Assessment of channel dynamics,in-stream structures and post-project channel adjustments in North Carolina and its implications to effective stream restoration

Site assessment and monitoring data were analyzed for 26 stream restoration projects in North Carolina where the channel was reconfigured. Post-project changes in channel capacity were highly variable from site to site, but more than 60% of the projects underwent, on average at a given site, at least a 20% change in channel capacity. An analysis of site and basin geomorphology revealed that large post-construction adjustments were associated with highly dynamic stream channels characterized by a combination of high sediment transport capacity, large sediment supply, and/or easily eroded bank materials. In-stream structures along dynamic, reconfigured channels also exhibited high incidences of damage. Thus, the design and construction of channels in a state of equilibrium, which do not exhibit excessive erosion or deposition along highly dynamic rivers is currently problematic. In light of these findings, a conceptual framework based on geomorphic parameters is put forth to assess the likelihood of project success early in the design process to (1) eliminate high risk sites from consideration of channel reconfiguration and (2) improve upon the implemented management strategies that are ultimately used. It is also argued that where space permits an enhanced natural channel, adjustment approach is likely to be more effective than projects based on natural channel design.     

Realizable accessibility: evaluating the reliability of public transit accessibility using high-resolution real-time data

Journal of Geographical Systems - The widespread availability of high spatial and temporal resolution public transit data is improving the measurement and analysis of public transit-based...     

A Plan to Push Limits? Investigating the ecologically sustainable development dimensions of Melbourne's Central Region sustainable water strategy

Drawing upon theory from the field of urban political ecology, we analyse a major strategic water plan for Melbourne, Australia—the Sustainable water strategy for the Central Region, published in 2006. We assess the extent to which the strategy identified and addressed ecological sustainability in terms of: cultural frames; ecological context; social equity; and engagement processes. We identify that the strategy's framing of water was largely separate from its social and ecological context. This framing resulted in the importance of issues such as environmental flows, social equity and cultural values being diminished, thus avoiding the inevitable confrontation with environmental limits needed to ensure long-term ecological sustainability. Our analysis shows that the discursive dominance of economics limited the response to persuasive scientific arguments for greater ecological consideration in the strategy. Our findings suggest that broadening engagement with the diverse ways in which water is valued is likely to contribute to more equitable and ecologically sustainable water futures.     

The water impacts of climate change mitigation measures

A variety of proposed activities to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions will impact on scarce water resources, which are coming under increasing pressure in many countries due to population growth and shifting weather patterns. However, the integrated analysis of water and carbon impacts has been given limited attention in greenhouse mitigation planning. In this Australian case study, we analyse a suite of 74 mitigation measures ranked as highest priority by one influential analysis, and we find that they have highly variable consequences for water quantity. We find: (1) The largest impacts result from land-based sequestration, which has the potential to intercept large quantities of water and reduce catchment yields, estimated to exceed 100 Mm³/MtCO₂-e of carbon mitigated (100,000 l per tonne CO₂-e). (2) Moderate impacts result from some renewable power options, including solar thermal power with a water cost estimated at nearly 4 Mm³/MtCO₂-e. However, the water impacts of solar thermal power facilities could be reduced by designing them to use existing power-related water supplies or to use air or salt-water cooling. (3) Wind power, biogas, solar photovoltaics, energy efficiency and operational improvements to existing power sources can reduce water demand through offsetting the water used to cool thermal power generation, with minor savings estimated at 2 Mm³/MtCO₂-e and amounting to nearly 100 Mm³ of water saved in Australia per annum in 2020. This integrated analysis significantly changes the attractiveness of some mitigation options, compared to the case where water impacts are not considered.     

Trends in Canadian Short‐Duration Extreme Rainfall: Including an Intensity–Duration–Frequency Perspective

Short-duration (5 minutes to 24 hours) rainfall extremes are important for a number of purposes, including engineering infrastructure design, because they represent the different meteorological scales of extreme rainfall events. Both single location and regional analyses of the changes in short-duration extreme rainfall amounts across Canada, as observed by tipping bucket rain gauges from 1965 to 2005, are presented. The single station analysis shows a general lack of a detectable trend signal, at the 5% significance level, because of the large variability and the relatively short period of record of the extreme short-duration rainfall amounts. The single station 30-minute to 24-hour durations show that, on average, 4% of the total number of stations have statistically significant increasing amounts of rainfall, whereas 1.6% of the cases have significantly decreasing amounts. However, regional spatial patterns are apparent in the single station trend results. Thus, for the same durations regional trends are presented by grouping the single station trend statistics across Canada. This regional trend analysis shows that at least two-thirds of the regions across Canada have increasing trends in extreme rainfall amounts, with up to 33% being significant (depending on location and duration). Both the southwest and the east (Newfoundland) coastal regions generally show significant increasing regional trends for 1- and 2-hour extreme rainfall durations. For the shortest durations of 5–15 minutes, the general overall regional trends in the extreme amounts are more variable, with increasing and decreasing trends occurring with similar frequency; however, there is no evidence of statistically significant decreasing regional trends in extreme rainfall amounts. The decreasing regional trends for the 5- to 15-minute duration amounts tend to be located in the St. Lawrence region of southern Quebec and in the Atlantic provinces. Additional analysis using criteria specified for traditional water management practice (e.g., Intensity-Duration-Frequency (IDF)) shows that fewer than 5.6% and 3.4% of the stations have significant increasing and decreasing trends, respectively, in extreme annual maximum single location observation amounts. This indicates that at most locations across Canada the traditional single station IDF assumption that historical extreme rainfall observations are stationary (in terms of the mean) over the period of record for an individual station is not violated. However, the trend information is still useful complementary information that can be considered for water management purposes, especially in terms of regional analysis.     

Avalanche and landslide simulation using the material point method: flow dynamics and force interaction with structures

In this paper, the material point method (MPM) is presented as a tool for simulating large deformation, gravity-driven landslides. The primary goal is to assess the interaction of these flow-like events with the built environment. This includes an evaluation of earthen mounds when energy dissipating devices are placed in the path of a snow avalanche. The effectiveness of the embankments is characterized using displacement, velocity, mass, and energy measures. A second example quantifies the force interaction between a landslide and a square rigid column. Multiple slide approach angles are considered, and various aspects of the impact force are discussed.     

Transport of Crustacean Larvae Between a Low-Inflow Estuary and Coastal Waters

The effectiveness of larval behavior in regulating transport between well-mixed, low-inflow estuaries and coastal waters in seasonally arid climates is poorly known. We determined the flux of an assemblage of benthic crustacean larvae relative to physical conditions between a shallow estuary and coastal waters on the upwelling coast of northern California (38°18′N, 123°03′W) from 29 to 31 March 2006. We detected larval behaviors that regulate transport in adjacent coastal waters and other estuaries for only two taxa in the low-inflow estuary, but they were apparent for taxa outside the estuary. Vertical mixing in the shallow estuary may have overwhelmed larvae of some species, or salinity fluctuations may have been too slight to cue tidal vertical migrations. Nevertheless, all larval stages of species that complete development in nearshore coastal waters were present in the estuary, because they remained low in the water column reducing seaward advection or they were readily exchanged between the estuary and open coast by tidal flows. Weak tidal flows and gravitational circulation at the head of the estuary reduced seaward transport during development for species that completed development nearshore, whereas larval release during nocturnal ebb tides enhanced seaward transport for species that develop offshore. Thus, nonselective tidal processes dominated larval transport for most species back and forth between the low-inflow estuary and open coastal waters, whereas in adjacent open coastal waters, larval behavior in the presence of wind-induced shear was more important in regulating migrations between adult and larval habitats along this upwelling coast.     

Zircon evidence for a ~200 k.y. supereruption-related thermal flare-up in the Miocene southern Black Mountains,western Arizona,USA

The Silver Creek caldera (southern Black Mountains, western Arizona) is the source of the 18.8 Ma, >700 km³ Peach Spring Tuff (PST) supereruption, the largest eruption generated in the Colorado River Extensional Corridor (CREC) of the southwestern United States. Within and immediately surrounding the caldera is a sequence of volcanics and intrusions ranging in age from ~19 to 17 Ma. These units offer a record of magmatic processes prior to, during, and immediately following the PST eruption. To investigate the thermal evolution of the magmatic center that produced the PST, we applied a combination of Ti-in-zircon thermometry, zircon saturation thermometry, and high-precision U–Pb CA–TIMS zircon dating to representative pre- and post-supereruption volcanic and intrusive units from the caldera and its environs. Similar to intracaldera PST zircons, zircons from a pre-PST trachytic lava (19 Ma) and a post-PST caldera intrusion (18.8 Ma) yield exceptionally high-Ti concentrations (most >20 ppm, some up to nearly 60 ppm), corresponding to calculated temperatures that exceed 900 °C. In these units, Ti-in-zircon temperatures typically surpass zircon saturation temperatures (ZSTs), suggesting the entrainment of zircon that had grown in hotter environments within the magmatic system. Titanium concentrations in younger volcanic and intrusive units (~18.7–17.5 Ma) decline through time, corresponding to an average cooling rate of 10^?3.5 °C/year. The ~200 k.y. thermal peak evident at Silver Creek caldera is spatially limited: elsewhere in the Miocene record of the northern CREC, Ti-in-zircon concentrations and ZSTs are much lower, suggesting that felsic magmas were generally substantially cooler.     

Continuous zircon growth during long-lived granulite facies metamorphism: a microtextural,U–Pb,Lu–Hf and trace element study of Caledonian rocks from the Arctic

Microtextural, U–Pb, trace element and Lu–Hf analyses of zircons from gneisses dredged from the Chukchi Borderland indicate a long-lived, Cambrian–Ordovician, granulite facies metamorphism. These results reveal a complete prograde, peak and cooling history of zircon growth during anatexis. Early increasing temperatures caused modification and Pb-loss of Precambrian zircons by recrystallization and dissolution/re-precipitation of existing grains. Small variations in initial ¹⁷⁶Hf/¹⁷⁷Hf results (0.282325–0.282042) and flat HREE patterns of these zircons indicate that they grew by dissolution/re-precipitation in the presence of garnet. Zircons subsequently crystallized from a partial melt during peak to post-peak metamorphism from 530 to 485 Ma. A broad range of initial ¹⁷⁶Hf/¹⁷⁷Hf ratios (0.282693–0.282050) and mineral inclusions within zircons suggest that this phase of growth incorporated Zr and Hf obtained from the breakdown of Zr-enriched phases. Microtextural evidence along with trace element and isotopic data suggests that final growth of metamorphic rims on zircon occurred during slow cooling and crystallization of residual partial melts during the early Ordovician (485–470 Ma). Younger, late Ordovician–Silurian (420–450 Ma) euhedral, oscillatory-zoned, trace element-enriched zircons crystallized within leucocratic veins that intrude the gneisses. Their age corresponds to granitoids dated from this same dredge. The intrusives and veins provide evidence that the Chukchi Borderland rifted from a position near Pearya and northwest Svalbard, which represent the northern continuation of the Caledonian orogen. Evidence for earlier Cambrian metamorphism has not been reported from this region. The age of granulite facies metamorphism reported here represents the earliest phase of deformation in the Arctic Caledonides.     

Ethnic enterprises and community development

Ethnic enterprises are growing rapidly in urban areas across the United States. Anecdotal evidence from around the country reports many success stories of how ethnic businesses transform communities; however, researchers have not provided a systematic review of the role of ethnic businesses in community developing. In practice, ethnic businesses have not been formally incorporated in local planning and development process. This article provides a systematic review of the multi-faceted ways ethnic businesses contribute to community building and neighborhood development. In addition to surveying the current literature, we also chose three communities for a focused review: Buford Highway in Atlanta, Monterey Park in Los Angeles, and Sunset Park in New York. A framework is developed to evaluate the economic, physical, social/cultural, and political effects that ethnic businesses exert on communities. We find that ethnic businesses can serve local economic interests and community-level cohesion and accrue economic, social, physical, and political benefits to their respective communities. These include serving the unmet market needs of certain neighborhoods and households, creating job opportunities and generating revenues, revitalizing and fueling the commercial development of abandoned communities, organizing and promoting social life and cultural diversity, as well as contributing their collective interest and voice in local communities. We argue that ethnic businesses should be better incorporated into urban policies in community economic development.