A Spatiotemporal GIS Framework Applied to the Analysis of Changes in Temperature Patterns

This research develops a new temporal Geographic Information System (GIS) framework and applies it to compare General Circulation Model (GCM) products and reanalysis datasets in order to discern differences in patterns and locations of change as a proof of concept. The proposed framework incorporates the concept of kinematics to represent the movement of isolines as advection displacement vectors. Comparison of displacement vectors from the four datasets shows differences in isotherm shifts for both median values and interquartile ranges along with several prominent, well defined difference regions across the globe. Among the four datasets used in the study, the two reanalysis datasets have the smallest median difference in displacement vectors indicating the least spatiotemporal difference. As both reanalysis datasets are based on actual observations, this result validates the displacement vector representation. The CNRM CM3 20C3M dataset contains an Antarctic Cooling that led to most of the differences in displacement vectors against the other datasets. The research shows the effectiveness of GIS enabled displacement vectors analysis to elicit spatial differences in climate patterns among GCM data and reanalysis data. While temperature data were used in the case study, the proposed method is based on concepts applicable to other isolines of geographic variables (such as isobars or isohyets).     

Comparison of the Slow Pyrolysis Behavior and Kinetics of Coal,Wood and Algae at High Heating Rates

Natural Resources Research - Coal, like any other nonrenewable energy resource, will, by exploitation, deplete in the near future. In light of this, biomass is fast becoming an alternative material...     

Wildfire evacuations in Canada 1980–2007

Evacuations represent an integral aspect of protecting public safety in locations where intense, fast-spreading forest fires co-occur with human populations. Most Canadian fire management agencies have as their primary objective the protection of people and property, and all fire management agencies in Canada recommend evacuations when public safety is in question. This study provides the first national assessment of wildfire-related evacuations in Canada and documents the loss of homes that coincided with evacuation events. The most striking finding is that despite the intensity and abundance of wildfire in Canada, wildfires have displaced a relatively small number of people. Between 1980 and 2007, the median number of evacuees and home losses per year in Canada were 3,590 and 2, respectively. Evacuees’ homes survived in 99.3% of cases. Patterns of evacuations and home losses reflected the distributions of forests, wildfire, and people across the Canadian landscape. Most evacuations occurred in boreal areas, which have relatively low population densities but among the highest percent annual area burned in Canada. Evacuations were less common in southern parts of the country, where most Canadians reside, but individual wildfires in these areas had significant impacts. Interactions between wildfire and people in Canada exhibited a unique regional pattern, and within the most densely populated regions of the country they can be considered ‘low-probability, high-consequence’ events. This Canadian context is fundamentally different from places such as California, where concentrations of fires and people overlap across large areas and therefore calls for a fundamentally different fire management response.