EEM faculty and graduate students were successful in publishing the results of their research in eight peer-reviewed journals and other publications this past year. Here’s an overview of these publications:
2010 Best Policy Oriented Paper Award
EEM lead professor Jonathan Deason, along with three co-authors, received the 2010 Best Policy Oriented Paper Award from the American Society of Civil Engineers’ Environmental and Water Resources Institute (EWRI) for a paper he published in the Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management. The award was presented at a EWRI awards ceremony held during the World Environmental and Water Resources Congress 2011 in Palm Springs, California. More than 700 people attended the awards ceremony, which was held on May 25, 2011. Appearing in the two accompanying photos are Rollin Hotchkiss, EWRI President, who welcomed attendees to the awards ceremony, and Steve Stockton, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Director of Civil Works, who was the keynote speaker at the awards ceremony.
The citation of the paper is: Deason, J.P., Dickey, G.E., Kinnell, J.C. and Shabman, L.A. “An Integrated Planning Framework for Urban River Rehabilitation,” Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management, Volume 136, Issue 6 (November/December 2010), pp. 688-696.
A copy of the paper can be seen at the following link: An Integrated Planning Framework for Urban River Rehabilitation
Climate Change Paper
EEM Professor Rachael Jonassen, who teaches the EEM course “Climate Change: Policy, Impacts and Response” (EMSE 6992), recently published with co-author Roger Pielke, Jr. of the Center for Science and Technology Policy Research at the University of Colorado an invited paper in a special double issue of Climate Change. The special issue was devoted to recommendations for improving the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change process for the Fifth Assessment Report that is due in 2014. The title of Dr. Jonassen’s paper is “Improving conveyance of uncertainties in the findings of the IPCC.”
Research results presented in the paper are based on the recently published LMI-CliCKE tool of all IPCC findings, together with uncertainty metrics and other searchable terms. That tool can be found at the following link: http://clicke.lmi.org/index.php/Home
The abstract and first page of Professor Jonassen’s paper can be accessed at the following link: http://www.springerlink.com/content/a1835xx1285t26g7/
Interesting discussions provoked by this article can be found at: http://rogerpielkejr.blogspot.com/2011/08/fun-with-epistemic-and-aleatory.html
Renewable Energy Potential of the Department of Defense
EEM doctoral candidate Ariel Castillo and Professor Jonathan Deason have had a paper published in Environmental Practice, the flagship journal of the National Association of Environmental Professionals. The paper, entitled “Determination of Solar Energy Transition Potential of Department of Defense Facilities and Non-Tactical Vehicles,” sets forth the results of research conducted during a just-completed research effort sponsor by the Solar Institute. The research found that the Department of Defense would need to set aside 0.77% of its land area to meet the Department’s total energy needs for facilities and non-tactical vehicles. In addition, the research involved an analysis of other key parameters, including facility energy requirements, carbon dioxide emissions, and the cost of implementing solar energy at 200 major DoD bases in the continental U.S.
The citation for the paper is: Castillo, A.S. and Deason, J.P., “Determination of Solar Energy Transition Potential of Department of Defense Facilities and Non-Tactical Vehicles,” Environmental Practice, August 24, 2011.
A copy can be found at the following link: Determination of Solar Energy Transition Potential of Department of Defense Facilities and Non-Tactical Vehicles
Cellulosic Ethanol Feasibility
Recent EEM Graduates Dan Somma and Hope Lobkowicz, along what EEM Professor Jonathan Deason, had a peer-reviewed paper published recently in Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy. The research indicated that corn-based ethanol is not worthy of continued pursuit as a viable, comprehensive alternative to gasoline. On the other hand, the argument for cellulosic production was found to be more compelling due to the ubiquitous availability of amounts and variety of feedstock, combined with a high potential for far reaching and decentralized refineries. The research indicated that a transition to advanced, cellulosic feedstocks for ethanol is necessary for increased biofuel production and reduced petroleum use to occur.
The citation for the paper is Somma, D., Lobkowicz, H. and Deason, J.P. “Growing America’s Fuel: An Analysis of Corn and Cellulosic Ethanol Feasibility in the United States,” Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy, Volume 12, Number 4 (August 2010), pp. 373-380.
A copy can be seen by clicking on the following link: Cellulosic Ethanol Feasibility Paper
Increasing Block Tariff Pricing Policies for Household Drinking Water Connections
Doctoral Student Emmanuel Donkor published a paper entitled “Evaluating Increasing Block Tariff Pricing Policies When Applied to Multiple Household Connections.” In his paper, Emmanuel summarized a model he developed for evaluating the consequences of increasing block tariff pricing policies when multiple households share water connections and applied it to a sample from Kumasi, Ghana.
A copy of Emmanuel’s paper can be seen by clicking on the following link: Evaluating Increasing Block Tariff Pricing Policies
Urban River Sustainability
EEM Professor Jonathan Deason, along with former U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Deputy Commander Major General Don Riley and former EPA Region 3 Deputy Regional Administrator Thomas Voltaggio published a paper entitled “Cooperative River Restoration for Long-Term Urban Sustainability” in the May/June 2011 LiveBetter eMagazine. In the paper, the authors pointed out that many urban rivers nationwide contain severely contaminated sediments that affect aquatic life and limit recreational and economic uses. At current rates of removal, it would take between 100 and 400 years to remove the problem by dredging, even if all discharges to surface water bodies in the U.S. were to be terminated immediately. The paper describes a new cooperative program involving federal, state and local agencies and the private sector to restore rivers affected by contaminated sediments.
National Solar Transmission Network Research
EMSE Prof. Jonathan Deason and doctoral student Steven Burns were quoted in the May 23, 2011 issue of the Argus U.S. Carbon newsletter (Vol. 4, No. 21) about their Solar Institute-funded research project that is investigating the potential for large-scale build out of a national transmission network to accommodate major increases in solar power. Burns and Deason have developed a model useful for forecasting possibilities for large-scale build out under a variety of scenarios, taking into account myriad constraints relevant to the problem.
A copy of the article can be seen by clicking on the following link: US Carbon Article on National Solar Transmission Network Research
Bayesian Belief Networks for Predicting Input Data of Risk Analysis Models
EEM Professor Royce Francis presented a peer-reviewed conference paper titled "Bayesian Belief Networks for Predicting Input Data of Risk Analysis Models" at the ASCE 1st International Conference on Vulnerability and Risk Analysis and Management on April 12. This paper was co-authored with Gonzalo Pita and Jean-Paul Pinelli from Florida Institute of Technology, as well as Zhang Liu, Seth Guikema, and Judy Mitrani-Reiser from Johns Hopkins University.