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Some theoretical results concerning the nature of the relationship between the scientific quality and economic value of imperfect weather forecasts are obtained. A prototype multistage decision-making model is considered, involving only two possible actions and two possible states of weather. This particular form of model is motivated by a real-world application known as the fruit-frost problem. For an infinite-horizon, discounted version of this model it is shown that economic value remains zero below a forecast quality threshold and then rises monotonically but nonlinearly above this threshold. In particular, the relative sensitivity of economic value to changes in the quality of forecasts increases as perfect...
This paper summarizes the main results of a study on the costs of abatement of CO2 emissions in Brazil. It discusses three possible futures for the long run (2010 and 2025) activity of the Brazilian economy and -- with the help of a linear programming model for Brazil's energy sector -- three scenarios for energy production and use. One of these scenarios illustrates the possibility of halving future carbon emissions originating from energy generation and consumption, with relatively small increases in energy associated costs and investments. This abatement scenario would require, on the supply side of the Brazilian energy balance, increased amounts of hydropower, ethanol and bagasse from sugarcane, plus wood and...
Conclusions:Study found statistically significant relationships among source water quality, percent land cover, and drinking water treatment cost. Increased percent agriculture and urban cover were significantly related to decreased water quality, while decreased forest land cover was significantly related to decreased water quality. High percent land cover by non-forest vegetation was significantly related to low treatment cost.Thresholds/Learnings:
Conclusions:This report sets out guidelines intended to provide BCEAG member jurisdictions with a coordinated approach to recommendations regarding the management of human use activities within wildlife corridors and habitat patches in the Bow Valley of Alberta. The guidelines provide an advisory framework for decision making related to wildlife management as well as recommendations for mitigating the negative effects of human activity on wildlife in the region.Thresholds/Learnings:Male and female cougars avoided areas of high human use and where human use levels exceeded 250-500 users per month.
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Conclusions: In fragmented watersheds, macrohabitat attributes measured at the patch scale were far more effective in predicting trout translocation success than measurements taken at the landscape scale Thresholds/Learnings: As a course filter indicator of cutthroat trout translocation success, the study found that translocations have a greater than 50% chance of fruitful establishment in watersheds >14.7km2 in area. Synopsis: This study aimed to identify stream-scale and basin-scale macrohabitat attributes limiting successful translocation and persistence of native cutthroat trout populations in fragmented landscapes along the Rio Grande. The study developed models of habitat attributes measured at two scales...
This paper summarizes the main results of a study on the costs of abatement of CO2 emissions in Brazil. It discusses three possible futures for the long run (2010 and 2025) activity of the Brazilian economy and -- with the help of a linear programming model for Brazil's energy sector -- three scenarios for energy production and use. One of these scenarios illustrates the possibility of halving future carbon emissions originating from energy generation and consumption, with relatively small increases in energy associated costs and investments. This abatement scenario would require, on the supply side of the Brazilian energy balance, increased amounts of hydropower, ethanol and bagasse from sugarcane, plus wood and...
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This dataset is a component of a complete package of products from the Connect the Connecticut project. Connect the Connecticut is a collaborative effort to identify shared priorities for conserving the Connecticut River Watershed for future generations, considering the value of fish and wildlife species and the natural ecosystems they inhabit. Click here to download the full data package, including all documentation.This dataset represents the regional vulnerability of conductance index, which reflects the likelihood of development occurring in places that confer connectivity between terrestrial cores. Specifically, regional vulnerability is the product of the regional conductance index (i.e., total amount of ecological...
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Conclusions: Report presents a framework for assessing the condition of Southern Alberta’s natural assets and their ability to provide ecosystem goods and services. Measurable indicators of ecosystem services, including broad and fine scale landscape indicators, were also distilled from a literature review. Thresholds/Learnings: Wetland cover should be maintained at >15% for watersheds with high potential for phosphorus loading & eutrophication. Impervious cover should be maintained at or below 25% in heavily urbanizing watersheds. Synopsis: This report develops a framework for assessing the condition of Southern Alberta’s natural assets and their resulting ability to provide ecosystem goods and services. The...
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Synopsis: Reviews information on grassland bird habitat requirements including a focus on the importance of grassland cover, size of contiguous patches, and other landscape factors. Some species require large blocks of unbroken grassland habitat for nesting. In general, where large blocks of undisturbed grassland occur, grassland birds are able to fulfill most of their requirements during the nesting season. For many bird species, these habitats provide winter and migration cover as well. The more grassland available in an area, particularly in large unbroken blocks, the greater the number of area-sensitive grassland birds the area is able to support. Pastures and crop fields also often provide attractive cover...
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Conclusions: Caribou subpopulation persistence and landscape occupancy depends highly on the degree of forest cover, cover type, and distance from human presence. Thresholds/Learnings: Synopsis: This study evaluates factors influencing the persistence and landscape occupancy of caribou subpopulations in southern British Columbia. Data from 235 radio-collared caribou across 13 subpopulations were used to derive a landscape occupancy index. The index was analyzed against 33 landscape variables including, land cover, terrain, climate, and human influence. At the metapopulation level, the persistence of subpopulations correlated with the extent of wet climate conditions and the distribution of old forests and alpine...
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Synopsis: Recensuses of 54 Wisconsin prairie remnants showed that 8 to 60 percent of the original plant species were lost from individual remnants over a 32- to 52-year period. The pattern of species loss was consistent with the proposed effects of fire suppression caused by landscape fragmentation. Short, small-seeded, or nitrogen-fixing plants showed the heaviest losses, as did species growing in the wettest, most productive environments. The interruption of landscape-scale processes (such as wildfire) by fragmentation is an often overlooked mechanism that may be eroding biodiversity in many habitats around the world. Conclusions: Fragmentation may interrupt landscape-scale processes, such as fire, that are key...
Conclusions:Water chemistry parameters sampled in downstream reaches were most closely correlated with riparian land cover adjacent to the smallest (first-order) streams of watersheds or land use in the entire watershed, with riparian zones immediately upstream of sampling sites offering less explanatory power as stream size increased.Thresholds/Learnings:
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Conclusions: Elevation, slope and the percentages of bogs and fens in a landscape influence the degree to which mid-boreal lakes are sensitive to acidic deposition orignating from nearby mining operations. Thresholds/Learnings: Synopsis: This study evaluates the acid sensitivity of lakes in Saskatchewan within ~300km of Fort McMurray. The study area is downwind of atmospheric emissions sources from regional oil sands mining operations and there is concern that the lakes may be threatened by acidification. A helicopter sampling program was implemented in late September 2007 and 2008 to measure 16 chemical variables (e.g., Ca, Mg, Na, pH) and 15 environmental variables (e.g., latitude, elevation, slope, percent bog,...
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Synopsis: Recognizing that natural and human disturbances cause significant changes to landscape composition and ecosystem function, this report aims to identify and describe key indicators of environmental sustainability, categorized by vegetation, biodiversity, and watershed characteristics. Measurable indicators of environmental sustainability, including landscape indicators summarized in the vegetation indicators category, were distilled from a wide-ranging literature review. These indicators are intended to serve as metrics of environmental quality that assist land use planners in determining if management goals have been reached. As such, the report provides an overview, assessment, and recommended uses for...
Recently, an active debate has emerged around greenhouse gas emissions due to indirect land use change (iLUC) of expanding agricultural areas dedicated to biofuel production. In this paper we provide a detailed analysis of the iLUC effect, and further address the issues of deforestation, irrigation water use, and crop price increases due to expanding biofuel acreage. We use GLOBIOM – an economic partial equilibrium model of the global forest, agriculture, and biomass sectors with a bottom-up representation of agricultural and forestry management practices. The results indicate that second generation biofuel production fed by wood from sustainably managed existing forests would lead to a negative iLUC factor, meaning...
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Synopsis: The goal of this study was to examine contaminant loadings associated with stormwater runoff from recently burned areas in urban fringe areas of southern California, to derive regional patterns of runoff and contaminant loadings in this context. Postfire stormwater runoff was sampled from five wildfires that each burned between 115 and 658 km2 of natural open space between 2003 and 2009. The area is characterized by classic Mediterranean climate conditions of relatively mild to cool wet winter and warm to hot dry summers. Between two and five storm events were sampled per site over the first one to two years following the fires for basic constituents, metals, nutrients, total suspended solids, and polycyclic...
Conclusions:Woodland caribou cross roads less than expected for all time periods except calving and use areas close to roads less frequently than expected. Roads are semipermeable barriers to caribou movement with the greatest barrier effects occurring during late winter.Thresholds/Learnings:
Conclusions:Adult mortality appeared to be largely the result of predation, with cougars accounting for half of the known-cause mortalities. The much higher rate of mortality observed in the more developed portion of the study area supports a link between predation and forestry development.Thresholds/Learnings:
Noise exposure is known to cause hearing loss and a variety of disturbances, such as annoyance, hypertension and loss of sleep. It is generally accepted that these situations are caused by the acoustical events processed by the auditory system. However, there are acoustical events that are not necessarily processed by the auditory system, but that nevertheless cause harm. Infrasound and low frequency noise (ILFN, <500Hz) are acoustical phenomena that can impact the human body causing irreversible organic damage to the organism, but that do not cause classical hearing impairment. Acoustical environments are normally composed of all types of acoustical events: those that are processed by the auditory system, and those...
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Conclusions: Despite the fact that valuable grizzly habitat tends to coincide with the location of roads, grizzlies strongly avoided roads regardless of traffic volume, suggesting that even a few vehicles can displace bears from adjacent habitats. Thresholds/Learnings: Grizzlies strongly avoided areas within 100m of all roads Synopsis: This study aimed to determine whether grizzly bears were displaced by roads associated with resource extraction industries in the Rocky Mountains. Since many habitats close to roads contained important bear foods, researchers expected bears to frequent these roads, despite the presence of human activity. However, study results indicated that grizzlies strongly avoided roads regardless...
map background search result map search result map Chemical characteristics and acid sensitivity of boreal headwater lakes in northwest Saskatchewan. Factors influencing the dispersion and fragmentation of endangered mountain caribou populations Minimum habitat requirements for establishing translocated cutthroat trout populations. Ecosystem Goods and Services Southern Alberta Assessment of Natural Asset Condition Grassland Birds Grizzly bears and resource extraction industries: effects of road on behavior, habitat use, and demography. Landscape, Biodiversity, and Indicator Review and Assessment Ecological determinants of species loss in remnant prairies. Stormwater contaminant loading following southern California wildfires Regional Vulnerability of Conductance, CT River Watershed Grizzly bears and resource extraction industries: effects of road on behavior, habitat use, and demography. Regional Vulnerability of Conductance, CT River Watershed Minimum habitat requirements for establishing translocated cutthroat trout populations. Chemical characteristics and acid sensitivity of boreal headwater lakes in northwest Saskatchewan. Ecological determinants of species loss in remnant prairies. Factors influencing the dispersion and fragmentation of endangered mountain caribou populations Ecosystem Goods and Services Southern Alberta Assessment of Natural Asset Condition Landscape, Biodiversity, and Indicator Review and Assessment Stormwater contaminant loading following southern California wildfires Grassland Birds