters based on publicly available “curated” crowdsourced data about telephone calls to the emergency services. Our technique is based on established data mining tools, and can be adjusted using a small number of intuitive parameters. Experiments using data from the devastating Black Saturday wildfires (2009) in Victoria, Australia, demonstrate the potential for the technique to detect and track wildfire perimeters automatically, in real time, and with moderate accuracy. Accuracy can be further increased through combination with other authoritative demographic and environmental information, such as population density and dynamic wind fields. These results are also independently validated against data from the more recent 2014 Mickleham-Dalrymple wildfires.

Technology and the study of wildfire: Middle school students study the impacts of wildfire

Science.gov (United States)

Fox-Gliessman, D.; Kerski, J.J.

2005-01-01

Various technologies that can assist students in exploring the human and environmental impacts of wildfire and in communicating their findings are discussed. Wildfires occur in many parts of the world, and provide an excellent opportunity for students to study local and global interdisciplinary issues using technology. Prior to the beginning of the field study, students take instructions in both their math and science classes about the distinction and appropriate uses of quantitative and qualitative data. Use of computer programs such as Excel spreadsheets which can contain data, and interaction of research and technology group with students, can help them collect best of the information and in making an accurate report.

Airborne measurements of western U.S. wildfire emissions: Comparison with prescribed burning and air quality implications: Western U.S. Wildfire Emissions

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Liu, Xiaoxi [School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta Georgia USA; Now at Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder Colorado USA; Now at Department of Chemistry, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder Colorado USA; Huey, L. Gregory [School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta Georgia USA; Yokelson, Robert J. [Department of Chemistry, University of Montana, Missoula Montana USA; Selimovic, Vanessa [Department of Chemistry, University of Montana, Missoula Montana USA; Simpson, Isobel J. [Department of Chemistry, University of California, Irvine California USA; Müller, Markus [Department of Chemistry, University of Montana, Missoula Montana USA; Institute for Ion Physics and Applied Physics, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck Austria; Jimenez, Jose L. [Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder Colorado USA; Department of Chemistry, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder Colorado USA; Campuzano-Jost, Pedro [Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder Colorado USA; Department of Chemistry, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder Colorado USA; Beyersdorf, Andreas J. [NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton Virginia USA; Now at Department of Chemistry, California State University, San Bernardino California USA; Blake, Donald R. [Department of Chemistry, University of California, Irvine California USA; Butterfield, Zachary [Earth and Environmental Sciences Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos New Mexico USA; Now at Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic, and Space Sciences, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor Michigan USA; Choi, Yonghoon [NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton Virginia USA; Science Systems and Applications, Inc., Hampton Virginia USA; Crounse, John D. [Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena California USA; Day, Douglas A. [Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder Colorado USA; Department of Chemistry, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder Colorado USA; Diskin, Glenn S. [NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton Virginia USA; Dubey, Manvendra K. [Earth and Environmental Sciences Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos New Mexico USA; Fortner, Edward [Center for Aerosol and Cloud Chemistry, Aerodyne Research Inc., Billerica Massachusetts USA; Hanisco, Thomas F. [Atmospheric Chemistry and Dynamics Laboratory, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt Maryland USA; Hu, Weiwei [Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder Colorado USA; Department of Chemistry, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder Colorado USA; King, Laura E. [School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta Georgia USA; Kleinman, Lawrence [Environmental and Climate Sciences Department, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton New York USA; Meinardi, Simone [Department of Chemistry, University of California, Irvine California USA; Mikoviny, Tomas [Department of Chemistry, University of Oslo, Oslo Norway; Onasch, Timothy B. [Center for Aerosol and Cloud Chemistry, Aerodyne Research Inc., Billerica Massachusetts USA; Palm, Brett B. [Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder Colorado USA; Department of Chemistry, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder Colorado USA; Peischl, Jeff [Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder Colorado USA; Earth System Research Laboratory, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Boulder Colorado USA; Pollack, Ilana B. [Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder Colorado USA; Earth System Research Laboratory, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Boulder Colorado USA; Now at Department of Atmospheric Science, Colorado State University, Fort Collins Colorado USA; Ryerson, Thomas B. [Earth System Research Laboratory, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Boulder Colorado USA; Sachse, Glen W. [NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton Virginia USA; Sedlacek, Arthur J. [Environmental and Climate Sciences Department, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton New York USA; Shilling, John E. [Atmospheric Sciences and Global Change Division, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland Washington USA; Springston, Stephen [Environmental and Climate Sciences Department, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton New York USA; St. Clair, Jason M. [Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena California USA; Now at Atmospheric Chemistry and Dynamics Laboratory, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt Maryland USA; Now at Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Baltimore Maryland USA; Tanner, David J. [School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta Georgia USA; Teng, Alexander P. [Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena California USA; Wennberg, Paul O. [Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena California USA; Division of Engineering and Applied Science, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena California USA; Wisthaler, Armin [Institute for Ion Physics and Applied Physics, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck Austria; Department of Chemistry, University of Oslo, Oslo Norway; Wolfe, Glenn M. [Atmospheric Chemistry and Dynamics Laboratory, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt Maryland USA; Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Baltimore Maryland USA

2017-06-14

Wildfires emit significant amounts of pollutants that degrade air quality. Plumes from three wildfires in the western U.S. were measured from aircraft during the Studies of Emissions and Atmospheric Composition, Clouds, and Climate Coupling by Regional Surveys (SEAC4RS) and the Biomass Burning Observation Project (BBOP), both in summer 2013. This study reports an extensive set of emission factors (EFs) for over 80 gases and 5 components of submicron particulate matter (PM1) from these temperate wildfires. These include rarely, or never before, measured oxygenated volatile organic compounds and multifunctional organic nitrates. The observed EFs are compared with previous measurements of temperate wildfires, boreal forest fires, and temperate prescribed fires. The wildfires emitted high amounts of PM1 (with organic aerosol (OA) dominating the mass) with an average EF that is more than two times the EFs for prescribed fires. The measured EFs were used to estimate the annual wildfire emissions of carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, total nonmethane organic compounds, and PM1 from 11 western U.S. states. The estimated gas emissions are generally comparable with the 2011 National Emissions Inventory (NEI). However, our PM1 emission estimate (1530 ± 570 Gg yr-1) is over three times that of the NEI PM2.5 estimate and is also higher than the PM2.5 emitted from all other sources in these states in the NEI. This study indicates that the source of OA from BB in the western states is significantly underestimated. In addition, our results indicate prescribed burning may be an effective method to reduce fine particle emissions.

Federal Wildfire Activities. Current Strategy and Issues Needing Attention

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

1999-01-01

Concerned about the rising costs of preparing for and controlling wildfires, you asked us to provide information on how the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management manage their wildfire programs...

Wildfire air pollution hazard during the 21st century

Science.gov (United States)

Knorr, Wolfgang; Dentener, Frank; Lamarque, Jean-François; Jiang, Leiwen; Arneth, Almut

2017-07-01

Wildfires pose a significant risk to human livelihoods and are a substantial health hazard due to emissions of toxic smoke. Previous studies have shown that climate change, increasing atmospheric CO2, and human demographic dynamics can lead to substantially altered wildfire risk in the future, with fire activity increasing in some regions and decreasing in others. The present study re-examines these results from the perspective of air pollution risk, focussing on emissions of airborne particulate matter (PM2. 5), combining an existing ensemble of simulations using a coupled fire-dynamic vegetation model with current observation-based estimates of wildfire emissions and simulations with a chemical transport model. Currently, wildfire PM2. 5 emissions exceed those from anthropogenic sources in large parts of the world. We further analyse two extreme sets of future wildfire emissions in a socio-economic, demographic climate change context and compare them to anthropogenic emission scenarios reflecting current and ambitious air pollution legislation. In most regions of the world, ambitious reductions of anthropogenic air pollutant emissions have the potential to limit mean annual pollutant PM2. 5 levels to comply with World Health Organization (WHO) air quality guidelines for PM2. 5. Worst-case future wildfire emissions are not likely to interfere with these annual goals, largely due to fire seasonality, as well as a tendency of wildfire sources to be situated in areas of intermediate population density, as opposed to anthropogenic sources that tend to be highest at the highest population densities. However, during the high-fire season, we find many regions where future PM2. 5 pollution levels can reach dangerous levels even for a scenario of aggressive reduction of anthropogenic emissions.

Repeated wildfires alter forest recovery of mixed-conifer ecosystems.

Science.gov (United States)

Stevens-Rumann, Camille; Morgan, Penelope

2016-09-01

Most models project warmer and drier climates that will contribute to larger and more frequent wildfires. However, it remains unknown how repeated wildfires alter post-fire successional patterns and forest structure. Here, we test the hypothesis that the number of wildfires, as well as the order and severity of wildfire events interact to alter forest structure and vegetation recovery and implications for vegetation management. In 2014, we examined forest structure, composition, and tree regeneration in stands that burned 1-18 yr before a subsequent 2007 wildfire. Three important findings emerged: (1) Repeatedly burned forests had 15% less woody surface fuels and 31% lower tree seedling densities compared with forests that only experienced one recent wildfire. These repeatedly burned areas are recovering differently than sites burned once, which may lead to alternative ecosystem structure. (2) Order of burn severity (high followed by low severity compared with low followed by high severity) did influence forest characteristics. When low burn severity followed high, forests had 60% lower canopy closure and total basal area with 92% fewer tree seedlings than when high burn severity followed low. (3) Time between fires had no effect on most variables measured following the second fire except large woody fuels, canopy closure and tree seedling density. We conclude that repeatedly burned areas meet many vegetation management objectives of reduced fuel loads and moderate tree seedling densities. These differences in forest structure, composition, and tree regeneration have implications not only for the trajectories of these forests, but may reduce fire intensity and burn severity of subsequent wildfires and may be used in conjunction with future fire suppression tactics. © 2016 by the Ecological Society of America.

Materials and Structures Optimization / Process Development for the Mega-ROSA / ROSA Solar Array, Phase I

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — Deployable Space Systems, Inc. (DSS), in collaboration with the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), Department of Mechanical Engineering, will focus the...

Tark raadio / Neil Savage

Index Scriptorium Estoniae

Savage, Neil

2006-01-01

California Santa Barbara ülikooli infotehnoloogia abiprofessor Heather Zheng tegeleb küsimusega, kuidas traadita seadmeid tõhusamalt eetrisse ära mahutada. Artikkel üldpealkirja all: 10 tulevikutehnoloogiat

Materials and Structures Optimization / Process Development for the Mega-ROSA / ROSA Solar Array, Phase II

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — Deployable Space Systems, Inc. (DSS), in collaboration with the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), Department of Mechanical Engineering, will focus the...

Assessing Climate Change Impacts on Wildfire Exposure in Mediterranean Areas.

Science.gov (United States)

Lozano, Olga M; Salis, Michele; Ager, Alan A; Arca, Bachisio; Alcasena, Fermin J; Monteiro, Antonio T; Finney, Mark A; Del Giudice, Liliana; Scoccimarro, Enrico; Spano, Donatella

2017-10-01

We used simulation modeling to assess potential climate change impacts on wildfire exposure in Italy and Corsica (France). Weather data were obtained from a regional climate model for the period 1981-2070 using the IPCC A1B emissions scenario. Wildfire simulations were performed with the minimum travel time fire spread algorithm using predicted fuel moisture, wind speed, and wind direction to simulate expected changes in weather for three climatic periods (1981-2010, 2011-2040, and 2041-2070). Overall, the wildfire simulations showed very slight changes in flame length, while other outputs such as burn probability and fire size increased significantly in the second future period (2041-2070), especially in the southern portion of the study area. The projected changes fuel moisture could result in a lengthening of the fire season for the entire study area. This work represents the first application in Europe of a methodology based on high resolution (250 m) landscape wildfire modeling to assess potential impacts of climate changes on wildfire exposure at a national scale. The findings can provide information and support in wildfire management planning and fire risk mitigation activities. © 2016 Society for Risk Analysis.

Wildfire, wildlands, and people: understanding and preparing for wildfire in the wildland-urban interface - a Forests on the Edge report

Science.gov (United States)

S. M. Stein; J. Menakis; M. A. Carr; S. J. Comas; S. I. Stewart; H. Cleveland; L. Bramwell; V. C. Radeloff

2013-01-01

Fire has historically played a fundamental ecological role in many of America's wildland areas. However, the rising number of homes in the wildland-urban interface (WUI), associated impacts on lives and property from wildfire, and escalating costs of wildfire management have led to an urgent need for communities to become "fire-adapted." We present maps...

Comparing resource values at risk from wildfires with Forest Service fire suppression expenditures: Examples from 2003 western Montana wildfire season

Science.gov (United States)

David Calkin; Kevin Hyde; Krista Gebert; Greg Jones

2005-01-01

Determining the economic effectiveness of wildfire suppression activities is complicated by difficulties in identifying the area that would have burned and the associated resource value changes had suppression resources not been employed. We developed a case study using break-even analysis for two large wildfires from the 2003 fire season in western Montana -- the...

Measuring the efficacy of a wildfire education program in Colorado Springs.

Science.gov (United States)

G.H. Donovan; P.A. Champ; D.T. Butry

2007-01-01

We examine an innovative wildfire risk education program in Colorado Springs, which rated the wildfire risk of 35,000 homes in the city's wildland urban interface. Evidence from home sales before and after the program's implementation suggests that the program was successful at changing homebuyers' attitudes toward wildfire risk, particularly preferences...

National database for calculating fuel available to wildfires

Science.gov (United States)

Donald McKenzie; Nancy H.F. French; Roger D. Ottmar

2012-01-01

Wildfires are increasingly emerging as an important component of Earth system models, particularly those that involve emissions from fires and their effects on climate. Currently, there are few resources available for estimating emissions from wildfires in real time, at subcontinental scales, in a spatially consistent manner. Developing subcontinental-scale databases...

Airborne measurements of western U.S. wildfire emissions: Comparison with prescribed burning and air quality implications: Western U.S. Wildfire Emissions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Liu, Xiaoxi; University of Colorado, Boulder, CO; Huey, L. Gregory; Yokelson, Robert J.; Selimovic, Vanessa

2017-01-01

Wildfires emit significant amounts of pollutants that degrade air quality. Plumes from three wildfires in the western U.S. were measured from aircraft during the Studies of Emissions and Atmospheric Composition, Clouds and Climate Coupling by Regional Surveys (SEAC4RS) and the Biomass Burning Observation Project (BBOP), both in summer 2013. This study reports an extensive set of emission factors (EFs) for over 80 gases and 5 components of submicron particulate matter (PM 1 ) from these temperate wildfires. These include rarely, or never before, measured oxygenated volatile organic compounds and multifunctional organic nitrates. The observed EFs are compared with previous measurements of temperate wildfires, boreal forest fires, and temperate prescribed fires. Furthermore, the wildfires emitted high amounts of PM 1 (with organic aerosol (OA) dominating the mass) with an average EF that is more than 2 times the EFs for prescribed fires. The measured EFs were used to estimate the annual wildfire emissions of carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, total nonmethane organic compounds, and PM 1 from 11 western U.S. states. The estimated gas emissions are generally comparable with the 2011 National Emissions Inventory (NEI). However, our PM 1 emission estimate (1530 ± 570 Gg yr -1 ) is over 3 times that of the NEI PM2.5 estimate and is also higher than the PM2.5 emitted from all other sources in these states in the NEI. This study indicates that the source of OA from biomass burning in the western states is significantly underestimated. Additionally, our results indicate that prescribed burning may be an effective method to reduce fine particle emissions.

The evolution of Smokey Bear: Environmental education about wildfire for youth

Science.gov (United States)

Heidi L. Ballard; Emily Evans; Victoria E. Sturtevant; Pamela. Jakes

2012-01-01

Many environmental education programs in the United States educate youth about the prevention of wildfire and its role in ecosystems.We reviewed 50 wildfire education programs for youth (WEY) in the U.S. through an Internet search and interviews with program providers. We investigated whether they reflect current wildfire science, environmental education (EE)...

Wildfire exposure analysis on the national forests in the Pacific Northwest, USA.

Science.gov (United States)

Ager, Alan A; Buonopane, Michelle; Reger, Allison; Finney, Mark A

2013-06-01

We analyzed wildfire exposure for key social and ecological features on the national forests in Oregon and Washington. The forests contain numerous urban interfaces, old growth forests, recreational sites, and habitat for rare and endangered species. Many of these resources are threatened by wildfire, especially in the east Cascade Mountains fire-prone forests. The study illustrates the application of wildfire simulation for risk assessment where the major threat is from large and rare naturally ignited fires, versus many previous studies that have focused on risk driven by frequent and small fires from anthropogenic ignitions. Wildfire simulation modeling was used to characterize potential wildfire behavior in terms of annual burn probability and flame length. Spatial data on selected social and ecological features were obtained from Forest Service GIS databases and elsewhere. The potential wildfire behavior was then summarized for each spatial location of each resource. The analysis suggested strong spatial variation in both burn probability and conditional flame length for many of the features examined, including biodiversity, urban interfaces, and infrastructure. We propose that the spatial patterns in modeled wildfire behavior could be used to improve existing prioritization of fuel management and wildfire preparedness activities within the Pacific Northwest region. © 2012 Society for Risk Analysis.

Efficient and Equitable Design of Wildfire Mitigation Programs

Science.gov (United States)

Thomas P. Holmes; Karen L. Abt; Robert Huggett; Jeffrey P. Prestemon

2007-01-01

Natural resource economists have addresssed the economic effienciency of expenditures on wildfire mitigation for nearly a century (Gope and Gorte 1979). Beginning with the work of Sparhawk (1925), the theory of efficent wildfire mitigation developed alolng conceptual lines drawn form neoclassical economics. The objective of the traditional least-cost-plus-loss model...

Rapid increases and time-lagged declines in amphibian occupancy after wildfire.

Science.gov (United States)

Hossack, Blake R; Lowe, Winsor H; Corn, Paul Stephen

2013-02-01

Climate change is expected to increase the frequency and severity of drought and wildfire. Aquatic and moisture-sensitive species, such as amphibians, may be particularly vulnerable to these modified disturbance regimes because large wildfires often occur during extended droughts and thus may compound environmental threats. However, understanding of the effects of wildfires on amphibians in forests with long fire-return intervals is limited. Numerous stand-replacing wildfires have occurred since 1988 in Glacier National Park (Montana, U.S.A.), where we have conducted long-term monitoring of amphibians. We measured responses of 3 amphibian species to fires of different sizes, severity, and age in a small geographic area with uniform management. We used data from wetlands associated with 6 wildfires that burned between 1988 and 2003 to evaluate whether burn extent and severity and interactions between wildfire and wetland isolation affected the distribution of breeding populations. We measured responses with models that accounted for imperfect detection to estimate occupancy during prefire (0-4 years) and different postfire recovery periods. For the long-toed salamander (Ambystoma macrodactylum) and Columbia spotted frog (Rana luteiventris), occupancy was not affected for 6 years after wildfire. But 7-21 years after wildfire, occupancy for both species decreased ≥ 25% in areas where >50% of the forest within 500 m of wetlands burned. In contrast, occupancy of the boreal toad (Anaxyrus boreas) tripled in the 3 years after low-elevation forests burned. This increase in occupancy was followed by a gradual decline. Our results show that accounting for magnitude of change and time lags is critical to understanding population dynamics of amphibians after large disturbances. Our results also inform understanding of the potential threat of increases in wildfire frequency or severity to amphibians in the region. ©2012 Society for Conservation Biology.

Pathology of wildfire risk: A characterization of social and ecological dimensions

Science.gov (United States)

A. Paige Fischer; Thomas A Spies; Toddi A Steelman; Cassandra Moseley; Bart R Johnson; John D Bailey; Alan A Ager; Patrick Bourgeron; Susan Charnley; Brandon M Collins; Jeffrey D Kline; Jessica E Leahy; Jeremy S Littell; James DA Millington; Max Nielsen-Pincus; Christine S Olsen; Travis B Paveglio; Christopher I Roos; Michelle M Steen-Adams; Forrest R Stevens; Jelena Vukomanovic; Eric M White; David M. J. S. Bowman

2016-01-01

Despite dramatic increases in suppression spending, the risk of life and property loss associated with wildfire has continued to rise in recent decades. Economic losses from wildfires have doubled in the United States and suppression expenses have tripled between 2002 and 2012 compared to the decade prior. Loss of property to wildfire has outpaced efforts to reduce...

Field Surveys of Rare Plants on Santa Cruz Island, California, 2003-2006: Historical Records and Current Distributions

Science.gov (United States)

McEachern, A. Kathryn; Chess, Katherine A.; Niessen, Ken

2010-01-01

recovery. Several taxa have particular problems evidenced by lack of fruit set, very small population sizes, or unstable habitats. We collected seeds of all but two taxa for seed banking, and live cuttings of two clonal shrubs for cultivation at the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden. The survey data, seeds and cuttings provide a baseline and a foundation for planning, conducting, and tracking recovery of the nine federally listed plant taxa of Santa Cruz Island.

On the effects of wildfires on precipitation in Southern Africa

Science.gov (United States)

De Sales, Fernando; Okin, Gregory S.; Xue, Yongkang; Dintwe, Kebonye

2018-03-01

This study investigates the impact of wildfire on the climate of Southern Africa. Moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer derived burned area fraction data was implemented in a set of simulations to assess primarily the role of wildfire-induced surface changes on monthly precipitation. Two post-fire scenarios are examined namely non-recovering and recovering vegetation scenarios. In the former, burned vegetation fraction remains burned until the end of the simulations, whereas in the latter it is allowed to regrow following a recovery period. Control simulations revealed that the model can dependably capture the monthly precipitation and surface temperature averages in Southern Africa thus providing a reasonable basis against which to assess the impacts of wildfire. In general, both wildfire scenarios have a negative impact on springtime precipitation. September and October were the only months with statistically significant precipitation changes. During these months, precipitation in the region decreases by approximately 13 and 9% in the non-recovering vegetation scenario, and by about 10 and 6% in the recovering vegetation wildfire scenario, respectively. The primary cause of precipitation deficit is the decrease in evapotranspiration resulting from a reduction in surface net radiation. Areas impacted by the precipitation reduction includes the Luanda, Kinshasa, and Brazzaville metropolitan areas, The Angolan Highlands, which are the source of the Okavango Rive, and the Okavango Delta region. This study suggests that a probable intensification in wildfire frequency and extent resulting from projected population increase and global warming in Southern Africa could potentially exacerbate the impacts of wildfires in the region's seasonal precipitation.

Particulate Air Pollution from Wildfires in the Western US under Climate Change.

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Jia Coco; Mickley, Loretta J; Sulprizio, Melissa P; Dominici, Francesca; Yue, Xu; Ebisu, Keita; Anderson, Georgiana Brooke; Khan, Rafi F A; Bravo, Mercedes A; Bell, Michelle L

2016-10-01

Wildfire can impose a direct impact on human health under climate change. While the potential impacts of climate change on wildfires and resulting air pollution have been studied, it is not known who will be most affected by the growing threat of wildfires. Identifying communities that will be most affected will inform development of fire management strategies and disaster preparedness programs. We estimate levels of fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 ) directly attributable to wildfires in 561 western US counties during fire seasons for the present-day (2004-2009) and future (2046-2051), using a fire prediction model and GEOS-Chem, a 3-D global chemical transport model. Future estimates are obtained under a scenario of moderately increasing greenhouse gases by mid-century. We create a new term "Smoke Wave," defined as ≥2 consecutive days with high wildfire-specific PM 2.5 , to describe episodes of high air pollution from wildfires. We develop an interactive map to demonstrate the counties likely to suffer from future high wildfire pollution events. For 2004-2009, on days exceeding regulatory PM 2.5 standards, wildfires contributed an average of 71.3% of total PM 2.5 . Under future climate change, we estimate that more than 82 million individuals will experience a 57% and 31% increase in the frequency and intensity, respectively, of Smoke Waves. Northern California, Western Oregon and the Great Plains are likely to suffer the highest exposure to widlfire smoke in the future. Results point to the potential health impacts of increasing wildfire activity on large numbers of people in a warming climate and the need to establish or modify US wildfire management and evacuation programs in high-risk regions. The study also adds to the growing literature arguing that extreme events in a changing climate could have significant consequences for human health.

Adapt to more wildfire in western North American forests as climate changes.

Science.gov (United States)

Schoennagel, Tania; Balch, Jennifer K; Brenkert-Smith, Hannah; Dennison, Philip E; Harvey, Brian J; Krawchuk, Meg A; Mietkiewicz, Nathan; Morgan, Penelope; Moritz, Max A; Rasker, Ray; Turner, Monica G; Whitlock, Cathy

2017-05-02

Wildfires across western North America have increased in number and size over the past three decades, and this trend will continue in response to further warming. As a consequence, the wildland-urban interface is projected to experience substantially higher risk of climate-driven fires in the coming decades. Although many plants, animals, and ecosystem services benefit from fire, it is unknown how ecosystems will respond to increased burning and warming. Policy and management have focused primarily on specified resilience approaches aimed at resistance to wildfire and restoration of areas burned by wildfire through fire suppression and fuels management. These strategies are inadequate to address a new era of western wildfires. In contrast, policies that promote adaptive resilience to wildfire, by which people and ecosystems adjust and reorganize in response to changing fire regimes to reduce future vulnerability, are needed. Key aspects of an adaptive resilience approach are ( i ) recognizing that fuels reduction cannot alter regional wildfire trends; ( ii ) targeting fuels reduction to increase adaptation by some ecosystems and residential communities to more frequent fire; ( iii ) actively managing more wild and prescribed fires with a range of severities; and ( iv ) incentivizing and planning residential development to withstand inevitable wildfire. These strategies represent a shift in policy and management from restoring ecosystems based on historical baselines to adapting to changing fire regimes and from unsustainable defense of the wildland-urban interface to developing fire-adapted communities. We propose an approach that accepts wildfire as an inevitable catalyst of change and that promotes adaptive responses by ecosystems and residential communities to more warming and wildfire.

Assessing wildfire occurrence probability in Pinus pinaster Ait. stands in Portugal

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Marques, S.; Garcia-Gonzalo, J.; Botequim, B.; Ricardo, A.; Borges, J. G.; Tome, M.; Oliveira, M. M.

2012-11-01

Maritime pine (Pinus pinaster Ait.) is an important conifer from the western Mediterranean Basin extending over 22% of the forest area in Portugal. In the last three decades nearly 4% of Maritime pine area has been burned by wildfires. Yet no wildfire occurrence probability models are available and forest and fire management planning activities are thus carried out mostly independently of each other. This paper presents research to address this gap. Specifically, it presents a model to assess wildfire occurrence probability in regular and pure Maritime pine stands in Portugal. Emphasis was in developing a model based on easily available inventory data so that it might be useful to forest managers. For that purpose, data from the last two Portuguese National Forest Inventories (NFI) and data from wildfire perimeters in the years from 1998 to 2004 and from 2006 to 2007 were used. A binary logistic regression model was build using biometrics data from the NFI. Biometric data included indicators that might be changed by operations prescribed in forest planning. Results showed that the probability of wildfire occurrence in a stand increases in stand located at steeper slopes and with high shrubs load while it decreases with precipitation and with stand basal area. These results are instrumental for assessing the impact of forest management options on wildfire probability thus helping forest managers to reduce the risk of wildfires. (Author) 57 refs.

Effects of wildfire on soil nutrients in Mediterranean ecosystem

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Caon, L.; Vallejo, V.R.; Ritsema, C.J.; Geissen, V.

2014-01-01

High-intensity and fast-spreading wildfires are natural in the Mediterranean basin. However, since 1960, wildfire occurrence has increased because of changes in land use, which resulted in extensive land abandonment, increases in the fuel load and continuity in the landscape. The level of soil

Post-wildfire soil erosion in the Mediterranean: Review and future research directions

Science.gov (United States)

Shakesby, R. A.

2011-04-01

Wildfires increased dramatically in frequency and extent in the European Mediterranean region from the 1960s, aided by a general warming and drying trend, but driven primarily by socio-economic changes, including rural depopulation, land abandonment and afforestation with flammable species. Published research into post-wildfire hydrology and soil erosion, beginning during the 1980s in Spain, has been followed by studies in other European Mediterranean countries together with Israel and has now attained a sufficiently large critical mass to warrant a major review. Although variations in climate, vegetation, soil, topography and fire severity cause differences in Mediterranean post-wildfire erosion, the long history of human landscape impact up to the present day is responsible for some its distinctive characteristics. This paper highlights these characteristics in reviewing wildfire impacts on hydrology, soil properties and soil erosion by water. The 'mosaic' nature of many Mediterranean landscapes (e.g. an intricate land-use pattern, abandoned terraces and tracks interrupting slopes) may explain sometimes conflicting post-fire hydrological and erosional responses at different sites and spatial scales. First-year post-wildfire soil losses at point- (average, 45-56 t ha - 1 ) and plot-scales (many Aspect is important, with more erosion reported for south- than north-facing slopes, which is attributed to greater fire frequency, slower vegetation recovery on the former and with soil characteristics more prone to erosion (e.g. lower aggregate stability). Post-fire wind erosion is a potentially important but largely neglected process. Gauging the degradational significance of wildfires has relied on comparison with unburnt land, but the focus for comparison should be switched to other agents of soil disturbance and/or currently poorly understood soil renewal rates. Human impact on land use and vegetation may alter expected effects (increased fire activity and post-wildfire

Predicting wildfires

Science.gov (United States)

Patricia Andrews; Mark Finney; Mark Fischetti

2007-01-01

The number of catastrophic wildfires in the U.S. has been steadily rising. The nation has spent more than $1 billion annually to suppress such fires in eight of the past 10 years. In 2005 a record 8.7 million acres burned, only to be succeeded by 9.9 million acres in 2006. And this year is off to a furious start. To a great extent, the increase in fires stems from a...

On culture and human development: Interview with Barbara Rogoff

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Glaveanu, Vlad Petre

2011-01-01

In this interview Professor Barbara Rogoff explores the many ways in which culture shapes the course of human development, and illustrates this with several findings from her past as well as most recent work. These reveal the vital importance of growing up in a family and a community for the human...... child and participating, from early on, in their various rituals and practices. Building on and enriching cultural psychological sources, Professor Rogoff offers us a comprehensive framework with which to understand both cultural and developmental phenomena and, above all, their multiple intersections...

50 CFR 35.7 - Control of wildfires, insects, pest plants, and disease.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... 50 Wildlife and Fisheries 6 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Control of wildfires, insects, pest plants... MANAGEMENT General Rules § 35.7 Control of wildfires, insects, pest plants, and disease. To the extent necessary, the Director shall prescribe measures to control wildfires, insects, pest plants, and disease to...

Future respiratory hospital admissions from wildfire smoke under climate change in the Western US

Science.gov (United States)

Coco Liu, Jia; Mickley, Loretta J.; Sulprizio, Melissa P.; Yue, Xu; Peng, Roger D.; Dominici, Francesca; Bell, Michelle L.

2016-12-01

Background. Wildfires are anticipated to be more frequent and intense under climate change. As a result, wildfires may emit more air pollutants that can harm health in communities in the future. The health impacts of wildfire smoke under climate change are largely unknown. Methods. We linked projections of future levels of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) specifically from wildfire smoke under the A1B climate change scenario using the GEOS-Chem model for 2046-2051, present-day estimates of hospital admission impacts from wildfire smoke, and future population projections to estimate the change in respiratory hospital admissions for persons ≥65 years by county (n = 561) from wildfire PM2.5 under climate change in the Western US. Results. The increase in intense wildfire smoke days from climate change would result in an estimated 178 (95% confidence interval: 6.2, 361) additional respiratory hospital admissions in the Western US, accounting for estimated future increase in the elderly population. Climate change is estimated to impose an additional 4990 high-pollution smoke days. Central Colorado, Washington and southern California are estimated to experience the highest percentage increase in respiratory admissions from wildfire smoke under climate change. Conclusion. Although the increase in number of respiratory admissions from wildfire smoke seems modest, these results provide important scientific evidence of an often-ignored aspect of wildfire impact, and information on their anticipated spatial distribution. Wildfires can cause serious social burdens such as property damage and suppression cost, but can also raise health problems. The results provide information that can be incorporated into development of environmental and health policies in response to climate change. Climate change adaptation policies could incorporate scientific evidence on health risks from natural disasters such as wildfires.

Synoptic patterns associated with wildfires caused by lightning in Castile and Leon, Spain

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

E. García-Ortega

2011-03-01

Full Text Available The Iberian Peninsula presents the highest number of wildfires in Europe. In the NW of Spain in particular, wildfires are the natural risk with the greatest economic impact in this region. Wildfires caused by lightning are closely related to the triggering of convective phenomena. The prediction of thunderstorms is a very complex task because these weather events have a local character and are highly dependent on mesoscale atmospheric conditions. The development of convective storms is directly linked to the existence of a synoptic environment favoring convection. The aim of this study is to classify the atmospheric patterns that provide favorable environments for the occurrence of wildfires caused by lightning in the region of Castile and Leon, Spain. The database used for the study contains 376 wildfire days from the period 1987–2006. NCEP data reanalysis has been used. The atmospheric fields used to characterise each day were: geopotential heights and temperatures at 500 hPa and 850 hPa, relative humidity and the horizontal wind at 850 hPa. A Principal Component Analysis in T-mode followed by a Cluster Analysis resulted in a classification of wildfire days into five clusters. The characteristics of these clusters were analysed and described, focusing particularly on the study of those wildfire days in which more than one wildfire was detected. In these cases the main feature observed was the intensification of the disturbance typical of the cluster to which the wildfire belongs.

Provision of a wildfire risk map: informing residents in the wildland urban interface.

Science.gov (United States)

Mozumder, Pallab; Helton, Ryan; Berrens, Robert P

2009-11-01

Wildfires in the wildland urban interface (WUI) are an increasing concern throughout the western United States and elsewhere. WUI communities continue to grow and thus increase the wildfire risk to human lives and property. Information such as a wildfire risk map can inform WUI residents of potential risks and may help to efficiently sort mitigation efforts. This study uses the survey-based contingent valuation (CV) method to examine annual household willingness to pay (WTP) for the provision of a wildfire risk map. Data were collected through a mail survey of the East Mountain WUI area in the State of New Mexico (USA). The integrated empirical approach includes a system of equations that involves joint estimation of WTP values, along with measures of a respondent's risk perception and risk mitigation behavior. The median estimated WTP is around U.S. $12 for the annual wildfire risk map, which covers at least the costs of producing and distributing available risk information. Further, providing a wildfire risk map can help address policy goals emphasizing information gathering and sharing among stakeholders to mitigate the effects of wildfires.

Assessing exposure of human and ecological values to wildfire in Sardinia, Italy

Science.gov (United States)

Michele Salis; Alan A. Ager; Bachisio Arca; Mark A. Finney; Valentina Bacciu; Pierpaolo Duce; Donatella. Spano

2012-01-01

We used simulation modelling to analyze spatial variation in wildfire exposure relative to key social and economic features on the island of Sardinia, Italy. Sardinia contains a high density of urban interfaces, recreational values and highly valued agricultural areas that are increasingly being threatened by severe wildfires. Historical fire data and wildfire...

Genetic population structuring and demographic history of red ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

STORAGESEVER

2008-10-20

Oct 20, 2008 ... 2College of Aquaculture, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266003, China. ... changes in species' geographical distribution and abundance, which could be ...... circulation and climate change from the Santa Barbara basin.

Current research issues related to post-wildfire runoff and erosion processes

Science.gov (United States)

Moody, John A.; Shakesby, Richard A.; Robichaud, Peter R.; Cannon, Susan H.; Martin, Deborah A.

2013-01-01

Research into post-wildfire effects began in the United States more than 70 years ago and only later extended to other parts of the world. Post-wildfire responses are typically transient, episodic, variable in space and time, dependent on thresholds, and involve multiple processes measured by different methods. These characteristics tend to hinder research progress, but the large empirical knowledge base amassed in different regions of the world suggests that it should now be possible to synthesize the data and make a substantial improvement in the understanding of post-wildfire runoff and erosion response. Thus, it is important to identify and prioritize the research issues related to post-wildfire runoff and erosion. Priority research issues are the need to: (1) organize and synthesize similarities and differences in post-wildfire responses between different fire-prone regions of the world in order to determine common patterns and generalities that can explain cause and effect relations; (2) identify and quantify functional relations between metrics of fire effects and soil hydraulic properties that will better represent the dynamic and transient conditions after a wildfire; (3) determine the interaction between burned landscapes and temporally and spatially variable meso-scale precipitation, which is often the primary driver of post-wildfire runoff and erosion responses; (4) determine functional relations between precipitation, basin morphology, runoff connectivity, contributing area, surface roughness, depression storage, and soil characteristics required to predict the timing, magnitudes, and duration of floods and debris flows from ungaged burned basins; and (5) develop standard measurement methods that will ensure the collection of uniform and comparable runoff and erosion data. Resolution of these issues will help to improve conceptual and computer models of post-wildfire runoff and erosion processes.

Wildfire air pollution hazard during the 21st century

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

W. Knorr

2017-07-01

Full Text Available Wildfires pose a significant risk to human livelihoods and are a substantial health hazard due to emissions of toxic smoke. Previous studies have shown that climate change, increasing atmospheric CO2, and human demographic dynamics can lead to substantially altered wildfire risk in the future, with fire activity increasing in some regions and decreasing in others. The present study re-examines these results from the perspective of air pollution risk, focussing on emissions of airborne particulate matter (PM2. 5, combining an existing ensemble of simulations using a coupled fire–dynamic vegetation model with current observation-based estimates of wildfire emissions and simulations with a chemical transport model. Currently, wildfire PM2. 5 emissions exceed those from anthropogenic sources in large parts of the world. We further analyse two extreme sets of future wildfire emissions in a socio-economic, demographic climate change context and compare them to anthropogenic emission scenarios reflecting current and ambitious air pollution legislation. In most regions of the world, ambitious reductions of anthropogenic air pollutant emissions have the potential to limit mean annual pollutant PM2. 5 levels to comply with World Health Organization (WHO air quality guidelines for PM2. 5. Worst-case future wildfire emissions are not likely to interfere with these annual goals, largely due to fire seasonality, as well as a tendency of wildfire sources to be situated in areas of intermediate population density, as opposed to anthropogenic sources that tend to be highest at the highest population densities. However, during the high-fire season, we find many regions where future PM2. 5 pollution levels can reach dangerous levels even for a scenario of aggressive reduction of anthropogenic emissions.

Restoring forest structure and process stabilizes forest carbon in wildfire-prone southwestern ponderosa pine forests.

Science.gov (United States)

Hurteau, Matthew D; Liang, Shuang; Martin, Katherine L; North, Malcolm P; Koch, George W; Hungate, Bruce A

2016-03-01

Changing climate and a legacy of fire-exclusion have increased the probability of high-severity wildfire, leading to an increased risk of forest carbon loss in ponderosa pine forests in the southwestern USA. Efforts to reduce high-severity fire risk through forest thinning and prescribed burning require both the removal and emission of carbon from these forests, and any potential carbon benefits from treatment may depend on the occurrence of wildfire. We sought to determine how forest treatments alter the effects of stochastic wildfire events on the forest carbon balance. We modeled three treatments (control, thin-only, and thin and burn) with and without the occurrence of wildfire. We evaluated how two different probabilities of wildfire occurrence, 1% and 2% per year, might alter the carbon balance of treatments. In the absence of wildfire, we found that thinning and burning treatments initially reduced total ecosystem carbon (TEC) and increased net ecosystem carbon balance (NECB). In the presence of wildfire, the thin and burn treatment TEC surpassed that of the control in year 40 at 2%/yr wildfire probability, and in year 51 at 1%/yr wildfire probability. NECB in the presence of wildfire showed a similar response to the no-wildfire scenarios: both thin-only and thin and burn treatments increased the C sink. Treatments increased TEC by reducing both mean wildfire severity and its variability. While the carbon balance of treatments may differ in more productive forest types, the carbon balance benefits from restoring forest structure and fire in southwestern ponderosa pine forests are clear.

Integrating wildfire plume rises within atmospheric transport models

Science.gov (United States)

Mallia, D. V.; Kochanski, A.; Wu, D.; Urbanski, S. P.; Krueger, S. K.; Lin, J. C.

2016-12-01

Wildfires can generate significant pyro-convection that is responsible for releasing pollutants, greenhouse gases, and trace species into the free troposphere, which are then transported a significant distance downwind from the fire. Oftentimes, atmospheric transport and chemistry models have a difficult time resolving the transport of smoke from these wildfires, primarily due to deficiencies in estimating the plume injection height, which has been highlighted in previous work as the most important aspect of simulating wildfire plume transport. As a result of the uncertainties associated with modeled wildfire plume rise, researchers face difficulties modeling the impacts of wildfire smoke on air quality and constraining fire emissions using inverse modeling techniques. Currently, several plume rise parameterizations exist that are able to determine the injection height of fire emissions; however, the success of these parameterizations has been mixed. With the advent of WRF-SFIRE, the wildfire plume rise and injection height can now be explicitly calculated using a fire spread model (SFIRE) that is dynamically linked with the atmosphere simulated by WRF. However, this model has only been tested on a limited basis due to computational costs. Here, we will test the performance of WRF-SFIRE in addition to several commonly adopted plume parameterizations (Freitas, Sofiev, and Briggs) for the 2013 Patch Springs (Utah) and 2012 Baker Canyon (Washington) fires, for both of which observations of plume rise heights are available. These plume rise techniques will then be incorporated within a Lagrangian atmospheric transport model (STILT) in order to simulate CO and CO2 concentrations during NASA's CARVE Earth Science Airborne Program over Alaska during the summer of 2012. Initial model results showed that STILT model simulations were unable to reproduce enhanced CO concentrations produced by Alaskan fires observed during 2012. Near-surface concentrations were drastically

The Effect of Prescribed Burns and Wildfire on Vegetation in Bastrop State Park, TX

Science.gov (United States)

Justice, C. J.

2014-12-01

In 2011, central Texas had its worst drought since the 1950's. This, in conjunction with the strong winds produced by Tropical Storm Lee created conditions that made possible the Bastrop County Complex Fire in September 2011. These record-breaking wildfires burned over 95% of the 6,565-acre Bastrop State Park (BSP). Since 2003, BSP had been using prescribed burns as a management practice to reduce fuel load and prevent high severity wildfires. Although these prescribed fires did not prevent the 2011 wildfires they may have mitigated their effects. This study considered the effect of prescribed burn history and wildfire burn severity on vegetation recovery in BSP since the 2011 wildfire. The hypotheses of this study are that prescribed burn history and wildfire burn severity separately and jointly have affected post wildfire vegetation. To test these hypotheses, data were collected in 2013 from 46 plots across BSP using the Fire Effects Monitoring and Inventory (FIREMON) protocol to determine herbaceous plant density, shrub density, overstory density, and midstory tree density. Data were analyzed using analyses of variance (ANOVA) to determine the effects of prescribed fire and wildfire severity on these vegetation measurements. It was found that more severely burned plots had more herbaceous plants, fewer midstory trees, and lower shrub densities than less severely burned plots. Contrary to an initial hypotheses, there were few relationships between prescribed burn history and wildfire effects. The only significant effect detected for prescribed burning was the positive effect of prescribed fire on midstory tree density, but only for plots that were not severely burned in the wildfire. In this system, burn severity had a greater effect on post-wildfire vegetation than prescribed burns.

Macroeconomia do Turismo Argentino em Santa Catarina

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Roberto Meurer

2010-07-01

Full Text Available Resumo O Estado de Santa Catarina experimentou um considerável crescimento do setor de turismo nas últimas décadas. O fluxo turístico de origem argentina revelou-se um ingrediente importante dessa trajetória. Este artigo focaliza um aspecto pouco explorado, aparentemente, da participação argentina no turismo estadual: a relação entre a situação macroeconômica do país vizinho e a demanda turística por Santa Catarina lá originada. Começa-se abordando brevemente a problemática geral da macroeconomia do turismo. Depois, discorre-se sobre o crescimento desse setor em Santa Catarina, destacando a presença de argentinos. A terceira parte desenvolve uma análise baseada em tratamento estatístico de dados sobre demanda e receita geradas por esses turistas no estado, com exame das correlações envolvendo taxa de câmbio e taxa de crescimento do PIB da Argentina. Palavras-chave: turismo; Santa Catarina; turistas argentinos; economia argentina Abstract The State of Santa Catarina has witnessed a considerable development of its tourist sector in the last decades. The demand from Argentina has proved to be an important factor of that growth. This article deals with a feature of the presence of Argentinians in the state which seems to be scarcely studied: the relationship between the macroeconomic situation of Argentina and the tourist demand in Santa Catarina originated from that country. The first part of the article considers briefly the general issue of tourism macroeconomics. The second one looks upon tourism growth in Santa Catarina, stressing the presence of visitors from Argentine. The third section develops an analysis based on statistical treatment of data concerning demand and income generated by such tourists in Santa Catarina, involving correlations that consider aspects like exchange rate and the rate of GDP increase in Argentina. Keywords: tourism; Santa Catarina; tourists from Argentina; Argentina’s economy

Incorporating fine-scale drought information into an eastern US wildfire hazard model

Science.gov (United States)

Matthew P. Peters; Louis R. Iverson

2017-01-01

Wildfires in the eastern United States are generally caused by humans in locations where human development and natural vegetation intermingle, e.g. the wildland–urban interface (WUI). Knowing where wildfire hazards are elevated across the forested landscape may help land managers and property owners plan or allocate resources for potential wildfire threats. In an...

Harold A. Hyde: Recollections of Santa Cruz County

OpenAIRE

Hyde, Harold A.; Jarrell, Randall; Regional History Project, UCSC Library

2002-01-01

A fifth-generation Santa Cruz County resident, Hyde has been in on the creation of organizations and institutions ranging from UCSC and Cabrillo College to the Community Foundation and the Cultural Council of Santa Cruz County. His contributions to California and Santa Cruz are documented in his oral history. Following infantry combat service with the U.S. Army in Europe during World War II and graduate studies in business at Harvard, Hyde returned to Santa Cruz County and a career a...

Overlapping Bark Beetle Outbreaks, Salvage Logging and Wildfire Restructure a Lodgepole Pine Ecosystem

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Charles C. Rhoades

2018-02-01

Full Text Available The 2010 Church’s Park Fire burned beetle-killed lodgepole pine stands in Colorado, including recently salvage-logged areas, creating a fortuitous opportunity to compare the effects of salvage logging, wildfire and the combination of logging followed by wildfire. Here, we examine tree regeneration, surface fuels, understory plants, inorganic soil nitrogen and water infiltration in uncut and logged stands, outside and inside the fire perimeter. Subalpine fir recruitment was abundant in uncut, unburned, beetle-killed stands, whereas lodgepole pine recruitment was abundant in cut stands. Logging roughly doubled woody fuel cover and halved forb and shrub cover. Wildfire consumed all conifer seedlings in uncut and cut stands and did not stimulate new conifer regeneration within four years of the fire. Aspen regeneration, in contrast, was relatively unaffected by logging or burning, alone or combined. Wildfire also drastically reduced cover of soil organic horizons, fine woody fuels, graminoids and shrubs relative to unburned, uncut areas; moreover, the compound effect of logging and wildfire was generally similar to wildfire alone. This case study documents scarce conifer regeneration but ample aspen regeneration after a wildfire that occurred in the later stage of a severe beetle outbreak. Salvage logging had mixed effects on tree regeneration, understory plant and surface cover and soil nitrogen, but neither exacerbated nor ameliorated wildfire effects on those resources.

Wildfire Dynamics and Occasional Precipitation during Active Fire Season in Tropical Lowland of Nepal

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Krishna Bahadur Bhujel

2017-10-01

Full Text Available Occasional precipitation plays a vital role in reducing the effect of wildfire. This precipitation is especially important for countries like Nepal, where wildfires are a common seasonal event. Approximately 0.1 million hectare of forest area is affected annually due to wildfires in active fire season. The study on the relation of these forms of occasional precipitation with wildfire incidence is still lacking. This research was objectively carried out to examine the correlation of occasional precipitation with wildfire incidence and burnt area. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spector-Radiometer (MODIS satellite images and precipitation records for 15 years gathered from Department of Hydrology and Metrology were used as input data for this study. The images were analyzed by using ArcGIS function while the precipitation records were analyzed by using Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS program. The linear regression model was applied to find correlation of occasional precipitation with wildfire incidence and burnt area. Analysis revealed decreasing trend of precipitation in study area. We found significant correlation (p<0.05 of precipitation with wildfire incidence and burnt area. Findings will be useful for policy makers, implementers and researchers to manage wildfire in sustainable basis.

Public Response to Wildfire: Is the Australian "Stay and Defend or Leave Early" Approach an Option for Wildfire Management in the United States?

Science.gov (United States)

Sarah M. McCaffrey; Alan Rhodes

2009-01-01

In the United States, the increasing costs and negative impacts of wildfires are causing fire managers and policymakers to reexamine traditional approaches to fire management including whether mass evacuation of populations threatened by wildfire is always the most appropriate option. This article examines the Australian "stay and defend or leave early" (SDLE...

Wildfire smoke exposure and human health: Significant gaps in research for a growing public health issue.

Science.gov (United States)

Black, Carolyn; Tesfaigzi, Yohannes; Bassein, Jed A; Miller, Lisa A

2017-10-01

Understanding the effect of wildfire smoke exposure on human health represents a unique interdisciplinary challenge to the scientific community. Population health studies indicate that wildfire smoke is a risk to human health and increases the healthcare burden of smoke-impacted areas. However, wildfire smoke composition is complex and dynamic, making characterization and modeling difficult. Furthermore, current efforts to study the effect of wildfire smoke are limited by availability of air quality measures and inconsistent air quality reporting among researchers. To help address these issues, we conducted a substantive review of wildfire smoke effects on population health, wildfire smoke exposure in occupational health, and experimental wood smoke exposure. Our goal was to evaluate the current literature on wildfire smoke and highlight important gaps in research. In particular we emphasize long-term health effects of wildfire smoke, recovery following wildfire smoke exposure, and health consequences of exposure in children. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Nine endangered taxa, one recovering ecosystem: Identifying common ground for recovery on Santa Cruz Island, California

Science.gov (United States)

McEachern, A. Kathryn; Wilken, Dieter H.

2011-01-01

It is not uncommon to have several rare and listed taxa occupying habitats in one landscape or management area where conservation amounts to defense against the possibility of further loss. It is uncommon and extremely exciting, however, to have several listed taxa occupying one island that is managed cooperatively for conservation and recovery. On Santa Cruz Island, the largest of the northern California island group in the Santa Barbara Channel, we have a golden opportunity to marry ecological knowledge and institutional "good will" in a field test of holistic rare plant conservation. Here, the last feral livestock have been removed, active weed control is underway, and management is focused on understanding and demonstrating system response to conservation management. Yet funding limitations still exist and we need to plan the most fiscally conservative and marketable approach to rare plant restoration. We still experience the tension between desirable quick results and the ecological pace of system recovery. Therefore, our research has focused on identifying fundamental constraints on species recovery at individual, demographic, habitat, and ecosystem levels, and then developing suites of actions that might be taken across taxa and landscapes. At the same time, we seek a performance middle ground that balances an institutional need for quick demonstration of hands-on positive results with a contrasting approach that allows ecosystem recovery to facilitate species recovery in the long term. We find that constraints vary across breeding systems, life-histories, and island locations. We take a hybrid approach in which we identify several actions that we can take now to enhance population size or habitat occupancy for some taxa by active restoration, while allowing others to recover at the pace of ecosystem change. We make our recommendations on the basis of data we have collected over the last decade, so that management is firmly grounded in ecological observation.

Review of Huebert’s Libertarianism Today

OpenAIRE

Walter E. Block

2010-01-01

Libertarianism Today, by Jacob Huebert (Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2010), is an excellent introduction to libertarianism. In contrast to many other recent books about libertarianism, a consistent non-compromising libertarianism is defended throughout this book.

Wildfires Tracked by Minnesota DNR

Data.gov (United States)

Minnesota Department of Natural Resources — This theme shows the locations of wildfires for which the DNR was the primary responding agency. These include fires not only on state lands, but also rural private...

Wildfire Mitigation and Private Lands: Managing Long-Term Vulnerabilities

Science.gov (United States)

Brian Muller; Stacey Schulte

2006-01-01

Long-term management of wildfire vulnerability requires strategies that address complex interactions between fire ecology and human settlement. In this paper, we examine the integration of wildfire mitigation and land use planning in county governments in the western U.S. This research relies on data from two sources. First, we conducted a survey of land use...

The Human and Physical Determinants of Wildfires and Burnt Areas in Israel

Science.gov (United States)

Levin, Noam; Tessler, Naama; Smith, Andrew; McAlpine, Clive

2016-09-01

Wildfires are expected to increase in Mediterranean landscapes as a result of climate change and changes in land-use practices. In order to advance our understanding of human and physical factors shaping spatial patterns of wildfires in the region, we compared two independently generated datasets of wildfires for Israel that cover approximately the same study period. We generated a site-based dataset containing the location of 10,879 wildfires (1991-2011), and compared it to a dataset of burnt areas derived from MODIS imagery (2000-2011). We hypothesized that the physical and human factors explaining the spatial distribution of burnt areas derived from remote sensing (mostly large fires, >100 ha) will differ from those explaining site-based wildfires recorded by national agencies (mostly small fires, human activities, improving the management of forest areas and raising public awareness to fire risk are key considerations in reducing fire danger.

Impact of wildfires on ozone exceptional events in the Western u.s.

Science.gov (United States)

Jaffe, Daniel A; Wigder, Nicole; Downey, Nicole; Pfister, Gabriele; Boynard, Anne; Reid, Stephen B

2013-10-01

Wildfires generate substantial emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). As such, wildfires contribute to elevated ozone (O3) in the atmosphere. However, there is a large amount of variability in the emissions of O3 precursors and the amount of O3 produced between fires. There is also significant interannual variability as seen in median O3, organic carbon and satellite derived carbon monoxide mixing ratios in the western U.S. To better understand O3 produced from wildfires, we developed a statistical model that estimates the maximum daily 8 h average (MDA8) O3 as a function of several meteorological and temporal variables for three urban areas in the western U.S.: Salt Lake City, UT; Boise, ID; and Reno, NV. The model is developed using data from June-September 2000-2012. For these three locations, the statistical model can explain 60, 52, and 27% of the variability in daily MDA8. The Statistical Model Residual (SMR) can give information on additional sources of O3 that are not explained by the usual meteorological pattern. Several possible O3 sources can explain high SMR values on any given day. We examine several cases with high SMR that are due to wildfire influence. The first case considered is for Reno in June 2008 when the MDA8 reached 82 ppbv. The wildfire influence for this episode is supported by PM concentrations, the known location of wildfires at the time and simulations with the Weather and Research Forecasting Model with Chemistry (WRF-Chem) which indicates transport to Reno from large fires burning in California. The contribution to the MDA8 in Reno from the California wildfires is estimated to be 26 ppbv, based on the SMR, and 60 ppbv, based on WRF-Chem. The WRF-Chem model also indicates an important role for peroxyacetyl nitrate (PAN) in producing O3 during transport from the California wildfires. We hypothesize that enhancements in PAN due to wildfire emissions may lead to regional enhancements in O3 during high

Places where wildfire potential and social vulnerability coincide in the coterminous United States

Science.gov (United States)

Gabriel Wigtil; Roger B. Hammer; Jeffrey D. Kline; Miranda H. Mockrin; Susan I. Stewart; Daniel Roper; Volker C. Radeloff

2016-01-01

The hazards-of-place model posits that vulnerability to environmental hazards depends on both biophysical and social factors. Biophysical factors determine where wildfire potential is elevated, whereas social factors determine where and how people are affected by wildfire. We evaluated place vulnerability to wildfire hazards in the coterminous US. We developed...

Understanding the Factors that Influence Perceptions of Post-Wildfire Landscape Recovery Across 25 Wildfires in the Northwestern United States

Science.gov (United States)

Kooistra, C.; Hall, T. E.; Paveglio, T.; Pickering, M.

2018-01-01

Disturbances such as wildfire are important features of forested landscapes. The trajectory of changes following wildfires (often referred to as landscape recovery) continues to be an important research topic among ecologists and wildfire scientists. However, the landscape recovery process also has important social dimensions that may or may not correspond to ecological or biophysical perspectives. Perceptions of landscape recovery may affect people's attitudes and behaviors related to forest and wildfire management. We explored the variables that influence people's perceptions of landscape recovery across 25 fires that occurred in 2011 or 2012 in the United States of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana and that represented a range of fire behavior characteristics and landscape impacts. Residents near each of the 25 fires were randomly selected to receive questionnaires about their experiences with the nearby fire, including perceived impacts and how the landscape had recovered since the fire. People generally perceived landscapes as recovering, even though only one to two years had passed. Regression analysis suggested that perceptions of landscape recovery were positively related to stronger beliefs about the ecological role of fire and negatively related to loss of landscape attachment, concern about erosion, increasing distance from the fire perimeter, and longer lasting fires. Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) analysis indicated that the above relationships were largely consistent across fires. These findings highlight that perceptions of post-fire landscape recovery are influenced by more than vegetation changes and include emotional and cognitive factors. We discuss the management implications of these findings.

Smoke Ready Toolbox for Wildfires

Science.gov (United States)

This site provides an online Smoke Ready Toolbox for Wildfires, which lists resources and tools that provide information on health impacts from smoke exposure, current fire conditions and forecasts and strategies to reduce exposure to smoke.

TA-54 (Area G) Risk Assessment from Extreme Wildfire Scenarios

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Linn, Rodman Ray [Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Koo, Eunmo [Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Honig, Kristen Ann [Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); White, Judith [Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Funk, David John [Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

2016-08-10

Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and surrounding areas have been exposed to at least four significant wildfires since 1977 and there have been numerous others within 50 miles of LANL. Based on this history, wildfires are considered a risk to LANL facilities and their contents. While many LANL facilities are at risk to wildfire to some degree, they are found in a wide variety of conditions, thus they have varying sensitivities to wildfires. Additionally, LANL facilities have various functions and different assets, so they have a wide range of values or consequences if compromised. Therefore, determining the risks and precautions that are warranted to mitigate these risks must be done on a case-by-case basis. In an effort to assess possible wildfire risks to sensitive materials stored in a Perma-Con^® in dome TA-54-0375, a conventional fire risk analysis was performed. This conventional risk analysis is documented in Engineering Evaluation Form AP-FIRE-001-FM1, which is dated 9/28/2015 and was titled ‘Wildland Fire Exposure Evaluation for Building TA-54-0375’ (Hall 2015). This analysis acknowledged that there was significant chance of wildfire in the vicinity of TA-54-0375, but the amount of combustible material surrounding the building was deemed low. The wildland fuels that were closest to the building were largely fine fuels and were not expected to have significant duration of heat release. The prevailing winds at this location are from the south and southwest and the nearest significant upwind fuels (tree crowns or unmown grasses) are at least 300 feet away. Based on these factors the conventional wildland fire risk to TA-54-0375 was deemed minimal, “Acceptable As Is, No Action Required.” This risk evaluation was based on a combined assessment of low probability of wildfires arriving at the site from other directions (where higher fuel loadings might be present) as well as the effective setback of fuels in the direction that fire is

Santa Rosa de Lima: uma santa anoréxica na América Latina? Santa Rosa de Lima: ¿una santa anoréxica en Latinoamérica? Saint Rose of Lima: an anorexic saint in Latin America?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cybelle Weinberg

2005-04-01

Full Text Available A literatura especializada tem nos mostrado que é grande a semelhança entre o comportamento alimentar das santas jejuadoras medievais e o das anoréxicas atuais. No entanto, há poucas referências sobre a existência de santas jejuadoras na América Latina. No presente trabalho, os autores salientam aspectos da vida de Santa Rosa de Lima, Patrona da América e Filipinas, que poderiam ser descritos como comportamentos anoréxicos. Comparando os aspectos psicopatológicos da vida de Santa Rosa com o comportamento das anoréxicas atuais, pareceu confirmar-se um padrão uniforme de comportamento, especialmente quanto ao aspecto imitativo, fator que poderia levar as jovens da atualidade a desenvolverem um transtorno alimentar após terem algum tipo de informação sobre o transtorno.La literatura especializada nos muestra gran similitud entre el comportamiento alimentar de las santas de la edad media que ayunaban y el de las anoréxicas de la actualidad. Hay pocas informaciones sobre santas que practicaban ayuno en Latinoamérica. En este artículo, los autores resaltan aspectos de la vida de santa Rosa de Lima, Patrona de América y Filipinas, que pueden ser considerados como comportamientos anoréxicos. Al comparar aspectos psicopatológicos de la vida de santa Rosa con el comportamiento de anoréxicas de la actualidad, parece que se confirma un modelo uniforme de comportamiento, especialmente respecto al aspecto de imitación, hecho que podría llevar a las jóvenes de hoy a desarrollar un trastorno de la alimentación luego de recibir informaciones sobre el tema.The specialized literature has shown us the great similarity between the eating habits of medieval fasting women saints and today's anorexic women. Nonetheless, there are few references to the existence of such fasting women saints in Latin America. The authors of this paper present some aspects of the life of Saint Rose of Lima, the patroness of the Americas and the Philippines, that

"Universe" event at AIMS

Science.gov (United States)

2008-06-01

Report of event of 11 May 2008 held at the African Institute of Mathematical Sciences (Muizenberg, Cape), with speakers Michael Griffin (Administrator of NASA), Stephen Hawking (Cambridge), David Gross (Kavli Institute, Santa Barbara) and George Smoot (Berkeley).

Formation of Double Neutron Stars, Millisecond Pulsars and Double ...

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

Edward P. J. Heuvel

2017-09-12

Sep 12, 2017 ... ... Institute of Astronomy, University of Amsterdam, Science Park 904, 1098XH ... 2Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of California Santa Barbara, ..... niadis, J., Breton, R., Champion, D. J., 2017, ApJ, in press;.

Formation of Double Neutron Stars, Millisecond Pulsars and Double ...

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

Edward P. J. Heuvel

2017-09-12

Sep 12, 2017 ... 1Anton Pannekoek Institute of Astronomy, University of Amsterdam, Science Park ... 2Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of California Santa Barbara, ..... niadis, J., Breton, R., Champion, D. J., 2017, ApJ, in press;.

Incentives for Ex Ante wildfire risk mitigation in the wildland-urban interface: The relationship between contingent wildfire insurance and fuel management subsidies

OpenAIRE

Lankoande, Mariam D.; Yoder, Jonathan K.; Wandschneider, Philip R.

2006-01-01

Contingent wildfire insurance and fuel management cost-sharing programs are becoming more prevalent in western states. This paper develops a model to examine the incentive effects of these two mechanisms for private investment in wildfire risk mitigation. The model shows that contingent insurance contracts strengthen incentives for risk mitigation relative to pooled contracts and subsidies induce more risk mitigation effort by reducing margin private costs of mitigation. With pooled insurance...

Evaluating Alternative Prescribed Burning Policies to Reduce Net Economic Damages from Wildfire

OpenAIRE

D. Evan Mercer; Jeffrey P. Prestemon; David T. Butry; John M. Pye

2007-01-01

We estimate a wildfire risk model with a new measure of wildfire output, intensity-weighted risk and use it in Monte Carlo simulations to estimate welfare changes from alternative prescribed burning policies. Using Volusia County, Florida as a case study, an annual prescribed burning rate of 13% of all forest lands maximizes net welfare; ignoring the effects on wildfire intensity may underestimate optimal rates of prescribed burning. Our estimated supply function for prescribed fire services ...

You're a "What"? Santa Claus

Science.gov (United States)

Royster, Sara

2013-01-01

Professional Santas entertain children and adults during the holiday season at all types of events. They work at shopping malls or stores; entertain crowds at parades and tree lightings; and make appearances at holiday parties, charity events, and people's homes. Most Santas work during the Christmas holiday season, which usually lasts from late…

Fire spread estimation on forest wildfire using ensemble kalman filter

Science.gov (United States)

Syarifah, Wardatus; Apriliani, Erna

2018-04-01

Wildfire is one of the most frequent disasters in the world, for example forest wildfire, causing population of forest decrease. Forest wildfire, whether naturally occurring or prescribed, are potential risks for ecosystems and human settlements. These risks can be managed by monitoring the weather, prescribing fires to limit available fuel, and creating firebreaks. With computer simulations we can predict and explore how fires may spread. The model of fire spread on forest wildfire was established to determine the fire properties. The fire spread model is prepared based on the equation of the diffusion reaction model. There are many methods to estimate the spread of fire. The Kalman Filter Ensemble Method is a modified estimation method of the Kalman Filter algorithm that can be used to estimate linear and non-linear system models. In this research will apply Ensemble Kalman Filter (EnKF) method to estimate the spread of fire on forest wildfire. Before applying the EnKF method, the fire spread model will be discreted using finite difference method. At the end, the analysis obtained illustrated by numerical simulation using software. The simulation results show that the Ensemble Kalman Filter method is closer to the system model when the ensemble value is greater, while the covariance value of the system model and the smaller the measurement.

Composição florística e espectro biológico na Estação Ecológica de Santa Bárbara, estado de São Paulo, Brasil Floristic composition and biological spectra in Santa Barbara Ecological Station, Brazil

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

João Augusto Alves Meira Neto

2007-10-01

Full Text Available O conhecimento da flora herbáceo-subarbustiva, juntamente com o da flora lenhosa, auxilia a determinação dos padrões florísticos e permite descrever o espectro biológico com conseqüentes inferências sobre a atua��ão de fatores ambientais e históricos na vegetação. Considerando que poucos trabalhos se aprofundaram no estudo da flora herbáceo-subarbustiva de Cerrado, embora esta seja mais rica que a lenhosa, objetivou-se estudar a composição e os padrões florísticos das floras herbáceo-subarbustiva e lenhosa da Estação Ecológica de Santa Bárbara (EESB (22º 46' 30'' a 22º 50' 30''S e 49º 10' 30'' a 49º15'30'' W , 600 a 680 m de altitude, Município de Águas de Santa Bárbara, Estado de São Paulo. Visou-se, ainda, determinar o espectro biológico para efetuar análises comparativas das diferentes fitofisionomias de Cerrado dessa Unidade de Conservação. Foram encontradas 314 espécies na EESB, sendo 285 em Cerrado sensu lato. As famílias mais ricas em número de espécies foram Asteraceae, Leguminosae, Myrtaceae e Poaceae. Há uma constante ocorrência de Asteraceae, Leguminosae e Poaceae entre as famílias mais ricas, concordando com o observado nos estudos florísticos de Cerrado que incluíram os estratos lenhoso e herbáceo-subarbustivo. O espectro biológico corroborou os padrões anteriormente descritos para o Cerrado sensu lato, exceto pela maior expressão de caméfitas em relação às hemicriptófitas nas fisionomias campestres da EESB, o que pode ser efeito da proteção ao fogo nessa Unidade de Conservação.Only few surveys were carried out on woody and ground layer floras of the Brazilian Cerrado. The objective of this survey was to investigate richness, floristic patterns and biological spectra of different phytophysiognomies on both strata at Santa Bárbara Ecological Station (EESB. EESB is located in the Municipality of Águas de Santa Bárbara, São Paulo State, Brazil (22º 46' 30'' to 22º 50' 30

Dynamic light scattering study of peanut agglutinin: Size, shape and ...

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

MADU

Solutions, Wyatt Technology, Santa Barbara, CA, USA) operating at wavelength 830 .... the scheme “Fund for Improvement of S&T Infrastructure. (FIST)”. References ... form of globular proteins with mobile side-chains; FEBS Lett. 164 21–24.

Transferring from the Simulator to a Live Robotic Environment: The Effectiveness of Part-Task and Whole-Task Training

Science.gov (United States)

2013-10-01

individual differences in abilities (spatial skills), related experience ( videogame experience), or demographic variables (age or gender) impact training or...demographic questionnaire collected basic information from each participant such as age, gender, education, and videogame experience. The Santa Barbara

Fire regimes approaching historic norms reduce wildfire-facilitated conversion from forest to non-forest

Science.gov (United States)

Ryan B. Walker; Jonathan D. Coop; Sean A. Parks; Laura Trader

2018-01-01

Extensive high-severity wildfires have driven major losses of ponderosa pine and mixed-conifer forests in the southwestern United States, in some settings catalyzing enduring conversions to nonforested vegetation types. Management interventions to reduce the probability of stand-replacing wildfire have included mechanical fuel treatments, prescribed fire, and wildfire...

Review Article: Holy Terrors: Thinking about Religion after September 11

OpenAIRE

Campo, Juan E.

2003-01-01

The following is a review article by Juan E. Campo, Religious Studies Department at the University of California, Santa Barbara, on Bruce Lincoln's Holy Terrors: Thinking about Religion after September 11. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003, Pp. 142.

Catching fire? Social interactions, beliefs, and wildfire risk mitigation behaviors

Science.gov (United States)

Katherine Dickinson; Hannah Brenkert-Smith; Patricia Champ; Nicholas Flores

2015-01-01

Social interactions are widely recognized as a potential influence on risk-related behaviors. We present a mediation model in which social interactions (classified as formal/informal and generic-fire-specific) are associated with beliefs about wildfire risk and mitigation options, which in turn shape wildfire mitigation behaviors. We test this model using survey data...

Difference in information needs for wildfire evacuees and non-evacuees

Science.gov (United States)

Sarah M. McCaffrey; Anne-Lise Knox Velez; Jason Alexander. Briefel

2013-01-01

This paper examines whether evacuees from two wildfires displayed different information seeking behavior than non-evacuees. Findings are the results of a mail survey sent to residents affected by wildfires outside Flagstaff, Arizona and Boulder, Colorado in 2010. We found evacuees sought information more actively than non-evacuees and placed a greater emphasis on use...

Application of wildfire simulation models for risk analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Ager, A.; Finney, M.

2009-04-01

Wildfire simulation models are being widely used by fire and fuels specialists in the U.S. to support tactical and strategic decisions related to the mitigation of wildfire risk. Much of this application has resulted from the development of a minimum travel time (MTT) fire spread algorithm (M. Finney) that makes it computationally feasible to simulate thousands of fires and generate burn probability and intensity maps over large areas (10,000 - 2,000,000 ha). The MTT algorithm is parallelized for multi-threaded processing and is imbedded in a number of research and applied fire modeling applications. High performance computers (e.g., 32-way 64 bit SMP) are typically used for MTT simulations, although the algorithm is also implemented in the 32 bit desktop FlamMap3 program (www.fire.org). Extensive testing has shown that this algorithm can replicate large fire boundaries in the heterogeneous landscapes that typify much of the wildlands in the western U.S. In this paper, we describe the application of the MTT algorithm to understand spatial patterns of burn probability (BP), and to analyze wildfire risk to key human and ecological values. The work is focused on a federally-managed 2,000,000 ha landscape in the central interior region of Oregon State, USA. The fire-prone study area encompasses a wide array of topography and fuel types and a number of highly valued resources that are susceptible to fire. We quantitatively defined risk as the product of the probability of a fire and the resulting consequence. Burn probabilities at specific intensity classes were estimated for each 100 x 100 m pixel by simulating 100,000 wildfires under burn conditions that replicated recent severe wildfire events that occurred under conditions where fire suppression was generally ineffective (97th percentile, August weather). We repeated the simulation under milder weather (70th percentile, August weather) to replicate a "wildland fire use scenario" where suppression is minimized to

Wildfire spread, hazard and exposure metric raster grids for central Catalonia

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Fermín J. Alcasena

2018-04-01

Full Text Available We provide 40 m resolution wildfire spread, hazard and exposure metric raster grids for the 0.13 million ha fire-prone Bages County in central Catalonia (northeastern Spain corresponding to node influence grid (NIG, crown fraction burned (CFB and fire transmission to residential houses (TR. Fire spread and behavior data (NIG, CFB and fire perimeters were generated with fire simulation modeling considering wildfire season extreme fire weather conditions (97th percentile. Moreover, CFB was also generated for prescribed fire (Rx mild weather conditions. The TR smoothed grid was obtained with a geospatial analysis considering large fire perimeters and individual residential structures located within the study area. We made these raster grids available to assist in the optimization of wildfire risk management plans within the study area and to help mitigate potential losses from catastrophic events. Keywords: Catalonia, Wildfire exposure, Fire transmission, Crown fire activity, Prescribed fires

Avian relationships with wildfire at two dry forest locations with different historical fire regimes

Science.gov (United States)

Quresh Latif; Jamie Sanderlin; Vicki Saab; William Block; Jonathan Dudley

2016-01-01

Wildfire is a key factor influencing bird community composition in western North American forests. We need to understand species and community responses to wildfire and how responses vary regionally to effectively manage dry conifer forests for maintaining biodiversity. We compared avian relationships with wildfire burn severity between two dry forest...

Israel wildfires: future trends, impacts and mitigation strategies

Science.gov (United States)

Wittenberg, Lea

2017-04-01

Forest fires in the Euro-Mediterranean region burn about 450,000 ha each year. In Israel, the frequency and extent of wildfires have been steadily increasing over the past decades, culminating in several large and costly fires in 2010, 2012 and 2016. The extensive development of forest areas since the 1950's and the accumulation of fuel in the forests, has led to increased occurrences of high intensity fires. Land-use changes and human population growth are the most prevailing and common determinant of wildfire occurrence and impacts. Climate extremes, possibly already a sign of regional climate change, are another frequent determinant of increasing wildfire risk. Therefore, the combination of extreme dry spells, high fuel loads and increased anthropogenic pressure on the open spaces result in an overall amplified wildfire risk. These fires not only cause loss of life and damage to properties but also carry serious environmental repercussions. Combustion of standing vegetation and the leaf litter leave the soil bare and vulnerable to runoff and erosion, thereby increasing risks of flooding. Today, all of Israel's open spaces, forests, natural parks, major metropolitan centers, towns and villages are embedded within the wildland urban interface (WUI). Typically, wildfires near or in the WUI occur on uplands and runoff generated from the burned area poses flooding risks in urban and agricultural zones located downstream. Post-fire management aims at reducing associated hazards as collapsing trees and erosion risk. Often the time interval between a major fire and the definition of priority sites is in the order of days-to-weeks since administrative procedures, financial estimates and implementation of post-fire salvage logging operations require time. Defining the magnitude of the burn scar and estimating its potential impact on runoff and erosion must therefore be done quickly. A post-fire burn severity, runoff and erosion model is a useful tool in estimating

Wildfire and aspect effects on hydrologic states after the 2010 Fourmile Canyon Fire

Science.gov (United States)

Ebel, Brian A.

2013-01-01

Wildfire can change how soils take in, store, and release water. This study examined differences in how burned and unburned plots on north versus south-facing slope aspects respond to rainfall. The largest wildfire impacts were litter/duff combustion on burned north-facing slopes versus soil-water retention reduction on burned south-facing slopes.Wildfire is one of the most significant disturbances in mountainous landscapes, affecting water supply and ecologic function and setting the stage for natural hazards such as flash floods. The impacts of wildfire can affect the entire hydrologic cycle. Measurements of soil-water content and matric potential in the near surface (top 30 cm) captured the hydrologic state in both burned and unburned hillslopes during the first spring through fall period (1 June–1 Oct. 2011) after the 2010 Fourmile Canyon Fire near Boulder, CO. This time span included different hydrologic periods characterized by cyclonic frontal storms (low-intensity, long duration), convective storms (high-intensity, short duration), and dry periods. In mountainous environments, aspect can also control hydrologic states, so north- vs. south-facing slopes were compared. Wildfire tended to homogenize soil-water contents across aspects and with depth in the soil, yet it also may have introduced an aspect control on matric potential that was not observed in unburned soils. Post-wildfire changes in hydrologic state were observed in south-facing soils, probably reflecting decreased soil-water retention after wildfire. North-facing soils were impacted the most, in terms of hydrologic state, by the loss of water storage in the combusted litter–duff layer and forest canopy, which had provided a large “hydrologic buffering” capacity when unburned. Unsaturated zone measurements showed increased variability in hydrologic states and more rapid state transitions in wildfire-impacted soils. A simple, qualitative analysis suggested that the range of unsaturated

Smoke consequences of new wildfire regimes driven by climate change

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Donald McKenzie; Uma Shankar; Robert E. Keane; E. Natasha Stavros; Warren E. Heilman; Douglas G. Fox; Allen C. Riebau

2014-01-01

Smoke from wildfires has adverse biological and social consequences, and various lines of evidence suggest that smoke from wildfires in the future may be more intense and widespread, demanding that methods be developed to address its effects on people, ecosystems, and the atmosphere. In this paper, we present the essential ingredients of a modeling system for...

Transboundary Collaborations to Enhance Wildfire Suppression in Protected Areas of the Black Sea Region

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G. N. Zaimes

2016-05-01

Full Text Available For the most effective and efficient management of certain natural resources (e.g. protected areas and disasters (e.g. wildfires transboundary approaches are needed. In addition in the management of protected areas, the role of wildfire should be incorporated, something that was ignored in the past and led to catastrophic wildfires. The Black Sea is a region that wildfires in the protected areas are expected to increase. This has to do with the abandonment of rural areas and the higher temperatures, especially during summer, due to climate change. Interesting is also the fact that some countries of the region have extensive experience while other do not have neither the experience nor the necessary infrastructures to face large wildfires. A transboundary collaboration would be very beneficial to the countries with limited experiences and capacities to suppress wildfires. The objective of this study is to be proactive by developing innovative tools to help suppress wildfires and enhancing the knowledge on wildfires and protected areas. The innovative tools included 4 different research activities and products. Firstly, an online Digital Geodatabase for the six pilot areas was developed. Next forest fire fuels and maps were developed while a forest fire behavior model was run to create the overall fire risk maps for the pilot areas. To estimate water resources and watershed streamflows the hydrologic model SWAT was validated and calibrated for the pilot areas. The final activities included a multi-criteria decision analysis to select the optimal location of the water reservoirs and the use of spatial analyst to provide the optimal routes to reach reservoirs by the fire vehicles. To enhance the responsible agency personnel along with stakeholders knowledge of the region, a Neighborhood Network with regular quarterly meetings was established. Participants for all six project countries were present in the meetings. Overall, new tool that will enhance

78 FR 58459 - Revisions to the California State Implementation Plan, Antelope Valley Air Quality Management...

Science.gov (United States)

2013-09-24

... the California State Implementation Plan, Antelope Valley Air Quality Management District, Santa Barbara County Air Pollution Control District, South Coast Air Quality Management District and Ventura.... SUMMARY: EPA is finalizing approval of revisions to the Antelope Valley Air Quality Management District...

78 FR 25011 - Revisions to the California State Implementation Plan, Antelope Valley Air Quality Management...

Science.gov (United States)

2013-04-29

... the California State Implementation Plan, Antelope Valley Air Quality Management District, Santa Barbara County Air Pollution Control District, South Coast Air Quality Management District and Ventura... rule. SUMMARY: EPA is proposing to approve revisions to the Antelope Valley Air Quality Management...

Brandon Knott | NREL

Science.gov (United States)

molecules (black spheres). Education Ph.D., Chemical Engineering, University of California, Santa Barbara , 2012 B.S., Chemical Engineering, Arizona State University, 2007 Professional Experience Staff Engineer molecular simulation tools to study each step individually (including the chemical reaction and cellulose

DEMOGRAPHY AND SPATIAL POPULATION STRUCTURE IN CALIFORNIA TIGER SALAMANDER

Science.gov (United States)

Although the causes of many amphibian declines remain mysterious, there is general agreement that human habitat alteration represents the greatest threat to amphibian populations. In January 2000 the US Fish and Wildlife Service proposed listing Santa Barbara County California Ti...

Investigation of the decline in reported smoking-caused wildfires in the USA from 2000 to 2011

Science.gov (United States)

David T. Butry; Jeffrey P. Prestemon; Douglas S. Thomas

2014-01-01

The number of smoking-caused wildfires has been falling nationwide. In national forests in 2011, smoking-caused wildfires represented only 10% of their 1980 level. No other cause of wildfire has experienced this level of decline. For 12 states, we evaluate the rate of smoking-caused wildfires and find it is a function of weather, other ignitions, the number of adult...

The 2002 Rodeo-Chediski Wildfire's impacts on southwestern ponderosa pine ecosystems, hydrology, and fuels

Science.gov (United States)

Peter F. Ffolliott; Cody L. Stropki; Hui Chen; Daniel G. Neary

2011-01-01

The Rodeo-Chediski Wildfire burned nearly 462,600 acres in north-central Arizona in the summer of 2002. The wildfire damaged or destroyed ecosystem resources and disrupted the hydrologic functioning within the impacted ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) forests in a largely mosaic pattern. Impacts of the wildfire on ecosystem resources, factors important to hydrologic...

Re-envisioning community-wildfire relations in the U.S. West as adaptive governance

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Jesse B. Abrams

2015-09-01

Full Text Available Prompted by a series of increasingly destructive, expensive, and highly visible wildfire crises in human communities across the globe, a robust body of scholarship has emerged to theorize, conceptualize, and measure community-level resilience to wildfires. To date, however, insufficient consideration has been given to wildfire resilience as a process of adaptive governance mediated by institutions at multiple scales. Here we explore the possibilities for addressing this gap through an analysis of wildfire resilience among wildland-urban interface communities in the western region of the United States. We re-engage important but overlooked components of social-ecological system resilience by situating rural communities within their state- to national-level institutional contexts; we then analyze two communities in Nevada and New Mexico in terms of their institutional settings and responses to recent wildfire events. We frame our analysis around the concepts of scale matching, linking within and across scales, and institutional flexibility.

Rapid growth of the US wildland-urban interface raises wildfire risk.

Science.gov (United States)

Radeloff, Volker C; Helmers, David P; Kramer, H Anu; Mockrin, Miranda H; Alexandre, Patricia M; Bar-Massada, Avi; Butsic, Van; Hawbaker, Todd J; Martinuzzi, Sebastián; Syphard, Alexandra D; Stewart, Susan I

2018-03-27

The wildland-urban interface (WUI) is the area where houses and wildland vegetation meet or intermingle, and where wildfire problems are most pronounced. Here we report that the WUI in the United States grew rapidly from 1990 to 2010 in terms of both number of new houses (from 30.8 to 43.4 million; 41% growth) and land area (from 581,000 to 770,000 km 2 ; 33% growth), making it the fastest-growing land use type in the conterminous United States. The vast majority of new WUI areas were the result of new housing (97%), not related to an increase in wildland vegetation. Within the perimeter of recent wildfires (1990-2015), there were 286,000 houses in 2010, compared with 177,000 in 1990. Furthermore, WUI growth often results in more wildfire ignitions, putting more lives and houses at risk. Wildfire problems will not abate if recent housing growth trends continue.

Impacts of Wildfires on Land Surface Phenology of Western US Forests

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, J.; Zhang, X.

2017-12-01

Land surface phenology (LSP) characterizes seasonal dynamics of vegetation communities within a satellite pixel. The temporal variation of LSP has been widely associated with recent global climate change. However, few studies have focused on the influence of land disturbance, such as wildfire, on LSP variations, which is particularly true at a continental scale. Wildfire has increased in size and severity in the western United States (US) during last few decades. To explore wildfire impacts on LSP in the western US forest, we analyzed the start of growing season (SOS) integrated from the entire forest area, the burned area, and the unburned area, respectively. Specifically, SOS was derived from time series of daily MODIS surface reflectance product at 250 m using a hybrid piecewise logistic detection model. The annual burn perimeters during 2000-2014 were obtained from Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity maps to study the wildfire effect on the SOS in the subsequent years (2001-2015). The wildfire effect was analyzed at three levels: the entire western US, Environmental Protection Agency's Level III ecoregions, and states. Results show that wildfires basically advance SOS but have diverse effects with different regions and years. Comparing SOS in the burned areas with that in surrounding unburned areas from 2001-2015, it was found that the SOS shift was -3.4 days (-: earlier; +: later) on average in the western US forests, and varied from -16.1 to 13.1 days across ecoregions and from -11.4 to 4.3 days across states. Because of the small proportion of annual burned areas (SOS shift in the burned areas had limited influences on the overall SOS, which caused shifts of -0.06 days over the entire western US, from -0.2 to 0.2 days across ecoregions, and -0.06 to 0.13 days across states. Overall, this study demonstrates that wildfires strongly impact SOS at local areas although the effect in the large region is relatively limited.

Pattern and process of prescribed fires influence effectiveness at reducing wildfire severity in dry coniferous forests

Science.gov (United States)

Arkle, Robert S.; Pilliod, David S.; Welty, Justin L.

2012-01-01

We examined the effects of three early season (spring) prescribed fires on burn severity patterns of summer wildfires that occurred 1–3 years post-treatment in a mixed conifer forest in central Idaho. Wildfire and prescribed fire burn severities were estimated as the difference in normalized burn ratio (dNBR) using Landsat imagery. We used GIS derived vegetation, topography, and treatment variables to generate models predicting the wildfire burn severity of 1286–5500 30-m pixels within and around treated areas. We found that wildfire severity was significantly lower in treated areas than in untreated areas and significantly lower than the potential wildfire severity of the treated areas had treatments not been implemented. At the pixel level, wildfire severity was best predicted by an interaction between prescribed fire severity, topographic moisture, heat load, and pre-fire vegetation volume. Prescribed fire severity and vegetation volume were the most influential predictors. Prescribed fire severity, and its influence on wildfire severity, was highest in relatively warm and dry locations, which were able to burn under spring conditions. In contrast, wildfire severity peaked in cooler, more mesic locations that dried later in the summer and supported greater vegetation volume. We found considerable evidence that prescribed fires have landscape-level influences within treatment boundaries; most notable was an interaction between distance from the prescribed fire perimeter and distance from treated patch edges, which explained up to 66% of the variation in wildfire severity. Early season prescribed fires may not directly target the locations most at risk of high severity wildfire, but proximity of these areas to treated patches and the discontinuity of fuels following treatment may influence wildfire severity and explain how even low severity treatments can be effective management tools in fire-prone landscapes.

Living in a tinderbox: wildfire risk perceptions and mitigating behaviours

Science.gov (United States)

Patricia A. Champ; Geoffrey H. Donovan; Christopher M. Barth

2013-01-01

The loss of homes to wildfires is an important issue in the USA and other countries. Yet many homeowners living in fire-prone areas do not undertake mitigating actions, such as clearing vegetation, to decrease the risk of losing their home. To better understand the complexity of wildfire risk-mitigation decisions and the role of perceived risk, we conducted a survey of...

Levoglucosan Levels in Alaskan Ice Cores as a Record of Past Wildfires

Science.gov (United States)

Dunham, M. E.; Osterberg, E. C.; Kehrwald, N. M.; Kennedy, J.; Ferris, D. G.

2017-12-01

Glaciers in southeast Alaska are significant contributors to global sea-level rise, and therefore understanding the mechanisms driving their recent mass loss is crucial for predicting future sea-level change. Fire activity in Alaska has increased dramatically during the last decade, adding a potential new source of light-absorbing organic material (soot) to the Juneau Icefield that can reduce albedo and enhance surface melt rates. The goal of this project is to create an accurate record of Alaskan wildfires to understand how Alaskan glacial mass balance is affected by the deposition of organic aerosols from wildfires. Previously, oxalate, ammonia, and potassium ion levels have been used as proxies for past wildfire activity, but these ions all have broader emission sources in addition to wildfires. Here we develop a record of past Alaskan fire events and climate from: (1) levels of a biomass burning indicator, levoglucosan, which only forms when cellulose is burned over 300 °C, (2) major ions including oxalate, ammonia, and potassium; (3) the number and size distribution of particles to quantify trace amounts of soot from wildfires; and (4) stable water isotope ratios as a proxy for past temperature in ice cores. We utilize a total of four shallow ice cores, ranging from 7 to 9 m in length, that were collected by a biogeochemistry team during the Juneau Icefield Research Program (JIRP) in 2016. Complications include our limited understanding of the conservation and degradation of levoglucosan over time or during the firnification process. We hypothesize that particle counts will be correlated with levoglucosan peaks, co-varying with wildfire frequency and temperatures over time. Based on previous work, we also expect to find correlations between levoglucosan and oxalate ion concentrations, even though oxalate ions have sources in addition to wildfire activity.

Epidemic cholera spreads like wildfire

Science.gov (United States)

Roy, Manojit; Zinck, Richard D.; Bouma, Menno J.; Pascual, Mercedes

2014-01-01

Cholera is on the rise globally, especially epidemic cholera which is characterized by intermittent and unpredictable outbreaks that punctuate periods of regional disease fade-out. These epidemic dynamics remain however poorly understood. Here we examine records for epidemic cholera over both contemporary and historical timelines, from Africa (1990-2006) and former British India (1882-1939). We find that the frequency distribution of outbreak size is fat-tailed, scaling approximately as a power-law. This pattern which shows strong parallels with wildfires is incompatible with existing cholera models developed for endemic regions, as it implies a fundamental role for stochastic transmission and local depletion of susceptible hosts. Application of a recently developed forest-fire model indicates that epidemic cholera dynamics are located above a critical phase transition and propagate in similar ways to aggressive wildfires. These findings have implications for the effectiveness of control measures and the mechanisms that ultimately limit the size of outbreaks.

Wildfire Risk Assessment in a Typical Mediterranean Wildland-Urban Interface of Greece

Science.gov (United States)

Mitsopoulos, Ioannis; Mallinis, Giorgos; Arianoutsou, Margarita

2015-04-01

The purpose of this study was to assess spatial wildfire risk in a typical Mediterranean wildland-urban interface (WUI) in Greece and the potential effect of three different burning condition scenarios on the following four major wildfire risk components: burn probability, conditional flame length, fire size, and source-sink ratio. We applied the Minimum Travel Time fire simulation algorithm using the FlamMap and ArcFuels tools to characterize the potential response of the wildfire risk to a range of different burning scenarios. We created site-specific fuel models of the study area by measuring the field fuel parameters in representative natural fuel complexes, and we determined the spatial extent of the different fuel types and residential structures in the study area using photointerpretation procedures of large scale natural color orthophotographs. The results included simulated spatially explicit fire risk components along with wildfire risk exposure analysis and the expected net value change. Statistical significance differences in simulation outputs between the scenarios were obtained using Tukey's significance test. The results of this study provide valuable information for decision support systems for short-term predictions of wildfire risk potential and inform wildland fire management of typical WUI areas in Greece.

Wildfire risk assessment in a typical Mediterranean wildland-urban interface of Greece.

Science.gov (United States)

Mitsopoulos, Ioannis; Mallinis, Giorgos; Arianoutsou, Margarita

2015-04-01

The purpose of this study was to assess spatial wildfire risk in a typical Mediterranean wildland-urban interface (WUI) in Greece and the potential effect of three different burning condition scenarios on the following four major wildfire risk components: burn probability, conditional flame length, fire size, and source-sink ratio. We applied the Minimum Travel Time fire simulation algorithm using the FlamMap and ArcFuels tools to characterize the potential response of the wildfire risk to a range of different burning scenarios. We created site-specific fuel models of the study area by measuring the field fuel parameters in representative natural fuel complexes, and we determined the spatial extent of the different fuel types and residential structures in the study area using photointerpretation procedures of large scale natural color orthophotographs. The results included simulated spatially explicit fire risk components along with wildfire risk exposure analysis and the expected net value change. Statistical significance differences in simulation outputs between the scenarios were obtained using Tukey's significance test. The results of this study provide valuable information for decision support systems for short-term predictions of wildfire risk potential and inform wildland fire management of typical WUI areas in Greece.

Amplification of wildfire area burnt by hydrological drought in the humid tropics

Science.gov (United States)

Taufik, Muh; Torfs, Paul J. J. F.; Uijlenhoet, Remko; Jones, Philip D.; Murdiyarso, Daniel; van Lanen, Henny A. J.

2017-06-01

Borneo's diverse ecosystems, which are typical humid tropical conditions, are deteriorating rapidly, as the area is experiencing recurrent large-scale wildfires, affecting atmospheric composition and influencing regional climate processes. Studies suggest that climate-driven drought regulates wildfires, but these overlook subsurface processes leading to hydrological drought, an important driver. Here, we show that models which include hydrological processes better predict area burnt than those solely based on climate data. We report that the Borneo landscape has experienced a substantial hydrological drying trend since the early twentieth century, leading to progressive tree mortality, more severe than in other tropical regions. This has caused massive wildfires in lowland Borneo during the past two decades, which we show are clustered in years with large areas of hydrological drought coinciding with strong El Niño events. Statistical modelling evidence shows amplifying wildfires and greater area burnt in response to El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) strength, when hydrology is considered. These results highlight the importance of considering hydrological drought for wildfire prediction, and we recommend that hydrology should be considered in future studies of the impact of projected ENSO strength, including effects on tropical ecosystems, and biodiversity conservation.

Advancing Sensor Technology to Monitor Wildfires

Science.gov (United States)

EPA and partners are looking at ways to use miniature sensors to monitor air quality near wildfires. Data from these small sensors can complement measurements obtained from more complex regulatory-grade monitors that are stationary.

A conceptual framework for coupling the biophysical and social dimensions of wildfire to improve fireshed planning and risk mitigation

Science.gov (United States)

Jeff Kline; Alan A. Ager; Paige Fischer

2015-01-01

The need for improved methods for managing wildfire risk is becoming apparent as uncharacteristically large wildfires in the western US and elsewhere exceed government capacities for their control and suppression. We propose a coupled biophysical-social framework to managing wildfire risk that relies on wildfire simulation to identify spatial patterns of wildfire risk...

Risk Preferences, Probability Weighting, and Strategy Tradeoffs in Wildfire Management.

Science.gov (United States)

Hand, Michael S; Wibbenmeyer, Matthew J; Calkin, David E; Thompson, Matthew P

2015-10-01

Wildfires present a complex applied risk management environment, but relatively little attention has been paid to behavioral and cognitive responses to risk among public agency wildfire managers. This study investigates responses to risk, including probability weighting and risk aversion, in a wildfire management context using a survey-based experiment administered to federal wildfire managers. Respondents were presented with a multiattribute lottery-choice experiment where each lottery is defined by three outcome attributes: expenditures for fire suppression, damage to private property, and exposure of firefighters to the risk of aviation-related fatalities. Respondents choose one of two strategies, each of which includes "good" (low cost/low damage) and "bad" (high cost/high damage) outcomes that occur with varying probabilities. The choice task also incorporates an information framing experiment to test whether information about fatality risk to firefighters alters managers' responses to risk. Results suggest that managers exhibit risk aversion and nonlinear probability weighting, which can result in choices that do not minimize expected expenditures, property damage, or firefighter exposure. Information framing tends to result in choices that reduce the risk of aviation fatalities, but exacerbates nonlinear probability weighting. © 2015 Society for Risk Analysis.

Catalytic Activity and Photophysical Properties of Biomolecules Immobilized on Mesoporous Silica

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ikemoto, Hideki

Mesoporous silicas, based on Santa Barbara Amorphous-15 (SBA-15), with different morphology, structure, pore size and functional groups have been synthesized. Two metalloenzymes and a photosynthetic membrane protein were immobilized on or confined in the pores of the mesoporous silicas to prepare...

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Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

IAS Admin

Isamu Akasaki, Meijo Univesity, Nagoya, Japan,. Nagoya University, Nagoya, Japan. Hiroshi Amano, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Japan. Shuji Nakamura, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA. Chemistry. “for the development of super-resolved fluorescence microscopy” to. Eric Betzig, Janelia Research Campus ...

Regional modeling of large wildfires under current and potential future climates in Colorado and Wyoming, USA

Science.gov (United States)

West, Amanda; Kumar, Sunil; Jarnevich, Catherine S.

2016-01-01

Regional analysis of large wildfire potential given climate change scenarios is crucial to understanding areas most at risk in the future, yet wildfire models are not often developed and tested at this spatial scale. We fit three historical climate suitability models for large wildfires (i.e. ≥ 400 ha) in Colorado andWyoming using topography and decadal climate averages corresponding to wildfire occurrence at the same temporal scale. The historical models classified points of known large wildfire occurrence with high accuracies. Using a novel approach in wildfire modeling, we applied the historical models to independent climate and wildfire datasets, and the resulting sensitivities were 0.75, 0.81, and 0.83 for Maxent, Generalized Linear, and Multivariate Adaptive Regression Splines, respectively. We projected the historic models into future climate space using data from 15 global circulation models and two representative concentration pathway scenarios. Maps from these geospatial analyses can be used to evaluate the changing spatial distribution of climate suitability of large wildfires in these states. April relative humidity was the most important covariate in all models, providing insight to the climate space of large wildfires in this region. These methods incorporate monthly and seasonal climate averages at a spatial resolution relevant to land management (i.e. 1 km2) and provide a tool that can be modified for other regions of North America, or adapted for other parts of the world.

Air Quality Deterioration of Urban Areas Caused by Wildfires in a Natural Reservoir Forest of Mexico

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Noel Carbajal

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Many regions of the world suffer loss of vegetation and reduced air quality due to wildfires. Studies on aerosol emissions by wildfires often discuss the negative effects of atmospheric contaminants from a regional or mesoscale perspective. The occurrence of wildfires reveals that a high percentage takes place close to large urban areas. Very high concentration of pollutants and PM10 particulate matter reach urban zones and millions of inhabitants. These events of high pollutant concentrations are seasonally recurrent. There are many large urban areas in the world that often undergo severe air deterioration due to wildfires smoke. We document the extreme impact of wildfire that occurs in the Protected Area of Flora and Fauna La Primavera located in neighborhood of Guadalajara, a large urban zone in Mexico. The simultaneous emissions of aerosols by 60 wildfires were simulated and compared with observed data. The plume generated by the wildfires reached large areas of the central part of Mexico. The principal characteristics of smog emissions (CO, NO2, and PM10 over the urban area were acceptably reproduced. Observed and modeled CO, PM10, and NO2 data indicated that aerosol plumes generated by the wildfires increased notably the concentrations over the metropolitan zone of Guadalajara.

Effects of a large wildfire on vegetation structure in a variable fire mosaic.

Science.gov (United States)

Foster, C N; Barton, P S; Robinson, N M; MacGregor, C I; Lindenmayer, D B

2017-12-01

Management guidelines for many fire-prone ecosystems highlight the importance of maintaining a variable mosaic of fire histories for biodiversity conservation. Managers are encouraged to aim for fire mosaics that are temporally and spatially dynamic, include all successional states of vegetation, and also include variation in the underlying "invisible mosaic" of past fire frequencies, severities, and fire return intervals. However, establishing and maintaining variable mosaics in contemporary landscapes is subject to many challenges, one of which is deciding how the fire mosaic should be managed following the occurrence of large, unplanned wildfires. A key consideration for this decision is the extent to which the effects of previous fire history on vegetation and habitats persist after major wildfires, but this topic has rarely been investigated empirically. In this study, we tested to what extent a large wildfire interacted with previous fire history to affect the structure of forest, woodland, and heath vegetation in Booderee National Park in southeastern Australia. In 2003, a summer wildfire burned 49.5% of the park, increasing the extent of recently burned vegetation (post-fire) to more than 72% of the park area. We tracked the recovery of vegetation structure for nine years following the wildfire and found that the strength and persistence of fire effects differed substantially between vegetation types. Vegetation structure was modified by wildfire in forest, woodland, and heath vegetation, but among-site variability in vegetation structure was reduced only by severe fire in woodland vegetation. There also were persistent legacy effects of the previous fire regime on some attributes of vegetation structure including forest ground and understorey cover, and woodland midstorey and overstorey cover. For example, woodland midstorey cover was greater on sites with higher fire frequency, irrespective of the severity of the 2003 wildfire. Our results show that even

Effects of wildfires on ash Carbon, Nitrogen and C/N ratio in Mediterranean forests

Science.gov (United States)

Pereira, P.; Ubeda, X.; Martin, D. A.

2009-04-01

Carbon (C) and Nitrogen(N) are key nutrients in ecosystems health and the more affected by fire temperatures, because of their low temperatures of volatilization. After a wildfire, due higher temperatures reached, a great amount of C and N can be evacuated from the ecosystems and the percentage of C and N not vaporized is concentrated in ashes. Hence, the study of ash C and N is of major importance because will be linked with the capacity of ecosystem recuperation. The aim of this work is study the C, and C/N of three wildfires occurred in Mediterranean forests dominated by Quercus suber and Pinus pinea in Portugal. In the first wildfire, named "Quinta do Conde", we collected 30 samples, in the second, "Quinta da Areia", 32 samples and the third, "Casal do Sapo" 40 samples To estimate the consequences of wildfires in the parameters in study, we collected several samples of unburned litter near burned areas, composed by the same vegetation. The results showed that wildfires induced in % of Total Carbon (%TC) ashes content a non significantly reduction in Quinta do Conde plot (at a pPinus pinaster samples decreasing thereafter especially after the 400°C. In %TN we identified a rise in both species reducing abruptly at 450°C. C/N ratio decrease importantly after the 150°C. Theses results showed us that wildfires can have different effects C and N litter resources, depending on the severity and temperature reached. Crossing the results obtained in laboratory simulations with the samples collected in wildfires we will have an idea about the severity and temperature occurred in each wildfire. Overall, the lower severity were observed in Quinta do Conde plot and the higher in Casal do Sapo plot, being Quinta da Areia in a middle position. The C and N levels after a wildfire will determine the capacity of landscape recuperation and according the data obtained this will be higher in Quinta do Conde plot and lesser in Casal do Sapo plot. These hypothesis will be confirmed

Environmental Monitoring Plan, Nevada Test Site and support facilities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1991-11-01

This Operational Area Monitoring Plan for environmental monitoring, is for EG ampersand G Energy Measurements, Inc. (EG ampersand G/EM) which operates several offsite facilities in support of activities at the Nevada Test Site (NTS). These facilities include: (1) Amador Valley Operations (AVO), Pleasanton, California; (2) Kirtland Operations (KO), Kirtland Air Force base, Albuquerque, New Mexico (KAFB); (3) Las Vegas Area Operations (LVAO), Remote Sensing Laboratory (RSL), and North Las Vegas (NLV) Complex at Nellis Air Force Base (NAFB), North Las Vegas, Nevada; (4) Los Alamos Operations (LAO), Los Alamos, New Mexico; (5) Santa Barbara Operations (SBO), Goleta, California; (6) Special Technologies Laboratory (STL), Santa Barbara, California; (7) Washington Aerial Measurements Department (WAMD), Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland; and, (8) Woburn Cathode Ray Tube Operations (WCO), Woburn, Massachusetts. Each of these facilities has an individual Operational Area Monitoring Plan, but they have been consolidated herein to reduce redundancy

Using and improving social capital to increase community preparedness for wildfire

Science.gov (United States)

Shruti Agrawal; Martha C. Monroe

2006-01-01

Communities with more social capital are better able to work together to cope with problems such as a wildfire threat. This study found a positive relationship between perceiving greater social capital and participating in wildfire preparedness educational programs. Results suggest that managers can take advantage of existing social capital in communities to improve...

Coupling the biophysical and social dimensions of wildfire risk to improve wildfire mitigation planning

Science.gov (United States)

Alan A. Ager; Jeffrey D. Kline; A. Paige Fisher

2015-01-01

We describe recent advances in biophysical and social aspects of risk and their potential combined contribution to improve mitigation planning on fire-prone landscapes. The methods and tools provide an improved method for defining the spatial extent of wildfire risk to communities compared to current planning processes. They also propose an expanded role for social...

The application of prototype point processes for the summary and description of California wildfires

Science.gov (United States)

Nichols, K.; Schoenberg, F.P.; Keeley, J.E.; Bray, A.; Diez, D.

2011-01-01

A method for summarizing repeated realizations of a space-time marked point process, known as prototyping, is discussed and applied to catalogues of wildfires in California. Prototype summaries are constructed for varying time intervals using California wildfire data from 1990 to 2006. Previous work on prototypes for temporal and space-time point processes is extended here to include methods for computing prototypes with marks and the incorporation of prototype summaries into hierarchical clustering algorithms, the latter of which is used to delineate fire seasons in California. Other results include summaries of patterns in the spatial-temporal distribution of wildfires within each wildfire season. ?? 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Creation a Geo Big Data Outreach and Training Collaboratory for Wildfire Community

Science.gov (United States)

Altintas, I.; Sale, J.; Block, J.; Cowart, C.; Crawl, D.

2015-12-01

A major challenge for the geoscience community is the training and education of current and next generation big data geoscientists. In wildfire research, there are an increasing number of tools, middleware and techniques to use for data science related to wildfires. The necessary computing infrastructures are often within reach and most of the software tools for big data are freely available. But what has been lacking is a transparent platform and training program to produce data science experts who can use these integrated tools effectively. Scientists well versed to take advantage of big data technologies in geoscience applications is of critical importance to the future of research and knowledge advancement. To address this critical need, we are developing learning modules to teach process-based thinking to capture the value of end-to-end systems of reusable blocks of knowledge and integrate the tools and technologies used in big data analysis in an intuitive manner. WIFIRE is an end-to-end cyberinfrastructure for dynamic data-driven simulation, prediction and visualization of wildfire behavior.To this end, we are openly extending an environment we have built for "big data training" (biobigdata.ucsd.edu) to similar MOOC-based approaches to the wildfire community. We are building an environment that includes training modules for distributed platforms and systems, Big Data concepts, and scalable workflow tools, along with other basics of data science including data management, reproducibility and sharing of results. We also plan to provide teaching modules with analytical and dynamic data-driven wildfire behavior modeling case studies which address the needs not only of standards-based K-12 science education but also the needs of a well-educated and informed citizenry.Another part our outreach mission is to educate our community on all aspects of wildfire research. One of the most successful ways of accomplishing this is through high school and undergraduate

A Monte Carlo Approach to Modeling Wildfire Risk on Changing Landscapes

Science.gov (United States)

Burzynski, A. M.; Beavers, A.

2016-12-01

The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) maintains approximately 28 million acres of land across 420 of their largest installations. These sites harbored 425 federally listed Threatened and Endangered species as of 2013, representing a density of rare species that is several times greater than any other land management agency in the U.S. This is a major driver of DoD natural resources policy and many of these species are affected by wildland fire, both positively and negatively. Military installations collectively experience thousands of wildfires per year, and the majority of ignitions are caused by mission and training activities that can be planned to accommodate fire risk. Motivated by the need for accurately modeled wildfire under the unique land-use conditions of military installations and the assessment of risk exposure at installations throughout the U.S., we developed custom, FARSITE-based scientific software that applies a Monte Carlo approach to wildfire risk analysis. This simulation accounts for the dynamics of vegetation and weather over time, as well as the spatial and temporal distribution of wildfire ignitions, and can be applied to landscapes up to several million acres in size. The data-driven simulation provides insight that feeds directly into mitigation decision-making and can be used to assess future risk scenarios, both real and hypothetical. We highlight an example of a future scenario comparing wildfire behavior between unmitigated fuels and one in which a prescribed burn program is implemented. The same process can be used for a variety of scenarios including changes in vegetation (e.g. new or altered grazing regimes, extreme weather, or drought) and changes in spatiotemporal ignition probability. The modeling capabilities that we apply to predicting wildfire risk on military lands are also relevant to the greater scientific community for modeling wildland fire in the context of environmental change, historical ecology, or climate change.

Wave Modelling - The State of the Art

Science.gov (United States)

2007-09-27

8217) - -16 C-Ax( M) (I - 2y) -N +1CgAx’(1 -y)(6y’ - 6y + 1) + O(At4), (8.2) 24OX where p is the Courant- Friedrichs -Lewy (CFL) number, j = CgxAt/Ax. Thus...attainable time step is at the best of the order of min- utes . For early third generation wave models, this was unacceptable, and methods were developed to be... Barbara Channel. In: Beal, R. (Ed.), 5th California Islands Symposium, March 29-31. Mineral Management Service, Santa Barbara , CA. Onorato, M., Osborne

Does personal experience affect choice-based preferences for wildfire protection programs?

Science.gov (United States)

Armando González-Cabán; Thomas P. Holmes; John B. Loomis; José J. Sánchez

2013-01-01

In this paper, we investigate homeowner preferences and willingness to pay for wildfire protection programs using a choice experiment with three attributes: risk, loss, and cost. A phone-mail-phone survey was used to collect data from homeowners predominantly living in medium and high wildfire risk communities in Florida. We tested three hypotheses: (1) homeowner...

Current research issues related to post-wildfire runoff and erosion processes

Science.gov (United States)

John A. Moody; Richard A. Shakesby; Peter R. Robichaud; Susan H. Cannon; Deborah A. Martin

2013-01-01

Research into post-wildfire effects began in the United Statesmore than 70 years ago and only later extended to other parts of the world. Post-wildfire responses are typically transient, episodic, variable in space and time, dependent on thresholds, and involve multiple processes measured by different methods. These characteristics tend to hinder research progress, but...

Regional variation in fire weather controls the reported occurrence of Scottish wildfires

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

G. Matt Davies

2016-11-01

Full Text Available Fire is widely used as a traditional habitat management tool in Scotland, but wildfires pose a significant and growing threat. The financial costs of fighting wildfires are significant and severe wildfires can have substantial environmental impacts. Due to the intermittent occurrence of severe fire seasons, Scotland, and the UK as a whole, remain somewhat unprepared. Scotland currently lacks any form of Fire Danger Rating system that could inform managers and the Fire and Rescue Services (FRS of periods when there is a risk of increased of fire activity. We aimed evaluate the potential to use outputs from the Canadian Fire Weather Index system (FWI system to forecast periods of increased fire risk and the potential for ignitions to turn into large wildfires. We collated four and a half years of wildfire data from the Scottish FRS and examined patterns in wildfire occurrence within different regions, seasons, between urban and rural locations and according to FWI system outputs. We used a variety of techniques, including Mahalanobis distances, percentile analysis and Thiel-Sen regression, to scope the best performing FWI system codes and indices. Logistic regression showed significant differences in fire activity between regions, seasons and between urban and rural locations. The Fine Fuel Moisture Code and the Initial Spread Index did a tolerable job of modelling the probability of fire occurrence but further research on fuel moisture dynamics may provide substantial improvements. Overall our results suggest it would be prudent to ready resources and avoid managed burning when FFMC > 75 and/or ISI > 2.

Regional variation in fire weather controls the reported occurrence of Scottish wildfires.

Science.gov (United States)

Davies, G Matt; Legg, Colin J

2016-01-01

Fire is widely used as a traditional habitat management tool in Scotland, but wildfires pose a significant and growing threat. The financial costs of fighting wildfires are significant and severe wildfires can have substantial environmental impacts. Due to the intermittent occurrence of severe fire seasons, Scotland, and the UK as a whole, remain somewhat unprepared. Scotland currently lacks any form of Fire Danger Rating system that could inform managers and the Fire and Rescue Services (FRS) of periods when there is a risk of increased of fire activity. We aimed evaluate the potential to use outputs from the Canadian Fire Weather Index system (FWI system) to forecast periods of increased fire risk and the potential for ignitions to turn into large wildfires. We collated four and a half years of wildfire data from the Scottish FRS and examined patterns in wildfire occurrence within different regions, seasons, between urban and rural locations and according to FWI system outputs. We used a variety of techniques, including Mahalanobis distances, percentile analysis and Thiel-Sen regression, to scope the best performing FWI system codes and indices. Logistic regression showed significant differences in fire activity between regions, seasons and between urban and rural locations. The Fine Fuel Moisture Code and the Initial Spread Index did a tolerable job of modelling the probability of fire occurrence but further research on fuel moisture dynamics may provide substantial improvements. Overall our results suggest it would be prudent to ready resources and avoid managed burning when FFMC > 75 and/or ISI > 2.

Amphibian responses to wildfire in the western united states: Emerging patterns from short-term studies

Science.gov (United States)

Hossack, B.R.; Pilliod, D.S.

2011-01-01

The increased frequency and severity of large wildfires in the western United States is an important ecological and management issue with direct relevance to amphibian conservation. Although the knowledge of fire effects on amphibians in the region is still limited relative to most other vertebrate species, we reviewed the current literature to determine if there are evident patterns that might be informative for conservation or management strategies. Of the seven studies that compared pre- and post-wildfire data on a variety of metrics, ranging from amphibian occupancy to body condition, two reported positive responses and five detected negative responses by at least one species. Another seven studies used a retrospective approach to compare effects of wildfire on populations: two studies reported positive effects, three reported negative effects from wildfire, and two reported no effects. All four studies that included plethodontid salamanders reported negative effects on populations or individuals; these effects were greater in forests where fire had been suppressed and in areas that burned with high severity. Species that breed in streams are also vulnerable to post-wildfire changes in habitat, especially in the Southwest. Wildfire is also important for maintaining suitable habitat for diverse amphibian communities, although those results may not be evident immediately after an area burns. We expect that wildfire will extirpate few healthy amphibian populations, but it is still unclear how populations will respond to wildfire in the context of land management (including pre- and post-fire timber harvest) and fragmentation. Wildfire may also increase the risk of decline or extirpation for small, isolated, or stressed (e.g., from drought or disease) populations. Improved understanding of how these effects vary according to changes in fire frequency and severity are critical to form more effective conservation strategies for amphibians in the western United States.

Oxidative aging and secondary organic aerosol formation from simulated wildfire emissions

Science.gov (United States)

C. J. Hennigan; M. A. Miracolo; G. J. Engelhart; A. A. May; Cyle Wold; WeiMin Hao; T. Lee; A. P. Sullivan; J. B. Gilman; W. C. Kuster; J. A. de Gouw; J. L. Collett; S. M. Kreidenweis; A. L. Robinson

2010-01-01

Wildfires are a significant fraction of global biomass burning and a major source of trace gas and particle emissions in the atmosphere. Understanding the air quality and climate implications of wildfires is difficult since the emissions undergo complex transformations due to aging processes during transport away from the source. As part of the third Fire Lab at...

Smoke exposure at western wildfires.

Science.gov (United States)

Timothy E. Reinhardt; Roger D. Ottmar

2000-01-01

Smoke exposure measurements among firefighters at wildfires in the Western United States between 1992 and 1995 showed that altogether most exposures were not significant, between 3 and 5 percent of the shift-average exposures exceeded occupational exposure limits for carbon monoxide and respiratory irritants. Exposure to benzene and total suspended particulate was not...

Chemical hardness and density functional theory

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

Unknown

RALPH G PEARSON. Chemistry Department, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA. Abstract. The concept of chemical hardness is reviewed from a personal point of view. Keywords. Hardness; softness; hard & soft acids bases (HSAB); principle of maximum hardness. (PMH) density functional theory (DFT) ...

Journal of Chemical Sciences | Indian Academy of Sciences

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

Keywords. Hardness; softness; hard & soft acids bases (HSAB); principle of maximum hardness (PMH) density functional theory (DFT). Abstract. The concept of chemical hardness is reviewed from a personal point of view. Author Affiliations. Ralph G Pearson1. Chemistry Department, University of California, Santa Barbara, ...

Distribution, Transport, and Accumulation of Pyrogenic Black Carbon in Post-Wildfire Watersheds

Science.gov (United States)

Galanter, A.; Cadol, D. D.; Frey, B.; Lohse, K. A.

2014-12-01

Large, high severity wildfires greatly alter forest structure, water quality, and soil development/erosion. With increased frequency of such wildfires also follows heavy post-wildfire debris flows and flooding which deliver high loads of sediment and pyrogenic black carbon (PyC) to downstream waterways. The accumulation of PyC is a multi-faceted and dynamic issue in the critical zone. Generated by incomplete combustion of organic matter, PyC (in the form of soot and char) impacts turbidity, biological and chemical oxygen demand, and pH. In addition, PyC has the potential to sequester contaminants and can store carbon over short and long timescales. The impacts of two recent wildfires in Northern New Mexico are studied with the goal of understanding the fluxes and residence times of PyC in post-wildfire, mountainous watersheds. Employing burn severity maps and geospatial data, we selected three sites to collect soil and water samples to characterize PyC: a control, an area impacted by a large, severe burn (2011), and an area impacted by a smaller, less severe burn (2013). By collaborating with researchers at the Jemez Critical Zone Observatory, soil samples are being analyzed and will provide pre-wildfire PyC concentrations for the 2013 burn area. In this study, PyC is treated as both a particulate and a solute that is transported throughout the watershed as well as degraded in soils, surface water and groundwater. We used two black carbon quantification methods: the chemo-thermal oxidation (CTO-375) method to distinguish between soil soot and char, and the benzene polycarboxylic acids (BPCA) method to quantify the total concentrations of PyC in soil and water samples. Preliminary soil data from the CTO-375 method show comparable soot concentrations in the control, 2011, and 2013 burn indicating that the soot is more recalcitrant than char and remains in the watershed long after a wildfire. This data also suggests that the fluxes of black carbon over short time

27 CFR 9.217 - Happy Canyon of Santa Barbara.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

..., which is a boundary line of the Los Padres National Forest, to its intersection with the southwest corner of section 18 that coincides with one of the two 90-degree, southwest corners of the Los Padres... Padres National Forest, to its intersection with the boundary line of the Cañada de Los Pinos, or College...

Kelp Wrack: Hopping with Life in Santa Barbara County

OpenAIRE

Dugan, Jenifer E.

2011-01-01

The same waves that pound the shore off California also tear large amounts of seaweed from the region’s giant kelp forests and rocky reefs. Much of this drift seaweed, known as wrack, is eventually washed ashore. On many of Southern California’s beaches, tractors will remove this wrack (along with trash and litter) and rake the sand, in a process known as beach grooming.

Santa Barbara Littoral Cell CRSMP Sensitive Habitat Sites 2009

Data.gov (United States)

California Natural Resource Agency — Ecological areas as identified and collected by BEACON and submitted to CSMW as part of the Central Coast (from Pt. Conception to Pt. Mugu) Coastal Regional Sediment...

Santa Barbara Littoral Cell CRSMP Offshore Sand Sources 2009

Data.gov (United States)

California Natural Resource Agency — Offshore sand sources exist at four known locations and potentially other yet to be explored regions within the nearshore coastal shelf. Significant reserves of fine...

Santa Barbara Littoral Cell CRSMP Sensitive Habitat Areas 2009

Data.gov (United States)

California Natural Resource Agency — Ecological areas as identified and collected by BEACON and submitted to CSMW as part of the Central Coast (from Pt. Conception to Pt. Mugu) Coastal Regional Sediment...

Santa Barbara Littoral Cell CRSMP Sensitive Habitat Areas 2009

Data.gov (United States)

California Department of Resources — Ecological areas as identified and collected by BEACON and submitted to CSMW as part of the Central Coast (from Pt. Conception to Pt. Mugu) Coastal Regional Sediment...

Santa Barbara Littoral Cell CRSMP Offshore Sand Sources 2009

Data.gov (United States)

California Department of Resources — Offshore sand sources exist at four known locations and potentially other yet to be explored regions within the nearshore coastal shelf. Significant reserves of fine...

Forecasting European Wildfires Today and in the Future

Science.gov (United States)

Navarro Abellan, Maria; Porras Alegre, Ignasi; María Sole, Josep; Gálvez, Pedro; Bielski, Conrad; Nurmi, Pertti

2017-04-01

Society as a whole is increasingly exposed and vulnerable to natural disasters due to extreme weather events exacerbated by climate change. The increased frequency of wildfires is not only a result of a changing climate, but wildfires themselves also produce a significant amount of greenhouse gases that, in-turn, further contribute to global warming. I-REACT (Improving Resilience to Emergencies through Advanced Cyber Technologies) is an innovation project funded by the European Commission , which aims to use social media, smartphones and wearables to improve natural disaster management by integrating existing services, both local and European, into a platform that supports the entire emergency management cycle. In order to assess the impact of climate change on wildfire hazards, METEOSIM designed two different System Processes (SP) that will be integrated into the I-REACT service that can provide information on a variety of time scales. SP1 - Climate Change Impact The climate change impact on climate variables related to fires is calculated by building an ensemble based on the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) and CORDEX data. A validation and an Empirical-Statistical Downscaling (ESD) calibration are done to assess the changes in the past of the climatic variables related to wildfires (temperature, precipitation, wind, relative humidity and Fire Weather Index). Calculations in the trend and the frequency of extreme events of those variables are done for three time scales: near-term (2011-2040), mid-term (2041-2070) and long term (2071-2100). SP2 - Operational daily forecast of the Canadian Forest Fire Weather Index (FWI) Using ensemble data from the ECMWF and from the GLAMEPS (multi-model ensemble) models, both supplied by the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI), the Fire Weather Index (FWI) and its index components are produced for each ensemble member within a wide forecast time range, from a few hours up to 10 days resulting in a

Is timber insurable? A study of wildfire Risks in the U.S. forest sector using spatio-temporal models.

Science.gov (United States)

Xuan Chen; Barry K. Goodwin; Jeffrey P. Prestemon

2014-01-01

In the U.S. forest products industry, wildfire is one of the leading causes of damage and economic losses. While individual wildfire behavior is well studied, new literature is emerging on broad-scale (e.g., county-level) wildfire risks. Our paper studies wildfire risks using crucial informational vari­ ables across both spatio units and time periods....

Assessing Landscape Scale Wildfire Exposure for Highly Valued Resources in a Mediterranean Area

Science.gov (United States)

Alcasena, Fermín J.; Salis, Michele; Ager, Alan A.; Arca, Bachisio; Molina, Domingo; Spano, Donatella

2015-05-01

We used a fire simulation modeling approach to assess landscape scale wildfire exposure for highly valued resources and assets (HVR) on a fire-prone area of 680 km2 located in central Sardinia, Italy. The study area was affected by several wildfires in the last half century: some large and intense fire events threatened wildland urban interfaces as well as other socioeconomic and cultural values. Historical wildfire and weather data were used to inform wildfire simulations, which were based on the minimum travel time algorithm as implemented in FlamMap. We simulated 90,000 fires that replicated recent large fire events in the area spreading under severe weather conditions to generate detailed maps of wildfire likelihood and intensity. Then, we linked fire modeling outputs to a geospatial risk assessment framework focusing on buffer areas around HVR. The results highlighted a large variation in burn probability and fire intensity in the vicinity of HVRs, and allowed us to identify the areas most exposed to wildfires and thus to a higher potential damage. Fire intensity in the HVR buffers was mainly related to fuel types, while wind direction, topographic features, and historically based ignition pattern were the key factors affecting fire likelihood. The methodology presented in this work can have numerous applications, in the study area and elsewhere, particularly to address and inform fire risk management, landscape planning and people safety on the vicinity of HVRs.

Assessing landscape scale wildfire exposure for highly valued resources in a Mediterranean area.

Science.gov (United States)

Alcasena, Fermín J; Salis, Michele; Ager, Alan A; Arca, Bachisio; Molina, Domingo; Spano, Donatella

2015-05-01

We used a fire simulation modeling approach to assess landscape scale wildfire exposure for highly valued resources and assets (HVR) on a fire-prone area of 680 km(2) located in central Sardinia, Italy. The study area was affected by several wildfires in the last half century: some large and intense fire events threatened wildland urban interfaces as well as other socioeconomic and cultural values. Historical wildfire and weather data were used to inform wildfire simulations, which were based on the minimum travel time algorithm as implemented in FlamMap. We simulated 90,000 fires that replicated recent large fire events in the area spreading under severe weather conditions to generate detailed maps of wildfire likelihood and intensity. Then, we linked fire modeling outputs to a geospatial risk assessment framework focusing on buffer areas around HVR. The results highlighted a large variation in burn probability and fire intensity in the vicinity of HVRs, and allowed us to identify the areas most exposed to wildfires and thus to a higher potential damage. Fire intensity in the HVR buffers was mainly related to fuel types, while wind direction, topographic features, and historically based ignition pattern were the key factors affecting fire likelihood. The methodology presented in this work can have numerous applications, in the study area and elsewhere, particularly to address and inform fire risk management, landscape planning and people safety on the vicinity of HVRs.

Myxomycetes de Florianópolis (Santa Catarina - Brasil Myxomycetes of Florianópolis (State of Santa Catarina - Brazil

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Laise de Holanda Cavalcanti

1994-07-01

Full Text Available Considerando a inexistência de registros de ocorrência de Myxomycetes em Florianópolis, realizou- se coletas nas matas da Lagoa do Peri e Lagoa da Conceição, em 1990, assinalando-se as seguintes espécies : Lycogala exiguum Morg. (Enteridiaceae ; Cribraria languescem Rex, C. vulgaris Sclir. (Cribrariaceae ; Arcyria cinerea ( Bull. Pers. , Hemitrichia serpula ( Scop. Rost., H. calyculata ( Speg. Farr e Hemitrichia sp (Trichiaceae ; Stemonitis fusca Roth. e S. smithii Macbr. (Stemonitaceae. Exsicatas encontram-se depositadas no herbário UFP. Lycogala exiguum é assinalada pela primeira vez para Santa Catarina, Cribraria languescens para a região Sul e Cribraria vulgaris para o Brasil. O levantamento eleva para 47 o número de espécies referidas para o Estado de Santa Catarina. Fornece-se um histórico do estudo deste qrupo de organismos em Santa Catarina bem como a área de ocorrência de cada espécie no Estado e nas diferentes regiões do Brasil.A survey on Myxomycetes was made in the woods of Lagoa do Peri and Lagoa da Conceição in 1990, considering the absence of reports of this kind for the city of Florianópolis, when the following species were registered: Lycogala exiguum Morg. (Enteridiaceae; Cribraria languescem Rex, C. vulgaris Schr. (Cribrariaceae; Arcyria cinerea (Bull. Pers. Hemitrichia serpula (Scop. Rost., H. calyculata (Speg. Fair and Hemitrichia sp (Trichiaceae; Stemonitis fusca Roth, and S. smithii Macbr. (Stemonitaceae. Exicates are deposited at the herbarium UFP. Lycogala exiguum is noted for the first time in the state of Santa Catarina, Cribraria languescem in the South and Cribraria vulgaris in Brazil. The survey raises up the number of registers refered to the state of Santa Catarina to 47 species. A review of the studies on this group of organisms in Santa Catarina is given as well as the area where each species occur in this state and in different regions of Brazil.

Reconsidering a Classic: Assessing the History of Women's Higher Education a Dozen Years after Barbara Solomon.

Science.gov (United States)

Eisenmann, Linda

1997-01-01

A critique of Barbara Miller Solomon's 1985 book "In the Company of Educated Women" identifies its ground-breaking contributions but shows how it limited women's educational history by overemphasizing access to higher education and neglecting wider influences such as economics, women's occupational choices, and women's status in society.…

Wildfire in the valley of the wild roses

Science.gov (United States)

Linda Moon Stumpff

2015-01-01

Santa Clara Indian Pueblo lands are adjacent to the Jemez National Forest, Bandelier National Monument and Valles Caldera National Preserve. This paper explores Pueblo vulnerability and resilience after repeated and devastating fires in this century as a result of drought and climate change. Santa Clara Pueblo holds a rich store of traditional knowledge about the fire-...

A Mixed Logit Model of Homeowner Preferences for Wildfire Hazard Reduction

Science.gov (United States)

Thomas P. Holmes; John Loomis; Armando Gonzalez-Caban

2010-01-01

People living in the wildland-urban interface (WUI) are at greater risk of suffering major losses of property and life from wildfires. Over the past several decades the prevailing view has been that wildfire risk in rural areas was exogenous to the activities of homeowners. In response to catastrophic fires in the WUI over the past few years, recent approaches to fire...

Economic analysis of prescribed burning for wildfire management in Western Australia

Science.gov (United States)

Veronique Florec; David Pannell; Michael Burton; Joel Kelso; Drew Mellor; George Milne

2013-01-01

Wildfires can cause significant damage to ecosystems, life and property, and wildfire events that do not involve people and property are becoming rare. With the expansion of the rural– urban interface in Western Australia and elsewhere, objectives of life and property protection become more difficult to achieve. We applied the cost plus net value change (C+NVC) model...

The potential of satellite data to study individual wildfire events

Science.gov (United States)

Benali, Akli; López-Saldana, Gerardo; Russo, Ana; Sá, Ana C. L.; Pinto, Renata M. S.; Nikos, Koutsias; Owen, Price; Pereira, Jose M. C.

2014-05-01

Large wildfires have important social, economic and environmental impacts. In order to minimize their impacts, understand their main drivers and study their dynamics, different approaches have been used. The reconstruction of individual wildfire events is usually done by collection of field data, interviews and by implementing fire spread simulations. All these methods have clear limitations in terms of spatial and temporal coverage, accuracy, subjectivity of the collected information and lack of objective independent validation information. In this sense, remote sensing is a promising tool with the potential to provide relevant information for stakeholders and the research community, by complementing or filling gaps in existing information and providing independent accurate quantitative information. In this work we show the potential of satellite data to provide relevant information regarding the dynamics of individual large wildfire events, filling an important gap in wildfire research. We show how MODIS active-fire data, acquired up to four times per day, and satellite-derived burnt perimeters can be combined to extract relevant information wildfire events by describing the methods involved and presenting results for four regions of the world: Portugal, Greece, SE Australia and California. The information that can be retrieved encompasses the start and end date of a wildfire event and its ignition area. We perform an evaluation of the information retrieved by comparing the satellite-derived parameters with national databases, highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of both and showing how the former can complement the latter leading to more complete and accurate datasets. We also show how the spatio-temporal distribution of wildfire spread dynamics can be reconstructed using satellite-derived active-fires and how relevant descriptors can be extracted. Applying graph theory to satellite active-fire data, we define the major fire spread paths that yield

A Wildfire-relevant climatology of the convective environment of the United States

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Brian E. Potter; Matthew A. Anaya

2015-01-01

Convective instability can influence the behaviour of large wildfires. Because wildfires modify the temperature and moisture of air in their plumes, instability calculations using ambient conditions may not accurately represent convective potential for some fire plumes. This study used the North American Regional Reanalysis to develop a climatology of the convective...

Development and application of a geospatial wildfire exposure and risk calculation tool

Science.gov (United States)

Matthew P. Thompson; Jessica R. Haas; Julie W. Gilbertson-Day; Joe H. Scott; Paul Langowski; Elise Bowne; David E. Calkin

2015-01-01

Applying wildfire risk assessment models can inform investments in loss mitigation and landscape restoration, and can be used to monitor spatiotemporal trends in risk. Assessing wildfire risk entails the integration of fire modeling outputs, maps of highly valued resources and assets (HVRAs), characterization of fire effects, and articulation of relative importance...

Examining heterogeneity and wildfire management expenditures using spatially and temporally descriptive data

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Michael S. Hand; Matthew P. Thompson; Dave Calkin

2016-01-01

Increasing costs of wildfire management have highlighted the need to better understand suppression expenditures and potential tradeoffs of land management activities that may affect fire risks. Spatially and temporally descriptive data is used to develop a model of wildfire suppression expenditures, providing new insights into the role of spatial and temporal...

Topografia vertebromedular de irara (Eira barbara Linnaeus, 1758

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marta Adami

2015-10-01

Full Text Available Resumo: Um cadáver macho, adulto de irara (Eira barbara foi cedido pelo Centro de Triagem de Animais Silvestres (Cetas, localizado em Salvador/Bahia, ao Setor de Anatomia Veterinária da Escola de Medicina Veterinária e Zootecnia da Universidade Federal da Bahia. Trata-se de um mamífero carnívoro que pertence à Família Mustelidae e Subfamília Mustelinae que contém o Gênero Eira, representado apenas pela Espécie Eira barbara. Objetivamos a investigação da topografia vertebromedular do espécime e assim verificar a relação da medula espinal com o canal vertebral; a identificação, origem, emergência e quantificação dos nervos espinhais relacionados com a medula espinal. Pesquisa número 43245-1 autorizada pelo Sistema de Autorização e Informação em Biodiversidade (Sisbio-ICMBio/IBAMA. O exemplar foi fixado em solução de formaldeído a 10% e posteriormente dissecado e radiografado. Foram identificados oito pares de nervos espinhais cervicais, quatorze torácicos e na porção lombossacral da medula espinhal seis nervos espinais lombares, três sacrais e mais de três nervos espinhais caudais. O término da medula espinal ocorreu no nível quinta vértebra lombar. Os oito segmentos medulares cervicais localizaram-se entre a primeira e sétima vértebras cervicais. Os quatorze nervos espinais torácicos originaram-se na porção cranial das vértebras respectivas. Os segmentos medulares lombares, sacrais e caudais restringiram-se à região lombar da coluna vertebral. O deslocamento cranial dos segmentos medulares foi observado no oitavo cervical, terceiro, quarto e quinto lombares e todos os segmentos sacrais e caudais. As informações obtidas poderão ser utilizadas para análises comparativas com as demais espécies e com a adoção de medidas que visem proporcionar o bem-estar animal e a preservação da espécie.

A body is not a metaphor: Barbara Hammer's X-ray vision.

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Osterweil, Ara

2010-01-01

This article examines three films by legendary experimental filmmaker Barbara Hammer that deal with the sick, aging, or dying body: Optic Nerve (1985), Sanctus (1990), and A Horse is Not a Metaphor (2008). By analyzing films that do not explicitly confront sexual identity, this article questions the continuing usefulness of the designation "lesbian filmmaker" when considering Hammer's diverse body of work. Tracing the "double consciousness" through which Hammer approaches the body and its construction in patriarchy-particularly in the discourse of medicine-this article argues that Hammer's is a thoroughly corporeal, but not exclusively lesbian, cinema.

Protection from erosion following wildfire

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Peter R. Robichaud; William J. Elliot

2006-01-01

Erosion in the first year after a wildfire can be up to three orders of magnitude greater than the erosion from undisturbed forests. To mitigate potential postfire erosion, various erosion control treatments are applied on highly erodible areas with downstream resources in need of protection. Because postfire erosion rates generally decline by an order of magnitude for...

Language-Learning Holidays: What Motivates People to Learn a Minority Language?

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O'Rourke, Bernadette; DePalma, Renée

2017-01-01

In this article, we examine the experiences of 18 Galician language learners who participated in what Garland [(2008). "The minority language and the cosmopolitan speaker: Ideologies of Irish language learners" (Unpublished PhD thesis). University of California, Santa Barbara] refers to as a "language-learning holiday" in…

Preliminary test Results for a 25K Sorption Cryocooler Designed for the UCSB Long Duration Balloon Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation Experiment

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Wade, L. A.; Levy, A. R.

1996-01-01

A continuous operation, vibration-free, long-life 25K sorption cryocooler has been built and is now in final integration and performance testing. This cooler wil be flown on the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB) Long Duration Balloon (LDB) Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation Experiment.

Catalysis by Nanostructures: Methane, Ethylene Oxide, and Propylene Oxide Synthesis on Ag, Cu or Au Nanoclusters

Science.gov (United States)

2008-02-07

22 nm) were prepared by reducing a Au salt, and encapsulating the Au nanoparticles formed in a polymer33 . A variety of high area oxides (TiO 2, ZnO ...Morphologies Utilizing a Combinatorial Electrochemistry Methodology. Ph. D. dissertation, Chemical Engineering, University of California, Santa Barbara (2004

Understanding ecological transitions under recurrent wildfire

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Devisscher, Tahia; Malhi, Yadvinder; Rojas Landívar, Víctor Diego; Oliveras Menor, Imma

2016-01-01

Wildfires in tropical forests are likely to become a more dominant disturbance due to future increasing feedbacks between rapid frontier expansion and more frequent droughts. This study evaluates the effects of fire recurrence on seasonally dry tropical forests of the Chiquitania region, located

Earth, wind, and fire: Wildfire risk perceptions in a hurricane-prone environment

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Soren M. Newman; Matthew S. Carroll; Pamela J. Jakes; Daniel R. Williams; Lorie L. Higgins

2014-01-01

Wildfire is one of several potential disturbances that could have extraordinary impacts on individuals and communities in fire-prone areas. In this article we describe disturbance risk perceptions from interviews with residents in three Florida communities that face significant wildfire and hurricane risk. Although they live in areas characterized by emergency managers...

75 FR 76453 - CAlifornians for Renewable Energy, Inc., (CARE), and Barbara Durkin v. National Grid, Cape Wind...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-12-08

... DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY Federal Energy Regulatory Commission [Docket No. EL11-9-000] CAlifornians for Renewable Energy, Inc., (CARE), and Barbara Durkin v. National Grid, Cape Wind, and the Massachusetts... Energy Regulatory Commission's (Commission) Rules of Practice and Procedure, 18 CFR 385.206, (2010...

Fire and Fish: Using Radiocarbon And Stratigraphy To Discern The Impact Of Wildfire On Fish Metapopulations

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Schaffrath, K. R.; Finch, C.; Belmont, P.; Budy, P.

2015-12-01

Wildfires have profound and variable impacts on erosion, channel morphology, and aquatic habitat. Previous research has quantified post-fire geomorphic response on event and millennial timescales. While these studies have informed our understanding of post-fire geomorphic response during the Holocene, we have yet to fully understand the variability of post-wildfire geomorphic response and how it might change in response to changing climate. Response of aquatic biota is just as variable as post-wildfire response yet we know very little about effects on metapopulations and how management decisions affect aquatic populations. Barriers to movement are installed to isolate native fish populations and prescribed fire and thinning are used to try to reduce future wildfire severity and extent. In order to improve understanding of the implications of management decisions, we evaluated geomorphic response and synchronicity of wildfires over the Holocene relative to the impact to the metapopulation of Bonneville cutthroat trout from a recent wildfire. The Twitchell Canyon fire burned 45,000 acres near Beaver, UT in July 2010. Over 30% of the area burned at high severity, which included two major headwater streams that sustained a trout population. In summer 2011, monsoonal thunderstorms caused massive debris flows and sheetflow erosion that altered channel morphology and aquatic habitat in the burned area. A previously robust, non-native trout fishery was nearly extirpated as a result of the geomorphic response to the wildfire. We used radiocarbon dating of burned material to determine how often headwater streams burned synchronously over the Holocene. Radiocarbon dates are associated with field observations of stratigraphy in order to infer geomorphic response to historic wildfires. Thirty samples were collected from sediment layers in 10 alluvial fans distributed among three watersheds (two burned and one unburned in the 2010 fire). Preliminary results suggest that we

Computational Modeling of Large Wildfires: A Roadmap

KAUST Repository

Coen, Janice L.; Douglas, Craig C.

2010-01-01

Wildland fire behavior, particularly that of large, uncontrolled wildfires, has not been well understood or predicted. Our methodology to simulate this phenomenon uses high-resolution dynamic models made of numerical weather prediction (NWP) models

Diversity in forest management to reduce wildfire losses: implications for resilience

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Susan Charnley

2017-03-01

Full Text Available This study investigates how federal, state, and private corporate forest owners in a fire-prone landscape of southcentral Oregon manage their forests to reduce wildfire hazard and loss to high-severity wildfire. We evaluate the implications of our findings for concepts of social-ecological resilience. Using interview data, we found a high degree of "response diversity" (variation in forest management decisions and behaviors to reduce wildfire losses between and within actor groups. This response diversity contributed to heterogeneous forest conditions across the landscape and was driven mainly by forest management legacies, economics, and attitudes toward wildfire (fortress protection vs. living with fire. We then used an agent-based landscape model to evaluate trends in forest structure and fire metrics by ownership. Modeling results indicated that, in general, U.S. Forest Service management had the most favorable outcomes for forest resilience to wildfire, and private corporate management the least. However, some state and private corporate forest ownerships have the building blocks for developing fire-resilient forests. Heterogeneity in social-ecological systems is often thought to favor social-ecological resilience. We found that despite high social and ecological heterogeneity in our study area, most forest ownerships do not exhibit characteristics that make them resilient to high-severity fire currently or in the future under current management. Thus, simple theories about resilience based on heterogeneity must be informed by knowledge of the environmental and social conditions that comprise that heterogeneity. Our coupled human and natural systems (CHANS approach enabled us to understand connections among the social, economic, and ecological components of a multiownership, fire-prone ecosystem, and to identify how social-ecological resilience to wildfire might improve through interventions to address key constraints in the system. Our

Mercury from wildfires: Global emission inventories and sensitivity to 2000-2050 global change

Science.gov (United States)

Kumar, Aditya; Wu, Shiliang; Huang, Yaoxian; Liao, Hong; Kaplan, Jed O.

2018-01-01

We estimate the global Hg wildfire emissions for the 2000s and the potential impacts from the 2000-2050 changes in climate, land use and land cover and Hg anthropogenic emissions by combining statistical analysis with global data on vegetation type and coverage as well as fire activities. Global Hg wildfire emissions are estimated to be 612 Mg year-1. Africa is the dominant source region (43.8% of global emissions), followed by Eurasia (31%) and South America (16.6%). We find significant perturbations to wildfire emissions of Hg in the context of global change, driven by the projected changes in climate, land use and land cover and Hg anthropogenic emissions. 2000-2050 climate change could increase Hg emissions by 14% globally and regionally by 18% for South America, 14% for Africa and 13% for Eurasia. Projected changes in land use by 2050 could decrease the global Hg emissions from wildfires by 13% mainly driven by a decline in African emissions due to significant agricultural land expansion. Future land cover changes could lead to significant increases in Hg emissions over some regions (+32% North America, +14% Africa, +13% Eurasia). Potential enrichment of terrestrial ecosystems in 2050 in response to changes in Hg anthropogenic emissions could increase Hg wildfire emissions globally (+28%) and regionally (+19% North America, +20% South America, +24% Africa, +41% Eurasia). Our results indicate that the future evolution of climate, land use and land cover and Hg anthropogenic emissions are all important factors affecting Hg wildfire emissions in the coming decades.

Deep Learning of Post-Wildfire Vegetation Loss using Bitemporal Synthetic Aperture Radar Images

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Chen, Z.; Glasscoe, M. T.; Parker, J. W.

2017-12-01

Wildfire events followed by heavy precipitation have been proven causally related to breakouts of mudflow or debris flow, which, can demand rapid evacuation and threaten residential communities and civil infrastructure. For example, in the case of the city of Glendora, California, it was first afflicted by a severe wildfire in 1968 and then the flooding caused mudslides and debris flow in 1969 killed 34 people. Therefore, burn area or vegetation loss mapping due to wildfire is critical to agencies for preparing for secondary hazards, particularly flooding and flooding induced mudflow. However, rapid post-wildfire mapping of vegetation loss mapping is not readily obtained by regular remote sensing methods, e.g. various optical methods, due to the presence of smoke, haze, and rainy/cloudy conditions that often follow a wildfire event. In this paper, we will introduce and develop a deep learning-based framework that uses Synthetic Aperture Radar images collected prior to and after a wildfire event. A convolutional neural network (CNN) approach will be used that replaces traditional principle component analysis (PCA) based differencing for non-supervised change feature extraction. Using a small sample of human-labeled burned vegetation, normal vegetation, and urban built-up pixels, we will compare the performance of deep learning and PCA-based feature extraction. The 2014 Coby Fire event, which affected the downstream city of Glendora, was used to evaluate the proposed framework. The NASA's UAVSAR data (https://uavsar.jpl.nasa.gov/) will be utilized for mapping the vegetation damage due to the Coby Fire event.

Extreme Wildfire Spread and Behaviour: Case Studies from North Sardinia, Italy

Science.gov (United States)

Salis, M.; Arca, B.; Ager, A.; Fois, C.; Bacciu, V.; Duce, P.; Spano, D.

2012-04-01

Worldwide, fire seasons are usually characterized by the occurrence of one or more days with extreme environmental conditions, such as heat waves associated with strong winds. On these days, fires can quickly get out of hand originating large and severe wildfires. In these cases, containment and extinguishment phases are critical, considering that the imperative goal is to keep fire crews, people and animals safe. In this work we will present a set of large and severe wildfires occurred with extreme environmental conditions in the northern area of Sardinia. The most recent wildfire we will describe was ignited on July 13, 2011 in the Oschiri municipality (40°43' N; 9°06' E), and burned about 2,500 ha of wooded and herbaceous pastures and oakwoods in few hours. The second wildfire we will present was ignited on July 23, 2009 in the Bonorva municipality (40°25' N; 8° 46' E), and was responsible for the death of two people and several damages to houses, animals and farms. This wildfire lasted on July 25, and burned about 10,000 ha of wooded and herbaceous pastures; the most of the area was burned during the first day. The last wildfire we will describe was ignited on July 23, 2007 in the Oniferi municipality (40°16' N; 9° 16' E) and burned about 9,000 ha of wooded and herbaceous pastures and oakwoods; about 8,000 ha were burned after 11 hours of propagation. All these wildfires were ignited in days characterized by very hot temperatures associated to the effect of air masses moving from inland North Africa to the Mediterranean Basin, and strong winds from west-south west. This is one of the typical weather pattern associated with large and severe wildfires in North Sardinia, and is well documented in the last years. Weather conditions, fuels and topography factors related to each case study will be accurately analyzed. Moreover, a detailed overview of observed fire spread and behavior and post-fire vegetation recovery will be presented. The fire spread and

Economics of wildfire management: The development and application of suppression expenditure models

Science.gov (United States)

Michael S. Hand; Krista M. Gebert; Jingjing Liang; David E. Calkin; Matthew P. Thompson; Mo Zhou

2014-01-01

In the United States, increased wildland fire activity over the last 15 years has resulted in increased pressure to balance the cost, benefits, and risks of wildfire management. Amid increased public scrutiny and a highly variable wildland fire environment, a substantial body of research has developed to study factors affecting the cost-effectiveness of wildfire...

Integrated national-scale assessment of wildfire risk to human and ecological values

Science.gov (United States)

Matthew P. Thompson; David E. Calkin; Mark A. Finney; Alan A. Ager; Julie W. Gilbertson-Day

2011-01-01

The spatial, temporal, and social dimensions of wildfire risk are challenging U.S. federal land management agencies to meet societal needs while maintaining the health of the lands they manage. In this paper we present a quantitative, geospatial wildfire risk assessment tool, developed in response to demands for improved risk-based decision frameworks. The methodology...

AEGIS: a wildfire prevention and management information system

Science.gov (United States)

Kalabokidis, Kostas; Ager, Alan; Finney, Mark; Athanasis, Nikos; Palaiologou, Palaiologos; Vasilakos, Christos

2016-03-01

We describe a Web-GIS wildfire prevention and management platform (AEGIS) developed as an integrated and easy-to-use decision support tool to manage wildland fire hazards in Greece (http://aegis.aegean.gr). The AEGIS platform assists with early fire warning, fire planning, fire control and coordination of firefighting forces by providing online access to information that is essential for wildfire management. The system uses a number of spatial and non-spatial data sources to support key system functionalities. Land use/land cover maps were produced by combining field inventory data with high-resolution multispectral satellite images (RapidEye). These data support wildfire simulation tools that allow the users to examine potential fire behavior and hazard with the Minimum Travel Time fire spread algorithm. End-users provide a minimum number of inputs such as fire duration, ignition point and weather information to conduct a fire simulation. AEGIS offers three types of simulations, i.e., single-fire propagation, point-scale calculation of potential fire behavior, and burn probability analysis, similar to the FlamMap fire behavior modeling software. Artificial neural networks (ANNs) were utilized for wildfire ignition risk assessment based on various parameters, training methods, activation functions, pre-processing methods and network structures. The combination of ANNs and expected burned area maps are used to generate integrated output map of fire hazard prediction. The system also incorporates weather information obtained from remote automatic weather stations and weather forecast maps. The system and associated computation algorithms leverage parallel processing techniques (i.e., High Performance Computing and Cloud Computing) that ensure computational power required for real-time application. All AEGIS functionalities are accessible to authorized end-users through a web-based graphical user interface. An innovative smartphone application, AEGIS App, also

Forest Structure Affects Soil Mercury Losses in the Presence and Absence of Wildfire.

Science.gov (United States)

Homann, Peter S; Darbyshire, Robyn L; Bormann, Bernard T; Morrissette, Brett A

2015-11-03

Soil is an important, dynamic component of regional and global mercury (Hg) cycles. This study evaluated how changes in forest soil Hg masses caused by atmospheric deposition and wildfire are affected by forest structure. Pre and postfire soil Hg measurements were made over two decades on replicate experimental units of three prefire forest structures (mature unthinned, mature thinned, clear-cut) in Douglas-fir dominated forest of southwestern Oregon. In the absence of wildfire, O-horizon Hg decreased by 60% during the 14 years after clearcutting, possibly the result of decreased atmospheric deposition due to the smaller-stature vegetative canopy; in contrast, no change was observed in mature unthinned and thinned forest. Wildfire decreased O-horizon Hg by >88% across all forest structures and decreased mineral-soil (0 to 66 mm depth) Hg by 50% in thinned forest and clear-cut. The wildfire-associated soil Hg loss was positively related to the amount of surface fine wood that burned during the fire, the proportion of area that burned at >700 °C, fire severity as indicated by tree mortality, and soil C loss. Loss of soil Hg due to the 200,000 ha wildfire was more than four times the annual atmospheric Hg emissions from human activities in Oregon.

Effects of wildfire on stream temperatures in the Bitterroot River basin, Montana

Science.gov (United States)

Shad K. Mahlum; Lisa A. Eby; Michael K. Young; Chris G. Clancy; Mike Jakober

2011-01-01

Wildfire is a common natural disturbance that can influence stream ecosystems. Of particular concern are increases in water temperature during and following fires, but studies of these phenomena are uncommon. We examined effects of wildfires in 2000 on maximum water temperature for a suite of second- to fourth-order streams with a range of burn severities in the...

Assessing Lebanon's wildfire potential in association with current and future climatic conditions

Science.gov (United States)

George H. Mitri; Mireille G. Jazi; David McWethy

2015-01-01

The increasing occurrence and extent of large-scale wildfires in the Mediterranean have been linked to extended periods of warm and dry weather. We set out to assess Lebanon's wildfire potential in association with current and future climatic conditions. The Keetch-Byram Drought Index (KBDI) was the primary climate variable used in our evaluation of climate/fire...

Evaluating alternative prescribed burning policies to reduce net economic damages from wildfire

Science.gov (United States)

D. Evan Mercer; Jeffrey P. Prestemon; David T. Butry; John M. Pye

2007-01-01

We estimate a wildfire risk model with a new measure of wildfire output, intensity-weighted risk and use it in Monte Carlo simulations to estimate welfare changes from alternative prescribed burning policies. Using Volusia County, Florida as a case study, an annual prescribed burning rate of 13% of all forest lands maximizes net welfare; ignoring the effects on...

Synthesising empirical results to improve predictions of post-wildfire runoff and erosion response

Science.gov (United States)

Richard A. Shakesby; John A. Moody; Deborah A. Martin; Pete Robichaud

2016-01-01

Advances in research into wildfire impacts on runoff and erosion have demonstrated increasing complexity of controlling factors and responses, which, combined with changing fire frequency, present challenges for modellers. We convened a conference attended by experts and practitioners in post-wildfire impacts, meteorology and related research, including...

Nesting ecology of grassland birds following a wildfire in the southern Great Plains

Science.gov (United States)

Roberts, Anthony J.; Boal, Clint W.; Whitlaw, Heather A.

2017-01-01

We studied the response of nesting grassland birds occupying short-grass and mixed-grass prairie sites 2 and 3 y following two, large-scale wildfires that burned ≥360,000 ha in the Texas Panhandle in March 2006. Nest success was greater on burned plots compared to unburned plots, though this varied by species and year. Woody vegetation cover was greater around nests on unburned plots compared to burned plots for Cassin's sparrow (Peucaea cassinii) and lark sparrow (Chondestes grammacus). Cassin's sparrows and lark sparrows nested in more-woody vegetation than did grasshopper sparrows (Ammodramus savannarum), and woody vegetation was reduced following the wildfires. The wildfires appear to have had few if any negative influences on the avian community 3 years postfire. This may be due to grassland breeding birds being adapted to landscapes in which, historically, periodic disturbance (e.g., wildfire, intensive grazing by bison [Bison bison]) resulted in vegetation heterogeneity.

Santa Fe Alliance for Science: The First Eight Years

Science.gov (United States)

Eisenstein, Robert A.

2013-04-01

The Santa Fe Alliance for Science (SFAFS) was founded in May, 2005. SFAFS exists to provide assistance in K-14 math and science education in the greater Santa Fe area. It does this via extensive programs (1) in math and science tutoring at Santa Fe High School, Santa Fe Community College and to a lesser degree at other schools, (2) science fair advising and judging, (3) its ``Santa Fe Science Cafe for Young Thinkers'' series, (4) a program of professional enrichment for K-12 math and science teachers, and (5) a fledging math intervention program in middle school math. Well over 150 STEM professionals, working mostly as volunteers, have contributed since our beginning. Participation by students, parents and teachers has increased dramatically over the years, leading to much more positive views of math and science, especially among elementary school students and teachers. Support from the community and from local school districts has been very strong. I will present a brief status report on SFAFS activities, discuss some of the lessons learned along the way and describe briefly some ideas for the future. More information can be found at the SFAFS website, www.sfafs.org.

Modelling spatial patterns and temporal trends of wildfires in Galicia (NW Spain

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jesús Barreal

2015-08-01

Full Text Available Aim of study: The goal of this paper is to analyse the importance of the main contributing factors to the occurrence of wildfires. Area of study: We employ data from the region of Galicia during 2001-2010; although the similarities shared between this area and other rural areas may allow extrapolation of the present results. Material and Methods: The spatial dependence is analysed by using the Moran’s I and LISA statistics. We also conduct an econometric analysis modelling both, the number of fires and the relative size of afflicted woodland area as dependent variables, which depend on the climatic, land cover variables, and socio-economic characteristics of the affected areas. Fixed effects and random effect models are estimated in order to control for the heterogeneity between the Forest Districts in Galicia. Main results: Moran’s I and LISA statistics show that there is spatial dependence in the occurrence of Galician wildfires. Econometrics models show that climatology, socioeconomic variables, and temporal trends are also important to study both, the number of wildfires and the burned-forest ratio. Research highlights: We conclude that in addition to direct forest actions, other agricultural or social public plans, can help to reduce wildfires in rural areas or wildland-urban areas. Based on these conclusions, a number of guidelines are provided that may foster the development of better forest management policies in order to reduce the occurrence of wildfires.

Influence of wildfires on the variability and trend of ozone concentrations in the U.S. Intermountain West

Science.gov (United States)

Lu, Xiao; Zhang, Lin; Zhao, Yuanhong; Yue, Xu

2016-04-01

Wildfires are important sources of ozone by emitting large amounts of NOx and NMVOC, main ozone precursors at both global and regional scales. Their influences on ozone in the U.S. Intermountain West have recently received much interest because surface ozone concentrations over that region showed an increasing trend in the past two decades likely due to increasing wildfire emissions in a warming climate. Here we use the Lagrangian particle dispersion model (FLEXPART) as well as the GEOS-Chem chemical transport model to estimate wildfires' contribution on summer (June, July and August; JJA) ozone concentration variations, trends, and extremely high ozone events over the US Intermountain West for the past 22 years (1989-2010). We combine the resident time estimated from the FLEXPART 5-day backward trajectories and a high-resolution fire inventory to define a fire index representing the impact of wildfires on ozone concentration at a particular site for each day of summers 1989-2010. Over 26,000 FLEXPART back-trajectories are conducted for the whole time period and for 13 CASTNet surface monitoring sites. We build a stepwise multiple linear regression (SMLR) model of daily ozone concentrations using fire index and other meteorological variables for each site. The SMLR models explain 53% of the ozone variations (ranging from 12% to 68% for each site). We show that ozone produced from wildfires (calculated from SMLR model) are of high variability at daily scale (ranging from 0.1 ppbv to 20.7 ppbv), but are averaged to lower values of about 0.25-3.5 ppbv for summer mean. We estimate that wildfires magnify inter-annual variations of the regional mean summer ozone for about 32%, compared to the result with wildfires impact excluded from the SMLR model. Wildfire ozone enhancements increase at a rate of 0.04 ppbv per year, accouting for about 20% of the regional summer ozone trend during 1989-2010. Removing wildfires' impact would reduce 35% (46%) of the high-ozone days with

Coupled Weather and Wildfire Behavior Modeling at Los Alamos: An Overview

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bossert, James E.; Harlow, Francis H.; Linn, Rodman R.; Reisner, Jon M.; White, Andrew B.; Winterkamp, Judith L.

1997-12-31

Over the past two years, researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) have been engaged in coupled weather/wildfire modeling as part of a broader initiative to predict the unfolding of crisis events. Wildfire prediction was chosen for the following reasons: (1) few physics-based wild-fire prediction models presently exist; (2) LANL has expertise in the fields required to develop such a capability; and (3) the development of this predictive capability would be enhanced by LANL`s strength in high performance computing. Wildfire behavior models have historically been used to predict fire spread and heat release for a prescribed set of fuel, slope, and wind conditions (Andrews 1986). In the vicinity of a fire, however, atmospheric conditions are constantly changing due to non-local weather influences and the intense heat of the fire itself. This non- linear process underscores the need for physics-based models that treat the atmosphere-fire feedback. Actual wildfire prediction with full-physics models is both time-critical and computationally demanding, since it must include regional- to local-scale weather forecasting together with the capability to accurately simulate both intense gradients across a fireline, and atmosphere/fire/fuel interactions. Los Alamos has recently (January 1997) acquired a number of SGI/Cray Origin 2000 machines, each presently having 32 to 64 processors. These high performance computing systems are part of the Department of Energy`s Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative (ASCI). While offering impressive performance now, upgrades to the system promise to deliver over 1 Teraflop (10(12) floating point operations per second) at peak performance before the turn of the century.

Estimating wildfire risk on a Mojave Desert landscape using remote sensing and field sampling

Science.gov (United States)

Van Linn, Peter F.; Nussear, Kenneth E.; Esque, Todd C.; DeFalco, Lesley A.; Inman, Richard D.; Abella, Scott R.

2013-01-01

Predicting wildfires that affect broad landscapes is important for allocating suppression resources and guiding land management. Wildfire prediction in the south-western United States is of specific concern because of the increasing prevalence and severe effects of fire on desert shrublands and the current lack of accurate fire prediction tools. We developed a fire risk model to predict fire occurrence in a north-eastern Mojave Desert landscape. First we developed a spatial model using remote sensing data to predict fuel loads based on field estimates of fuels. We then modelled fire risk (interactions of fuel characteristics and environmental conditions conducive to wildfire) using satellite imagery, our model of fuel loads, and spatial data on ignition potential (lightning strikes and distance to roads), topography (elevation and aspect) and climate (maximum and minimum temperatures). The risk model was developed during a fire year at our study landscape and validated at a nearby landscape; model performance was accurate and similar at both sites. This study demonstrates that remote sensing techniques used in combination with field surveys can accurately predict wildfire risk in the Mojave Desert and may be applicable to other arid and semiarid lands where wildfires are prevalent.

Satellite-derived aerosol radiative forcing from the 2004 British Columbia wildfires

Science.gov (United States)

Guo, Song; Leighton, H.

2008-01-01

The British Columbia wildfires of 2004 was one of the largest wildfire events in the last ten years in Canada. Both the shortwave and longwave smoke aerosol radiative forcing at the top-of-atmosphere (TOA) are investigated using data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and the Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) instruments. Relationships between the radiative forcing fluxes (??F) and wildfire aerosol optical thickness (AOT) at 0.55 ??m (??0.55) are deduced for both noontime instantaneous forcing and diurnally averaged forcing. The noontime averaged instantaneous shortwave and longwave smoke aerosol radiative forcing at the TOA are 45.8??27.5 W m-2 and -12.6??6.9 W m-2, respectively for a selected study area between 62??N and 68??N in latitude and 125??W and 145??W in longitude over three mainly clear-sky days (23-25 June). The derived diurnally averaged smoke aerosol shortwave radiative forcing is 19.9??12.1 W m-2 for a mean ??0.55 of 1.88??0.71 over the same time period. The derived ??F-?? relationship can be implemented in the radiation scheme used in regional climate models to assess the effect of wildfire aerosols.

33 CFR 334.730 - Waters of Santa Rosa Sound and Gulf of Mexico adjacent to Santa Rosa Island, Air Force Proving...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... 33 Navigation and Navigable Waters 3 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Waters of Santa Rosa Sound and..., Fla. 334.730 Section 334.730 Navigation and Navigable Waters CORPS OF ENGINEERS, DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY, DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE DANGER ZONE AND RESTRICTED AREA REGULATIONS § 334.730 Waters of Santa Rosa...

The Spotting Distribution of Wildfires

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jonathan Martin

2016-06-01

Full Text Available In wildfire science, spotting refers to non-local creation of new fires, due to downwind ignition of brands launched from a primary fire. Spotting is often mentioned as being one of the most difficult problems for wildfire management, because of its unpredictable nature. Since spotting is a stochastic process, it makes sense to talk about a probability distribution for spotting, which we call the spotting distribution. Given a location ahead of the fire front, we would like to know how likely is it to observe a spot fire at that location in the next few minutes. The aim of this paper is to introduce a detailed procedure to find the spotting distribution. Most prior modelling has focused on the maximum spotting distance, or on physical subprocesses. We will use mathematical modelling, which is based on detailed physical processes, to derive a spotting distribution. We discuss the use and measurement of this spotting distribution in fire spread, fire management and fire breaching. The appendix of this paper contains a comprehensive review of the relevant underlying physical sub-processes of fire plumes, launching fire brands, wind transport, falling and terminal velocity, combustion during transport, and ignition upon landing.

Socio-geographic analysis of wild land fires: causes of the 2006's wildfires in Galicia (Spain)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Balsa-Barreiro, J.; Hermosilla, T.

2013-07-01

Aim of study: To propose a methodology to establish motivations underlying wildland fire episodes by analyzing both the socioeconomics of the affected territory and the geographical distribution of the wildfire. Area of study: The wildfires occurred during 2006 in Galicia, in the NW of Spain, were analyzed and compared regard to the previous years. Material and methods: The proposed methodology in this study is divided into four steps: (a) definition of the forest context, (b) fire episode and socioeconomic data collection, (c) geospatial representation through map production, and (d) joint analysis and data interpretation. A combined analysis of the spatial and temporal coincidence of wildfire and the socioeconomic activities is performed. Main results: A combined analysis of the spatial and temporal coincidence of wildfire dynamics and the socioeconomic activities allow us to assess and to interpret wildfire causes and motivations of socioeconomic groups. In our area study, a broad analysis indicates that wildfire recurrence within this region is related to an accelerated rural flight process which exacerbates the conflict between rural and urban models. Research highlights: The socio-geographical analysis of a territory's wildfire dynamics enables us to establish possible causes and motivations of their origins. Providing the specific contextual and socioeconomic information, this methodology has potential applicability across varied study locations. (Author)

Wildfire potential mapping over the state of Mississippi: A land surface modeling approach

Science.gov (United States)

William H. Cooke; Georgy V. Mostovoy; Valentine G. Anantharaj; W. Matt Jolly

2012-01-01

A relationship between the likelihood of wildfires and various drought metrics (soil moisture-based fire potential indices) were examined over the southern part of Mississippi. The following three indices were tested and used to simulate spatial and temporal wildfire probability changes: (1) the accumulated difference between daily precipitation and potential...

The effect of personal experience on choice-based preferences for wildfire protection programs

Science.gov (United States)

Tom Holmes; Armando Gonzalez-Caban; John Loomis; Jose Sanchez

2013-01-01

In this paper, we investigate homeowner preferences and willingness to pay for wildfire protection programs using a choice experiment with three attributes: risk, loss and cost. Preference heterogeneity among survey respondents was examined using three econometric models and risk preferences were evaluated by comparing willingness to pay for wildfire protection...

Transport woes threaten California production

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anon.

1994-01-01

California oil producers face a loss of production this year because of constraints on pipeline and tanker transportation to Los Angeles area refineries. The potential bottleneck is occurring at a time when Outer Continental Shelf production is near capacity from Chevron Corp.'s Point Arguello project at the same time production is increasing from Exxon Corp.'s nearby Santa Ynex Unit (SYU) expansion. Both megaprojects must compete for pipeline space with onshore crude producers, notably in California's San Joaquin Valley (SJV). Recent development limiting transportation options include: An indefinite shutdown of Four Corners Pipe Line Co.'s 50,000 b/d Line No. 1, damaged by the Jan. 17 earthquake; Loss of a tanker permit by Chevron and partners for offshore Point Arguello production; Permanent shutdown of Exxon's offshore storage and treatment (OST) facility, which since 1981 has used tankers to transport about 20,000 b/d of SYU production from the Santa Barbara Channel to Los Angeles. The OST, the first commercial floating production system in the US -- placed in the Santa Barbara Channel in 1981 after a decade of precedent setting legal and political battles -- was shut down Apr. 4. The paper discusses these production concerns, available options, the OST shutdown, and the troubled history of the OST

Impact of drought on wildfires in Iberia

Science.gov (United States)

Russo, Ana; Gouveia, Célia M.; DaCamara, Carlos; Sousa, Pedro; Trigo, Ricardo M.

2015-04-01

Southern European countries, and the Iberian Peninsula (IP) in particular, have been vastly affected by summer wildfires (Trigo et al., 2013). This condition is hampered by the frequent warm and dry meteorological conditions found in summer which play a significant role in the triggering and spreading of wildfires. These meteorological conditions are also particularly important for the onset and end of drought periods, a phenomenon that has recurrently affected the IP (Gouveia et al., 2012). Moreover, the IP corresponds to one of the most sensitive areas to current and future climate change, and recent and future trends towards a dryer and warmer Mediterranean climate (Sousa et al., 2014) will tend to exacerbate these problems. The main scope of this study was to investigate the impact of drought on wildfires' burned areas in the IP. The objective was to examine the correlation between drought, as expressed by both the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) and the Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) (Vicente-Serrano et al., 2010), and wildfire burned areas. The SPI and SPEI were both calculated for 4 large regions (Northwestern, Northern, Southwestern and Eastern) whose spatial patterns and seasonal fire regimes were shown to be related with constraining factors such as topography, vegetation cover and climate conditions (Trigo et al., 2013). In this study, the drought indices were determined for the time scales of 3 and 6 months for August and for 12 months in September, thus representing the summer and annual drought. The correlation between drought and burned areas during July and August was particularly significant for the 3 months SPEI and SPI relatively to the 6 and 12 time scales, which indicates that drought and fires relation is a small-size scale process. Moreover, the correlation between drought and burned areas during July and August was particularly significant for the Northern and Southwestern regions both for SPEI for 3 and 6

Forecasting wind-driven wildfires using an inverse modelling approach

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

O. Rios

2014-06-01

Full Text Available A technology able to rapidly forecast wildfire dynamics would lead to a paradigm shift in the response to emergencies, providing the Fire Service with essential information about the ongoing fire. This paper presents and explores a novel methodology to forecast wildfire dynamics in wind-driven conditions, using real-time data assimilation and inverse modelling. The forecasting algorithm combines Rothermel's rate of spread theory with a perimeter expansion model based on Huygens principle and solves the optimisation problem with a tangent linear approach and forward automatic differentiation. Its potential is investigated using synthetic data and evaluated in different wildfire scenarios. The results show the capacity of the method to quickly predict the location of the fire front with a positive lead time (ahead of the event in the order of 10 min for a spatial scale of 100 m. The greatest strengths of our method are lightness, speed and flexibility. We specifically tailor the forecast to be efficient and computationally cheap so it can be used in mobile systems for field deployment and operativeness. Thus, we put emphasis on producing a positive lead time and the means to maximise it.

Local smoke-free policy development in Santa Fe, Argentina.

Science.gov (United States)

Sebrié, Ernesto M; Glantz, Stanton A

2010-04-01

To describe the process of approval and implementation of a comprehensive smoke-free law in the province of Santa Fe, Argentina, between 2005 and 2009. Review of the Santa Fe smoke-free legislation, articles published in local newspapers and documentation on two lawsuits filed against the law, and interviews with key individuals in Santa Fe. Efforts to implement smoke-free policies in Santa Fe began during the 1990s without success, and resumed in 2005 when the provincial Legislature approved the first 100% smoke-free subnational law in Argentina. There was no strong opposition during the discussions within the legislature. As in other parts of the world, pro-tobacco industry interests attempted to block the implementation of the law using well known strategies. These efforts included a controversy media campaign set up, the creation of a hospitality industry association and a virtual smokers' rights group, the introduction of a counterproposal seeking modification of the law, the challenge of the law in the Supreme Court, and the proposal of a weak national bill that would 'conflict' with the subnational law. Tobacco control advocates sought media attention as a strategy to protect the law. Santa Fe is the first subnational jurisdiction in Latin America to have enacted a comprehensive smoke-free policy following the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. After 3 years of implementation, pro-tobacco industry forces failed to undermine the law. Other subnational jurisdictions in Argentina, as well as in Mexico and Brazil are following the Santa Fe example.

75 FR 435 - Notice of Inventory Completion: Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, IL

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-05

... Natural History, Chicago, IL. The human remains were removed from the Channel Islands in Santa Barbara and.... A detailed assessment of the human remains was made by Field Museum of Natural History professional... 407). The human remains were accessioned into the Field Museum of Natural History the same year. No...

Cuticular hydrocarbons and soldier defense secretions of Reticulitermes in southern California: a critical analysis of the taxonomy of the genus in North America

Science.gov (United States)

Lori J. Nelson; Laurence G. Cool; Christopher W. Solek; Michael I. Haverty

2008-01-01

Cuticular hydrocarbons (CHC) and soldier defense secretions (SDS) were characterized for collections of Reticulitermes from six counties (Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, and Santa Barbara) in southern California. Collection sites included the type locality for R. hesperus, Lake Arrowhead (formerly known as Little Bear Lake) in the San...

The influence of incident management teams on the deployment of wildfire suppression resources

Science.gov (United States)

Michael Hand; Hari Katuwal; David E. Calkin; Matthew P. Thompson

2017-01-01

Despite large commitments of personnel and equipment to wildfire suppression, relatively little is known about the factors that affect how many resources are ordered and assigned to wildfire incidents and the variation in resources across incident management teams (IMTs). Using detailed data on suppression resource assignments for IMTs managing the highest complexity...

Social media approaches to modeling wildfire smoke dispersion: spatiotemporal and social scientific investigations

Science.gov (United States)

Sonya Sachdeva; Sarah M. McCaffrey; Dexter Locke

2016-01-01

Wildfires have significant effects on human populations, economically, environmentally, and in terms of their general wellbeing. Smoke pollution, in particular, from either prescribed burns or uncontrolled wildfires, can have significant health impacts. Some estimates suggest that smoke dispersion from fire events may affect the health of one in three residents in the...

Santa Elena. Ready to reshape its transport energy matrix

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Moreano, Hernan [Universidad Estatal Peninsula de Santa Elena (Ecuador). Inst. de Investigacion Cientifica y Desarrollo Tecnologico (INCYT)

2012-07-01

The renewable energy issue opens the door to an ambient of opportunities. Santa Elena, one of the coastal provinces of Ecuador has the chance to go from a fossil fuel energy culture to a new energy scheme based on the use of environmental friendly fuels like natural gas and other renewable energy carriers like hydrogen. The marginal production of oil and natural gas from the Gustavo Galindo Velasco field and the updated gas reserves from the Gulf of Guayaquil make it possible. Infrastructure for natural gas production and distribution for vehicles is almost ready and any of the three refineries can generate hydrogen from natural gas. This provides the opportunity to reshape the Santa Elena transport energy matrix, where vehicles can burn natural gas and inter country buses can work with hydrogen. Traditional Fishing boats can be fitted with hydrogen storage and fuel systems later on. Santa Elena should face this challenge through a joint effort of public and private parties. Santa Elena State University and its partners as a focus point to create: The Campus of Energy Knowledge, where research, science and technology will serve companies that work in the energy business with a strong synergy, which will create jobs for the Santa Elena people. (orig.)

Synoptic backgrounds of the widest wildfire in Mazandaran Province of Iran during December 11-13, 2010

Science.gov (United States)

Ghavidel, Yousef; Farajzadeh, Manuchehr; Khaleghi Babaei, Meysam

2016-12-01

In this paper, atmospheric origins of the widest wildfire in Mazandaran province on 11-13th of December, 2010 have been investigated. Data sets of this research include maximum daily temperature (MDT), minimum relative humidity (MRH) of terrestrial stations, dynamic and thermodynamic features of the atmosphere, Gridded data sets of Self-Calibrated Palmer drought severity index (SCPDSI) and global drought dataset standardized precipitation-evapotranspiration index (SPEI) and data related to the time and the extent of the wildfire. The ``environmental to circulation'' approach to synoptic classification has been used to investigate relationships between local-scale surface environment (wildfire) and the synoptic-scale atmospheric circulation conditions. Results of study show that during the 3-day wide wildfire, the average of MDT and the MRH was significantly different from the long-term average. During the aforementioned wildfire, the average of MDT in Mazandaran province was 26 °C and the average of MRH was reported 35 %. The long-term average of MDT and the MRH in Mazandaran province during 3 days of wildfire was 12.3 °C and 68 %, respectively. Therefore, the MDT has a positive abnormality of 13.7 °C and the MRH has a negative abnormality of 33 %. In addition, monthly SCPDSI and SPEI indicated severe drought conditions at December 2010 in Mazandaran. Analysis of SLP maps shows that during the 3-day fire, a pressure center of 1110 hPa on Persian Gulf and a very low-pressure center on Turkey and Asia Minor were created. Normally, this event has caused the pressure gradient and warm and dry air advection from Arabian Peninsula to higher longitudes, particularly Mazandaran province. Consequently, the MDT increased and the wildfire of Mazandaran forest took place in an area of 220 ha. Zonal wind maps signify the weakness of Zonal wind and meridional wind maps show the southern direction of meridional wind flow during the wide wildfire. Moreover, Omega maps prove

Santa soja: narrativa documental em fotolivro

OpenAIRE

Seidl, Eduardo

2016-01-01

A partir do fotolivro Santa Soja como objeto e do resgate histórico das práticas jornalísticas de reportagem e de edição por meio de entrevistas com os cinco autores, esta pesquisa busca identificar o fotolivro como formato potencializador do fotodocumentarismo. Para tanto, foi proposta uma localização conceitual sobre o fotolivro, a linguagem e a narrativa fotográfica e sobre a vocação historiográfica e testemunhal da fotografia, a fim de contextualizar uma análise do fotolivro Santa Soja qu...

Predicting Geomorphic and Hydrologic Risks after Wildfire Using Harmonic and Stochastic Analyses

Science.gov (United States)

Mikesell, J.; Kinoshita, A. M.; Florsheim, J. L.; Chin, A.; Nourbakhshbeidokhti, S.

2017-12-01

Wildfire is a landscape-scale disturbance that often alters hydrological processes and sediment flux during subsequent storms. Vegetation loss from wildfires induce changes to sediment supply such as channel erosion and sedimentation and streamflow magnitude or flooding. These changes enhance downstream hazards, threatening human populations and physical aquatic habitat over various time scales. Using Williams Canyon, a basin burned by the Waldo Canyon Fire (2012) as a case study, we utilize deterministic and statistical modeling methods (Fourier series and first order Markov chain) to assess pre- and post-fire geomorphic and hydrologic characteristics, including of precipitation, enhanced vegetation index (EVI, a satellite-based proxy of vegetation biomass), streamflow, and sediment flux. Local precipitation, terrestrial Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) scanning, and satellite-based products are used for these time series analyses. We present a framework to assess variability of periodic and nonperiodic climatic and multivariate trends to inform development of a post-wildfire risk assessment methodology. To establish the extent to which a wildfire affects hydrologic and geomorphic patterns, a Fourier series was used to fit pre- and post-fire geomorphic and hydrologic characteristics to yearly temporal cycles and subcycles of 6, 4, 3, and 2.4 months. These cycles were analyzed using least-squares estimates of the harmonic coefficients or amplitudes of each sub-cycle's contribution to fit the overall behavior of a Fourier series. The stochastic variances of these characteristics were analyzed by composing first-order Markov models and probabilistic analysis through direct likelihood estimates. Preliminary results highlight an increased dependence of monthly post-fire hydrologic characteristics on 12 and 6-month temporal cycles. This statistical and probabilistic analysis provides a basis to determine the impact of wildfires on the temporal dependence of

Santa Cruz thermic plant islanding with local loads

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Nascimento, A R [Light Servicos de Eletricidade SA, Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil); Gomes, Paulo; Almeida, Paulo C. de [ELETROBRAS, Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil); Sereno, Marcos G [FURNAS, Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil)

1988-12-31

This work looks into the feasibility of implementing a scheme for the islanding of the Santa Cruz Thermic Plant ( Rio de janeiro State) with LIGHT`s (Electric power public utility) loads fed by the Santa Cruz-Jacarepagua trunk connection, considering presently-existing system problems relative to a significant frequency drop when a loss occurs of a large generation block and which causes the blockade scheme of the mentioned Plant to work, thus aggravating the frequency control still further. An analysis is made of such scheme implementation implications on the scheme for islanding a Santa Cruz 84 MW machine to provide supply to the auxiliary services of The Angra dos Reis nuclear plant presently existing in the system. 2 refs., 9 figs.

Interactive effects of wildfire, forest management, and isolation on amphibian and parasite abundance

Science.gov (United States)

Hossack, Blake R.; Corn, P. Stephen; Winsor H. Lowe,; R. Kenneth Honeycutt,; Sean A. Parks,

2013-01-01

Projected increases in wildfire and other climate-driven disturbances will affect populations and communities worldwide, including host–parasite relationships. Research in temperate forests has shown that wildfire can negatively affect amphibians, but this research has occurred primarily outside of managed landscapes where interactions with human disturbances could result in additive or synergistic effects. Furthermore, parasites represent a large component of biodiversity and can affect host fitness and population dynamics, yet they are rarely included in studies of how vertebrate hosts respond to disturbance. To determine how wildfire affects amphibians and their parasites, and whether effects differ between protected and managed landscapes, we compared abundance of two amphibians and two nematodes relative to wildfire extent and severity around wetlands in neighboring protected and managed forests (Montana, USA). Population sizes of adult, male long-toed salamanders (Ambystoma macrodactylum) decreased with increased burn severity, with stronger negative effects on isolated populations and in managed forests. In contrast, breeding population sizes of Columbia spotted frogs (Rana luteiventris) increased with burn extent in both protected and managed protected forests. Path analysis showed that the effects of wildfire on the two species of nematodes were consistent with differences in their life history and transmission strategies and the responses of their hosts. Burn severity indirectly reduced abundance of soil-transmitted Cosmocercoides variabilis through reductions in salamander abundance. Burn severity also directly reduced C. variabilis abundance, possibly though changes in soil conditions. For the aquatically transmitted nematode Gyrinicola batrachiensis, the positive effect of burn extent on density of Columbia spotted frog larvae indirectly increased parasite abundance. Our results show that effects of wildfire on amphibians depend upon burn extent

Race and wildfire risk perceptions among rural forestland owners in north-central Florida

Science.gov (United States)

Miriam Wyman; Sparkle Malone; Taylor Stein; Cassandra Johnson

2012-01-01

The southern United States is susceptible to wildfire, from its climate, growing seasons, lightning frequency, and decades of fire suppression. With much known about wildfire’s biophysical risks, less is understood about sociodemographic obstacles, including race, income, and education. Blacks in the rural southeastern United States are typically among the most...

The economic cost of adverse health effects from wildfire-smoke exposure: A review

Science.gov (United States)

Ikuho Kochi; Geoffrey H. Donovan; Patricia A. Champ; John B. Loomis

2010-01-01

The economic costs of adverse health effects associated with exposure to wildfire smoke should be given serious consideration in determining the optimal wildfire management policy. Unfortunately, the literature in this research area is thin. In an effort to better understand the nature of these economic costs, we review and synthesise the relevant literature in three...

Different regional climatic drivers of Holocene large wildfires in boreal forests of northeastern America

Science.gov (United States)

Remy, Cécile C.; Hély, Christelle; Blarquez, Olivier; Magnan, Gabriel; Bergeron, Yves; Lavoie, Martin; Ali, Adam A.

2017-03-01

Global warming could increase climatic instability and large wildfire activity in circumboreal regions, potentially impairing both ecosystem functioning and human health. However, links between large wildfire events and climatic and/or meteorological conditions are still poorly understood, partly because few studies have covered a wide range of past climate-fire interactions. We compared palaeofire and simulated climatic data over the last 7000 years to assess causes of large wildfire events in three coniferous boreal forest regions in north-eastern Canada. These regions span an east-west cline, from a hilly region influenced by the Atlantic Ocean currently dominated by Picea mariana and Abies balsamea to a flatter continental region dominated by Picea mariana and Pinus banksiana. The largest wildfires occurred across the entire study zone between 3000 and 1000 cal. BP. In western and central continental regions these events were triggered by increases in both the fire-season length and summer/spring temperatures, while in the eastern region close to the ocean they were likely responses to hydrological (precipitation/evapotranspiration) variability. The impact of climatic drivers on fire size varied spatially across the study zone, confirming that regional climate dynamics could modulate effects of global climate change on wildfire regimes.

"Santa Maria" forever : Eesti ja Portugali kirjandussuhetest / Toomas Haug

Index Scriptorium Estoniae

Haug, Toomas, 1956-

2012-01-01

Jaanuaris 1961 Portugali diktaatorlikule režiimile protestiks kaaperdatud laevast "Santa Maria", mis sai omamoodi vabaduse ja vastuhaku sümboliks ka okupeeritud Eestis. Artiklis käsitletakse sellest sündmusest mõjutatud teoseid, täpsemalt Aleksander Suumanni maali "Santa Maria" ja Paul-Eerik Rummo samanimelist luuletust

"Santa Maria" forever : Eesti ja Portugali kirjandussuhetest / Toomas Haug

Index Scriptorium Estoniae

Haug, Toomas, 1956-

2015-01-01

Jaanuaris 1961 Portugali diktaatorlikule režiimile protestiks kaaperdatud laevast "Santa Maria", mis sai omamoodi vabaduse ja vastuhaku sümboliks ka okupeeritud Eestis. Artiklis käsitletakse sellest sündmusest mõjutatud teoseid, täpsemalt Aleksander Suumanni maali "Santa Maria" ja Paul-Eerik Rummo samanimelist luuletust

Social amplification of wildfire risk: The role of social interactions and information sources

Science.gov (United States)

Hannah Brenkert-Smith; Katherine L. Dickinson; Patricia A. Champ; Nicholas Flores

2013-01-01

Wildfire is a persistent and growing threat across much of the western United States. Understanding how people living in fire-prone areas perceive this threat is essential to the design of effective risk management policies. Drawing on the social amplification of risk framework, we develop a conceptual model of wildfire risk perceptions that incorporates the social...

Probabilistic risk models for multiple disturbances: an example of forest insects and wildfires

Science.gov (United States)

Haiganoush K. Preisler; Alan A. Ager; Jane L. Hayes

2010-01-01

Building probabilistic risk models for highly random forest disturbances like wildfire and forest insect outbreaks is a challenging. Modeling the interactions among natural disturbances is even more difficult. In the case of wildfire and forest insects, we looked at the probability of a large fire given an insect outbreak and also the incidence of insect outbreaks...

Extreme wildfire events are linked to global-change-type droughts in the northern Mediterranean

Science.gov (United States)

Ruffault, Julien; Curt, Thomas; Martin-StPaul, Nicolas K.; Moron, Vincent; Trigo, Ricardo M.

2018-03-01

Increasing drought conditions under global warming are expected to alter the frequency and distribution of large and high-intensity wildfires. However, our understanding of the impact of increasing drought on extreme wildfires events remains incomplete. Here, we analyzed the weather conditions associated with the extreme wildfires events that occurred in Mediterranean France during the exceptionally dry summers of 2003 and 2016. We identified that these fires were related to two distinct shifts in the fire weather space towards fire weather conditions that had not been explored before and resulting from specific interactions between different types of drought and different fire weather types. In 2016, a long-lasting press drought intensified wind-driven fires. In 2003, a hot drought combining a heat wave with a press drought intensified heat-induced fires. Our findings highlight that increasing drought conditions projected by climate change scenarios might affect the dryness of fuel compartments and lead to a higher frequency of extremes wildfires events.

Enhancing Pre- and Post-Wildfire Vegetation Recovery and Understanding Feedbacks of Cheatgrass invasion Using NASA Earth Observations

Science.gov (United States)

Olsen, N.; Counts, A.; Quistorff, C.; Ohr, C. A.; Toner, C.

2017-12-01

Increasing wildfire frequency and severity has emphasized the importance of post-wildfire recovery efforts in southern Idaho's sagebrush ecosystems. These changing fire regimes favor invasive grass species while hindering native sagebrush habitat regeneration, causing a positive feedback cycle of invasive growth - wildfires - invasive growth. Due to this undesirable process and anthropogenic influences, the sagebrush ecosystem is one of the most endangered in the US. In this project the NASA DEVELOP group of Pocatello, Idaho partnered with the Bureau of Land Management, Idaho Department of Fish and Game, and the US Department of Agriculture to characterize ecosystem recovery following the Crystal (2006), Henry Creek (2016), Jefferson (2010), and Soda (2015) wildfires. Determining vegetation cover heterogeneity and density can be time consuming and the factors affecting ecosystem recovery can be complex. In addition, restoration success is difficult to determine as vegetation composition is not often known prior to wildfire events and monitoring vegetation composition after restoration efforts can be resource intensive. These wildfires temporal monitoring consisted of 2001 to 2017 using NASA Earth observations such as Landsat 5 Thermal Mapper (TM), Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI), Terra Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), and Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) to determine the most significant factors of wildfire recovery and the influence targeted grazing could have for recovery. In addition, this project will include monitoring of invasive species propagation and whether spatial patterns or extents of the wildfire contribute to propagation. Understanding the key variables that made reseeding and natural recovery work in some areas, assessing why they failed in others, and identifying factors that made non-native propagation ideal are important issues for land managers in this region.

Fish and fire: Post-wildfire sediment dynamics and implications for the viability of trout populations

Science.gov (United States)

Murphy, B. P.; Czuba, J. A.; Belmont, P.; Budy, P.; Finch, C.

2017-12-01

Episodic events in steep landscapes, such as wildfire and mass wasting, contribute large pulses of sediment to rivers and can significantly alter the quality and connectivity of fish habitat. Understanding where these sediment inputs occur, how they are transported and processed through the watershed, and their geomorphic effect on the river network is critical to predicting the impact on ecological aquatic communities. The Tushar Mountains of southern Utah experienced a severe wildfire in 2010, resulting in numerous debris flows and the extirpation of trout populations. Following many years of habitat and ecological monitoring in the field, we have developed a modeling framework that links post-wildfire debris flows, fluvial sediment routing, and population ecology in order to evaluate the impact and response of trout to wildfire. First, using the Tushar topographic and wildfire parameters, as well as stochastic precipitation generation, we predict the post-wildfire debris flow probabilities and volumes of mainstem tributaries using the Cannon et al. [2010] model. This produces episodic hillslope sediment inputs, which are delivered to a fluvial sediment, river-network routing model (modified from Czuba et al. [2017]). In this updated model, sediment transport dynamics are driven by time-varying discharge associated with the stochastic precipitation generation, include multiple grain sizes (including gravel), use mixed-size transport equations (Wilcock & Crowe [2003]), and incorporate channel slope adjustments with aggradation and degradation. Finally, with the spatially explicit adjustments in channel bed elevation and grain size, we utilize a new population viability analysis (PVA) model to predict the impact and recovery of fish populations in response to these changes in habitat. Our model provides a generalizable framework for linking physical and ecological models and for evaluating the extirpation risk of isolated fish populations throughout the

Application of an Original Wildfire Smoke Health Cost Benefits Transfer Protocol to the Western US, 2005-2015

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Jones, Benjamin A.; Berrens, Robert P.

2017-11-01

Recent growth in the frequency and severity of US wildfires has led to more wildfire smoke and increased public exposure to harmful air pollutants. Populations exposed to wildfire smoke experience a variety of negative health impacts, imposing economic costs on society. However, few estimates of smoke health costs exist and none for the entire Western US, in particular, which experiences some of the largest and most intense wildfires in the US. The lack of cost estimates is troublesome because smoke health impacts are an important consideration of the overall costs of wildfire. To address this gap, this study provides the first time series estimates of PM2.5 smoke costs across mortality and several morbidity measures for the Western US over 2005-2015. This time period includes smoke from several megafires and includes years of record-breaking acres burned. Smoke costs are estimated using a benefits transfer protocol developed for contexts when original health data are not available. The novelty of our protocol is that it synthesizes the literature on choices faced by researchers when conducting a smoke cost benefit transfer. On average, wildfire smoke in the Western US creates 165 million in annual morbidity and mortality health costs.

Estimation of Total Yearly CO2 Emissions by Wildfires in Mexico during the Period 1999–2010

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Flor Bautista Vicente

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The phenomenon of wildfires became a global environmental problem which demands estimations of their CO2 emissions. Wildfires have deteriorated the air quality increasingly. Using available information on documented wildfires and a data set of satellite detected hot spots, total yearly emissions of CO2 in Mexico were estimated for the period 1999–2010. A map of the main vegetation groups was used to calculate total areas for every vegetation type. The yearly number of hot spots per vegetation type was calculated. Estimates of emitted CO2 in a wildfire were then accomplished by considering parameters such as: forest fuel load, vegetation type, burning efficiency, and mean burned area. The number of wildfires and total affected areas showed an annual variability. The yearly mean of affected area by a single wildfire varied between 0.2 and 0.3 km2. The total affected area during the period 1999 to 2010 was 86800 km2 which corresponds to 4.3% of the Mexican territory. Total CO2 emissions were approximately 112 Tg. The most affected vegetation types were forest and rainforest.

Does Place Attachment Predict Wildfire Mitigation and Preparedness? A Comparison of Wildland-Urban Interface and Rural Communities.

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Anton, Charis E; Lawrence, Carmen

2016-01-01

Wildfires are a common occurrence in many countries and are predicted to increase as we experience the effects of climate change. As more people are expected to be affected by fires, it is important to increase people's wildfire mitigation and preparation. Place attachment has been theorized to be related to mitigation and preparation. The present study examined place attachment and wildfire mitigation and preparation in two Australian samples, one rural and one on the wildland-urban interface. The study consisted of 300 participants who responded to questionnaires about their place attachment to their homes and local areas, as well as describing their socio-demographic characteristics and wildfire mitigation and preparedness. Hierarchical regression showed that place attachment to homes predicted wildfire mitigation and preparedness in the rural sample but not in the wildland-urban interface sample. The results suggest that place attachment is a motivator for mitigation and preparation only for people living rurally. Reminding rural residents of their attachment to home at the beginning of wildfire season may result in greater mitigation and preparedness. Further research focusing on why attachment does not predict mitigation and preparedness in the wildland-urban interface is needed.

Assessing increasing susceptibility to wildfire at the wildland-urban fringe in the western United States

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Kinoshita, A. M.; Hogue, T. S.

2013-05-01

Much of the western U.S. is increasingly susceptible to wildfire activity due to drier conditions, elevated fuel loads, and expanding urbanization. As population increases, development pushes the urban boundary further into wildlands, creating more potential for human interaction at the wildland-urban interface (WUI), primarily from human ignitions and fire suppression policies. The immediate impacts of wildfires include vulnerability to debris flows, flooding, and impaired water quality. Fires also alter longer-term hydrological and ecosystem behavior. The current study utilizes geospatial datasets to investigate historical wildfire size and frequency relative to the WUI for a range of cities across western North America. California, the most populous state in the U.S., has an extensive fire history. The decennial population and acres burned for four major counties (Los Angeles, San Bernardino, San Diego, and Shasta) in California show that increasing wildfire size and frequency follow urbanization trends, with high correlation between the last decade of burned area, urban-fringe proximity, and increasing population. Ultimately, results will provide information on urban fringe communities that are most vulnerable to the risks associated with wildfire and post-fire impacts. In light of evolving land use policies (i.e. forest management and treatment, development at the urban-fringe) and climate change, it is critical to advance our knowledge of the implications that these conditions pose to urban centers, communicate risks to the public, and ultimately provide guidance for wildfire management.

Valoración, partición y distribución de la tierra de los resguardos indígenas en una localidad andina venezolana. Santa Bárbara de Chachopo

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Samudio A., Edda O.

2010-12-01

Full Text Available The article examines the process of the establishment of Indian reserves (resguardos in the Venezuelan Andes in the late sixteenth century, and the experiences of their dissolution three centuries later. The main objective of the study is to analyze the appraisal, partition and distribution of the Indian reserves of Merida, assessing the role of the factors that were key elements in that process. The study includes aspects of the extinction of lands that were given with common and non-transferable title to the Indians settlements of Merida. The case of the pueblo of Santa Barbara de Chachopo is here offered as an example.

El artículo examina el proceso mediante el cual los Resguardos indígenas que fueron establecidos en la región andina venezolana en el tardío siglo XVI experimentaron su disolución tres centurias más tarde. El objetivo central de este trabajo es analizar la valoración, partición y distribución de esos Resguardos Indígenas de Mérida, tratando de apreciar la intervención de los factores que participan en ese hecho; para el estudio de los aspectos contemplados en el proceso de extinción de las tierras que fueron otorgadas, con carácter común e intransferible, a los pueblos de indios de Mérida; en esta ocasión, se tomó como ejemplo el caso de Santa Bárbara de Chachopo.

Annual Report on Awards (1982). Graduate and Postdoctoral Fellowships, Postdoctoral Research Associateships.

Science.gov (United States)

1982-07-01

Sociolinguistics Gloria Jennien Bruston, Southern University. Baton Rouge Ahmdu Bello University, Nigeria Development Politics/African Politics...Eastern Illinois University University of Alabama. Tuscaloosa America History Mario Trinidad Garcia, University of California. Santa Barbara University of...Limon. University of Texas, Austin University of California, Berkeley Anthropology- Sociolinguistics Coramue R. Mann, Florida State University Cornell

The University of California Institute of Environmental Stress Marathon Field Studies

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Maron, Michael B.

2014-01-01

In 1973, the Institute of Environmental Stress of the University of California-Santa Barbara, under the direction of Steven M. Horvath, began a series of field and laboratory studies of marathon runners during competition. As one of Horvath's graduate students, many of these studies became part of my doctoral dissertation. The rationale for…

76 FR 28499 - Culturally Significant Objects Imported for Exhibition Determinations: “Picasso and Braque: The...

Science.gov (United States)

2011-05-17

...,'' imported from abroad for temporary exhibition within the United States, are of cultural significance. The... that the exhibition or display of the exhibit objects at the Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas, from on or about May 29, 2011, until on or about August 21, 2011, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art...

Techniques for Minimizing and Monitoring the Impact of Pipeline Construction on Coastal Streams

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Thomas W. Mulroy; John R. Storrer; Vincent J. Semonsen; Michael L. Dungan

1989-01-01

This paper describes specific measures recently employed for protection of riparian resources during construction of an oil and gas pipeline that crossed coastal reaches of 23 perennial and intermittent streams between Point Conception and Gaviota in Santa Barbara County, California. Flumes were constructed to maintain stream flow; anchored straw bales and silt fences...

The Decline of Air Assault Operations

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2016-05-26

Anthology (Carlisle Barracks: US Army War College, 2000), 6-7. 94 Clausewitz, 198; Sun Tzu , The Art of Warfare, trans. Robert Ames (New York...Encyclopedia of World War II. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2004. Tzu , Sun . The Art of Warfare. Trans. Robert Ames. New York: Ballentine Books, 1993. 55... Bibliography ...................................................................................................................................51 iv

Acorn Yield During 1988 and 1989 on California's Central Coast

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Sergio L. Garcia; Wayne A. Jensen; William H. Weitkamp; William D. Tietje

1991-01-01

In 1988, a study was began to evaluate acorn yield of valley oak (Quercus lobata), coast live oak (Q. agrifolia), and blue oak (Q. douglasii) in three of California's central coast counties: Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, and San Benito. The purpose of the study was to examine the degree and variability of...

Safe, Seen, and Celebrated with AHA! Peace Builders: Putting Youth in Charge of Change

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Freed, Jennifer; Lowenstein, Melissa

2017-01-01

Since 2013, AHA! (Attitude. Harmony. Achievement) has trained over 300 AHA! Peace Builder youth at six area schools in Santa Barbara, California. These young people have conducted outreach to more than 5,000 additional peers, family members, and community members via Connection Circles, which they led during class, between classes, at AHA! Peace…

Situating Hazard Vulnerability: People's Negotiations with Wildfire Environments in the U.S. Southwest

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Collins, Timothy W.; Bolin, Bob

2009-09-01

This article is based on a multimethod study designed to clarify influences on wildfire hazard vulnerability in Arizona’s White Mountains, USA. Findings reveal that multiple factors operating across scales generate socially unequal wildfire risks. At the household scale, conflicting environmental values, reliance on fire insurance and firefighting institutions, a lack of place dependency, and social vulnerability (e.g., a lack of financial, physical, and/or legal capacity to reduce risks) were found to be important influences on wildfire risk. At the regional-scale, the shift from a resource extraction to environmental amenity-based economy has transformed ecological communities, produced unequal social distributions of risks and resources, and shaped people’s social and environmental interactions in everyday life. While working-class locals are more socially vulnerable than amenity migrants to wildfire hazards, they have also been more active in attempting to reduce risks in the aftermath of the disastrous 2002 Rodeo-Chediski fire. Social tensions between locals and amenity migrants temporarily dissolved immediately following the disaster, only to be exacerbated by the heightened perception of risk and the differential commitment to hazard mitigation displayed by these groups over a 2-year study period. Findings suggest that to enhance wildfire safety, environmental managers should acknowledge the environmental benefits associated with hazardous landscapes, the incentives created by risk management programs, and the specific constraints to action for relevant social groups in changing human-environmental context.

Effects of Lakes on Wildfire Activity in the Boreal Forests of Saskatchewan, Canada

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Scott E. Nielsen

2016-11-01

Full Text Available Large lakes can act as firebreaks resulting in distinct patterns in the forest mosaic. Although this is well acknowledged, much less is known about how wildfire is affected by different landscape measures of water and their interactions. Here we examine how these factors relate to historic patterns of wildfire over a 35-year period (1980–2014 for the boreal forest of Saskatchewan, Canada. This includes the amount of water in different-sized neighborhoods, the presence of islands, and the direction, distance, and shape of nearest lake of different sizes. All individual factors affected wildfire presence, with lake sizes ≥5000 ha and amount of water within a 1000-ha surrounding area the most supported spatial scales. Overall, wildfires were two-times less likely on islands, more likely further from lakes that were circular in shape, and in areas with less surrounding water. Interactive effects were common, including the effect of direction to lake as a function of distance from lakeshore and amount of surrounding water. Our results point to a strong, but complex, bottom-up control of local wildfire activity based on the configuration of natural firebreaks. In fact, fire rotation periods predicted for one area varied more than 15-fold (<47 to >700 years depending on local patterns in lakes. Old-growth forests within this fire-prone ecosystem are therefore likely to depend on the surrounding configuration of larger lakes.

Global pyrogeography: the current and future distribution of wildfire.

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Meg A Krawchuk

Full Text Available Climate change is expected to alter the geographic distribution of wildfire, a complex abiotic process that responds to a variety of spatial and environmental gradients. How future climate change may alter global wildfire activity, however, is still largely unknown. As a first step to quantifying potential change in global wildfire, we present a multivariate quantification of environmental drivers for the observed, current distribution of vegetation fires using statistical models of the relationship between fire activity and resources to burn, climate conditions, human influence, and lightning flash rates at a coarse spatiotemporal resolution (100 km, over one decade. We then demonstrate how these statistical models can be used to project future changes in global fire patterns, highlighting regional hotspots of change in fire probabilities under future climate conditions as simulated by a global climate model. Based on current conditions, our results illustrate how the availability of resources to burn and climate conditions conducive to combustion jointly determine why some parts of the world are fire-prone and others are fire-free. In contrast to any expectation that global warming should necessarily result in more fire, we find that regional increases in fire probabilities may be counter-balanced by decreases at other locations, due to the interplay of temperature and precipitation variables. Despite this net balance, our models predict substantial invasion and retreat of fire across large portions of the globe. These changes could have important effects on terrestrial ecosystems since alteration in fire activity may occur quite rapidly, generating ever more complex environmental challenges for species dispersing and adjusting to new climate conditions. Our findings highlight the potential for widespread impacts of climate change on wildfire, suggesting severely altered fire regimes and the need for more explicit inclusion of fire in research

Global pyrogeography: the current and future distribution of wildfire.

Science.gov (United States)

Krawchuk, Meg A; Moritz, Max A; Parisien, Marc-André; Van Dorn, Jeff; Hayhoe, Katharine

2009-01-01

Climate change is expected to alter the geographic distribution of wildfire, a complex abiotic process that responds to a variety of spatial and environmental gradients. How future climate change may alter global wildfire activity, however, is still largely unknown. As a first step to quantifying potential change in global wildfire, we present a multivariate quantification of environmental drivers for the observed, current distribution of vegetation fires using statistical models of the relationship between fire activity and resources to burn, climate conditions, human influence, and lightning flash rates at a coarse spatiotemporal resolution (100 km, over one decade). We then demonstrate how these statistical models can be used to project future changes in global fire patterns, highlighting regional hotspots of change in fire probabilities under future climate conditions as simulated by a global climate model. Based on current conditions, our results illustrate how the availability of resources to burn and climate conditions conducive to combustion jointly determine why some parts of the world are fire-prone and others are fire-free. In contrast to any expectation that global warming should necessarily result in more fire, we find that regional increases in fire probabilities may be counter-balanced by decreases at other locations, due to the interplay of temperature and precipitation variables. Despite this net balance, our models predict substantial invasion and retreat of fire across large portions of the globe. These changes could have important effects on terrestrial ecosystems since alteration in fire activity may occur quite rapidly, generating ever more complex environmental challenges for species dispersing and adjusting to new climate conditions. Our findings highlight the potential for widespread impacts of climate change on wildfire, suggesting severely altered fire regimes and the need for more explicit inclusion of fire in research on global

Santa Gertrudis : Pétroglifo

OpenAIRE

Puaux , Olivier

1986-01-01

Las Milpillas ( site n°95 ), Santa Gertrudis, Municipio de Zacapu, Michoacán. Opéración 1. Groupo B. Estructura B1. Unidad Excavación Noroeste. Pétroglifo dibajo de los escombros, Fachaba Escalinatas. Coordenadas : 19°51'48" 101°49'.

Deforestation as a result of wildfire incidence in the Worobong Forest Reserve in the Eastern Region of Ghana

Science.gov (United States)

Danquah, S.

2009-04-01

This submission captures report on the perennial occurrence of wildfires and their accompanying effects on the inhabitants and the fringe forest communities in the Worobong Forest Reserve within the Eastern part of Ghana. Wildfire continues to be the single serious threat to the sustainable development and management of forest and wildlife resources in Ghana, thus depriving indigenous fringe forest communities of enormous socio-economic benefit of the forest. Locally, fire is used in the preparation of farm lands, tapping of palm-wine, charcoal production, honey harvesting, etc. This paper identifies some of the effects of wildfires on the indigenous communities and various interventions made to address the wildfire menace in the area of study over the years. Keywords: Wildfire, Fringe Forest Communities, Sustainable Development Resources, Socio-Economic Benefits

Application of wildfire risk assessment results to wildfire response planning in the southern Sierra Nevada, California, USA

Science.gov (United States)

Matthew P. Thompson; Phil Bowden; April Brough; Joe H. Scott; Julie Gilbertson-Day; Alan Taylor; Jennifer Anderson; Jessica Haas

2016-01-01

How wildfires are managed is a key determinant of long-term socioecological resiliency and the ability to live with fire. Safe and effective response to fire requires effective pre-fire planning, which is the main focus of this paper. We review general principles of effective federal fire management planning in the U.S., and introduce a framework for incident...

Excellent women : the novels of Barbara Pym and Anita Brookner / Elizabeth Susanna van Aswegen

OpenAIRE

Van Aswegen, E. S. (Elizabeth Susanna)

1987-01-01

From 1950, until her death in 1980, Barbara Pym published ten novels. The social climate of the 'sixties and early 'seventies was not receptive to her subtle literary style, and her writing suffered an eclipse of 16 years. A renaissance in her fortunes came in January 1977, when the Times Literary Supplement asked a selection of critics to say which writers they considered the most underrated of the twentieth century; both Philip Larkin and Lord David Cecil selected Pym as o...

Status of vegetation cover after 25 years since the last wildfire (Río Verde, Spain)

Science.gov (United States)

Martinez-Murillo, Juan F.; Remond, Ricardo; Ruiz-Sinoga, José D.

2016-04-01

Climatic conditions play an important role in the post-fire vegetation recovery as well as other factors like topography, soil, and pre and post-fire land use (Shakesby, 2011; Robichaud et al., 2013). This study deals with the characterization of the vegetation cover status in an area affected by a wildfire 25 years ago. Namely, the objectives are to: i) compare the current and previous vegetation cover to wildfire; and ii) evaluate whether the current vegetation has recovered the previous cover to wildfire. The study area is mainly located in the Rio Verde watershed (Sierra de las Nieves, South of Spain). It corresponds to an area affected by a wildfire in August 8th, 1991. The burned area was equal to 8,156 ha. The burn severity was spatially very high. The main geographic features of the burned area are: mountainous topography (altitudes ranging from 250 m to 1700 m; slope gradient >25%; exposure mainly southfacing); igneous (peridotites), metamorphic (gneiss) and calcareous rocks (limestones); and predominant forest land use (Pinus pinaster sp. woodlands, 10%; pinus opened forest + shrubland, 40%; shrubland, 35%; and bare soil + grassland, 15%). Remote sensing techniques and GIS analysis has been applied to achieve the objectives. Landsat 5 and Landsat 8 images were used: July 13th, 1991 and July 1st, 2013, for the previous wildfire situation and 22-years after, respectively. The 1990 CORINE land cover was also considered to map 1991 land uses prior the wildfire. The Andalucía Regional Government wildfire historic records were used to select the burned area and its geographical limit. 1991 and 2013 land cover maps were obtained by means of object-oriented classifications. Also, NDVI index were calculated and mapped for both years in order to compare the status of vegetation cover. According to the results, the combination of remote sensing and GIS analysis let map the most recovered areas affected by the wildfire in 1991. The vegetation indexes indicated that

Cost shared wildfire risk mitigation in Log Hill Mesa, Colorado: Survey evidence on participation and willingness to pay

Science.gov (United States)

James R. Meldrum; Patricia A. Champ; Travis Warziniack; Hannah Brenkert-Smith; Christopher M. Barth; Lilia C. Falk

2014-01-01

Wildland-urban interface (WUI) homeowners who do not mitigate the wildfire risk on their properties impose a negative externality on society. To reduce the social costs of wildfire and incentivise homeowners to take action, cost sharing programs seek to reduce the barriers that impede wildfire risk mitigation. Using survey data from a WUI community in western Colorado...

Rezension von: Barbara Holland-Cunz: Gefährdete Freiheit. Über Hannah Arendt und Simone de Beauvoir. Opladen u.a.: Verlag Barbara Budrich 2012.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mirjam Dierkes

2012-11-01

Full Text Available Von Barbara Holland-Cunz, die sich mit Simone de Beauvoir und Hannah Arendt bereits einzeln beschäftigt hat, liegt nun ein Band vor, in dem sie sich diesen herausragenden Denkerinnen des 20. Jahrhunderts gemeinsam widmet. In einer beinahe synoptisch anmutenden Herangehensweise fokussiert sie dabei auf den Begriff der Freiheit, der bei beiden von eminenter Bedeutung für das jeweilige Theoriegebäude ist. Holland-Cunz zufolge verstehen beide, bei einigen Unterschieden, Freiheit so, dass sie sich vor allem durch eine in sich eingeschriebene Gefährdung auszeichnet: Diese resultiert aus einem heroisch-emphatischen Gestus, der in paradoxer Weise gepaart wird mit einem abgeklärten Realismus. Über weite Strecken liest sich der Weg zu dieser Deutung, v. a. auch wegen einer teilweise sympathisch unkonventionellen und originellen Herangehensweise, sehr anregend und überzeugend.

Estimating mercury emissions resulting from wildfire in forests of the Western United States

Science.gov (United States)

Webster, Jackson; Kane, Tyler J.; Obrist, Daniel; Ryan, Joseph N.; Aiken, George R.

2016-01-01

Understanding the emissions of mercury (Hg) from wildfires is important for quantifying the global atmospheric Hg sources. Emissions of Hg from soils resulting from wildfires in the Western United States was estimated for the 2000 to 2013 period, and the potential emission of Hg from forest soils was assessed as a function of forest type and soil-heating. Wildfire released an annual average of 3100 ± 1900 kg-Hg y− 1 for the years spanning 2000–2013 in the 11 states within the study area. This estimate is nearly 5-fold lower than previous estimates for the study region. Lower emission estimates are attributed to an inclusion of fire severity within burn perimeters. Within reported wildfire perimeters, the average distribution of low, moderate, and high severity burns was 52, 29, and 19% of the total area, respectively. Review of literature data suggests that that low severity burning does not result in soil heating, moderate severity fire results in shallow soil heating, and high severity fire results in relatively deep soil heating ( wood > foliage > litter > branches.

White-headed woodpecker nesting ecology after wildfire

Science.gov (United States)

Catherine S. Wightman; Victoria A. Saab; Chris Forristal; Kim Mellen-Mclean; Amy Markus

2010-01-01

Within forests susceptible to wildfire and insect infestations, land managers need to balance dead tree removal and habitat requirements for wildlife species associated with snags. We used Mahalanobis distance methods to develop predictive models of white-headed woodpecker (Picoides albolarvatus) nesting habitat in postfire ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa)-dominated...

Wildfires, Ecosystem Services, and Biodiversity in Tropical Dry Forest in India

Science.gov (United States)

Schmerbeck, Joachim; Fiener, Peter

2015-08-01

This review is intended to contribute to the understanding of the interlinkage between wildfire in India's tropical dry forest (TDF) and selected ecosystem services (ES), namely forest provisioning and water regulating services, as well as biodiversity. TDF covers approximately 146,000 km2 (4.4 %) of India, whereas according to the MODIS fire product about 2200 km2 (1.4 %) burns per year. As studies on wildfire effects upon ESs and biodiversity in Indian TDFs are rare we partly transferred findings from other (dry) forest areas to the environmental situation in India. In India (intentionally lit) wildfires have a very important connection to local livelihoods and the availability of non-wood forest products. Very important adverse long-term effects are the deterioration of forest ecosystems and soil degradation. The potential for TDF to regulate hydrological cycles is expected to be greater in the absence of fire than with it. A general judgment on the effect of fire on biodiversity is difficult as it depends on the community and species involved but a loss of biodiversity under regular burnings is apparent. Consequently, forest managers need sound knowledge regarding the interplay of wildfires and ecosystem behavior in general and more specific knowledge regarding the effects on taxa being considered for conservation efforts. Generally, much more research is needed to understand the trade-offs between the short-term benefits gained from forest provisioning services and long-term adverse effects.

Wildfires, Ecosystem Services, and Biodiversity in Tropical Dry Forest in India.

Science.gov (United States)

Schmerbeck, Joachim; Fiener, Peter

2015-08-01

This review is intended to contribute to the understanding of the interlinkage between wildfire in India's tropical dry forest (TDF) and selected ecosystem services (ES), namely forest provisioning and water regulating services, as well as biodiversity. TDF covers approximately 146,000 km(2) (4.4%) of India, whereas according to the MODIS fire product about 2200 km(2) (1.4%) burns per year. As studies on wildfire effects upon ESs and biodiversity in Indian TDFs are rare we partly transferred findings from other (dry) forest areas to the environmental situation in India. In India (intentionally lit) wildfires have a very important connection to local livelihoods and the availability of non-wood forest products. Very important adverse long-term effects are the deterioration of forest ecosystems and soil degradation. The potential for TDF to regulate hydrological cycles is expected to be greater in the absence of fire than with it. A general judgment on the effect of fire on biodiversity is difficult as it depends on the community and species involved but a loss of biodiversity under regular burnings is apparent. Consequently, forest managers need sound knowledge regarding the interplay of wildfires and ecosystem behavior in general and more specific knowledge regarding the effects on taxa being considered for conservation efforts. Generally, much more research is needed to understand the trade-offs between the short-term benefits gained from forest provisioning services and long-term adverse effects.

The influence of the solid waste disposal areas in Campinas city, Sao Paulo state (Brazil) on water quality: determination of metals using synchrotron radiation total reflection X-ray fluorescence

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Oliveira, Bruna F.F.; Moreira, Silvana; Canteras, Felippe Benavente

2013-01-01

Among the many forms of waste disposal, landfills today are best suited to Brazilian conditions, this because their construction allows minimizing the negative effects of landfill gas and slurry produced. However, the confinement of pollutants from landfills is linked to its construction and operation and when the construction and/or is wrong they can endanger air, groundwater and surface waters qualities. Thus, the main objective of this study was to analyze the concentration of heavy metals in samples of groundwater, surface water and slurry coming from solid waste disposal locations in the city of Campinas, SP - Delta, Santa Barbara and Pirelli Landfills. The samples were analyzed at the Brazilian Synchrotron Light Laboratory using Synchrotron Radiation Total Reflection X-Ray Fluorescence technique (SR-TXRF). In Pirelli Landfill, the highest concentrations were observed in one of the wells located to downstream of the Landfill (in relation to the groundwater flux) - the monitoring well PM04, exceeding the intervention value defined by CETESB. For Santa Barbara landfill in one upstream monitoring well the concentrations of Ni, Mn, Pb and Cr, surpassed the maximum permissive values. The manganese in Landfill Delta showed to be higher in wells located downstream and 50% of the wells analyzed exceeded the maximum permissive value for groundwater samples. In the case of surface waters located in the vicinity of landfill sites, the metals that surpassed the maximum permissive values according the legislation in most of the points analyzed were Mn, Cu and Pb. For slurry samples collected in Delta Landfill, the average concentrations for Mn, Ni, Cu and Pb not exceeded the maximum permissive values during the period studied. Moreover for Santa Barbara the average concentration of Mn, Cu and Zn surpassed the permissive limits, as was observed for Mn in the Pirelli Landfill. (author)

Peter St. John | NREL

Science.gov (United States)

St. John Photo of Peter St. John Peter St. John Researcher III-Chemical Engineering Peter.StJohn @nrel.gov | 303-384-7969 Orcid ID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7928-3722 Education Peter St. John received his engineering from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 2015. During his Ph.D., St. John applied

The Allobrain: An Interactive, Stereographic, 3D Audio Immersive Environment

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Wakefield, Graham; Overholt, Dan; Putnam, Lance Jonathan

2008-01-01

This document describes the AlloBrain, the debut content created for presentation in the AlloSphere at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the Cosm toolkit for the prototyping of interactive immersive environments using higher-order Ambisonics and stereographic projections. The Cosm......-computer interfaces and new audiovisual interaction methodologies within a virtual environment....

Pelas trilhas da ILha de Santa Catarina

OpenAIRE

Silveira, Flavio Leonel Abreu da

1996-01-01

Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro de Filosofia e Ciencias Humanas O estudo sobre o ecoturismo na Ilha de Santa Catarina vem demonstrar o surgimento de novas modalidades turísticas entre os grupos urbanos. A pesquisa aponta para a intersecção entre lazer, turismo, ecologia e esporte, demonstrando a importân-cia das práticas ecoturísticas na atualidade. A partir de tal perspectiva, as questões de gênero surgem com significativa relevância. Estamos frente...

Santa Fe Linac Conference

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anon.

1982-01-01

The 1981 Linear Accelerator Conference, organized by Los Alamos National Laboratory, was held from 19-23 October in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The surroundings were superb and helped to ensure a successful meeting. There were more than two hundred and twenty participants, with good representation from Japan and Western Europe

Free inside: The Music Class at Santa Ana Jail

Science.gov (United States)

Fierro, Joe

2010-01-01

This article examines the workings of the music class at the Santa Ana Jail in Santa Ana, California. It gives us insight into a jail system and a music class focused on helping inmates position themselves to become productive members of society. In this article I examine how the facility encourages inmates' good behaviour and why the music class…

Towards Data-Driven Simulations of Wildfire Spread using Ensemble-based Data Assimilation

Science.gov (United States)

Rochoux, M. C.; Bart, J.; Ricci, S. M.; Cuenot, B.; Trouvé, A.; Duchaine, F.; Morel, T.

2012-12-01

Real-time predictions of a propagating wildfire remain a challenging task because the problem involves both multi-physics and multi-scales. The propagation speed of wildfires, also called the rate of spread (ROS), is indeed determined by complex interactions between pyrolysis, combustion and flow dynamics, atmospheric dynamics occurring at vegetation, topographical and meteorological scales. Current operational fire spread models are mainly based on a semi-empirical parameterization of the ROS in terms of vegetation, topographical and meteorological properties. For the fire spread simulation to be predictive and compatible with operational applications, the uncertainty on the ROS model should be reduced. As recent progress made in remote sensing technology provides new ways to monitor the fire front position, a promising approach to overcome the difficulties found in wildfire spread simulations is to integrate fire modeling and fire sensing technologies using data assimilation (DA). For this purpose we have developed a prototype data-driven wildfire spread simulator in order to provide optimal estimates of poorly known model parameters [*]. The data-driven simulation capability is adapted for more realistic wildfire spread : it considers a regional-scale fire spread model that is informed by observations of the fire front location. An Ensemble Kalman Filter algorithm (EnKF) based on a parallel computing platform (OpenPALM) was implemented in order to perform a multi-parameter sequential estimation where wind magnitude and direction are in addition to vegetation properties (see attached figure). The EnKF algorithm shows its good ability to track a small-scale grassland fire experiment and ensures a good accounting for the sensitivity of the simulation outcomes to the control parameters. As a conclusion, it was shown that data assimilation is a promising approach to more accurately forecast time-varying wildfire spread conditions as new airborne-like observations of

Natural abundances of /sup 15/N as a source indicator for near-shore marine sedimentary and dissolved nitrogen

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sweeney, R E; Kaplan, I R [California Univ., Los Angeles (USA). Inst. of Geophysics and Planetary Physics

1980-04-01

The nitrogen isotope ratios of 42 sediment samples of total nitrogen and 38 dissolved pore-water ammonium samples from Santa Barbara Basin sediment cores were measured. The range of delta/sup 15/N values for total nitrogen was +2.89 to +9.4 per thousand with a mean of +6.8 per thousand and for pore water ammonium, +8.2 to +12.4 per thousand with a mean of 10.2 per thousand. The results suggest that the dissolved ammonium in the pore water is produced from bacterial degradation of marine organic matter. The range of delta /sup 15/N values for total nitrogen in the sediment is interpreted as resulting from an admixture of nitrogen derived from marine (+10 per thousand) and terrestrial (+2 per thousand) cores. The marine component of this mixture, composed principally of calcium carbonate with smaller amounts of opal and organic matter, contains approximately 1.0% nitrogen. The terrestrial component, which comprises over 80% of the sediment, contains approximately 0.1% organically bound nitrogen and accounts for > 25% of the total nitrogen in Santa Barbara Basin sediment.

Post-wildfire seeding in forests of the western United States: An evidence-based review

Science.gov (United States)

Donna Peppin; Peter Z. Fule; Carolyn Hull Sieg; Jan L. Beyers; Molly E. Hunter

2010-01-01

Broadcast seeding is one of the most widely used post-wildfire emergency response treatments intended to reduce soil erosion, increase vegetative ground cover, and minimize establishment and spread of non-native plant species. We conducted an evidence-based review to examine the effectiveness and effects of post-wildfire seeding treatments on soil stabilization, non-...

"Romeo ja Julia" Liivimaa moodi? Barbara von Tiesenhauseni legend : ajalooline tagapõhi ja kirjanduslikud variatsioonid / Juhan Kreem, Liina Lukas

Index Scriptorium Estoniae

Kreem, Juhan

2008-01-01

Käsitletakse järgnevaid ilukirjanduslikke teoseid: Fr. R. Kreutzwaldi ballaadi "Das Fräulein von Borkholm", Th. H. Panteniuse romaani "Die von Kelles" (e.k. "Kelleste omad. Romaan Liivimaa minevikust"), Marie Underi ballaadi "Porkuni preili", Aino Kallase novelli "Barbara von Tiesenhusen" ja Maimu Bergi romaani "Kirjutajad"

Modeling the impacts of wildfire on runoff and pollutant transport from coastal watersheds to the nearshore environment.

Science.gov (United States)

Morrison, Katherine D; Kolden, Crystal A

2015-03-15

Wildfire is a common disturbance that can significantly alter vegetation in watersheds and affect the rate of sediment and nutrient transport to adjacent nearshore oceanic environments. Changes in runoff resulting from heterogeneous wildfire effects are not well-understood due to both limitations in the field measurement of runoff and temporally-limited spatial data available to parameterize runoff models. We apply replicable, scalable methods for modeling wildfire impacts on sediment and nonpoint source pollutant export into the nearshore environment, and assess relationships between wildfire severity and runoff. Nonpoint source pollutants were modeled using a GIS-based empirical deterministic model parameterized with multi-year land cover data to quantify fire-induced increases in transport to the nearshore environment. Results indicate post-fire concentration increases in phosphorus by 161 percent, sediments by 350 percent and total suspended solids (TSS) by 53 percent above pre-fire years. Higher wildfire severity was associated with the greater increase in exports of pollutants and sediment to the nearshore environment, primarily resulting from the conversion of forest and shrubland to grassland. This suggests that increasing wildfire severity with climate change will increase potential negative impacts to adjacent marine ecosystems. The approach used is replicable and can be utilized to assess the effects of other types of land cover change at landscape scales. It also provides a planning and prioritization framework for management activities associated with wildfire, including suppression, thinning, and post-fire rehabilitation, allowing for quantification of potential negative impacts to the nearshore environment in coastal basins. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Spatiotemporal variability in wildfire patterns and analysis of the main drivers in Honduras using GIS and MODIS data

Science.gov (United States)

Valdez Vasquez, M. C.; Chen, C. F.

2017-12-01

Wildfires are unrestrained fires in an area of flammable vegetation and they are one of the most frequent disasters in Honduras during the dry season. During this period, anthropogenic activity combined with the harsh climatic conditions, dry vegetation and topographical variables, cause a large amount of wildfires. For this reason, there is a need to identify the drivers of wildfires and their susceptibility variations during the wildfire season. In this study, we combined the wildfire points during the 2010-2016 period every 8 days with a series of variables using the random forest (RF) algorithm. In addition to the wildfire points, we randomly generated a similar amount of background points that we use as pseudo-absence data. To represent the human imprint, we included proximity to different types of roads, trails, settlements and agriculture sites. Other variables included are the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectra-radiometer (MODIS)-derived 8-day composites of land surface temperature (LST) and the normalized multi-band drought index (NMDI), derived from the MODIS surface reflectance data. We also included monthly average precipitation, solar radiation, and topographical variables. The exploratory analysis of the variables reveals that low precipitation combined with the low NMDI and accessibility to non-paved roads were the major drivers of wildfires during the early months of the dry season. During April, which is the peak of the dry season, the explanatory variables of relevance also included elevation and LST in addition to the proximity to paved and non-paved roads. During May, proximity to crops becomes relevant, in addition to the aforesaid variables. The average estimated area with high and very high wildfire susceptibility was 22% of the whole territory located mainly in the central and eastern regions, drifting towards the northeast areas during May. We validated the results using the area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC

Economics of wildfire management the development and application of suppression expenditure models

CERN Document Server

Hand, Michael S; Liang, Jingjing; Thompson, Matthew P

2014-01-01

In this age of climatic and financial uncertainty, it becomes increasingly important to balance the cost, benefits and risk of wildfire management. In the United States, increased wildland fire activity over the last 15 years has resulted in drastic damage and loss of life. An associated rapid increase in fire management costs has consumed higher portions of budgets of public entities involved in wildfire management, challenging their ability to fulfill other responsibilities. Increased public scrutiny highlights the need to improve wildland fire management for cost effectiveness. This book closely examines the development of basic wildfire suppression cost models for the United States and their application to a wide range of settings from informing incident decision making to programmatic review. The book also explores emerging trends in suppression costs and introduces new spatially explicit cost models to account for characteristics of the burned landscape. Finally, it discusses how emerging risk assessmen...

What are the most fire-dangerous atmospheric circulations in the Eastern-Mediterranean? Analysis of the synoptic wildfire climatology.

Science.gov (United States)

Paschalidou, A K; Kassomenos, P A

2016-01-01

Wildfire management is closely linked to robust forecasts of changes in wildfire risk related to meteorological conditions. This link can be bridged either through fire weather indices or through statistical techniques that directly relate atmospheric patterns to wildfire activity. In the present work the COST-733 classification schemes are applied in order to link wildfires in Greece with synoptic circulation patterns. The analysis reveals that the majority of wildfire events can be explained by a small number of specific synoptic circulations, hence reflecting the synoptic climatology of wildfires. All 8 classification schemes used, prove that the most fire-dangerous conditions in Greece are characterized by a combination of high atmospheric pressure systems located N to NW of Greece, coupled with lower pressures located over the very Eastern part of the Mediterranean, an atmospheric pressure pattern closely linked to the local Etesian winds over the Aegean Sea. During these events, the atmospheric pressure has been reported to be anomalously high, while anomalously low 500hPa geopotential heights and negative total water column anomalies were also observed. Among the various classification schemes used, the 2 Principal Component Analysis-based classifications, namely the PCT and the PXE, as well as the Leader Algorithm classification LND proved to be the best options, in terms of being capable to isolate the vast amount of fire events in a small number of classes with increased frequency of occurrence. It is estimated that these 3 schemes, in combination with medium-range to seasonal climate forecasts, could be used by wildfire risk managers to provide increased wildfire prediction accuracy. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The geological setting of Santa Monica and San Pedro Basins, California Continental Borderland

Science.gov (United States)

Gorsline, D. S.

. Their formation is related to longer period climatic events (El Niño cycle of 3 to 4 years is dominant), and is also affected by aperiodic bottom water flushing events. The “anoxic” zone of bottom water has expanded over the past 300 to 350 years from a samll area in the northeastern basin floor (ca 120km 2 at 300 years BP), and now covers most of the basin floor below depths of about 850m (1290km 2). This expansion may have been primarily relaed to ocean circulation rate changes following the Little Ice Age, but is also likely to have been strongly affected by subsequent major changes in the natural drainages post-European colonization. The bottom water oxygen contents must also reflect the introduction of oxidizable pollutants, coincident with the shift to agricultural (Mission era) and then to urban use (late 19th century to present) of the adjacent mainland. Such localized effects are also suggested by the contrasting very large increases in the area of low oxygen bottom water in Santa Monica Basin relative to the minimal changes in the area of anoxia in Santa Barbara Basin over the same period and the lack of such zone in San Pedro Basin. In the San Pedro Basin the bottom waters have remained dysaerobic so its sediments are bioturbated and preserve little or no evidence of primary stratification. Dumping of oil drilling muds and cuttings during the couple of decades prior to 1970 has left a surficial deposit ranging from 1 to 15cm in thickness, forming a bull's eye isopach pattern as seen in radiographs. Bottom water oxygen content is usually >0.2ml O 21 -1. Bottom infauna and epifauna are sparse. Central basin floor sediments (water depths>800m) of San Pedro Basin have textural characteristics similar to those of Santa Monica Basin with distal basin floor surficial sediments being deposited primarily by particle infall and nepheloid flow at the present time. (Mean diameters ≈0.006mm, φ standard deviation ≈ 2, φ skewness ≈ 0 and kurtosis ≈ 2

Noteworthy bird records at Lagoa Santa, southeastern Brazil Registros notáveis de aves em Lagoa Santa, sudeste do Brasil

OpenAIRE

Marcos Rodrigues

2008-01-01

Lagoa Santa, a small town in southeastern Brazil where naturalist Peter Lund lived, is regarded nowadays as an important historical site for the biological sciences. From 1847 to 1855, J.T. Reinhardt, hosted by Lund, collected 343 bird species. This material is an outstanding reference for many modern ornithological studies. The present paper reports the occurrence of some rare and threatened birds for the region of Lagoa Santa between 1998 and 2005. In this account I list the Rusty-margined ...

The viability of prescribed fire for mitigating the soil degradational impacts of wildfire

Science.gov (United States)

Shakesby, R. A.; Bento, C. P. M.; Ferreira, C. S. S.; Ferreira, A. J. D.; Stoof, C. R.; Urbanek, E.; Walsh, R. P. D.

2012-04-01

Prescribed (controlled) fire has become an important strategy primarily to limit the likelihood of more devastating wildfire. The considerable increase in wildfire activity in recent decades throughout the Mediterranean, and in Portugal in particular, has meant that this strategy has become increasingly popular despite inherent fears of people about fire of any sort. Despite many studies of the impact of wildfire on soil erosion and degradation, relatively little research has assessed impacts of prescribed fire on soil in Portugal or elsewhere in the Mediterranean. As part of the DESIRE research programme, this paper addresses this research gap by investigating hillslope-scale losses of soil, soil organic matter and selected nutrients before and after an experimental fire (representing a 'worst case-scenario' prescribed fire) in a shrub-vegetated catchment in central Portugal. Comparison is provided by post-fire monitoring of a nearby hillslope affected by a wildfire of moderate severity. Hillslope-scale measurements were carried out over c. 3 years using sediment fences with contributing areas of up to c. 0.5 ha. Eroded sediment was periodically removed from the fences both before and after the fire at intervals ranging from a few weeks to several months depending on rainfall characteristics and logistics. Erosion expressed as g/m2 and g/m2/mm of rainfall was determined. Figures for long-term (c. 10 years) erosion under unburnt conditions for this vegetation type were obtained from a small bounded plot and from sediment accumulating in a weir pool draining a sub-catchment within the prescribed-fire catchment. In addition, soil organic matter and selected nutrients, including K2O, P2O5 and Total N, were measured in the eroded sediment and in the pre-burn and post-burn in situ soil. The results indicate that both the wildfire and prescribed fire caused erosion that was orders of magnitude higher than for long-term plot-scale and hillslope-scale erosion recorded

Wildfire and fuel treatment effects on forest carbon dynamics in the western United States

Science.gov (United States)

Joseph C. Restiano; David L. Peterson

2013-01-01

Sequestration of carbon (C) in forests has the potential to mitigate the effects of climate change by offsetting future emissions of greenhouse gases. However, in dry temperate forests, wildfire is a natural disturbance agent with the potential to release large fluxes of C into the atmosphere. Climate-driven increases in wildfire extent and severity arc expected to...

Outreach programs, peer pressure, and common sense: What motivates homeowners to mitigate wildfire risk?

Science.gov (United States)

Sarah M. McCaffrey; Melanie Stidham; Eric Toman; Bruce. Shindler

2011-01-01

In recent years, altered forest conditions, climate change, and the increasing numbers of homes built in fire prone areas has meant that wildfires are affecting more people. An important part of minimizing the potential negative impacts of wildfire is engaging homeowners in mitigating the fire hazard on their land. It is therefore important to understand what makes...

Wildfire ignition resistant home design(WIRHD) program: Full-scale testing and demonstration final report.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Quarles, Stephen, L.; Sindelar, Melissa

2011-12-13

The primary goal of the Wildfire ignition resistant home design(WIRHD) program was to develop a home evaluation tool that could assess the ignition potential of a structure subjected to wildfire exposures. This report describes the tests that were conducted, summarizes the results, and discusses the implications of these results with regard to the vulnerabilities to homes and buildings.

Preliminary results from a survey of U.S. Forest Service wildfire managers' attitudes toward aviation personnel exposure and risk

Science.gov (United States)

Matthew Wibbenmeyer; Michael Hand; David Calkin

2012-01-01

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service (USFS) has, in recent years, increasingly emphasized the importance of safety to its employees, but wildfire management remains a risky endeavor. While wildfire management decisions affecting safety and exposure of firefighters to the wildland fire environment may be aided by decision support tools such the Wildfire...

Using community archetypes to better understand differential community adaptation to wildfire risk.

Science.gov (United States)

Carroll, Matthew; Paveglio, Travis

2016-06-05

One of the immediate challenges of wildfire management concerns threats to human safety and property in residential areas adjacent to non-cultivated vegetation. One approach for relieving this problem is to increase human community 'adaptiveness' to deal with the risk and reality of fire in a variety of landscapes. The challenge in creating 'fire-adapted communities' (FACs) is the great diversity in character and make-up of populations at risk from wildfire. This paper outlines a recently developed categorization scheme for Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) communities based on a larger conceptual approach for understanding how social diversity is likely to influence the creation of FACs. The WUI categorization scheme situates four community archetypes on a continuum that recognizes dynamic change in human community functioning. We use results from the WUI classification scheme to outline key characteristics associated with each archetype and results from recent case studies to demonstrate the diversity across WUI communities. Differences among key characteristics of local social context will likely result in the need for different adaptation strategies to wildfire. While the WUI archetypes described here may not be broadly applicable to other parts of the world, we argue that the conceptual approach and strategies for systematically documenting local influences on wildfire adaptation have potential for broad application.This article is part of the themed issue 'The interaction of fire and mankind'. © 2016 The Author(s).

Network Level Association and Fusion of Kinematic and Attribute Information

Science.gov (United States)

2010-12-15

L. Svensson, ``More Ways to Track Closely-Spaced Targets Than You Wanted To Know or Tips For Not Pissing Off the Radar Operator So Much That He Turns...To Know or Tips For Not Pissing Off the Radar Operator So Much That He Turns Off the Track Display”, Proc. ONR-GTRI Workshop on Tracking, Santa Barbara

GIS in the K-12 Classroom: Research Agenda from EDGIS '96

OpenAIRE

National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis; National Council for Geographic Education (NCGE); Technical Education Research Centers (TERC)

1996-01-01

This meeting of education researchers and teachers immediately followed the November 1996 Annual Meeting of the National Council for Geographic Education (NCGE) in Santa Barbara, California. Participants explored the issues facing the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in the K-12 classroom and developed a research agenda related to Pedagogy Issues, Curriculum Issues, Software Issues, and Cognitive Issues.

First, Do No Harm: Teaching Writing in the Wake of Traumatic Events

Science.gov (United States)

DeBacher, Sarah; Harris-Moore, Deborah

2016-01-01

Sarah DeBacher and Deborah Harris-Moore offer their experiences with teaching in the aftermath of traumatic situations. DeBacher, who taught at the University of New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and Harris-Moore, who taught at UC Santa Barbara following a mass shooting, explore the difficulty of teaching writing in the wake of…

San Diego's High School Dropout Crisis

Science.gov (United States)

Wilson, James C.

2012-01-01

This article highlights San Diego's dropout problem and how much it's costing the city and the state. Most San Diegans do not realize the enormous impact high school dropouts on their city. The California Dropout Research Project, located at the University of California at Santa Barbara, has estimated the lifetime cost of one class or cohort of…

Sediment Dynamics Affecting the Threatened Santa Ana Sucker in the Highly-modified Santa Ana River and Inset Channel, Southern California, USA

Science.gov (United States)

Minear, J. T.; Wright, S. A.

2015-12-01

In this study, we investigate the sediment dynamics of the low-flow channel of the Santa Ana River that is formed by wastewater discharges and contains some of the last remaining habitat of the Santa Ana Sucker (Catostomus santaanae). The Santa Ana River is a highly-modified river draining the San Bernardino Mountains and Inland Empire metropolitan area east of Los Angeles. Home to over 4 million people, the watershed provides habitat for the federally-threatened Santa Ana Sucker, which presently reside within the mainstem Santa Ana River in a reach supported by year-round constant discharges from water treatment plants. The nearly constant low-flow wastewater discharges and infrequent runoff events create a small, approximately 8 m wide, inset channel within the approximately 300 m wide mainstem channel that is typically dry except for large flood flows. The sediment dynamics within the inset channel are characterized by constantly evolving bed substrate and sediment transport rates, and occasional channel avulsions. The sediment dynamics have large influence on the Sucker, which rely on coarse-substrate (gravel and cobble) for their food production. In WY 2013 through the present, we investigated the sediment dynamics of the inset channel using repeat bathymetric and substrate surveys, bedload sampling, and discharge measurements. We found two distinct phases of the inset channel behavior: 1. 'Reset' flows, where sediment-laden mainstem discharges from upstream runoff events result in sand deposition in the inset channel or avulse the inset channel onto previously dry riverbed; and 2. 'Winnowing' flows, whereby the sand within the inset channel is removed by clear-water low flows from the wastewater treatment plant discharges. Thus, in contrast to many regulated rivers where high flows are required to flush fine sediments from the bed (for example, downstream from dams), in the Santa Ana River the low flows from wastewater treatment plants serve as the flushing

Are wildfire management resources in the United States efficiently allocated to protect resources at risk? A case study from Montana

Science.gov (United States)

Derek T. O' Donnell; Tyron J. Venna; David E. Calkin

2014-01-01

Federal wildfire management agencies in the United States are under substantial pressure to reduce and economically justify their expenditures. To support economically efficient management of wildfires, managers need better estimates of the resource benefits and avoided damage costs associated with alternative wildfire management strategies. This paper reports findings...

Understanding the Socioeconomic Effects of Wildfires on Western U.S. Public Lands

Science.gov (United States)

Sanchez, J. J.; Srivastava, L.; Marcos-Martinez, R.

2017-12-01

Climate change has resulted in the increased severity and frequency of forest disturbances due to wildfires, droughts, pests and diseases that compromise the sustainable provision of forest ecosystem services (e.g., water quantity and quality, carbon sequestration, recreation). A better understanding of the environmental and socioeconomic consequences of forest disturbances (i.e., wildfires) could improve the management and protection of public lands. We used a single-site benefit transfer function and spatially explicit information for demographic, socioeconomic, and site-specific characteristics to estimate the monetized value of market and non-market ecosystem services provided by forests on Western US public lands. These estimates are then used to approximate the costs of forest disturbances caused by wildfires of varying frequency and intensity, and across sites with heterogeneous characteristics and protection and management strategies. Our analysis provides credible estimates of the benefits of the forest for land management by the United States Forest Service, thereby assisting forest managers in planning resourcing and budgeting priorities.

Analyzing the transmission of wildfire exposure on a fire-prone landscape in Oregon, USA

Science.gov (United States)

Alan A. Ager; Michelle A. Day; Mark A. Finney; Ken Vance-Borland; Nicole M. Vaillant

2014-01-01

We develop the idea of risk transmission from large wildfires and apply network analyses to understand its importance on a 0.75 million ha US national forest. Wildfires in the western US frequently burn over long distances (e.g., 20–50 km) through highly fragmented landscapes with respect to ownership, fuels, management intensity, population density, and ecological...

Biophysical Interactions within Step-Pool Mountain Streams Following Wildfire

Science.gov (United States)

Parker, A.; Chin, A.; O'Dowd, A. P.

2014-12-01

Recovery of riverine ecosystems following disturbance is driven by a variety of interacting processes. Wildfires pose increasing disturbances to riverine landscapes, with rising frequencies and magnitudes owing to warming climates and increased fuel loads. The effects of wildfire include loss of vegetation, elevated runoff and flash floods, erosion and deposition, and changing biological habitats and communities. Understanding process interactions in post-fire landscapes is increasingly urgent for successful management and restoration of affected ecosystems. In steep channels, steps and pools provide prominent habitats for organisms and structural integrity in high energy environments. Step-pools are typically stable, responding to extreme events with recurrence intervals often exceeding 50 years. Once wildfire occurs, however, intensification of post-fire flood events can potentially overpower the inherent stability of these systems, with significant consequences for aquatic life and human well-being downstream. This study examined the short-term response of step-pool streams following the 2012 Waldo Canyon Fire in Colorado. We explored interacting feedbacks among geomorphology, hydrology, and ecology in the post-fire environment. At selected sites with varying burn severity, we established baseline conditions immediately after the fire with channel surveys, biological assessment using benthic macroinvertebrates, sediment analysis including pebble counts, and precipitation gauging. Repeat measurements after major storm events over several years enabled analysis of the interacting feedbacks among post-fire processes. We found that channels able to retain the step-pool structure changed less and facilitated recovery more readily. Step habitats maintained higher percentages of sensitive macroinvertebrate taxa compared to pools through post-fire floods. Sites burned with high severity experienced greater reduction in the percentage of sensitive taxa. The decimation of

Santa Fe Accelerator Conference

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anon.

1983-01-01

The 10th USA National Particle Accelerator Conference was hosted this year by the Los Alamos National Laboratory in Santa Fe from 21-23 March. It was a resounding success in emphasizing the ferment of activity in the accelerator field. About 900 people registered and about 500 papers were presented in invited and contributed talks and poster sessions

Desertification and other ecological impacts produced by the historic Rodeo-Chediski Wildfire of 2000, Arizona, USA

Science.gov (United States)

Neary, D.; Ffolliott, P.; Stropki, C.

2009-04-01

The Rodeo-Chediski Wildfire - the largest in Arizona's history - damaged or destroyed ecosystem resources and disrupted ecosystem functioning in a largely mosaic pattern throughout the ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) forests exposed to the burn. Impacts of this wildfire on tree overstories were studied on two watersheds in the area burned; one watershed burned by a high severity (stand-replacing) fire, while the other watershed burned by a low severity (stand-modifying) fire. The Rodeo-Chediski wildfire damaged or destroyed ecosystem resources and disrupted the ecological functioning on much of the 189,015 ha impacted by the burning. Intermingling chaparral shrub communities and pinyon-juniper woodlands at lower elevations and ponderosa pine forests at high elevations were located within the burned area. The wildfire was caused by two human ignitions that merged into one inferno. The Rodeo Fire was started by an arsonist on June 18, 2002, while the Chediski Fire was ignited as a signal fire by a stranded motorist on June 20th. The two fires merged on June 26, 2002, to become the Rodeo-Chediski Wildfire. The combined wildfires were contained on July 7th at a suppression (firefighting) cost of about €37.9 million (USA 50 million). However, the estimated costs associated with property losses; losses of ecosystem, anthropological, and cultural resources; and post-fire rehabilitation efforts increased the costs of the wildfire to over €114 million (USA 150 million). About one-half of the total area that was burned by the Rodeo-Chediski Wildfire experienced a high-severity fire, other areas burned at a low- to medium-severity fire, and still other areas were largely unburned according to a Burned Area Emergency Rehabilitation (BAER) report and fire severity map prepared shortly after containment of the wildfire. A mosaic of areas burned at varying fire severities within intermingling unburned areas resulted. Post-fire rehabilitation efforts, including establishment

Early Neogene unroofing of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta along the Bucaramanga -Santa Marta Fault

Science.gov (United States)

Piraquive Bermúdez, Alejandro; Pinzón, Edna; Bernet, Matthias; Kammer, Andreas; Von Quadt, Albrecht; Sarmiento, Gustavo

2016-04-01

Plate interaction between Caribbean and Nazca plates with Southamerica gave rise to an intricate pattern of tectonic blocks in the Northandean realm. Among these microblocks the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta (SNSM) represents a fault-bounded triangular massif composed of a representative crustal section of the Northandean margin, in which a Precambrian to Late Paleozoic metamorphic belt is overlain by a Triassic to Jurassic magmatic arc and collateral volcanic suites. Its western border fault belongs to the composite Bucaramanga - Santa Marta fault with a combined left lateral-normal displacement. SE of Santa Marta it exposes remnants of an Oligocene marginal basin, which attests to a first Cenoizoic activation of this crustal-scale lineament. The basin fill consists of a sequence of coarse-grained cobble-pebble conglomerates > 1000 m thick that unconformably overlay the Triassic-Jurassic magmatic arc. Its lower sequence is composed of interbedded siltstones; topwards the sequence becomes dominated by coarser fractions. These sedimentary sequences yields valuable information about exhumation and coeval sedimentation processes that affected the massif's western border since the Upper Eocene. In order to analyse uplifting processes associated with tectonics during early Neogene we performed detrital zircon U-Pb geochronology, detrital thermochronology of zircon and apatites coupled with the description of a stratigraphic section and its facies composition. We compared samples from the Aracataca basin with analog sequences found at an equivalent basin at the Oca Fault at the northern margin of the SNSM. Our results show that sediments of both basins were sourced from Precambrian gneisses, along with Mesozoic acid to intermediate plutons; sedimentation started in the Upper Eocene-Oligocene according to palynomorphs, subsequently in the Upper Oligocene a completion of Jurassic to Cretaceous sources was followed by an increase of Precambrian input that became the dominant

The impact of wildfire on stream fishes in an Atlantic-Mediterranean climate: evidence from an 18-year chronosequence

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Monaghan K.A.

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The predicted increase in wildfires associated with climate change poses a risk to freshwater biodiversity that may be exacerbated by river regulation. We studied the effects of wildfire and river management on the fish assemblages of Atlantic-Mediterranean streams in northern Portugal. Employing a chronosquence survey covering an 18-year gradient of impact-recovery from major fire events (ca. 100% catchment burnt, we assessed the ecological response with respect to time since wildfire, interpreting fish assemblages in the context of species traits and characteristics of the river habitat. Non-burnt sites (N = 18; surveyed 4 years previously were compared to burnt sites (N = 14, two of which were part of the non-burnt set, thus providing a Before-After Impact comparison (BAI; N = 2. Across burnt sites richness and abundance were not related to time since wildfire. BAI revealed a contrast in the response of different species that corresponded to descriptive evidence from the chronosequence of burnt sites. As resource specialists, Salmo trutta were negatively impacted by wildfire; Iberian endemic cyprinids, characterized by generalist traits, demonstrated resistance. Habitat structure was a key determinant of wildfire-impact, increasing with channel slope and the degree of channelization. The low abundance of migratory taxa (S. trutta and Anguilla anguilla at burnt sites suggested the importance of fish mobility to post-fire recovery. These data demonstrate that trait profiles and habitat descriptions provide pragmatic information for the management of rivers in fire-susceptible regions and suggest that the rehabilitation of these upland stream habitats might enhance ecological resistance and resilience to catchment wildfire.

Streamflow in the upper Santa Cruz River basin, Santa Cruz and Pima Counties, Arizona

Science.gov (United States)

Condes de la Torre, Alberto

1970-01-01

Streamflow records obtained in the upper Santa Cruz River basin of southern Arizona, United States, and northern Sonora, Mexico, have been analyzed to aid in the appraisal of the surface-water resources of the area. Records are available for 15 sites, and the length of record ranges from 60 years for the gaging station on the Santa .Cruz River at Tucson to 6 years for Pantano Wash near Vail. The analysis provides information on flow duration, low-flow frequency magnitude, flood-volume frequency and magnitude, and storage requirements to maintain selected draft rates. Flood-peak information collected from the gaging stations has been projected on a regional basis from which estimates of flood magnitude and frequency may be made for any site in the basin. Most streams in the 3,503-square-mile basin are ephemeral. Ground water sustains low flows only at Santa Cruz River near Nogales, Sonoita Creek near Patagonia, and Pantano Wash near Vail. Elsewhere, flow occurs only in direct response to precipitation. The median number of days per year in which there is no flow ranges from 4 at Sonoita Creek near Patagonia to 335 at Rillito Creek near Tomson. The streamflow is extremely variable from year to year, and annual flows have a coefficient of variation close to or exceeding unity at most stations. Although the amount of flow in the basin is small most of the time, the area is subject to floods. Most floods result from high-intensity precipitation caused by thunderstorms during the period ,July to September. Occasionally, when snowfall at the lower altitudes is followed by rain, winter floods produce large volumes of flow.

WIFIRE: A Scalable Data-Driven Monitoring, Dynamic Prediction and Resilience Cyberinfrastructure for Wildfires

Science.gov (United States)

Altintas, I.; Block, J.; Braun, H.; de Callafon, R. A.; Gollner, M. J.; Smarr, L.; Trouve, A.

2013-12-01

Recent studies confirm that climate change will cause wildfires to increase in frequency and severity in the coming decades especially for California and in much of the North American West. The most critical sustainability issue in the midst of these ever-changing dynamics is how to achieve a new social-ecological equilibrium of this fire ecology. Wildfire wind speeds and directions change in an instant, and first responders can only be effective when they take action as quickly as the conditions change. To deliver information needed for sustainable policy and management in this dynamically changing fire regime, we must capture these details to understand the environmental processes. We are building an end-to-end cyberinfrastructure (CI), called WIFIRE, for real-time and data-driven simulation, prediction and visualization of wildfire behavior. The WIFIRE integrated CI system supports social-ecological resilience to the changing fire ecology regime in the face of urban dynamics and climate change. Networked observations, e.g., heterogeneous satellite data and real-time remote sensor data is integrated with computational techniques in signal processing, visualization, modeling and data assimilation to provide a scalable, technological, and educational solution to monitor weather patterns to predict a wildfire's Rate of Spread. Our collaborative WIFIRE team of scientists, engineers, technologists, government policy managers, private industry, and firefighters architects implement CI pathways that enable joint innovation for wildfire management. Scientific workflows are used as an integrative distributed programming model and simplify the implementation of engineering modules for data-driven simulation, prediction and visualization while allowing integration with large-scale computing facilities. WIFIRE will be scalable to users with different skill-levels via specialized web interfaces and user-specified alerts for environmental events broadcasted to receivers before

Hydrologic effects of large southwestern USA wildfires significantly increase regional water supply: fact or fiction?

Science.gov (United States)

Wine, M. L.; Cadol, D.

2016-08-01

In recent years climate change and historic fire suppression have increased the frequency of large wildfires in the southwestern USA, motivating study of the hydrological consequences of these wildfires at point and watershed scales, typically over short periods of time. These studies have revealed that reduced soil infiltration capacity and reduced transpiration due to tree canopy combustion increase streamflow at the watershed scale. However, the degree to which these local increases in runoff propagate to larger scales—relevant to urban and agricultural water supply—remains largely unknown, particularly in semi-arid mountainous watersheds co-dominated by winter snowmelt and the North American monsoon. To address this question, we selected three New Mexico watersheds—the Jemez (1223 km2), Mogollon (191 km2), and Gila (4807 km2)—that together have been affected by over 100 wildfires since 1982. We then applied climate-driven linear models to test for effects of fire on streamflow metrics after controlling for climatic variability. Here we show that, after controlling for climatic and snowpack variability, significantly more streamflow discharged from the Gila watershed for three to five years following wildfires, consistent with increased regional water yield due to enhanced infiltration-excess overland flow and groundwater recharge at the large watershed scale. In contrast, we observed no such increase in discharge from the Jemez watershed following wildfires. Fire regimes represent a key difference between the contrasting responses of the Jemez and Gila watersheds with the latter experiencing more frequent wildfires, many caused by lightning strikes. While hydrologic dynamics at the scale of large watersheds were previously thought to be climatically dominated, these results suggest that if one fifth or more of a large watershed has been burned in the previous three to five years, significant increases in water yield can be expected.

Declines revisited: Long-term recovery and spatial population dynamics oftailed frog larvae after wildfire

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Hossack, Blake R.; Honeycutt, Richard

2017-01-01

Drought has fueled an increased frequency and severity of large wildfires in many ecosystems. Despite an increase in research on wildfire effects on vertebrates, the vast majority of it has focused on short-term (effects and there is still little information on the time scale of population recovery for species that decline in abundance after fire. In 2003, a large wildfire in Montana (USA) burned the watersheds of four of eight streams that we sampled for larval Rocky Mountain tailed frogs (Ascaphus montanus) in 2001. Surveys during 2004–2005 revealed reduced abundance of larvae in burned streams relative to unburned streams, with greater declines associated with increased fire extent. Rocky Mountain tailed frogs have low vagility and have several unusual life-history traits that could slow population recovery, including an extended larval period (4 years), delayed sexual maturity (6–8 years), and low fecundity (negative effects of burn extent on larval abundance weakened> 58% within 12 years after the fire. We also found moderate synchrony among populations in unburned streams and negative spatial autocorrelation among populations in burned streams. We suspect negative spatial autocorrelation among spatially-clustered burned streams reflected increased post-fire patchiness in resources and different rates of local recovery. Our results add to a growing body of work that suggests populations in intact ecosystems tend to be resilient to habitat changes caused by wildfire. Our results also provide important insights into recovery times of populations that have been negatively affected by severe wildfire.

78 FR 47007 - National Environmental Policy Act; Santa Susana Field Laboratory

Science.gov (United States)

2013-08-02

... project Web site address listed below. http://www.nasa.gov/agency/nepa/news/SSFL.html . ADDRESSES...; Santa Susana Field Laboratory AGENCY: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). ACTION... Environmental Cleanup Activities for the NASA-administered portion of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL...

Land use planning and wildfire: development policies influence future probability of housing loss

Science.gov (United States)

Syphard, Alexandra D.; Massada, Avi Bar; Butsic, Van; Keeley, Jon E.

2013-01-01

Increasing numbers of homes are being destroyed by wildfire in the wildland-urban interface. With projections of climate change and housing growth potentially exacerbating the threat of wildfire to homes and property, effective fire-risk reduction alternatives are needed as part of a comprehensive fire management plan. Land use planning represents a shift in traditional thinking from trying to eliminate wildfires, or even increasing resilience to them, toward avoiding exposure to them through the informed placement of new residential structures. For land use planning to be effective, it needs to be based on solid understanding of where and how to locate and arrange new homes. We simulated three scenarios of future residential development and projected landscape-level wildfire risk to residential structures in a rapidly urbanizing, fire-prone region in southern California. We based all future development on an econometric subdivision model, but we varied the emphasis of subdivision decision-making based on three broad and common growth types: infill, expansion, and leapfrog. Simulation results showed that decision-making based on these growth types, when applied locally for subdivision of individual parcels, produced substantial landscape-level differences in pattern, location, and extent of development. These differences in development, in turn, affected the area and proportion of structures at risk from burning in wildfires. Scenarios with lower housing density and larger numbers of small, isolated clusters of development, i.e., resulting from leapfrog development, were generally predicted to have the highest predicted fire risk to the largest proportion of structures in the study area, and infill development was predicted to have the lowest risk. These results suggest that land use planning should be considered an important component to fire risk management and that consistently applied policies based on residential pattern may provide substantial benefits for

Aerosol Optical Properties and Trace Gas Emissions From Laboratory-Simulated Western US Wildfires

Science.gov (United States)

Selimovic, V.; Yokelson, R. J.; Warneke, C.; Roberts, J. M.; De Gouw, J. A.; Reardon, J.; Griffith, D. W. T.

2017-12-01

Western wildfires have a major impact on air quality in the US. In the fall of 2016, 107 fires were burned in the large-scale combustion facility at the US Forest Service Missoula Fire Sciences Laboratory as part of the Fire Influence on Regional and Global Environments Experiment (FIREX). Canopy, litter, duff, dead wood, and other fuels from various widespread coniferous and chaparral ecosystems were burned in combinations to represent relevant configurations in the field and as pure components to investigate the effects of individual fuels. The smoke emissions were characterized by a large suite of state-of-the-art instruments. In this study we report emission factor (EF, g compound emitted per kg fuel burned) measurements in fresh smoke of a diverse suite of critically-important trace gases measured by open-path Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (OP-FTIR). We also report aerosol optical properties (absorption EF, single scattering albedo (SSA) and Ångström absorption exponent (AAE)) as well as black carbon (BC) EF measured by photoacoustic extinctiometers (PAX) at 870 and 401 nm. A careful comparison with available field measurements of wildfires confirms that representative data can be extracted from the lab fire data. The OP-FTIR data show that ammonia (1.65 g kg-1), acetic acid (2.44 g kg-1), and other trace gases are significant emissions not previously measured for US wildfires. The PAX measurements show that brown carbon (BrC) absorption is most dominant for combustion of duff (AAE 7.13) and rotten wood (AAE 4.60): fuels that are consumed in greater amounts during wildfires than prescribed fires. We confirm that about 86% of the aerosol absorption at 401 nm in typical fresh wildfire smoke is due to BrC.

Perceptions of Post-Wildfire Landscape Change and Recovery

Science.gov (United States)

Kooistra, C. M.; Hall, T. E.; Paveglio, T.; Carroll, M.; Smith, A. M.

2013-12-01

Considering the dynamic nature of the earth and climate systems and the increasing potential for widespread forest disturbances, it is important to understand the implications of landscape changes, and perceptions of changes, on people's responses to forest disturbances. Understanding how people perceive landscape change over time following forest disturbances helps researchers, land managers, and community leaders identify important biophysical and social characteristics that influence the vulnerability of people who experience forest disturbances, as well as their responses to those disturbances. This poster describes people's perceptions of landscape change following a significant wildfire. The lightning ignited Dahl fire burned 12 miles southeast of Roundup, MT mostly on private land in the summer of June 2012. The fire burned approximately 22,000 acres and destroyed 73 residences. We conducted interviews in the summer of 2013 with more than 40 residents, land managers, emergency personnel, and other stakeholders. While interviews covered several topics, this poster focuses on responses to questions regarding perceptions of short- and long-term landscape change after the fire, including both social and biophysical perspectives. Interviews revealed that people's understanding of the role of wildfires as a natural ecosystem process, as well as their connections with the landscape (i.e., sense of place), were important factors that influenced their perceptions of landscape change after the fire. Many respondents discussed the landscape ';recovering' to pre-fire conditions in longer-term timeframes, such as ';multiple generations.' They often referenced previous wildfires, the Hawk Creek fire (1984) and the Majeras fire (2006), by explaining how parts of the landscape affected by the Dahl fire might compare to certain areas of the previous fires. Variations in recovery expectations were often based on perceptions of the severity of the fire (especially temperature

Simulating wildfire spread behavior between two NASA Active Fire data timeframes

Science.gov (United States)

Adhikari, B.; Hodza, P.; Xu, C.; Minckley, T. A.

2017-12-01

Although NASA's Active Fire dataset is considered valuable in mapping the spatial distribution and extent of wildfires across the world, the data is only available at approximately 12-hour time intervals, creating uncertainties and risks associated with fire spread and behavior between the two Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Satellite (VIIRS) data collection timeframes. Our study seeks to close the information gap for the United States by using the latest Active Fire data collected for instance around 0130 hours as an ignition source and critical inputs to a wildfire model by uniquely incorporating forecasted and real-time weather conditions for predicting fire perimeter at the next 12 hour reporting time (i.e. around 1330 hours). The model ingests highly dynamic variables such as fuel moisture, temperature, relative humidity, wind among others, and prompts a Monte Carlo simulation exercise that uses a varying range of possible values for evaluating all possible wildfire behaviors. The Monte Carlo simulation implemented in this model provides a measure of the relative wildfire risk levels at various locations based on the number of times those sites are intersected by simulated fire perimeters. Model calibration is achieved using data at next reporting time (i.e. after 12 hours) to enhance the predictive quality at further time steps. While initial results indicate that the calibrated model can predict the overall geometry and direction of wildland fire spread, the model seems to over-predict the sizes of most fire perimeters possibly due to unaccounted fire suppression activities. Nonetheless, the results of this study show great promise in aiding wildland fire tracking, fighting and risk management.

A global assessment of wildfire risks to human and environmental water security

Science.gov (United States)

Robinne, François-Nicolas; Parisien, Marc-André; Flannigan, Mike; Miller, Carol; Bladon, Kevin D.

2017-04-01

Extreme wildfire events extensively affect hydrosystem stability and generate an important threat to the reliability of the water supply for human and natural communities. While actively studied at the watershed scale, the development of a global vision of wildfire risk to water security has only been undertaken recently, pointing at potential water security concerns in an era of global changes. In order to address this concern, we propose a global-scale analysis of the wildfire risk to surface water supplies based on the Driving forces-Pressures-States-Impacts-Responses (DPSIR) framework. This framework relies on the cause-and-effect relationships existing between the five categories of the DPSIR chain. Based on the literature, we gathered an extensive set of spatial indicators relevant to fire-induced hydrological hazards and water consumption patterns by human and natural communities. Each indicator was assigned a DPSIR category. Then, we collapsed the information in each category using a principal component analysis in order to extract the most relevant pixel-based information provided by each spatial indicator. Finally, we compiled our five categories using an additive indexation process to produce a spatially-explicit index of the wildfire-water risk (WWR). For comparison purposes, we aggregated index scores by global hydrological regions, or hydrobelts, for analysis. Overall, our results show a distinct pattern of medium-to-high risk levels in areas where sizeable wildfire activity, water resources, and water consumption are concomitant, which mainly encompasses temperate and sub-tropical zones. A closer look at hydrobelts reveals differences in the factors driving the risk, with fire activity being the primary factor of risk in the circumboreal forest, and freshwater resource density being prevalent in tropical areas. We also identified major urban areas across the world whose source waters should be protected from extreme fire events, particularly when

78 FR 55763 - National Environmental Policy Act; Santa Susana Field Laboratory

Science.gov (United States)

2013-09-11

... document format at http://www.nasa.gov/agency/nepa/news/SSFL.html . The Federal Register Notice of Intent...; Santa Susana Field Laboratory AGENCY: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). ACTION... Demolition and Environmental Cleanup Activities for the NASA-administered portion of the Santa Susana Field...

Airborne measurements of western U.S. wildfire emissions: Comparison with prescribed burning and air quality implications

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Xiaoxi; Huey, L. Gregory; Yokelson, Robert J.; Selimovic, Vanessa; Simpson, Isobel J.; Müller, Markus; Jimenez, Jose L.; Campuzano-Jost, Pedro; Beyersdorf, Andreas J.; Blake, Donald R.; Butterfield, Zachary; Choi, Yonghoon; Crounse, John D.; Day, Douglas A.; Diskin, Glenn S.; Dubey, Manvendra K.; Fortner, Edward; Hanisco, Thomas F.; Hu, Weiwei; King, Laura E.; Kleinman, Lawrence; Meinardi, Simone; Mikoviny, Tomas; Onasch, Timothy B.; Palm, Brett B.; Peischl, Jeff; Pollack, Ilana B.; Ryerson, Thomas B.; Sachse, Glen W.; Sedlacek, Arthur J.; Shilling, John E.; Springston, Stephen; St. Clair, Jason M.; Tanner, David J.; Teng, Alexander P.; Wennberg, Paul O.; Wisthaler, Armin; Wolfe, Glenn M.

2017-06-01

Wildfires emit significant amounts of pollutants that degrade air quality. Plumes from three wildfires in the western U.S. were measured from aircraft during the Studies of Emissions and Atmospheric Composition, Clouds and Climate Coupling by Regional Surveys (SEAC4RS) and the Biomass Burning Observation Project (BBOP), both in summer 2013. This study reports an extensive set of emission factors (EFs) for over 80 gases and 5 components of submicron particulate matter (PM1) from these temperate wildfires. These include rarely, or never before, measured oxygenated volatile organic compounds and multifunctional organic nitrates. The observed EFs are compared with previous measurements of temperate wildfires, boreal forest fires, and temperate prescribed fires. The wildfires emitted high amounts of PM1 (with organic aerosol (OA) dominating the mass) with an average EF that is more than 2 times the EFs for prescribed fires. The measured EFs were used to estimate the annual wildfire emissions of carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, total nonmethane organic compounds, and PM1 from 11 western U.S. states. The estimated gas emissions are generally comparable with the 2011 National Emissions Inventory (NEI). However, our PM1 emission estimate (1530 ± 570 Gg yr-1) is over 3 times that of the NEI PM2.5 estimate and is also higher than the PM2.5 emitted from all other sources in these states in the NEI. This study indicates that the source of OA from biomass burning in the western states is significantly underestimated. In addition, our results indicate that prescribed burning may be an effective method to reduce fine particle emissions.

Working with neighborhood organizations to promote wildfire preparedness

Science.gov (United States)

Holly Johnson Shiralipour; Martha C. Monroe; Michelle Payton

2006-01-01

Several government agencies and other natural resource managers have instituted outreach programs to promote wildfire preparedness in wildland-urban interface (WUI) neighborhoods that complement community-wide efforts. To help these programs become more effective, research was undertaken to gain a better understanding of the role that neighbors and neighborhood...

Inclusion of biomass burning in WRF-Chem: impact of wildfires on weather forecasts

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

G. Grell

2011-06-01

Full Text Available A plume rise algorithm for wildfires was included in WRF-Chem, and applied to look at the impact of intense wildfires during the 2004 Alaska wildfire season on weather simulations using model resolutions of 10 km and 2 km. Biomass burning emissions were estimated using a biomass burning emissions model. In addition, a 1-D, time-dependent cloud model was used online in WRF-Chem to estimate injection heights as well as the vertical distribution of the emission rates. It was shown that with the inclusion of the intense wildfires of the 2004 fire season in the model simulations, the interaction of the aerosols with the atmospheric radiation led to significant modifications of vertical profiles of temperature and moisture in cloud-free areas. On the other hand, when clouds were present, the high concentrations of fine aerosol (PM_2.5 and the resulting large numbers of Cloud Condensation Nuclei (CCN had a strong impact on clouds and cloud microphysics, with decreased precipitation coverage and precipitation amounts during the first 12 h of the integration. During the afternoon, storms were of convective nature and appeared significantly stronger, probably as a result of both the interaction of aerosols with radiation (through an increase in CAPE as well as the interaction with cloud microphysics.

Airborne In-Situ Trace Gas Measurements of Multiple Wildfires in California (2013-2014)

Science.gov (United States)

Iraci, L. T.; Yates, E. L.; Tanaka, T.; Roby, M.; Gore, W.; Clements, C. B.; Lareau, N.; Ambrosia, V. G.; Quayle, B.; Schroeder, W.

2014-12-01

Biomass burning emissions are an important source of a wide range of trace gases and particles that can impact local, regional and global air quality, climate forcing, biogeochemical cycles and human health. In the western US, wildfires dominate over prescribed fires, contributing to atmospheric trace gas budgets and regional and local air pollution. Limited sampling of emissions from wildfires means western US emission estimates rely largely on data from prescribed fires, which may not be a suitable proxy for wildfire emissions. We report here in-situ measurements of carbon dioxide, methane, ozone and water vapor from the plumes of a variety of wildfires sampled in California in the fire seasons of 2013 and 2014. Included in the analysis are the Rim Fire (August - October 2013, near Yosemite National Park), the Morgan Fire (September 2013, near Clayton, CA), and the El Portal Fire (July - August 2014, in Yosemite National Park), among others. When possible, fires were sampled on multiple days. Emission ratios and estimated emission factors will be presented and discussed in the context of fuel composition, plume structure, and fire phase. Correlations of plume chemical composition to MODIS/VIIRS Fire Radiative Power (FRP) and other remote sensing information will be explored. Furthermore, the role of plumes in delivery of enhanced ozone concentrations to downwind municipalities will be discussed.

Wildfire disturbance, erosion and sedimentation risks following the Waldo Canyon Fire in Colorado

Science.gov (United States)

Flint, K.; Kinoshita, A. M.; Chin, A.; Florsheim, J. L.; Nourbakhshbeidokhti, S.

2016-12-01

Wildfire is a landscape-scale disturbance that causes abrupt changes to hydrological responses and sediment flux during subsequent storms. Burning hillslope vegetation during wildfires induces changes to sediment supply and stream flow magnitude. Altered post-fire processes such as channel erosion and sedimentation or flooding enhance downstream hazards that may threaten human populations and physical aquatic habitat over various time scales. Using data from a small drainage basin (Williams Canyon, 4.7 km2) in the Colorado front range burned by the 2012 Waldo Fire as a case study, we investigate post-fire recovery and assess changes in fire-related risks to downstream areas. Our local ground-based precipitation, field measurements, terrestrial Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) scanning together with satellite-based remote sensing data (i.e. Landsat) provide a basis for time series analyses of reach-scale erosion and sedimentation response to rainfall patterns as vegetation patterns change following the wildfire. As a first step in quantifying the likelihood and consequences of specific risk scenarios, we examine changes in the combined probability of storm flows and post-fire erosion and sedimentation as vegetation recovers within the study watershed. We explore possible feedbacks and thresholds related to vegetation-hydrology-sediment interactions following wildfire under changing climate regimes. This information is needed to assist in post-fire management to promote sustainability of wildland fluvial systems.

Central hydroelectric of Santa Ana

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pardo A, German

2000-01-01

The paper is related to the construction of an alternating tunnel of conduction to take advantage of the available hydraulic load among the Wiesner Plant and Santa Ana's tanks and of Suba, works required to build a hydroelectric power station with a generation capacity of approximately of 12 MW

2007-2008 Weapon Systems

Science.gov (United States)

2007-01-01

240 Tactical Operations Center ( TOC ) .......................................................................242 Tactical Unmanned Aerial...4QFY06: CHS-3 contract transferred from AMCOM Acq Ctr to CECOM Acq Ctr as a result of the PD CHS move from PM TOCs /AMDCCS to PM TRCS in FY06...SALES None CONTRACTORS IRB Bays manufacturer: General Dynamics Santa Barbara Sistemas (Kaiserslautern, Germany) Logistic support: AM General (Livonia, MI

Policy Options to Address Crucial Communication Gaps in the Incident Command System

Science.gov (United States)

2012-09-01

knife and study their husbands’ necks. Anything can happen.12 Raymond Chandler , Red Wind, A. CHAPTER INTRODUCTION This chapter describes the...Santa Barbara, moving southward towards Ventura, 12 Raymond Chandler , “Red Wind.” Available at http...front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. Government and other responders were on the scene minutes after a massive truck bomb destroyed a federal

CITY OF SANTA FE V. KOMIS REVISITED: AN ANALYSIS OF THE ACTUAL IMPACTS OF CONSTRUCTION AND OPERATION OF THE SANTA FE BYPASS ON THE VALUE OF NEARBY REAL ESTATE

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bentz, E. J. Jr.; Bentz, C. B.; O'Hora, T. D.; Baepler, D.

2003-01-01

The Santa Fe Bypass for transport of transuranic waste (TRU) to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, New Mexico has been constructed and is operational (as of 2000). This paper presents a review of actual empirical data from the sales of real estate in the Santa Fe City/County area since the filing of the City of Santa Fe v. Komis lawsuit in 1988. The data analyzed covers the time period from 1989 through the last quarter of 2001

An Interview with Barbara Keogh: Observations of Her Career and the Role of Context in Understanding Children with Disabilities

Science.gov (United States)

Chamberlain, Steven P.

2011-01-01

Barbara Keogh is a true Californian. She was born in Glendale, received her education and professional training in California colleges and universities, and has been a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) for more than 40 years, where she is now Emerita. She is a licensed clinical psychologist and has worked as a…

The sensitivity of US wildfire occurrence to pre-season soil moisture conditions across ecosystems

Science.gov (United States)

Jensen, Daniel; Reager, John T.; Zajic, Brittany; Rousseau, Nick; Rodell, Matthew; Hinkley, Everett

2018-01-01

It is generally accepted that year-to-year variability in moisture conditions and drought are linked with increased wildfire occurrence. However, quantifying the sensitivity of wildfire to surface moisture state at seasonal lead-times has been challenging due to the absence of a long soil moisture record with the appropriate coverage and spatial resolution for continental-scale analysis. Here we apply model simulations of surface soil moisture that numerically assimilate observations from NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission with the USDA Forest Service’s historical Fire-Occurrence Database over the contiguous United States. We quantify the relationships between pre-fire-season soil moisture and subsequent-year wildfire occurrence by land-cover type and produce annual probable wildfire occurrence and burned area maps at 0.25 degree resolution. Cross-validated results generally indicate a higher occurrence of smaller fires when months preceding fire season are wet, while larger fires are more frequent when soils are dry. This is consistent with the concept of increased fuel accumulation under wet conditions in the pre-season. These results demonstrate the fundamental strength of the relationship between soil moisture and fire activity at long lead-times and are indicative of that relationship’s utility for the future development of national-scale predictive capability.

Carbon sequestration potential and physicochemical properties differ between wildfire charcoals and slow-pyrolysis biochars.

Science.gov (United States)

Santín, Cristina; Doerr, Stefan H; Merino, Agustin; Bucheli, Thomas D; Bryant, Rob; Ascough, Philippa; Gao, Xiaodong; Masiello, Caroline A

2017-09-11

Pyrogenic carbon (PyC), produced naturally (wildfire charcoal) and anthropogenically (biochar), is extensively studied due to its importance in several disciplines, including global climate dynamics, agronomy and paleosciences. Charcoal and biochar are commonly used as analogues for each other to infer respective carbon sequestration potentials, production conditions, and environmental roles and fates. The direct comparability of corresponding natural and anthropogenic PyC, however, has never been tested. Here we compared key physicochemical properties (elemental composition, δ 13 C and PAHs signatures, chemical recalcitrance, density and porosity) and carbon sequestration potentials of PyC materials formed from two identical feedstocks (pine forest floor and wood) under wildfire charring- and slow-pyrolysis conditions. Wildfire charcoals were formed under higher maximum temperatures and oxygen availabilities, but much shorter heating durations than slow-pyrolysis biochars, resulting in differing physicochemical properties. These differences are particularly relevant regarding their respective roles as carbon sinks, as even the wildfire charcoals formed at the highest temperatures had lower carbon sequestration potentials than most slow-pyrolysis biochars. Our results challenge the common notion that natural charcoal and biochar are well suited as proxies for each other, and suggest that biochar's environmental residence time may be underestimated when based on natural charcoal as a proxy, and vice versa.

Hyper-dry conditions provide new insights into the cause of extreme floods after wildfire

Science.gov (United States)

Moody, John A.; Ebel, Brian A.

2012-01-01

A catastrophic wildfire in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains near Boulder, Colorado provided a unique opportunity to investigate soil conditions immediately after a wildfire and before alteration by rainfall. Measurements of near-surface (θ; and matric suction, ψ), rainfall, and wind velocity were started 8 days after the wildfire began. These measurements established that hyper-dryconditions (θ 3 cm-3; ψ > ~ 3 x 105 cm) existed and provided an in-situ retention curve for these conditions. These conditions exacerbate the effects of water repellency (natural and fire-induced) and limit the effectiveness of capillarity and gravity driven infiltration into fire-affected soils. The important consequence is that given hyper-dryconditions, the critical rewetting process before the first rain is restricted to the diffusion–adsorption of water-vapor. This process typically has a time scale of days to weeks (especially when the hydrologic effects of the ash layer are included) that is longer than the typical time scale (minutes to hours) of some rainstorms, such that under hyper-dryconditions essentially no rain infiltrates. The existence of hyper-dryconditions provides insight into why, frequently during the first rain storm after a wildfire, nearly all rainfall becomes runoff causing extremefloods and debris flows.

A Five-Year CMAQ PM2.5 Model Performance for Wildfires and Prescribed Fires

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Wilkins, J. L.; Pouliot, G.; Foley, K.; Rappold, A.; Pierce, T. E.

2016-12-01

Biomass burning has been identified as an important contributor to the degradation of air quality because of its impact on ozone and particulate matter. Two components of the biomass burning inventory, wildfires and prescribed fires are routinely estimated in the national emissions inventory. However, there is a large amount of uncertainty in the development of these emission inventory sectors. We have completed a 5 year set of CMAQ model simulations (2008-2012) in which we have simulated regional air quality with and without the wildfire and prescribed fire inventory. We will examine CMAQ model performance over regions with significant PM2.5 and Ozone contribution from prescribed fires and wildfires. We will also review plume rise to see how it affects model bias and compare CMAQ current fire emissions input to an hourly dataset from FLAMBE.

Assessment of Anthropogenic and Biomass Burning Impact on Aerosol Properties over California as Observed During ARCTAS-CA

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Thornhill, K. L.; Anderson, B.; Chen, G.; Beyersdorf, A. J.; Winstead, E. L.; Dibb, J. E.; Scheuer, E. M.; Weber, R.; Lathem, T. L.; Jimenez, J. L.; Cubison, M.; Kondo, Y.; Wennberg, P. O.; Weinheimer, A. J.; Wisthaler, A.

2009-12-01

In the summer of 2008, measurements of aerosols were made on-board the NASA DC-8 over the state of California, as part of the second phase of the Arctic Research of the Composition of the Troposphere from Aircraft and Satellites (ARCTAS) on behalf of the California Air resources Board (CARB). The DC-8 made four flights, between 18 June and 26 June, totaling 33 hours, to examine California’s atmosphere to better understand the chemical dynamics of smog and greenhouse gases over the state. Serendipitously, from a science perspective, this time period was marked by numerous wildfires spread throughout the state. The NASA DC-8 had a suite of aerosol instruments, capable of measuring the number concentrations, optical properties, and size distributions of aerosols between 0.003 and 1500 um. In this presentation, we will characterize aerosols sampled over the Los Angeles basin, which included several missed approaches at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), traverses through the Long Beach and Santa Barbara ship channels, sampling in and out of the marine boundary layer, and encounters with outflow of forest fires mixed with urban smog. The evolution of the aerosols during the day will be examined, as the smog builds up within the basin and the plume travels out of the basin into the surrounding atmosphere.

Application of wildfire simulation methods to assess wildfire exposure in a Mediterranean fire-prone area (Sardinia, Italy)

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Salis, M.; Ager, A.; Arca, B.; Finney, M.; Bacciu, V. M.; Spano, D.; Duce, P.

2012-12-01

Spatial and temporal patterns of fire spread and behavior are dependent on interactions among climate, topography, vegetation and fire suppression efforts (Pyne et al. 1996; Viegas 2006; Falk et al. 2007). Humans also play a key role in determining frequency and spatial distribution of ignitions (Bar Massada et al, 2011), and thus influence fire regimes as well. The growing incidence of catastrophic wildfires has led to substantial losses for important ecological and human values within many areas of the Mediterranean basin (Moreno et al. 1998; Mouillot et al. 2005; Viegas et al. 2006a; Riaño et al. 2007). The growing fire risk issue has led to many new programs and policies of fuel management and risk mitigation by environmental and fire agencies. However, risk-based methodologies to help identify areas characterized by high potential losses and prioritize fuel management have been lacking for the region. Formal risk assessment requires the joint consideration of likelihood, intensity, and susceptibility, the product of which estimates the chance of a specific loss (Brillinger 2003; Society of Risk Analysis, 2006). Quantifying fire risk therefore requires estimates of a) the probability of a specific location burning at a specific intensity and location, and b) the resulting change in financial or ecological value (Finney 2005; Scott 2006). When large fires are the primary cause of damage, the application of this risk formulation requires modeling fire spread to capture landscape properties that affect burn probability. Recently, the incorporation of large fire spread into risk assessment systems has become feasible with the development of high performance fire simulation systems (Finney et al. 2011) that permit the simulation of hundreds of thousands of fires to generate fine scale maps of burn probability, flame length, and fire size, while considering the combined effects of weather, fuels, and topography (Finney 2002; Andrews et al. 2007; Ager and Finney 2009

Application of wildfire spread and behavior models to assess fire probability and severity in the Mediterranean region

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Salis, Michele; Arca, Bachisio; Bacciu, Valentina; Spano, Donatella; Duce, Pierpaolo; Santoni, Paul; Ager, Alan; Finney, Mark

2010-05-01

Characterizing the spatial pattern of large fire occurrence and severity is an important feature of the fire management planning in the Mediterranean region. The spatial characterization of fire probabilities, fire behavior distributions and value changes are key components for quantitative risk assessment and for prioritizing fire suppression resources, fuel treatments and law enforcement. Because of the growing wildfire severity and frequency in recent years (e.g.: Portugal, 2003 and 2005; Italy and Greece, 2007 and 2009), there is an increasing demand for models and tools that can aid in wildfire prediction and prevention. Newer wildfire simulation systems offer promise in this regard, and allow for fine scale modeling of wildfire severity and probability. Several new applications has resulted from the development of a minimum travel time (MTT) fire spread algorithm (Finney, 2002), that models the fire growth searching for the minimum time for fire to travel among nodes in a 2D network. The MTT approach makes computationally feasible to simulate thousands of fires and generate burn probability and fire severity maps over large areas. The MTT algorithm is imbedded in a number of research and fire modeling applications. High performance computers are typically used for MTT simulations, although the algorithm is also implemented in the FlamMap program (www.fire.org). In this work, we described the application of the MTT algorithm to estimate spatial patterns of burn probability and to analyze wildfire severity in three fire prone areas of the Mediterranean Basin, specifically Sardinia (Italy), Sicily (Italy) and Corsica (France) islands. We assembled fuels and topographic data for the simulations in 500 x 500 m grids for the study areas. The simulations were run using 100,000 ignitions under weather conditions that replicated severe and moderate weather conditions (97th and 70th percentile, July and August weather, 1995-2007). We used both random ignition locations

Influences of wildfire and channel reorganization on spatial and temporal variation in stream temperature and the distribution of fish and amphibians

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Jason B. Dunham; Amanda E. Rosenberger; Charlie H. Luce; Bruce E. Rieman

2007-01-01

Wildfire can influence a variety of stream ecosystem properties. We studied stream temperatures in relation to wildfire in small streams in the Boise River Basin, located in central Idaho, USA. To examine the spatio-temporal aspects of temperature in relation to wildfire, we employed three approaches: a pre­post fire comparison of temperatures between two sites (one...

La Ex Hacienda de Santa Cruz

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Berta Pinto de Estrada

1975-06-01

Full Text Available Ex hacienda Santa Cruz was chosen to show the differences in the geographic and economic structure, and the historic causes that originated them, as an example of ihe situation in the northem part of Campeche.

Assessing Watershed-Wildfire Risks on National Forest System Lands in the Rocky Mountain Region of the United States

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Jessica R. Haas

2013-07-01

Full Text Available Wildfires can cause significant negative impacts to water quality with resultant consequences for the environment and human health and safety, as well as incurring substantial rehabilitation and water treatment costs. In this paper we will illustrate how state-of-the-art wildfire simulation modeling and geospatial risk assessment methods can be brought to bear to identify and prioritize at-risk watersheds for risk mitigation treatments, in both pre-fire and post-fire planning contexts. Risk assessment results can be particularly useful for prioritizing management of hazardous fuels to lessen the severity and likely impacts of future wildfires, where budgetary and other constraints limit the amount of area that can be treated. Specifically we generate spatially resolved estimates of wildfire likelihood and intensity, and couple that information with spatial data on watershed location and watershed erosion potential to quantify watershed exposure and risk. For a case study location we focus on National Forest System lands in the Rocky Mountain Region of the United States. The Region houses numerous watersheds that are critically important to drinking water supplies and that have been impacted or threatened by large wildfires in recent years. Assessment results are the culmination of a broader multi-year science-management partnership intended to have direct bearing on wildfire management decision processes in the Region. Our results suggest substantial variation in the exposure of and likely effects to highly valued watersheds throughout the Region, which carry significant implications for prioritization. In particular we identified the San Juan National Forest as having the highest concentration of at-risk highly valued watersheds, as well as the greatest amount of risk that can be mitigated via hazardous fuel reduction treatments. To conclude we describe future opportunities and challenges for management of wildfire-watershed interactions.

Wildfire may increase habitat quality for spring Chinook salmon in the Wenatchee River subbasin, WA, USA

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Rebecca L. Flitcroft; Jeffrey A. Falke; Gordon H. Reeves; Paul F. Hessburg; Kris M. McNyset; Lee E. Benda

2016-01-01

Pacific Northwest salmonids are adapted to natural disturbance regimes that create dynamic habitat patterns over space and through time. However, human land use, particularly long-term fire suppression, has altered the intensity and frequency of wildfire in forested upland and riparian areas. To examine the potential impacts of wildfire on aquatic systems, we developed...

Oral health of the Paleoamericans of Lagoa Santa, Central Brazil.

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Da-Gloria, Pedro; Larsen, Clark Spencer

2014-05-01

The peopling, origins, and early prehistory of the Americas are topics of intense debate. However, few studies have used human remains to document and interpret patterns of health and lifestyle of Paleoamericans. This study provides the first investigation to characterize oral health in a series of early Holocene skeletal remains from Lagoa Santa, Brazil, a locality containing the remains of some of the earliest inhabitants of South America (10,000-7,000 BP). The sample is composed of 949 teeth and 1925 alveoli from an estimated 113 individuals excavated from 17 archaeological sites located in the State of Minas Gerais. We compare dental caries and abscess prevalence at Lagoa Santa to a large sample of human skeletons from the Western Hemisphere Project (WHP) database using both individual and tooth/alveolus count methods. In addition, antemortem tooth loss and tooth wear were analyzed in Lagoa Santa by sex and age. The results show that Lagoa Santa dental caries and abscess prevalence are significantly higher than observed among other hunter-gatherers included in the WHP database, except when abscess prevalence is considered by individual count. Adult females have less tooth wear coupled with higher prevalence of dental caries and antemortem tooth loss than adult males. These results point to an unexpected record of poor oral health at Lagoa Santa, especially among females. A diet based on a highly cariogenic combination of wild tubers and fruits is suggested as an explanation for the elevated rate, characterizing an early adaptation to a tropical environment in South America. Copyright © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Measuring the consequences of wildfires in a Bayesian network with vulnerability and exposure indicators

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Papakosta, Panagiota; Botzler, Sebastian; Krug, Kai; Straub, Daniel

2013-04-01

Mediterranean climate type areas have always been experiencing fire events. However, population growth and expansion of urban centers into wildland areas during the 20th century (expansion of wildland-urban interface) has increased the threat to humans and their activities. Life and property losses, damage on infrastructure and crops, and forest degradation are some of the damages caused by wildfires. Although fires repeatedly occur along the Mediterranean basin, not all areas have experienced severe consequences. The extent of damage by wildfires is influenced by several factors, such as population density, vegetation type, topography, weather conditions and social preparedness [1]. Wildfire consequence estimation by means of vulnerability and exposure indicators is an essential part of wildfire risk analysis. Vulnerability indicators express the conditions that increase the susceptibility of a site to the impact of wildfires and exposure indicators describe the elements at risk [2],[3]. Appropriate indicators to measure wildfire vulnerability and exposure can vary with scale and site. The consequences can be classified into economic, social, environmental and safety, and they can be tangible (human life losses, buildings damaged) or intangible (damage of cultural heritage site). As a consequence, a variety of approaches exist and there is a lack of generalized unified easy-to-implement methodologies. In this study we present a methodology for measuring consequences of wildfires in a Mediterranean area in the mesoscale (1 km² spatial resolution). Vulnerability and exposure indicators covering all consequence levels are identified and their interrelations are stressed. Variables such as building materials, roofing type, and average building values are included in the economic vulnerability level. Safety exposure is expressed by population density, demographic structure, street density and distance to closest fire station. Environmental vulnerability of protected

Lichens, wildfire, and caribou on the taiga ecosystem of northcentral Canada

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Don Miller

2000-04-01

Full Text Available Terrestrial lichens are unique organisms that are pioneers on bare sand and rock, survive desiccation and reproduce both sexually and asexually. They compete poorly with dense, aggressive vascular flora. Wildfires require organic matter as fuels, are the driving force in perpetuation of the Taiga Ecosystem in a heterogeneous environment and, if left alone, are self controlling. Caribou wintering on the Taiga are dependent on: (1 a terricolous lichen forage supply for most of the winter, (2 a heterogeneous environment to cope with predators and the changing nival environment, and (3 natural wildfires to supply these needs. Wildlife control on the Taiga winter range is not recommended as a management tool for barren-ground caribou.

Effects of a Wildfire on Selected Physical, Chemical and Biochemical Soil Properties in a Pinus massoniana Forest in South China

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Li Xue

2014-11-01

Full Text Available Pinus massoniana forests bordering South China are often affected by wildfires. Fires cause major changes in soil properties in many forest types but little is known about the effects of fire on soil properties in these P. massoniana forests. Such knowledge is important for providing a comprehensive understanding of wildfire effects on soil patterns and for planning appropriate long-term forest management in these forests. Changes in soil physical properties, carbon, nutrients, and enzymes were investigated in a P. massoniana forest along a wildfire-induced time span consisting of an unburned soil, and soils 0, one, four, and seven years post-fire. Soil (0–10 cm was collected from burned and unburned sites immediately and one, four, and seven years after a wildfire. The wildfire effects on soil physical and chemical properties and enzyme activities were significantly different among treatment variation, time variation, and treatment-by-time interaction. Significant short-term effects on soil physical, chemical, and biological properties were found, which resulted in a deterioration of soil physical properties by increasing soil bulk density and decreasing macropores and capillary moisture. Soil pH increased significantly in the soil one-year post-fire. Carbon, total nitrogen (N and phosphorus (P, and available N and P increased significantly immediately and one year after the wildfire and decreased progressively to concentrations lower than in the unburned soil. Total potassium (K and exchangeable K increased immediately after the wildfire and then continuously decreased along the burned time-span. Urease, acid phosphatase, and catalase activities significantly decreased compared to those in the unburned soil. In fire-prone P. massoniana forests, wildfires may significantly influence soil physical properties, carbon, nutrients, and enzyme activity.

Aerial wildfire fighting: history, current situation, problems and perspectives

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A. V. Bryukhanov

2017-10-01

Full Text Available Nowadays aviation is among the most effective ways of early detection and suppression of wildfires. At the moment for the aerial wildfire fighting a few dozen models of aircraft are used worldwide, which are regularly modernized and renewed. In this article, authors give information about the history of fighting wildfires from the air, as well as analyze the current state of the issue with the use of aircraft and helicopter airtankers for firefighting, both at international level and in the territory of the Russian Federation. It is revealed that the most popular in the world still are the ground-based firefighting aircraft (regardless of the class of the carrying capacity. Amphibious firefighting aircraft now exist only in light (carrying capacity up to 5 tons and in medium type (capacity up to 15 tons. Among the helicopter aviation, heavy firefighting helicopters are mostly widely spread, as well as medium multipurpose helicopters, which are, apart from suppression, involved into delivery of people and goods to forest fire sites. The article is devoted to the main directions, according to which the development of aircraft tanker equipment abroad and in Russia occurs. The attention is directed to the most promising developments, and specific recommendations on how to increase the effectiveness of the fire aviation usage in Russia are given. Based on the studies carried out, a conclusion is drawn that for different countries there can be promising different types of firefighting aircraft, considering their landing field infrastructure, characteristics of forests and hydro systems, as well as the total area of the forest fund.

Response of lizards to high-severity wildfires in a southern United States mixed pine/hardwood forest

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Adam ​Duarte; Donald J. Brown; Michael R. J. Forstner

2017-01-01

High-severity forest fires are increasing in large areas of the southern and western United States as the climate becomes warmer and drier. Natural resource managers need a better understanding of the short- and long-term effects of wildfires on lizard populations, but there is a paucity of studies focused on lizard-wildfire relationships. We used a before-after,...

Post-fire burn severity and vegetation response following eight large wildfires across the Western United States

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Leigh B. Lentile; Penelope Morgan; Andrew T. Hudak; Michael J. Bobbitt; Sarah A. Lewis; Alistair M. S. Smith; Peter R. Robichaud

2007-01-01

Vegetation response and burn severity were examined following eight large wildfires that burned in 2003 and 2004: two wildfires in California chaparral, two each in dry and moist mixed-conifer forests in Montana, and two in boreal forests in interior Alaska. Our research objectives were: 1) to characterize one year post-fire vegetation recovery relative to initial fire...

Accommodating non-market values in evaluation of wildfire management in the United States: Challenges and opportunities

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Tyron J. Venn; David E. Calkin

2011-01-01

Forests in the United States generate many non-market benefits for society that can be enhanced and diminished by wildfire and wildfire management. The Federal Wildland Fire Management Policy (1995, updated 2001), and subsequent Guidance to the Implementation of that policy provided in 2009, require fire management priorities be set on the basis of values to be...

Dormant season grazing may decrease wildfire probability by increasing fuel moisture and reducing fuel amount and continuity

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1. Wildfire is an ecological and economic risk for many semi-arid rangelands across the globe. This coupled with extreme wildfire seasons and mega-fires over the last decade have resulted in a call for more pre-suppression management actions. Dormant season grazing has been suggested as a treatment...

Estimation of wildfire size and risk changes due to fuels treatments

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Cochrane, M.A.; Moran, C.J.; Wimberly, M.C.; Baer, A.D.; Finney, M.A.; Beckendorf, K.L.; Eidenshink, J.; Zhu, Z.

2012-01-01

Human land use practices, altered climates, and shifting forest and fire management policies have increased the frequency of large wildfires several-fold. Mitigation of potential fire behaviour and fire severity have increasingly been attempted through pre-fire alteration of wildland fuels using mechanical treatments and prescribed fires. Despite annual treatment of more than a million hectares of land, quantitative assessments of the effectiveness of existing fuel treatments at reducing the size of actual wildfires or how they might alter the risk of burning across landscapes are currently lacking. Here, we present a method for estimating spatial probabilities of burning as a function of extant fuels treatments for any wildland fire-affected landscape. We examined the landscape effects of more than 72 000 ha of wildland fuel treatments involved in 14 large wildfires that burned 314 000 ha of forests in nine US states between 2002 and 2010. Fuels treatments altered the probability of fire occurrence both positively and negatively across landscapes, effectively redistributing fire risk by changing surface fire spread rates and reducing the likelihood of crowning behaviour. Trade offs are created between formation of large areas with low probabilities of increased burning and smaller, well-defined regions with reduced fire risk.

AEGIS: a wildfire prevention and management information system

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Kostas Kalabokidis; Alan Ager; Mark Finney; Nikos Athanasis; Palaiologos Palaiologou; Christos Vasilakos

2016-01-01

We describe a Web-GIS wildfire prevention and management platform (AEGIS) developed as an integrated and easy-to-use decision support tool to manage wildland fire hazards in Greece (http://aegis.aegean.gr). The AEGIS platform assists with early fire warning, fire planning, fire control and coordination of firefighting forces by providing online access to...

Predicting mortality for five California conifers following wildfire

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Sharon M. Hood; Sheri L. Smith; Daniel R. Cluck

2010-01-01

Fire injury was characterized and survival monitored for 5677 trees >25cm DBH from five wildfires in California that occurred between 2000 and 2004. Logistic regression models for predicting the probability of mortality 5-years after fire were developed for incense cedar (Calocedrus decurrens (Torr.) Florin), white fir (Abies concolor (Gord. & Glend.) Lindl. ex...

Predicting wildfire occurrence distribution with spatial point process models and its uncertainty assessment: a case study in the Lake Tahoe Basin, USA

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Jian Yang; Peter J. Weisberg; Thomas E. Dilts; E. Louise Loudermilk; Robert M. Scheller; Alison Stanton; Carl Skinner

2015-01-01

Strategic fire and fuel management planning benefits from detailed understanding of how wildfire occurrences are distributed spatially under current climate, and from predictive models of future wildfire occurrence given climate change scenarios. In this study, we fitted historical wildfire occurrence data from 1986 to 2009 to a suite of spatial point process (SPP)...

Caracterização do processo de rigor mortis em músculos de cordeiros da raça Santa Inês e F1 Santa Inês x Dorper Characterization of rigor mortis process of muscles lamb of Santa Inês breed and F1 Santa Inês x Dorper

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Rafael dos Santos Costa

2011-01-01

Full Text Available O desenvolvimento do processo de rigor mortis nas carcaças dos animais de açougue influenciam diretamente a qualidade da carne. As características do processo de rigor mortis em carcaça de ovinos durante o processamento industrial para obtenção de carcaças resfriadas já foram estudadas em outros países e no Brasil em ovinos Santa Inês, mas ainda não estabelecidas em ovinos F1 Santa Inês x Dorper. Assim, objetivou-se neste trabalho caracterizar o processo de rigor mortis dos músculos Semitendinosus e Triceps brachii durante o resfriamento industrial e maciez da carne, em 10 carcaças ovinas. Foram escolhidos aleatoriamente 10 ovinos machos inteiros, sendo seis da raça Santa Inês e quatro F1 Santa Inês x Dorper, abatidos no Matadouro Frigorífico de Campos - Campos dos Goytacazes, Rio de Janeiro. Após a sangria, analisou-se temperatura, pH, comprimento de sarcômero em diferentes intervalos de tempo (4h; 6h; 8h; 10h; 12h; e 24h e força de cisalhamento ou maciez às 48h, do músculo Semitendinosus. Paralelamente, foi realizada a correlação entre a análise sensorial e a análise instrumental desse músculo. A temperatura da câmara fria variou de 12,2°C (4h a -0,5°C (24h e a temperatura média das carcaças foi de 26,80°C e -0,20°C, respectivamente. O pH médio inicial do músculo Semitendinosus foi de 6,62 e o final 5,64 enquanto no músculo T. brachii foi de 6,50 (4h e 5,68 (24h. A contração máxima do sarcômero do músculo Semitendinosus ocorreu na 12ªh(1,50mm após a sangria e no músculo Triceps brachii, no intervalo entre a 10ªh e 24ªh (1,53 a 1,57mm. No músculo Semitendinosus a força de cisalhamento ou maciez foi semelhante entre cordeiros da raça Santa Inês e F1 Santa Inês x Dorper, demonstrando que o grupo genético não influencia na maciez da carne. O painel sensorial confirmou os resultados obtidos na análise instrumental. Na correlação da análise instrumental (força de cisalhamento com a an

Critical shear stress for erosion of cohesive soils subjected to temperatures typical of wildfires

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Moody, J.A.; Dungan, Smith J.; Ragan, B.W.

2005-01-01

[1] Increased erosion is a well-known response after wildfire. To predict and to model erosion on a landscape scale requires knowledge of the critical shear stress for the initiation of motion of soil particles. As this soil property is temperature-dependent, a quantitative relation between critical shear stress and the temperatures to which the soils have been subjected during a wildfire is required. In this study the critical shear stress was measured in a recirculating flume using samples of forest soil exposed to different temperatures (40??-550??C) for 1 hour. Results were obtained for four replicates of soils derived from three different types of parent material (granitic bedrock, sandstone, and volcanic tuffs). In general, the relation between critical shear stress and temperature can be separated into three different temperature ranges (275??C), which are similar to those for water repellency and temperature. The critical shear stress was most variable (1.0-2.0 N m-2) for temperatures 2.0 N m-2) between 175?? and 275??C, and was essentially constant (0.5-0.8 N m-2) for temperatures >275??C. The changes in critical shear stress with temperature were found to be essentially independent of soil type and suggest that erosion processes in burned watersheds can be modeled more simply than erosion processes in unburned watersheds. Wildfire reduces the spatial variability of soil erodibility associated with unburned watersheds by eliminating the complex effects of vegetation in protecting soils and by reducing the range of cohesion associated with different types of unburned soils. Our results indicate that modeling the erosional response after a wildfire depends primarily on determining the spatial distribution of the maximum soil temperatures that were reached during the wildfire. Copyright 2005 by the American Geophysical Union.

Wildfire Activity Across the Triassic-Jurassic Boundary in the Polish Basin: Evidence from New Fossil Charcoal & Carbon-isotope Data

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Pointer, R.; Belcher, C.; Hesselbo, S. P.; Hodbod, M.; Pieńkowski, G.

2017-12-01

New fossil charcoal abundance and carbon-isotope data from two sedimentary cores provide new evidence of extreme environmental conditions in the Polish Basin during the Latest Triassic to Earliest Jurassic. Sedimentary cores from the Polish Basin provide an excellent record of terrestrial environmental conditions across the Triassic-Jurassic Boundary, a time of climatic extremes. Previous work has shown that the marine realm was affected by a large perturbation to the carbon cycle across the Triassic-Jurassic Boundary (manifested by large negative and positive carbon-isotope excursions) and limited records of charcoal abundance and organic geochemistry have indicated important changes in fire regime in the coeval ecosystems. Here we present two new carbon-isotope records generated from fossil plant matter across the Triassic-Jurassic boundary, and present new charcoal records. The charcoal abundance data confirm that there was variation in wildfire activity during the Late Triassic-Early Jurassic in the Polish Basin. Peaks in the number of fossil charcoal fragments present occur in both sedimentary cores, and increases in fossil charcoal abundance are linked to wildfires, signalling a short-lived rise in wildfire activity. Fossil charcoal abundance does not appear to be fully controlled by total organic matter content, depositional environment or bioturbation. We argue that increased wildfire activity is likely caused by an increase in ignition of plant material as a result of an elevated number of lightning strikes. Global warming (caused by a massive input of carbon into the atmosphere, as indicated by carbon-isotope data) can increase storm activity, leading to increased numbers of lightning strikes. Previous Triassic-Jurassic Boundary wildfire studies have found fossil charcoal abundance peaks at other northern hemisphere sites (Denmark & Greenland), and concluded that they represent increases in wildfire activity in the earliest Jurassic. Our new charcoal and

Airborne Measurements and Emission Estimates of Greenhouse Gases and Other Trace Constituents From the 2013 California Yosemite Rim Wildfire

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Yates, E. L.; Iraci, L. T.; Singh, H. B.; Tanaka, T.; Roby, M. C.; Hamill, P.; Clements, C. B.; Lareau, N.; Contezac, J.; Blake, D. R.;

Fuel treatment impacts on estimated wildfire carbon loss from forests in Montana, Oregon, California, and Arizona

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Stephens, Scott L.; Boerner, Ralph E.J.; Maghaddas, Jason J.; Maghaddas, Emily E.Y.; Collins, Brandon M.; Dow, Christopher B.; Edminster, Carl; Fiedler, Carl E.; Fry, Danny L.; Hartsough, Bruce R.; Keeley, Jon E.; Knapp, Eric E.; McIver, James D.; Skinner, Carl N.; Youngblood, Andrew P.

2012-01-01

Using forests to sequester carbon in response to anthropogenically induced climate change is being considered across the globe. A recent U.S. executive order mandated that all federal agencies account for sequestration and emissions of greenhouse gases, highlighting the importance of understanding how forest carbon stocks are influenced by wildfire. This paper reports the effects of the most common forest fuel reduction treatments on carbon pools composed of live and dead biomass as well as potential wildfire emissions from six different sites in four western U.S. states. Additionally, we predict the median forest product life spans and uses of materials removed during mechanical treatments. Carbon loss from modeled wildfire-induced tree mortality was lowest in the mechanical plus prescribed fire treatments, followed by the prescribed fire-only treatments. Wildfire emissions varied from 10–80 Mg/ha and were lowest in the prescribed fire and mechanical followed by prescribed fire treatments at most sites. Mean biomass removals per site ranged from approximately 30–60 dry Mg/ha; the median lives of products in first use varied considerably (from 50 years). Our research suggests most of the benefits of increased fire resistance can be achieved with relatively small reductions in current carbon stocks. Retaining or growing larger trees also reduced the vulnerability of carbon loss from wildfire. In addition, modeled vulnerabilities to carbon losses and median forest product life spans varied considerably across our study sites, which could be used to help prioritize treatment implementation.

Anofelinos de Santa Catarina (Diptera: Culicidae, Brasil Anophelines of Santa Catarina (Diptera: Culicidae, Brazil

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Maria da Graça Teixeira Portes

2010-04-01

Full Text Available INTRODUÇÃO: No Brasil, a Região Amazônica é endêmica em malária. Em Santa Catarina, a malária foi eliminada na década de 80. A partir daí, ocorreram poucos casos autóctones isolados, e esporádicos. No entanto, em função da existência do vetor em seu território, da existência de extensa área endêmica no Brasil e da grande mobilidade de pessoas em áreas turísticas no estado, existe a probabilidade de reintrodução da doença. MÉTODOS: Utilizou-se os seguintes dados: Banco de Dados do Núcleo de Entomologia da Fundação Nacional de Saúde, Santa Catarina (ACCES,1997-2000; Sistema de Informação de Vigilância Epidemiológica, Secretaria de Vigilância em Saúde (Malária/SC e Sistema de Informação de Notificação e Agravo(SINAN/SC. Os mesmos foram transportados e analisados, no programa Microsoft Office Excel 2007. RESULTADOS: As coletas foram realizadas em 48 municípios, 159 localidades, sendo identificados 12.310 Culicídeos, 11.546 (93,7% Anopheles e 764 (6,2% como outros. Foram identificados três subgêneros e 13 espécies de anofelinos. CONCLUSÕES: Considerando que nos municípios pesquisados, foi identificada a presença de importantes vetores como Anopheles cruzii e Anopheles albitasis e há circulação de pessoas infectadas provenientes de áreas endêmicas, pode-se considerar que os mesmos são áreas receptivas e vulneráveis à malária. Essas espécies são suspeitas de serem responsáveis pela transmissão de malária na região, principalmente nos municípios de Gaspar, Indaial e Rodeio.INTRODUCTION: The Amazon region of Brazil is endemic for malaria. In the State of Santa Catarina, malaria was eliminated in the 1980s. Since then, a few sporadic isolated autochthonous cases have occurred. However, because malaria vectors are present within Brazilian territory and extensive endemic areas exist in this country, along with the great mobility of people in tourist areas of Santa Catarina, there is the

Long-term effects of wildfire on greater sage-grouse - integrating population and ecosystem concepts for management in the Great Basin

Science.gov (United States)

Coates, Peter S.; Ricca, Mark A.; Prochazka, Brian G.; Doherty, Kevin E.; Brooks, Matthew L.; Casazza, Michael L.

2015-09-10

Greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus; hereinafter, sage-grouse) are a sagebrush obligate species that has declined concomitantly with the loss and fragmentation of sagebrush ecosystems across most of its geographical range. The species currently is listed as a candidate for federal protection under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Increasing wildfire frequency and changing climate frequently are identified as two environmental drivers that contribute to the decline of sage-grouse populations, yet few studies have rigorously quantified their effects on sage-grouse populations across broad spatial scales and long time periods. To help inform a threat assessment within the Great Basin for listing sage-grouse in 2015 under the ESA, we conducted an extensive analysis of wildfire and climatic effects on sage-grouse population growth derived from 30 years of lek-count data collected across the hydrographic Great Basin of Western North America. Annual (1984–2013) patterns of wildfire were derived from an extensive dataset of remotely sensed 30-meter imagery and precipitation derived from locally downscaled spatially explicit data. In the sagebrush ecosystem, underlying soil conditions also contribute strongly to variation in resilience to disturbance and resistance to plant community changes (R&R). Thus, we developed predictions from models of post-wildfire recovery and chronic effects of wildfire based on three spatially explicit R&R classes derived from soil moisture and temperature regimes. We found evidence of an interaction between the effects of wildfire (chronically affected burned area within 5 kilometers of a lek) and climatic conditions (spring through fall precipitation) after accounting for a consistent density-dependent effect. Specifically, burned areas near leks nullifies population growth that normally follows years with relatively high precipitation. In models, this effect results in long-term population declines for sage-grouse despite cyclic

Assessing Lightning and Wildfire Hazard by Land Properties and Cloud to Ground Lightning Data with Association Rule Mining in Alberta, Canada.

Science.gov (United States)

Cha, DongHwan; Wang, Xin; Kim, Jeong Woo

2017-10-23

Hotspot analysis was implemented to find regions in the province of Alberta (Canada) with high frequency Cloud to Ground (CG) lightning strikes clustered together. Generally, hotspot regions are located in the central, central east, and south central regions of the study region. About 94% of annual lightning occurred during warm months (June to August) and the daily lightning frequency was influenced by the diurnal heating cycle. The association rule mining technique was used to investigate frequent CG lightning patterns, which were verified by similarity measurement to check the patterns' consistency. The similarity coefficient values indicated that there were high correlations throughout the entire study period. Most wildfires (about 93%) in Alberta occurred in forests, wetland forests, and wetland shrub areas. It was also found that lightning and wildfires occur in two distinct areas: frequent wildfire regions with a high frequency of lightning, and frequent wild-fire regions with a low frequency of lightning. Further, the preference index (PI) revealed locations where the wildfires occurred more frequently than in other class regions. The wildfire hazard area was estimated with the CG lightning hazard map and specific land use types.

Impact of wildfires on size-resolved aerosol composition at a coastal California site

Science.gov (United States)

Maudlin, L. C.; Wang, Z.; Jonsson, H. H.; Sorooshian, A.

2015-10-01

Size-resolved aerosol composition measurements were conducted at a coastal site in central California during the Nucleation in California Experiment (NiCE) between July and August of 2013. The site is just east of ship and marine emission sources and is also influenced by continental pollution and wildfires, such as those near the California-Oregon border which occurred near the end of NiCE. Two micro-orifice uniform deposit impactors (MOUDIs) were used, and water-soluble and elemental compositions were measured. The five most abundant water-soluble species (in decreasing order) were chloride, sodium, non-sea salt (nss) sulfate, ammonium, and nitrate. During wildfire periods, nss K mass concentrations were not enhanced as strongly as other species in the sub-micrometer stages and even decreased in the super-micrometer stages; species other than nss K are more reliable tracers for biomass burning in this region. Chloride levels were reduced in the fire sets likely due to chloride depletion by inorganic and organic acids that exhibited elevated levels in transported plumes. During wildfire periods, the mass size distribution of most dicarboxylic acids changed from unimodal to bimodal with peaks in the 0.32 μm and 1.0-1.8 μm stages. Furthermore, sulfate's peak concentration shifted from the 0.32 μm to 0.56 μm stage, and nitrate also shifted to larger sizes (1.0 μm to 1.8-3.2 μm stages). Mass concentrations of numerous soil tracer species (e.g., Si, Fe) were strongly enhanced in samples influenced by wildfires, especially in the sub-micrometer range. Airborne cloud water data confirm that soil species were associated with fire plumes transported south along the coast. In the absence of biomass burning, cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) composition is dominated by nss sulfate and ammonium, and the water-soluble organic fraction is dominated by methanesulfonate, whereas for the samples influenced by wildfires, ammonium becomes the dominant overall species, and

Breeding and trade of wildlife in Santa Catarina state, Brazil

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

VV Kuhnen

Full Text Available The wildlife trade is becoming increasingly more relevant in discussions concerning conservation biology and the sustainable management of natural resources. The aim of this study was to document the trade and breeding of wildlife in Santa Catarina state, in southern Brazil. Data was collected from annual reports (1996-2008 of wildlife breeders which were sent to IBAMA. By the end of 2008, there were 79 wildlife breeders and 11 wildlife traders distributed in Santa Catarina. Commercial breeding accounted for the highest number of breeders (51%. In total, there are 213 species of wild animals bred in the state: 177 birds, 19 mammals and 17 reptiles. Of these, 48% are native to Santa Catarina, 32% occur in other Brazilian states and 20% are exotic to Brazil. Nine percent of the species bred are vulnerable or endangered. It was observed that some breeders reported breeding unauthorized species. Altogether, 93 species are bred illegally by 19 breeders. Of these species, 48 are native to Santa Catarina and three are classified as vulnerable or in danger of extinction. We hope the data presented in this paper contributes to the development of conservation strategies and conscious use of wildlife resources in Brazil.

VizieR Online Data Catalog: Transit timing variations on Qatar-1 (von Essen+, 2013)

Science.gov (United States)

von Essen, C.; Schroter, S.; Agol, E.; Schmitt, J. H. M. M.

2013-06-01

The OLT data were taken between March 2011 and October 2012 using an Apogee Alta U9000 CCD with a 9'x9' field of view. The PTST data were taken between May and August 2012 using a Santa Barbara CCD with a 30'x30' field of view in a 3x3 binning and a Baade R-band filter setup. (2 data files).

Spatial Search, Position Papers

OpenAIRE

Center for Spatial Studies, UCSB

2014-01-01

The Spatial Search specialist meeting in Santa Barbara (December 2014) brought together 35 academic and industry representatives from computational, geospatial, and cognitive sciences with interest in focused discussions on the development of an interdisciplinary research agenda to advance spatial search from scientific and engineering viewpoints. The position papers from participants represent the shared expertise that guided discussions and the formulation of research questions about proces...

Final Programmatic Environmental Assessment for the 2011-2015 Integrated Natural Resources Management Plan for Vandenberg Air Force Base, California

Science.gov (United States)

2011-08-16

UNIT NUMBER 7. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION NAME(S) AND ADDRESS(ES) Tetra Tech, Inc.,301 Mentor Drive, Suite A,Santa Barbara,CA,93111 8. PERFORMING ...Vandenberg AFB may not be known, base-wide surveys would be performed to document new populations.  Because rare species populations are dynamic and their...football/baseball/ softball fields, tennis courts, running tracks, picnic areas, and bicycle paths. Additional information regarding the outdoor

15th December 2010 - World Intellectual Property Organization Director-General F. Gurry signing the guest book with CERN Director-General R. Heuer; visiting CMS control room, experimental cavern and LHC tunnel with Collaboration Deputy Spokesperson J. Incandela, accompanied by M. Bona.

CERN Multimedia

Maximilien Brice

2010-01-01

CERN-HI-1012325 36, from left to right: WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center, Global Issues Sector Director E. Wilbers; CERN Adviser, Relations with International Organisations, M. Bona; CMS Collaboration Deputy Spokesperson, University of California Santa Barbara J. Incandela; WIPO Deputy Director General, Global Issues Sector J. C. Wichard; WIPO Director-General F. Gurry; WIPO Executive Director and Chief of Staff, Office of the Director General N. Prasad.

[Santa Claus is perceived as reliable and friendly: results of the Danish Christmas 2013 survey].

Science.gov (United States)

Amin, Faisal Mohammad; West, Anders Sode; Jørgensen, Carina Sleiborg; Simonsen, Sofie Amalie; Lindberg, Ulrich; Tranum-Jensen, Jørgen; Hougaard, Anders

2013-12-02

Several studies have indicated that the population in general perceives doctors as reliable. In the present study perceptions of reliability and kindness attributed to another socially significant archetype, Santa Claus, have been comparatively examined in relation to the doctor. In all, 52 randomly chosen participants were shown a film, where a narrator dressed either as Santa Claus or as a doctor tells an identical story. Structured interviews were then used to assess the subjects' perceptions of reliability and kindness in relation to the narrator's appearance. We found a strong inclination for Santa Claus being perceived as friendlier than the doctor (p = 0.053). However, there was no significant difference in the perception of reliability between Santa Claus and the doctor (p = 0.524). The positive associations attributed to Santa Claus probably cause that he is perceived friendlier than the doctor who may be associated with more serious and unpleasant memories of illness and suffering. Surprisingly, and despite him being an imaginary person, Santa Claus was assessed as being as reliable as the doctor.

The importance of building construction materials relative to other factors affecting structure survival during wildfire

Science.gov (United States)

Syphard, Alexandra D.; Brennan, Teresa J.; Keeley, Jon E.

2017-01-01

Structure loss to wildfire is a serious problem in wildland-urban interface areas across the world. Laboratory experiments suggest that fire-resistant building construction and design could be important for reducing structure destruction, but these need to be evaluated under real wildfire conditions, especially relative to other factors. Using empirical data from destroyed and surviving structures from large wildfires in southern California, we evaluated the relative importance of building construction and structure age compared to other local and landscape-scale variables associated with structure survival. The local-scale analysis showed that window preparation was especially important but, in general, creating defensible space adjacent to the home was as important as building construction. At the landscape scale, structure density and structure age were the two most important factors affecting structure survival, but there was a significant interaction between them. That is, young structure age was most important in higher-density areas where structure survival overall was more likely. On the other hand, newer-construction structures were less likely to survive wildfires at lower density. Here, appropriate defensible space near the structure and accessibility to major roads were important factors. In conclusion, community safety is a multivariate problem that will require a comprehensive solution involving land use planning, fire-safe construction, and property maintenance.

Ecotourism: The Santa Elena Rainforest Project.

Science.gov (United States)

Wearing, Stephen

1993-01-01

Describes an ecotourism project in which the community of Santa Elena, Costa Rica, are developing a rainforest reserve on government land leased permanently to the local high school. Discusses the impact of the project on the community's economy and environment. (Contains 30 references.) (MDH)

Did enhanced afforestation cause high severity peat burn in the Fort McMurray Horse River wildfire?

Science.gov (United States)

Wilkinson, S. L.; Moore, P. A.; Flannigan, M. D.; Wotton, B. M.; Waddington, J. M.

2018-01-01

Climate change mediated drying of boreal peatlands is expected to enhance peatland afforestation and wildfire vulnerability. The water table depth-afforestation feedback represents a positive feedback that can enhance peat drying and consolidation and thereby increase peat burn severity; exacerbating the challenges and costs of wildfire suppression efforts and potentially shifting the peatland to a persistent source of atmospheric carbon. To address this wildfire management challenge, we examined burn severity across a gradient of drying in a black spruce dominated peatland that was partially drained in 1975-1980 and burned in the 2016 Fort McMurray Horse River wildfire. We found that post-drainage black spruce annual ring width increased substantially with intense drainage. Average (±SD) basal diameter was 2.6 ± 1.2 cm, 3.2 ± 2.0 cm and 7.9 ± 4.7 cm in undrained (UD), moderately drained (MD) and heavily drained (HD) treatments, respectively. Depth of burn was significantly different between treatments (p threshold will aid in developing effective adaptive management techniques and protecting boreal peatland carbon stocks.

Multiple Victims of Carbon Monoxide Poisoning in the Aftermath of a Wildfire: A Case Series

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Luís Ramos dos Santos

2018-03-01

Conclusion: Use of hyperbaric oxygen appears to have reduced the incidence of the syndrome. This seems to be the first Portuguese series reporting use of hyperbaric oxygen in carbon monoxide poisoning due to wildfires. The authors intend to alert to the importance of referral of these patients because the indications and benefits of this treatment are well documented. This is especially important given the ever-growing issue of wildfires in Portugal.

Heat transfer capacity of heat pipes: An application in coalfield wildfire in China

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Bei; Deng, Jun; Xiao, Yang; Zhai, Xiaowei; Shu, Chi-Min; Gao, Wei

2018-06-01

Coalfield wildfires are serious catastrophes associated with mining activities. Generally, the coal wildfire areas have tremendous heat accumulation regions. Eliminating the internal heat is an effective method for coal wildfire control. In this study, high thermal conductivity component of a heat pipe (HP) was used for enhancing the heat dissipation efficiency and impeding heat accumulation. An experimental system was set up to analyze the thermal resistance network of the coal-HP system. A coal-HP heat removal model was also established for studying the heat transfer performance of HP on the coal pile. The HP exhibited outstanding cooling performance in the initial period, resulting in the highest temperature difference between the coal pile and ambient temperature. However, the effect of the HP on the distribution temperature of coal piles decreased with increasing distance. The largest decline in the coal temperature occurred in a 20-mm radius of the HP; the temperature decreased from 84.3 to 50.9 °C, a decline of 39.6%. The amount of energy transfer by the HP after 80 h was 1.0865, 2.1680, and 3.3649 MJ under the initial heat source temperatures of 100, 150, and 200 °C, respectively. The coal was governed below 80 °C with the HP under the experimental conditions. It revealed that the HP had a substantial effect on thermal removal and inhibited spontaneous coal combustion. In addition, this paper puts forward the technological path of HP to control typical coalfield wildfire. [Figure not available: see fulltext.

Historical land-use influences the long-term stream turbidity response to a wildfire.

Science.gov (United States)

Harrison, Evan T; Dyer, Fiona; Wright, Daniel W; Levings, Chris

2014-02-01

Wildfires commonly result in an increase in stream turbidity. However, the influence of pre-fire land-use practices on post-fire stream turbidity is not well understood. The Lower Cotter Catchment (LCC) in south-eastern Australia is part of the main water supply catchment for Canberra with land in the catchment historically managed for a mix of conservation (native eucalypt forest) and pine (Pinus radiata) plantation. In January 2003, wildfires burned almost all of the native and pine forests in the LCC. A study was established in 2005 to determine stream post-fire turbidity recovery within the native and pine forest areas of the catchment. Turbidity data loggers were deployed in two creeks within burned native forest and burned pine forest areas to determine turbidity response to fire in these areas. As a part of the study, we also determined changes in bare soil in the native and pine forest areas since the fire. The results suggest that the time, it takes turbidity levels to decrease following wildfire, is dependent upon the preceding land-use. In the LCC, turbidity levels decreased more rapidly in areas previously with native vegetation compared to areas which were previously used for pine forestry. This is likely because of a higher percentage of bare soil areas for a longer period of time in the ex-pine forest estate and instream stores of fine sediment from catchment erosion during post-fire storm events. The results of our study show that the previous land-use may exert considerable control over on-going turbidity levels following a wildfire.

Recent recoveries of archaeological ceramics on Santa Isabel, central Solomon Islands

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Carter, M.J.; Roe, D.; Keopo, J.

2012-01-01

Recent field investigations on Santa Isabel in the Central Solomon Islands have revealed the presence of archaeological pottery in both terrestrial and intertidal contexts. Preliminary dating results and comparative stylistic analyses of sherds provide evidence to suggest an antiquity of ceramics in northwest Isabel spanning the late Holocene to the recent historic past. These research outcomes expand the known distribution of pottery within the Solomon Islands and provide new knowledge about the prehistory of Santa Isabel. Here we describe the Santa Isabel ceramics, and suggest several implications of the research for current settlement models of the Solomon Islands and for our understanding of the variability in the archaeological record of mid- to late-Holocene ceramic distribution throughout the region. (author). 24 refs., 7 figs.

Hydrologic and geochemical characterization of the Santa Rosa Plain watershed, Sonoma County, California

Science.gov (United States)

Nishikawa, Tracy

2013-01-01

The Santa Rosa Plain is home to approximately half of the population of Sonoma County, California, and faces growth in population and demand for water. Water managers are confronted with the challenge of meeting the increasing water demand with a combination of water sources, including local groundwater, whose future availability could be uncertain. To meet this challenge, water managers are seeking to acquire the knowledge and tools needed to understand the likely effects of future groundwater development in the Santa Rosa Plain and to identify efficient strategies for surface- and groundwater management that will ensure the long-term viability of the water supply. The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Sonoma County Water Agency and other stakeholders in the area (cities of Cotati, Rohnert Park, Santa Rosa, and Sebastopol, town of Windsor, Cal-American Water Company, and the County of Sonoma), undertook this study to characterize the hydrology of the Santa Rosa Plain and to develop tools to better understand and manage the groundwater system. The objectives of the study are: (1) to develop an updated assessment of the hydrogeology and geochemistry of the Santa Rosa Plain; (2) to develop a fully coupled surface-water and groundwater-flow model for the Santa Rosa Plain watershed; and (3) to evaluate the potential hydrologic effects of alternative groundwater-management strategies for the basin. The purpose of this report is to describe the surface-water and groundwater hydrology, hydrogeology, and water-quality characteristics of the Santa Rosa Plain watershed and to develop a conceptual model of the hydrologic system in support of the first objective. The results from completing the second and third objectives will be described in a separate report.

Santa Lucia River basin. Development of water resources; Cuenca del Rio Santa Lucia.Desarrollo de los recursos hidricos

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

1970-07-01

The main objective of this study was to orient the development of water resources of the Santa Lucia River basin to maximum benefit in accordance with the priorities established by Government in relation to the National Development Plans

A comparison of effects from prescribed fires and wildfires managed for resource objectives in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks

Science.gov (United States)

Nesmith, C.B.; Caprio, Anthony C.; Pfaff, Anne H.; McGinnis, Thomas W.; Keeley, Jon E.

2011-01-01

Current goals for prescription burning are focused on measures of fuel consumption and changes in forest density. These benchmarks, however, do not address the extent to which prescription burning meets perceived ecosystem needs of heterogeneity in burning, both for overstory trees and understory herbs and shrubs. There are still questions about how closely prescribed fires mimic these patterns compared to natural wildfires. This study compared burn patterns of prescribed fires and managed unplanned wildfires to understand how the differing burning regimes affect ecosystem properties. Measures of forest structure and fire severity were sampled in three recent prescribed fires and three wildfires managed for resource objectives in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. Fine scale patterns of fire severity and heterogeneity were compared between fire types using ground-based measures of fire effects on fuels and overstory and understory vegetation. Prescribed fires and wildfires managed for resource objectives displayed similar patterns of overstory and understory fire severity, heterogeneity, and seedling and sapling survival. Variation among plots within the same fire was always greater than between fire types. Prescribed fires can provide burned landscapes that approximate natural fires in many ways. It is recognized that constraints placed on when wildfires managed for resource objectives are allowed to burn freely may bias the range of conditions that might have been experienced under more natural conditions. Therefore they may not exactly mimic natural wildfires. Overall, the similarity in fire effects that we observed between prescribed fires and managed wildfires indicate that despite the restrictions that are often placed on prescribed fires, they appear to be creating post-fire conditions that approximate natural fires when assessed on a fine spatial scale.

Combining ungrouped and grouped wildfire data to estimate fire risk

KAUST Repository

Hernandez-Magallanes, I.

2013-01-01

particular year. The probability model is based on the wildfire point process. Assuming a smooth intensity function, a locally weighted likelihood fit is used, which incorporates the group effect. A logit model is used under the assumption of the existence

Wildfires in Chile: A review

Science.gov (United States)

Úbeda, Xavier; Sarricolea, Pablo

2016-11-01

This paper reviews the literature examining the wildfire phenomenon in Chile. Since ancient times, Chile's wildfires have shaped the country's landscape, but today, as in many other parts of the world, the fire regime - pattern, frequency and intensity - has grown at an alarming rate. In 2014, > 8000 fires were responsible for burning c. 130,000 ha, making it the worst year in Chile's recent history. The reasons for this increase appear to be the increment in the area planted with flammable species; the rejection of these landscape modifications on the part of local communities that target these plantations in arson attacks; and, the adoption of intensive forest management practices resulting in the accumulation of a high fuel load. These trends have left many native species in a precarious situation and forest plantation companies under considerable financial pressure. An additional problem is posed by fires at the wildland urban interface (WUI), threatening those inhabitants that live in Chile's most heavily populated cities. The prevalence of natural fires in Chile; the relationship between certain plant species and fire in terms of seed germination strategies and plant adaptation; the relationship between fire and invasive species; and, the need for fire prevention systems and territorial plans that include fire risk assessments are some of the key aspects discussed in this article. Several of the questions raised will require further research, including just how fire-dependent the ecosystems in Chile are, how the forest at the WUI can be better managed to prevent human and material damage, and how best to address the social controversy that pits the Mapuche population against the timber companies.

Nonmarket benefits of reducing environmental effects of potential wildfires in beetle-killed trees: A contingent valuation study

Science.gov (United States)

Maryam Tabatabaei; John B. Loomis; Daniel W. McCollum

2015-01-01

We estimated Colorado households’ nonmarket values for two forest management options for reducing intensity of future wildfires and associated nonmarket environmental effects wildfires. The first policy is the traditional harvesting of pine beetle-killed trees and burning of the slash piles of residual materials on-site. The second involves harvesting but moving the...

Santa Ana Winds of Southern California: Their Climatology and Variability Spanning 6.5 Decades from Regional Dynamical Modelling

Science.gov (United States)

Guzman-Morales, J.; Gershunov, A.

2015-12-01

Santa Ana Winds (SAWs) are an integral feature of the regional climate of Southern California/Northern Baja California region. In spite of their tremendous episodic impacts on the health, economy and mood of the region, climate-scale behavior of SAW is poorly understood. In the present work, we identify SAWs in mesoscale dynamical downscaling of a global reanalysis product and construct an hourly SAW catalogue spanning 65 years. We describe the long-term SAW climatology at relevant time-space resolutions, i.e, we developed local and regional SAW indices and analyse their variability on hourly, daily, annual, and multi-decadal timescales. Local and regional SAW indices are validated with available anemometer observations. Characteristic behaviors are revealed, e.g. the SAW intensity-duration relationship. At interdecadal time scales, we find that seasonal SAW activity is sensitive to prominent large-scale low-frequency modes of climate variability rooted in the tropical and north Pacific ocean-atmosphere system that are also known to affect the hydroclimate of this region. Lastly, we do not find any long-term trend in SAW frequency and intensity as previously reported. Instead, we identify a significant long-term trend in SAW behavior whereby contribution of extreme SAW events to total seasonal SAW activity has been increasing at the expense of moderate events. These findings motivate further investigation on SAW evolution in future climate and its impact on wildfires.

Southern Annular Mode drives multicentury wildfire activity in southern South America.

Science.gov (United States)

Holz, Andrés; Paritsis, Juan; Mundo, Ignacio A; Veblen, Thomas T; Kitzberger, Thomas; Williamson, Grant J; Aráoz, Ezequiel; Bustos-Schindler, Carlos; González, Mauro E; Grau, H Ricardo; Quezada, Juan M

2017-09-05

The Southern Annular Mode (SAM) is the main driver of climate variability at mid to high latitudes in the Southern Hemisphere, affecting wildfire activity, which in turn pollutes the air and contributes to human health problems and mortality, and potentially provides strong feedback to the climate system through emissions and land cover changes. Here we report the largest Southern Hemisphere network of annually resolved tree ring fire histories, consisting of 1,767 fire-scarred trees from 97 sites (from 22 °S to 54 °S) in southern South America (SAS), to quantify the coupling of SAM and regional wildfire variability using recently created multicentury proxy indices of SAM for the years 1531-2010 AD. We show that at interannual time scales, as well as at multidecadal time scales across 37-54 °S, latitudinal gradient elevated wildfire activity is synchronous with positive phases of the SAM over the years 1665-1995. Positive phases of the SAM are associated primarily with warm conditions in these biomass-rich forests, in which widespread fire activity depends on fuel desiccation. Climate modeling studies indicate that greenhouse gases will force SAM into its positive phase even if stratospheric ozone returns to normal levels, so that climate conditions conducive to widespread fire activity in SAS will continue throughout the 21st century.

Comparison of ultraviolet absorbance and NO-chemiluminescence for ozone measurement in wildfire plumes at the Mount Bachelor Observatory

Science.gov (United States)

Gao, Honglian; Jaffe, Daniel A.

2017-10-01

The goal of this paper is to evaluate the accuracy of the commonly used ozone (O3) instrument (the ultraviolet (UV) photometer) against a Federal Reference Method (Nitric Oxide -chemiluminescence) for ozone measurement in wildfire smoke plumes. We carried out simultaneous ozone measurement with two UV O3 photometers and one nitric oxide-chemiluminescence (NO-CL) ozone detectors during wildfire season (Aug. 1-Sept. 30) in 2015 at the Mount Bachelor Observatory (MBO, 2763 m above mean sea level, Oregon, USA). The UV O3 shows good agreement and excellent correlation to NO-CL O3, with linear regression slopes close to unity and R2 of 0.92 for 1-h average data and R2 of 0.93 for O3 daily maximum 8-h average (MDA8). During this two-month period we identified 35 wildfire events. Ozone enhancements in those wildfire plumes measured by NO-CL O3 and UV O3 monitors also show good agreement and excellent linear correlation, with a slope and R2 of 1.03 and 0.86 for O3 enhancements (ΔO3) and 1.00 and 0.98 for carbon monoxide (CO)-normalized ozone enhancement ratios (ΔO3/ΔCO), respectively. Overall, the UV O3 was found to have a positive bias of 4.7 ± 2.8 ppbv compared to the NO-CL O3. The O3 bias between NO-CL O3 and UV O3 is independent of wildfire plume tracers such as CO, particulate matter (PM1), aerosol scattering, and ultrafine particles. The results demonstrate that the UV O3 absorbance method is reliable, even in highly concentrated wildfire plumes.

South Fork of the Santa Clara River, Santa Clarita Valley, California. Supplement.

Science.gov (United States)

1985-01-01

designed as a broad - crested weir to pass the maximum probable flood (PF) with a peak of 24,500 ofs. The spillway crest length of 100 feet and the...well as from the Miocene Topanga sandstone and the Modelo shale found near the crest of the Santa Susana Mountains in Aliso and Rice Canyons. Fossil...440 1.5 .IN THE AREA. 1I0.050: DRAINAGE AREA IS QUITE RUGGED, WITH SHARP RIDGES 4.4 600 1.3 .050 AND NARROW, STEEP CANYONS THROUGH WHICH WATERCOURSES

Understanding coupled natural and human systems on fire prone landscapes: integrating wildfire simulation into an agent based planning system.

Science.gov (United States)

Barros, Ana; Ager, Alan; Preisler, Haiganoush; Day, Michelle; Spies, Tom; Bolte, John

2015-04-01

Agent-based models (ABM) allow users to examine the long-term effects of agent decisions in complex systems where multiple agents and processes interact. This framework has potential application to study the dynamics of coupled natural and human systems where multiple stimuli determine trajectories over both space and time. We used Envision, a landscape based ABM, to analyze long-term wildfire dynamics in a heterogeneous, multi-owner landscape in Oregon, USA. Landscape dynamics are affected by land management policies, actors decisions, and autonomous processes such as vegetation succession, wildfire, or at a broader scale, climate change. Key questions include: 1) How are landscape dynamics influenced by policies and institutions, and 2) How do land management policies and actor decisions interact to produce intended and unintended consequences with respect to wildfire on fire-prone landscapes. Applying Envision to address these questions required the development of a wildfire module that could accurately simulate wildfires on the heterogeneous landscapes within the study area in terms of replicating historical fire size distribution, spatial distribution and fire intensity. In this paper we describe the development and testing of a mechanistic fire simulation system within Envision and application of the model on a 3.2 million fire prone landscape in central Oregon USA. The core fire spread equations use the Minimum Travel Time algorithm developed by M Finney. The model operates on a daily time step and uses a fire prediction system based on the relationship between energy release component and historical fires. Specifically, daily wildfire probabilities and sizes are generated from statistical analyses of historical fires in relation to daily ERC values. The MTT was coupled with the vegetation dynamics module in Envision to allow communication between the respective subsystem and effectively model fire effects and vegetation dynamics after a wildfire. Canopy and

Characterizing Early Succession Following Wildfires at Different Severities in Boreal Bog and Fen Peatlands

Science.gov (United States)

Ernst, E. J.; Bourgeau-Chavez, L. L.; Kane, E. S.; Wagenbrenner, J. W.; Endres, S.

2016-12-01

The Arctic-boreal region is experiencing changes in climate, trending toward warmer summers, resulting in a greater occurrence of wildfires with longer burning periods and higher intensities. Drought-like conditions have dried surface fuels, leading to a higher probability of ignition, even in lowland peatlands. Previous work has been done to characterize post-fire succession rates in Arctic-boreal upland sites, but much less is known of fire effects and early successional dynamics in lowlands. Wildland fires are the number one disturbance in Canada's Northwest Territories (NWT), which characteristically burn at high intensities with large flame fronts, and result in some of the biggest wildfires in the world. Areas surrounding the Great Slave Lake, NWT—including parts of the Taiga Plains, Taiga Shield, and Boreal Plains ecozones—experienced exceptional wildfire activity in 2014 and 2015. We characterized burn severity of the bog and fen peat surface and canopy layers at several burned sites. To determine if the severe ground or crown wildfires were stand-replacing events, we characterized post-fire vegetation in peatlands in 2015 and 2016 based on seedling regeneration. We stratified sites according to estimated water residence times across the three ecozones and made comparisons between data collected at the same sites across years. This work adds much needed context for post-fire succession in boreal peatland ecosystems, as the susceptibility of these systems to burning will continue to increase with a warming climate.

Illuminating wildfire erosion and deposition patterns with repeat terrestrial lidar

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Rengers, Francis K.; Tucker, G.E.; Moody, J.A.; Ebel, Brian

2016-01-01

Erosion following a wildfire is much greater than background erosion in forests because of wildfire-induced changes to soil erodibility and water infiltration. While many previous studies have documented post-wildfire erosion with point and small plot-scale measurements, the spatial distribution of post-fire erosion patterns at the watershed scale remains largely unexplored. In this study lidar surveys were collected periodically in a small, first-order drainage basin over a period of 2 years following a wildfire. The study site was relatively steep with slopes ranging from 17° to > 30°. During the study period, several different types of rain storms occurred on the site including low-intensity frontal storms (2.4 mm h−1) and high-intensity convective thunderstorms (79 mm h−1). These storms were the dominant drivers of erosion. Erosion resulting from dry ravel and debris flows was notably absent at the site. Successive lidar surveys were subtracted from one another to obtain digital maps of topographic change between surveys. The results show an evolution in geomorphic response, such that the erosional response after rain storms was strongly influenced by the previous erosional events and pre-fire site morphology. Hillslope and channel roughness increased over time, and the watershed armored as coarse cobbles and boulders were exposed. The erosional response was spatially nonuniform; shallow erosion from hillslopes (87% of the study area) contributed 3 times more sediment volume than erosion from convergent areas (13% of the study area). However, the total normalized erosion depth (volume/area) was highest in convergent areas. From a detailed understanding of the spatial locations of erosion, we made inferences regarding the processes driving erosion. It appears that hillslope erosion is controlled by rain splash (for detachment) and overland flow (for transport and quasi-channelized erosion), with the sites of highest erosion corresponding to locations

Acacia shrubs respond positively to high severity wildfire: Implications for conservation and fuel hazard management.

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Gordon, Christopher E; Price, Owen F; Tasker, Elizabeth M; Denham, Andrew J

2017-01-01

High severity wildfires pose threats to human assets, but are also perceived to impact vegetation communities because a small number of species may become dominant immediately after fire. However there are considerable gaps in our knowledge about species-specific responses of plants to different fire severities, and how this influences fuel hazard in the short and long-term. Here we conduct a floristic survey at sites before and two years after a wildfire of unprecedented size and severity in the Warrumbungle National Park (Australia) to explore relationships between post-fire growth of a fire responsive shrub genera (Acacia), total mid-story vegetation cover, fire severity and fuel hazard. We then survey 129 plots surrounding the park to assess relationships between mid-story vegetation cover and time-since-fire. Acacia species richness and cover were 2.3 and 4.3 times greater at plots after than before the fire. However the same common dominant species were present throughout the study. Mid-story vegetation cover was 1.5 times greater after than before the wildfire, and Acacia species contribution to mid-story cover increased from 10 to 40%. Acacia species richness was not affected by fire severity, however strong positive associations were observed between Acacia and total mid-story vegetation cover and severity. Our analysis of mid-story vegetation recovery showed that cover was similarly high between 2 and 30years post-fire, then decreased until 52years. Collectively, our results suggest that Acacia species are extremely resilient to high severity wildfire and drive short to mid-term increases in fuel hazard. Our results are discussed in relation to fire regime management from the twin perspectives of conserving biodiversity and mitigating human losses due to wildfire. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Application of Wildfire Risk Assessment Results to Wildfire Response Planning in the Southern Sierra Nevada, California, USA

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Matthew P. Thompson

2016-03-01

Full Text Available How wildfires are managed is a key determinant of long-term socioecological resiliency and the ability to live with fire. Safe and effective response to fire requires effective pre-fire planning, which is the main focus of this paper. We review general principles of effective federal fire management planning in the U.S., and introduce a framework for incident response planning consistent with these principles. We contextualize this framework in relation to a wildland fire management continuum based on federal fire management policy in the U.S. The framework leverages recent advancements in spatial wildfire risk assessment—notably the joint concepts of in situ risk and source risk—and integrates assessment results with additional geospatial information to develop and map strategic response zones. We operationalize this framework in a geographic information system (GIS environment based on landscape attributes relevant to fire operations, and define Potential wildland fire Operational Delineations (PODs as the spatial unit of analysis for strategic response. Using results from a recent risk assessment performed on several National Forests in the Southern Sierra Nevada area of California, USA, we illustrate how POD-level summaries of risk metrics can reduce uncertainty surrounding potential losses and benefits given large fire occurrence, and lend themselves naturally to design of fire and fuel management strategies. To conclude we identify gaps, limitations, and uncertainties, and prioritize future work to support safe and effective incident response.