Estimation of the spatiotemporal dynamics of snow covered area by using cellular automata models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pardo-Igúzquiza, Eulogio; Collados-Lara, Antonio-Juan; Pulido-Velazquez, David

2017-07-01

Given the need to consider the cryosphere in water resources management for mountainous regions, the purpose of this paper is to model the daily spatially distributed dynamics of snow covered area (SCA) by using calibrated cellular automata models. For the operational use of the calibrated model, the only data requirements are the altitude of each cell of the spatial discretization of the area of interest and precipitation and temperature indexes for the area of interest. For the calibration step, experimental snow covered area data are needed. Potential uses of the model are to estimate the snow covered area when satellite data are absent, or when they provide a temporal resolution different from the operational resolution, or when the satellite images are useless because they are covered by clouds or because there has been a sensor failure. Another interesting application is the simulation of SCA dynamics for the snow covered area under future climatic scenarios. The model is applied to the Sierra Nevada mountain range, in southern Spain, which is home to significant biodiversity, contains important water resources in its snowpack, and contains the most meridional ski resort in Europe.

Modeling of technical soil-erosion control measures and its impact on soil erosion off-site effects within urban areas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dostal, Tomas; Devaty, Jan

2013-04-01

The paper presents results of surface runoff, soil erosion and sediment transport modeling using Erosion 3D software - physically based mathematical simulation model, event oriented, fully distributed. Various methods to simulate technical soil-erosion conservation measures were tested, using alternative digital elevation models of different precision and resolution. Ditches and baulks were simulated by three different approaches, (i) by change of the land-cover parameters to increase infiltration and decrease flow velocity, (ii) by change of the land-cover parameters to completely infiltrate the surface runoff and (iii) by adjusting the height of the digital elevation model by "burning in" the channels of the ditches. Results show advantages and disadvantages of each approach and conclude suitable methods for combinations of particular digital elevation model and purpose of the simulations. Further on a set of simulations was carried out to model situations before and after technical soil-erosion conservation measures application within a small catchment of 4 km2. These simulations were focused on quantitative and qualitative assessment of technical soil-erosion control measures impact on soil erosion off-site effects within urban areas located downstream of intensively used agricultural fields. The scenarios were built upon a raster digital elevation model with spatial resolution of 3 meters derived from LiDAR 5G vector point elevation data. Use of this high-resolution elevation model allowed simulating the technical soil-erosion control measures by direct terrain elevation adjustment. Also the structures within the settlements were emulated by direct change in the elevation of the terrain model. The buildings were lifted up to simulate complicated flow behavior of the surface runoff within urban areas, using approach of Arévalo (Arévalo, 2011) but focusing on the use of commonly available data without extensive detailed editing. Application of the technical

Predicting the presence and cover of management relevant invasive plant species on protected areas.

PubMed

Iacona, Gwenllian; Price, Franklin D; Armsworth, Paul R

2016-01-15

Invasive species are a management concern on protected areas worldwide. Conservation managers need to predict infestations of invasive plants they aim to treat if they want to plan for long term management. Many studies predict the presence of invasive species, but predictions of cover are more relevant for management. Here we examined how predictors of invasive plant presence and cover differ across species that vary in their management priority. To do so, we used data on management effort and cover of invasive plant species on central Florida protected areas. Using a zero-inflated multiple regression framework, we showed that protected area features can predict the presence and cover of the focal species but the same features rarely explain both. There were several predictors of either presence or cover that were important across multiple species. Protected areas with three days of frost per year or fewer were more likely to have occurrences of four of the six focal species. When invasive plants were present, their proportional cover was greater on small preserves for all species, and varied with surrounding household density for three species. None of the predictive features were clearly related to whether species were prioritized for management or not. Our results suggest that predictors of cover and presence can differ both within and across species but do not covary with management priority. We conclude that conservation managers need to select predictors of invasion with care as species identity can determine the relationship between predictors of presence and the more management relevant predictors of cover. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

[Characteristics of chemical pollution of snow cover in Aktobe areas].

PubMed

Iskakov, A Zh

2010-01-01

The paper gives data on the nature of snow cover pollution in the urbanized areas in relation to the remoteness from the basic sources of ambient air pollution. The total snow content of carcinogens has been estimated.

National climate assessment technical report on the impacts of climate and land use and land cover change

Treesearch

Thomas Loveland; Rezaul Mahmood; Toral Patel-Weynand; Krista Karstensen; Kari Beckendorf; Norman Bliss; Andrew Carleton

2012-01-01

This technical report responds to the recognition by the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) and the National Climate Assessment (NCA) of the importance of understanding how land use and land cover (LULC) affects weather and climate variability and change and how that variability and change affects LULC. Current published, peer-reviewed, scientific literature...

Development of large Area Covering Height Model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jacobsen, K.

2014-04-01

Height information is a basic part of topographic mapping. Only in special areas frequent update of height models is required, usually the update cycle is quite lower as for horizontal map information. Some height models are available free of charge in the internet; for commercial height models a fee has to be paid. Mostly digital surface models (DSM) with the height of the visible surface are given and not the bare ground height, as required for standard mapping. Nevertheless by filtering of DSM, digital terrain models (DTM) with the height of the bare ground can be generated with the exception of dense forest areas where no height of the bare ground is available. These height models may be better as the DTM of some survey administrations. In addition several DTM from national survey administrations are classified, so as alternative the commercial or free of charge available information from internet can be used. The widely used SRTM DSM is available also as ACE-2 GDEM corrected by altimeter data for systematic height errors caused by vegetation and orientation errors. But the ACE-2 GDEM did not respect neighbourhood information. With the worldwide covering TanDEM-X height model, distributed starting 2014 by Airbus Defence and Space (former ASTRIUM) as WorldDEM, higher level of details and accuracy is reached as with other large area covering height models. At first the raw-version of WorldDEM will be available, followed by an edited version and finally as WorldDEM-DTM a height model of the bare ground. With 12 m spacing and a relative standard deviation of 1.2 m within an area of 1° x 1° an accuracy and resolution level is reached, satisfying also for larger map scales. For limited areas with the HDEM also a height model with 6 m spacing and a relative vertical accuracy of 0.5 m can be generated on demand. By bathymetric LiDAR and stereo images also the height of the sea floor can be determined if the water has satisfying transparency. Another method of getting

Seismic assessment of Technical Area V (TA-V).

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Medrano, Carlos S.

The Technical Area V (TA-V) Seismic Assessment Report was commissioned as part of Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) Self Assessment Requirement per DOE O 414.1, Quality Assurance, for seismic impact on existing facilities at Technical Area-V (TA-V). SNL TA-V facilities are located on an existing Uniform Building Code (UBC) Seismic Zone IIB Site within the physical boundary of the Kirtland Air Force Base (KAFB). The document delineates a summary of the existing facilities with their safety-significant structure, system and components, identifies DOE Guidance, conceptual framework, past assessments and the present Geological and Seismic conditions. Building upon the past information and themore » evolution of the new seismic design criteria, the document discusses the potential impact of the new standards and provides recommendations based upon the current International Building Code (IBC) per DOE O 420.1B, Facility Safety and DOE G 420.1-2, Guide for the Mitigation of Natural Phenomena Hazards for DOE Nuclear Facilities and Non-Nuclear Facilities.« less

LARGE AREA LAND COVER MAPPING THROUGH SCENE-BASED CLASSIFICATION COMPOSITING

EPA Science Inventory

Over the past decade, a number of initiatives have been undertaken to create definitive national and global data sets consisting of precision corrected Landsat MSS and TM scenes. One important application of these data is the derivation of large area land cover products spanning ...

Sensitivity of the snowmelt runoff model to underestimates of remotely sensed snow covered area

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Three methods for estimating snow covered area (SCA) from Terra MODIS data were used to derive conventional depletion curves for input to the Snowmelt Runoff Model (SRM). We compared the MOD10 binary and fractional snow cover products and a method for estimating sub-pixel snow cover using spectral m...

40 CFR 51.25 - What geographic area must my state's inventory cover?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... Emissions Reporting Requirements Specific Reporting Requirements § 51.25 What geographic area must my state... 40 Protection of Environment 2 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false What geographic area must my state's inventory cover? 51.25 Section 51.25 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED...

40 CFR 51.25 - What geographic area must my state's inventory cover?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... Emissions Reporting Requirements Specific Reporting Requirements § 51.25 What geographic area must my state... 40 Protection of Environment 2 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false What geographic area must my state's inventory cover? 51.25 Section 51.25 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED...

40 CFR 51.25 - What geographic area must my state's inventory cover?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... Emissions Reporting Requirements Specific Reporting Requirements § 51.25 What geographic area must my state... 40 Protection of Environment 2 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false What geographic area must my state's inventory cover? 51.25 Section 51.25 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED...

40 CFR 51.25 - What geographic area must my state's inventory cover?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... Emissions Reporting Requirements Specific Reporting Requirements § 51.25 What geographic area must my state... 40 Protection of Environment 2 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false What geographic area must my state's inventory cover? 51.25 Section 51.25 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED...

40 CFR 51.25 - What geographic area must my state's inventory cover?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... Emissions Reporting Requirements Specific Reporting Requirements § 51.25 What geographic area must my state... 40 Protection of Environment 2 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false What geographic area must my state's inventory cover? 51.25 Section 51.25 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED...

Next Generation Snow Cover Mapping: Can Future Hyperspectral Satellite Spectrometer Systems Improve Subpixel Snow-covered Area and Grain Size in the Sierra Nevada?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hill, R.; Calvin, W. M.; Harpold, A.

2017-12-01

Mountain snow storage is the dominant source of water for humans and ecosystems in western North America. Consequently, the spatial distribution of snow-covered area is fundamental to both hydrological, ecological, and climate models. Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) data were collected along the entire Sierra Nevada mountain range extending from north of Lake Tahoe to south of Mt. Whitney during the 2015 and 2016 snow-covered season. The AVIRIS dataset used in this experiment consists of 224 contiguous spectral channels with wavelengths ranging 400-2500 nanometers at a 15-meter spatial pixel size. Data from the Sierras were acquired on four days: 2/24/15 during a very low snow year, 3/24/16 near maximum snow accumulation, and 5/12/16 and 5/18/16 during snow ablation and snow loss. Building on previous retrieval of subpixel snow-covered area algorithms that take into account varying grain size we present a model that analyzes multiple endmembers of varying snow grain size, vegetation, rock, and soil in segmented regions along the Sierra Nevada to determine snow-cover spatial extent, snow sub-pixel fraction, and approximate grain size. In addition, varying simulated models of the data will compare and contrast the retrieval of current snow products such as MODIS Snow-Covered Area and Grain Size (MODSCAG) and the Airborne Space Observatory (ASO). Specifically, does lower spatial resolution (MODIS), broader resolution bandwidth (MODIS), and limited spectral resolution (ASO) affect snow-cover area and grain size approximations? The implications of our findings will help refine snow mapping products for planned hyperspectral satellite spectrometer systems such as EnMAP (slated to launch in 2019), HISUI (planned for inclusion on the International Space Station in 2018), and HyspIRI (currently under consideration).

Historic and forecasted population and land-cover change in eastern North Carolina, 1992-2030

USGS Publications Warehouse

Claggett, Peter; Hearn,, Paul P.; Donato, David I.

2015-01-01

The Southeast Regional Partnership for Planning and Sustainability (SERPPAS) was formed in 2005 as a partnership between the Department of Defense (DOD) and State and Federal agencies to promote better collaboration in making resource-use decisions. In support of this goal, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) conducted a study to evaluate historic population growth and land-cover change, and to model future change, for the 13-county SERPPAS study area in southeastern North Carolina (fig. 1). Improved understanding of trends in land-cover change and the ability to forecast land-cover change that is consistent with these trends will be a key component of efforts to accommodate local military-mission imperatives while also promoting sustainable economic growth throughout the 13-county study area. The study had three principal objectives:    1.  Evaluate historic changes in population and land cover for the period 1992–2006 using both previously existing as well as newly generated land-cover data.    2.  Develop models to forecast future change in land cover using the data gathered in objective 1 in conjunction with ancillary data on the suitability of the various sub-areas within the study area for low- and high-intensity urban development.    3.  Deliver these results—including an executive-level briefing and a USGS technical report—to DOD, other project cooperators, and local counties in hard-copy and digital formats and via the Web through a map-based data viewer. This report provides a general overview of the study and is intended for general distribution to non-technical audiences.

Agreement Between the District 9 Area Board of Vocational, Technical and Adult Education and the American Federation of Teachers Local 212, WFT, AFL-CIO, January 1, 1972 - June 30, 1973.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Milwaukee Area Technical Coll., WI.

Presented in this document is the agreement between the District 9 Area Board of Vocational, Technical and Adult Education and the American Federation of Teachers for the period from January 1, 1972 through June 30, 1973. Contained in the articles of the agreement are sections covering hours and working conditions, grievance procedures, salaries…

Field Implementation Plan for the In-Situ Bioremediation Treatability Study at the Technical Area-V Groundwater Area of Concern

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Li, Jun

This Field Implementation Plan (FIP) was prepared by Sandia National Laboratories, New Mexico (SNL/NM) and provides instruction on conducting a series of in-situ bioremediation (ISB) tests as described in the Revised Treatability Study Work Plan for In-Situ Bioremediation at the Technical Area-V Groundwater Area of Concern, referred to as the Revised Work Plan in this FIP. The Treatability Study is designed to gravity inject an electron-donor substrate and bioaugmentation bacteria into groundwater via three injection wells to perform bioremediation of the constituents of concern (COCs), nitrate and trichloroethene (TCE), in the regions with the highest concentrations at the Technical Area-Vmore » Groundwater (TAVG) Area of Concern (AOC). The Treatability Study will evaluate the effectiveness of bioremediation solution delivery and COC treatment over time. This FIP is designed for SNL/NM work planning and management. It is not intended to be submitted for regulator’s approval. The technical details presented in this FIP are subject to change based on field conditions, availability of equipment and materials, feasibility, and inputs from Sandia personnel and Aboveground Injection System contractor.« less

Male Texas Horned Lizards increase daily movements and area covered in spring: A mate searching strategy?

USGS Publications Warehouse

Stark, Richard C.; Fox, S. F.; David, M.L.

2005-01-01

Texas Horned Lizards, Phrynosoma cornutum, were tracked using fluorescent powder to determine exact daily movements. Daily linear movements and daily space use were compared between adult males and females. Lizards that traveled the greatest linear distances also covered the largest areas. In Oklahoma, adults emerge from hibernation in late April and early May and mate soon afterward. Males traveled significantly greater distances (and covered significantly larger areas in a day) than females in May but not after May. We propose that males move more and cover more area than females early in the mating season to intercept receptive females. Copyright 2005 Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles.

[Effect of different snow depth and area on the snow cover retrieval using remote sensing data].

PubMed

Jiang, Hong-bo; Qin, Qi-ming; Zhang, Ning; Dong, Heng; Chen, Chao

2011-12-01

For the needs of snow cover monitoring using multi-source remote sensing data, in the present article, based on the spectrum analysis of different depth and area of snow, the effect of snow depth on the results of snow cover retrieval using normalized difference snow index (NDSI) is discussed. Meanwhile, taking the HJ-1B and MODIS remote sensing data as an example, the snow area effect on the snow cover monitoring is also studied. The results show that: the difference of snow depth does not contribute to the retrieval results, while the snow area affects the results of retrieval to some extents because of the constraints of spatial resolution.

Generating local scale land use/cover change scenarios: case studies of high-risk mountain areas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Malek, Žiga; Glade, Thomas; Boerboom, Luc

2014-05-01

The relationship between land use/cover changes and consequences to human well-being is well acknowledged and has led to higher interest of both researchers and decision makers in driving forces and consequences of such changes. For example, removal of natural vegetation cover or urban expansion resulting in new elements at risk can increase hydro-meteorological risk. This is why it is necessary to study how the land use/cover could evolve in the future. Emphasis should especially be given to areas experiencing, or expecting, high rates of socio-economic change. A suitable approach to address these changes is scenario development; it offers exploring possible futures and the corresponding environmental consequences, and aids decision-making, as it enables to analyse possible options. Scenarios provide a creative methodology to depict possible futures, resulting from existing decisions, based on different assumptions of future socio-economic development. They have been used in various disciplines and on various scales, such as flood risk and soil erosion. Several studies have simulated future scenarios of land use/cover changes at a very high success rate, however usually these approaches are tailor made for specific case study areas and fit to available data. This study presents a multi-step scenario generation framework, which can be transferable to other local scale case study areas, taking into account the case study specific consequences of land use/cover changes. Through the use of experts' and decision-makers' knowledge, we aimed to develop a framework with the following characteristics: (1) it enables development of scenarios that are plausible, (2) it can overcome data inaccessibility, (3) it can address intangible and external driving forces of land use/cover change, and (4) it ensures transferability to other local scale case study areas with different land use/cover change processes and consequences. To achieve this, a set of different methods is applied

Changing landscape in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area of Yangtze River from 1977 to 2005: Land use/land cover, vegetation cover changes estimated using multi-source satellite data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Jixian; Zhengjun, Liu; Xiaoxia, Sun

2009-12-01

The eco-environment in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area (TGRA) in China has received much attention due to the construction of the Three Gorges Hydropower Station. Land use/land cover changes (LUCC) are a major cause of ecological environmental changes. In this paper, the spatial landscape dynamics from 1978 to 2005 in this area are monitored and recent changes are analyzed, using the Landsat TM (MSS) images of 1978, 1988, 1995, 2000 and 2005. Vegetation cover fractions for a vegetation cover analysis are retrieved from MODIS/Terra imagery from 2000 to 2006, being the period before and after the rising water level of the reservoir. Several analytical indices have been used to analyze spatial and temporal changes. Results indicate that cropland, woodland, and grassland areas reduced continuously over the past 30 years, while river and built-up area increased by 2.79% and 4.45% from 2000 to 2005, respectively. The built-up area increased at the cost of decreased cropland, woodland and grassland. The vegetation cover fraction increased slightly. We conclude that significant changes in land use/land cover have occurred in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area. The main cause is a continuous economic and urban/rural development, followed by environmental management policies after construction of the Three Gorges Dam.

National Profiles in Technical and Vocational Education in Asia and the Pacific: Fiji.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, Bangkok (Thailand). Principal Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific.

This technical and vocational education (TVE) profile on Fiji is one in a series of profiles of UNESCO member countries. It is intended to be a handy reference on TVE systems, staff development, technical cooperation, and information networking. Part I, General Information, covers the following: location, area, and physical features; economic and…

24 CFR 203.43e - Eligibility of mortgages covering houses in federally impacted areas.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... 24 Housing and Urban Development 2 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Eligibility of mortgages covering houses in federally impacted areas. 203.43e Section 203.43e Housing and Urban Development Regulations... Requirements and Underwriting Procedures Eligible Properties § 203.43e Eligibility of mortgages covering houses...

24 CFR 203.43e - Eligibility of mortgages covering houses in federally impacted areas.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-04-01

... 24 Housing and Urban Development 2 2011-04-01 2011-04-01 false Eligibility of mortgages covering houses in federally impacted areas. 203.43e Section 203.43e Housing and Urban Development Regulations... Requirements and Underwriting Procedures Eligible Properties § 203.43e Eligibility of mortgages covering houses...

National climate assessment technical report on the impacts of climate and land use and land cover change

USGS Publications Warehouse

Loveland, Thomas; Mahmood, Rezaul; Patel-Weynand, Toral; Karstensen, Krista; Beckendorf, Kari; Bliss, Norman; Carleton, Andrew

2012-01-01

This technical report responds to the recognition by the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) and the National Climate Assessment (NCA) of the importance of understanding how land use and land cover (LULC) affects weather and climate variability and change and how that variability and change affects LULC. Current published, peer-reviewed, scientific literature and supporting data from both existing and original sources forms the basis for this report's assessment of the current state of knowledge regarding land change and climate interactions. The synthesis presented herein documents how current and future land change may alter environment processes and in turn, how those conditions may affect both land cover and land use by specifically investigating, * The primary contemporary trends in land use and land cover, * The land-use and land-cover sectors and regions which are most affected by weather and climate variability,* How land-use practices are adapting to climate change, * How land-use and land-cover patterns and conditions are affecting weather and climate, and * The key elements of an ongoing Land Resources assessment. These findings present information that can be used to better assess land change and climate interactions in order to better assess land management and adaptation strategies for future environmental change and to assist in the development of a framework for an ongoing national assessment.

Habitat Evaluation Procedures (HEP) Report : Oxbow Conservation Area, 2002-2005 Technical Report.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Cochran, Brian

2005-02-01

This Habitat Evaluation Procedure (HEP) study was performed to determine baseline habitat units on the Oxbow Conservation Area in Grant County, Oregon. The evaluation is a required part of the Memorandum of Agreement between the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs and Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) relating to the acquisition and management of the Oxbow Conservation Area. The HEP team was comprised of individuals from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon. The survey was conducted using the following HEP evaluation models for key species: black-capped chickadee (Poecile atricapilla),more » mallard (Anas platyrhynchos), mink (Mustela vison), western meadowlark (Sturnella neglecta), white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginiana), and yellow warbler (Dendroica petechia). Cover types used in this survey were conifer forest, irrigated meadow, riparian meadow, upland meadow, riparian shrub, upland shrub, and mine tailings. The project generated 701.3 habitat units for mitigation crediting purposes. Results for each HEP species are: (1) Black-capped chickadee habitat was good, with only isolated areas lacking snags or having low tree canopy cover. (2) Mallard habitat was poor in upland meadows and marginal elsewhere due to a lack of herbaceous/shrub cover and low herbaceous height. (3) Mink habitat was good, limited only by the lack of the shrub component. (4) Western meadowlark habitat was marginal in upland meadow and mine tailing cover types and good in irrigated meadow. Percent cover of grass and height of herbaceous variables were limiting factors. (5) White-tailed deer habitat was marginal due to relatively low tree canopy cover, reduced shrub cover, and limited browse diversity. (6) Yellow Warbler habitat was marginal due to less than optimum shrub height and the lack of hydrophytic shrubs. General ratings (poor, marginal, etc.) are described in the introduction section.« less

Evaluation of the satellite derived snow cover area - Runoff forecasting models for the inaccessible basins of western Himalayas

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dey, B.

1985-01-01

In this study, the existing seasonal snow cover area runoff forecasting models of the Indus, Kabul, Sutlej and Chenab basins were evaluated with the concurrent flow correlation model for the period 1975-79. In all the basins under study, correlation of concurrent flow model explained the variability in flow better than by the snow cover area runoff models. Actually, the concurrent flow correlation model explained more than 90 percent of the variability in the flow of these rivers. Compared to this model, the snow cover area runoff models explained less of the variability in flow. In the Himalayan river basins under study and at least for the period under observation, the concurrent flow correlation model provided a set of results with which to compare the estimates from the snow cover area runoff models.

CONTACT: An Air Force technical report on military satellite control technology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Weakley, Christopher K.

1993-07-01

This technical report focuses on Military Satellite Control Technologies and their application to the Air Force Satellite Control Network (AFSCN). This report is a compilation of articles that provide an overview of the AFSCN and the Advanced Technology Program, and discusses relevant technical issues and developments applicable to the AFSCN. Among the topics covered are articles on Future Technology Projections; Future AFSCN Topologies; Modeling of the AFSCN; Wide Area Communications Technology Evolution; Automating AFSCN Resource Scheduling; Health & Status Monitoring at Remote Tracking Stations; Software Metrics and Tools for Measuring AFSCN Software Performance; Human-Computer Interface Working Group; Trusted Systems Workshop; and the University Technical Interaction Program. In addition, Key Technology Area points of contact are listed in the report.

Estimation of daily Snow Cover Area combining MODIS and LANDSAT information by using cellular automata

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pardo-Iguzquiza, Eulogio; Juan Collados Lara, Antonio; Pulido-Velazquez, David

2016-04-01

The snow availability in Alpine catchments is essential for the economy of these areas. It plays an important role in tourist development but also in the management of the Water Resources Snow is an important water resource in many river basins with mountains in the catchment area. The determination of the snow water equivalent requires the estimation of the evolution of the snow pack (cover area, thickness and snow density) along the time. Although there are complex physical models of the dynamics of the snow pack, sometimes the data available are scarce and a stochastic model like the cellular automata (CA) can be of great practical interest. CA can be used to model the dynamics of growth and wane of the snow pack. The CA is calibrated with historical data. This requires the determination of transition rules that are capable of modeling the evolution of the spatial pattern of snow cover area. Furthermore, CA requires the definition of states and neighborhoods. We have included topographical variables and climatological variables in order to define the state of each pixel. The evolution of snow cover in a pixel depends on its state, the state of the neighboring pixels and the transition rules. The calibration of the CA is done using daily MODIS data, available for the period 24/02/2002 to present with a spatial resolution of 500 m, and the LANDSAT information available with a sixteen-day periodicity from 1984 to the present and with spatial resolution of 30 m. The methodology has been applied to estimation of the snow cover area of Sierra Nevada mountain range in the Southern of Spain to obtain snow cover area daily information with 500 m spatial resolution for the period 1980-2014. Acknowledgments: This research has been partially supported by the GESINHIMPADAPT project (CGL2013-48424-C2-2-R) with Spanish MINECO funds. We would also like to thank NASA DAAC and LANDSAT project for the data provided for this study.

Analysis of urban area land cover using SEASAT Synthetic Aperture Radar data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Henderson, F. M. (Principal Investigator)

1980-01-01

Digitally processed SEASAT synthetic aperture raar (SAR) imagery of the Denver, Colorado urban area was examined to explore the potential of SAR data for mapping urban land cover and the compatability of SAR derived land cover classes with the United States Geological Survey classification system. The imagery is examined at three different scales to determine the effect of image enlargement on accuracy and level of detail extractable. At each scale the value of employing a simplistic preprocessing smoothing algorithm to improve image interpretation is addressed. A visual interpretation approach and an automated machine/visual approach are employed to evaluate the feasibility of producing a semiautomated land cover classification from SAR data. Confusion matrices of omission and commission errors are employed to define classification accuracies for each interpretation approach and image scale.

The NASA scientific and technical information system: Its scope and coverage

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1988-01-01

A general description of the subject areas covered in the NASA scientific and technical information system is presented. In addition, it establishes subject-based selection criteria for guiding decisions related to the addition of new documents to the NASA collection.

Technical report writing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Vidoli, Carol A.

1992-01-01

This manual covers the fundamentals of organizing, writing, and reviewing NASA technical reports. It was written to improve the writing skills of LeRC technical authors and the overall quality of their reports.

Classification and area estimation of land covers in Kansas using ground-gathered and LANDSAT digital data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

May, G. A.; Holko, M. L.; Anderson, J. E.

1983-01-01

Ground-gathered data and LANDSAT multispectral scanner (MSS) digital data from 1981 were analyzed to produce a classification of Kansas land areas into specific types called land covers. The land covers included rangeland, forest, residential, commercial/industrial, and various types of water. The analysis produced two outputs: acreage estimates with measures of precision, and map-type or photo products of the classification which can be overlaid on maps at specific scales. State-level acreage estimates were obtained and substate-level land cover classification overlays and estimates were generated for selected geographical areas. These products were found to be of potential use in managing land and water resources.

Annual Report for Los Alamos National Laboratory Technical Area 54, Area G Disposal Facility - Fiscal Year 2016

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Birdsell, Kay Hanson; Stauffer, Philip H.; Atchley, Adam Lee

As a condition to the disposal authorization statement issued to Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL or the Laboratory) on March 17, 2010, a comprehensive performance assessment and composite analysis (PA/CA) maintenance program must be implemented for the Technical Area 54, Area G disposal facility. Annual determinations of the adequacy of the PA/CA are to be conducted under the maintenance program to ensure that the conclusions reached by those analyses continue to be valid. This report summarizes the results of the fiscal year (FY) 2016 annual review for Area G.

Canopy cover and leaf area index relationships for wheat, triticale, and corn

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

The AquaCrop model requires canopy cover (CC) measurements to define crop growth and development. Some previously collected data sets that would be useful for calibrating and validating AquaCrop contain only leaf area index (LAI) data, but could be used if relationships were available relating LAI t...

Land use/cover changes in European mountain areas: identifying links between global driving forces and local consequences

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Malek, Žiga; Schröter, Dagmar; Glade, Thomas

2013-04-01

Minor land use/cover changes in mountain areas can aggravate the consequences of hydro-meteorological hazards such as landslides, avalanches, rockfall and flash floods. What is more, they change the provisioning of ecosystem services; also as their recovery after anthropogenic induced changes in mountains are slower or not occurring at all due to harsh climate and soil conditions. Examples of these changes are urbanization in high risk areas or deforestation on slopes. To understand the driving forces behind land use/cover changes in European mountain areas, the focus is on the two case study areas: The Val Canale valley in the Italian Alps and the Buzau valley in the Romanian Carpathians. Land use/cover changes were analyzed in the recent decades applying various remote sensing techniques, such as satellite imagery classification and visual interpretation, as well as integration of various databases (e.g. forestry, spatial planning and cadaster plans). Instead of identifying the statistical significance of particular variables (e.g. population change), the links between different driving forces of global change (e.g. political and policy changes, infrastructural plans) and local socio-economic variables were investigated further through interviewing local and regional stakeholders. The results show how both areas differ in the consequences of global changes in terms of land use/cover change. The Italian area witnessed a trajectory from a commercially active and competitive area, to an area with a large portion of abandoned commercial, customs, industrial and mining zones. These processes were accompanied by the expansion of settlements comprised mostly of secondary housing on areas with high risk, resulting in catastrophic consequences in recent flash floods and debris flows events. The Romanian site also witnessed a breakdown of local commercial and industrial activities. Together with land ownership reforms, this has resulted in the emergence of subsistence

Evapotranspiration Cover for the 92-Acre Area Retired Mixed Waste Pits:Interim CQA Report

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

The Delphi Groupe, Inc., and J. A. Cesare and Associates, Inc.

This Interim Construction Quality Assurance (CQA) Report is for the 92-Acre Evapotranspiration Cover, Area 5 Waste Management Division (WMD) Retired Mixed Waste Pits, Nevada National Security Site, Nevada for the period of January 20, 2011 to May 12, 2011. This Interim Construction Quality Assurance (CQA) Report is for the 92-Acre Evapotranspiration Cover, Area 5 Waste Management Division (WMD) Retired Mixed Waste Pits, Nevada National Security Site, Nevada for the period of January 20, 2011 to May 12, 2011. Construction was approved by the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection (NDEP) under the Approval of Corrective Action Decision Document/Corrective Action Plan (CADD/CAP)more » for Corrective Action Unit (CAU) 111: Area 5 WMD Retired Mixed Waste Pits, Nevada National Security Site, Nevada, on January 6, 2011, pursuant to Subpart XII.8a of the Federal Facility Agreement and Consent Order. The project is located in Area 5 of the Radioactive Waste Management Complex (RWMC) at the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS), formerly known as the Nevada Test Site, located in southern Nevada, approximately 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas, Nevada, in Nye County. The project site, in Area 5, is located in a topographically closed basin approximately 14 additional miles north of Mercury Nevada, in the north-central part of Frenchman Flat. The Area 5 RWMS uses engineered shallow-land burial cells to dispose of packaged waste. The 92-Acre Area encompasses the southern portion of the Area 5 RWMS, which has been designated for the first final closure operations. This area contains 13 Greater Confinement Disposal (GCD) boreholes, 16 narrow trenches, and 9 broader pits. With the exception of two active pits (P03 and P06), all trenches and pits in the 92-Acre Area had operational covers approximately 2.4 meters thick, at a minimum, in most areas when this project began. The units within the 92-Acre Area are grouped into the following six informal categories based on physical

Integrated Technical Curriculum. Curriculum Developed for Project Second Chance II: Tech Reading, Tech Science, Tech Math, Automotive.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sorensen, Mary K.; And Others

This integrated technical curriculum is designed to enroll and retain adult high school noncompleters in occupational programs by providing them with the remedial and content-area reading instruction needed for success in an automotive program. The following topics are covered in the four units: (1) skills for reading technical materials (basics…

Predictors of employer satisfaction: technical and non-technical skills.

PubMed

Danielson, Jared A; Wu, Tsui-Feng; Fales-Williams, Amanda J; Kirk, Ryan A; Preast, Vanessa A

2012-01-01

Employers of 2007-2009 graduates from Iowa State University College of Veterinary Medicine were asked to respond to a survey regarding their overall satisfaction with their new employees as well as their new employees' preparation in several technical and non-technical skill areas. Seventy-five responses contained complete data and were used in the analysis. Four technical skill areas (data collection, data interpretation, planning, and taking action) and five non-technical skill areas (interpersonal skills, ability to deal with legal issues, business skills, making referrals, and problem solving) were identified. All of the skill area subscales listed above had appropriate reliability (Cronbach's alpha>0.70) and were positively and significantly correlated with overall employer satisfaction. Results of two simultaneous regression analyses indicated that of the four technical skill areas, taking action is the most salient predictor of employer satisfaction. Of the five non-technical skill areas, interpersonal skills, business skills, making referrals, and problem solving were the most important skills in predicting employer satisfaction. Hierarchical regression analysis revealed that all technical skills explained 25% of the variation in employer satisfaction; non-technical skills explained an additional 42% of the variation in employer satisfaction.

Final report on technical work accomplished under contract NASw-2953

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fredricks, R. W.

1977-01-01

A report is given on the technical work accomplished in the area of plasma physics. The subjects covered are: (1) oblique whistler instabilities, (2) current-limited electron beam injection, (3) three-dimensional ion sound turbulence, (4) theoretical aspects of sounder antenna operation and (5) whistler modes in bow shock structures.

Proposed hybrid-classifier ensemble algorithm to map snow cover area

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nijhawan, Rahul; Raman, Balasubramanian; Das, Josodhir

2018-01-01

Metaclassification ensemble approach is known to improve the prediction performance of snow-covered area. The methodology adopted in this case is based on neural network along with four state-of-art machine learning algorithms: support vector machine, artificial neural networks, spectral angle mapper, K-mean clustering, and a snow index: normalized difference snow index. An AdaBoost ensemble algorithm related to decision tree for snow-cover mapping is also proposed. According to available literature, these methods have been rarely used for snow-cover mapping. Employing the above techniques, a study was conducted for Raktavarn and Chaturangi Bamak glaciers, Uttarakhand, Himalaya using multispectral Landsat 7 ETM+ (enhanced thematic mapper) image. The study also compares the results with those obtained from statistical combination methods (majority rule and belief functions) and accuracies of individual classifiers. Accuracy assessment is performed by computing the quantity and allocation disagreement, analyzing statistic measures (accuracy, precision, specificity, AUC, and sensitivity) and receiver operating characteristic curves. A total of 225 combinations of parameters for individual classifiers were trained and tested on the dataset and results were compared with the proposed approach. It was observed that the proposed methodology produced the highest classification accuracy (95.21%), close to (94.01%) that was produced by the proposed AdaBoost ensemble algorithm. From the sets of observations, it was concluded that the ensemble of classifiers produced better results compared to individual classifiers.

Coupling of Markov chains and cellular automata spatial models to predict land cover changes (case study: upper Ci Leungsi catchment area)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Marko, K.; Zulkarnain, F.; Kusratmoko, E.

2016-11-01

Land cover changes particular in urban catchment area has been rapidly occur. Land cover changes occur as a result of increasing demand for built-up area. Various kinds of environmental and hydrological problems e.g. floods and urban heat island can happen if the changes are uncontrolled. This study aims to predict land cover changes using coupling of Markov chains and cellular automata. One of the most rapid land cover changes is occurs at upper Ci Leungsi catchment area that located near Bekasi City and Jakarta Metropolitan Area. Markov chains has a good ability to predict the probability of change statistically while cellular automata believed as a powerful method in reading the spatial patterns of change. Temporal land cover data was obtained by remote sensing satellite imageries. In addition, this study also used multi-criteria analysis to determine which driving factor that could stimulate the changes such as proximity, elevation, and slope. Coupling of these two methods could give better prediction model rather than just using it separately. The prediction model was validated using existing 2015 land cover data and shown a satisfactory kappa coefficient. The most significant increasing land cover is built-up area from 24% to 53%.

[Evaluation of pollution of an urban area by level of heavy metals in snow cover].

PubMed

Stepanova, N V; Khamitova, R Ia; Petrova, R S

2003-01-01

The goal of this study was to systematize various methodological approaches to evaluating the contamination of the snow cover with heavy metals (HM) by using Kazan, an industrial city with diversified industry, as an example. The findings suggest that it is necessary to characterize the contamination of the snow cover by the actual entrance of an element per area unit of the snow cover for a definite period of time rather than by the concentration of TM in the volume unit of snow water (mg/l), which minimizes the uncertainties with spatial and temporary snow cover variations. The index of the maximum allowable entrance, which is of practical value, may be used to objectively calibrate the pollution of the snow cover, by estimating the amount of a coming element and its toxicity.

Annual Report for Los Alamos National Laboratory Technical Area 54, Area G Disposal Facility – Fiscal Year 2015

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

French, Sean B.; Stauffer, Philip H.; Birdsell, Kay H.

As a condition to the disposal authorization statement issued to Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL or the Laboratory) on March 17, 2010, a comprehensive performance assessment and composite analysis maintenance program must be implemented for the Technical Area 54, Area G disposal facility. Annual determinations of the adequacy of the performance assessment and composite analysis (PA/CA) are to be conducted under the maintenance program to ensure that the conclusions reached by those analyses continue to be valid. This report summarizes the results of the fiscal year (FY) 2015 annual review for Area G.

Generation of 2D Land Cover Maps for Urban Areas Using Decision Tree Classification

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Höhle, J.

2014-09-01

A 2D land cover map can automatically and efficiently be generated from high-resolution multispectral aerial images. First, a digital surface model is produced and each cell of the elevation model is then supplemented with attributes. A decision tree classification is applied to extract map objects like buildings, roads, grassland, trees, hedges, and walls from such an "intelligent" point cloud. The decision tree is derived from training areas which borders are digitized on top of a false-colour orthoimage. The produced 2D land cover map with six classes is then subsequently refined by using image analysis techniques. The proposed methodology is described step by step. The classification, assessment, and refinement is carried out by the open source software "R"; the generation of the dense and accurate digital surface model by the "Match-T DSM" program of the Trimble Company. A practical example of a 2D land cover map generation is carried out. Images of a multispectral medium-format aerial camera covering an urban area in Switzerland are used. The assessment of the produced land cover map is based on class-wise stratified sampling where reference values of samples are determined by means of stereo-observations of false-colour stereopairs. The stratified statistical assessment of the produced land cover map with six classes and based on 91 points per class reveals a high thematic accuracy for classes "building" (99 %, 95 % CI: 95 %-100 %) and "road and parking lot" (90 %, 95 % CI: 83 %-95 %). Some other accuracy measures (overall accuracy, kappa value) and their 95 % confidence intervals are derived as well. The proposed methodology has a high potential for automation and fast processing and may be applied to other scenes and sensors.

Evapotranspiration Cover for the 92-Acre Area Retired Mixed Waste Pits, Area 5 Waste Management Division, Nevada National Security Site, Final CQA Report

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

NSTec Environmental Management; The Delphi Groupe, Inc.; J. A. Cesare and Associates, Inc.

The report is the Final Construction Quality Assurance (CQA) Report for the 92-Acrew Evapotranspiration Cover, Area 5 Waste Management Division Retired Mixed Waste Pits, Nevada National Security Site, Nevada, for the period of January 20, 2011, to January 31, 2012 The Area 5 RWMS uses engineered shallow-land burial cells to dispose of packaged waste. The 92-Acre Area encompasses the southern portion of the Area 5 RWMS, which has been designated for the first final closure operations. This area contains 13 Greater Confinement Disposal (GCD) boreholes, 16 narrow trenches, and 9 broader pits. With the exception of two active pits (P03more » and P06), all trenches and pits in the 92-Acre Area had operational covers approximately 2.4 meters thick, at a minimum, in most areas when this project began. The units within the 92-Acre Area are grouped into the following six informal categories based on physical location, waste types and regulatory requirements: (1) Pit 3 Mixed Waste Disposal Unit (MWDU); (2) Corrective Action Unit (CAU) 111; (3) CAU 207; (4) Low-level waste disposal units; (5) Asbestiform low-level waste disposal units; and (6) One transuranic (TRU) waste trench.« less

Notice of Final Rulemaking: Regulation of Fuel and Fuel Additives: Reformulated Gasoline Requirements for the Atlanta Covered Area

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

This page summaries the final rule determining that the Atlanta metro area is no longer a federal reformulated gasoline (RFG) covered area and there is no requirement to use federal RFG in the Atlanta area.

Subpixel Snow-covered Area Including Differentiated Grain Size from AVIRIS Data Over the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hill, R.; Calvin, W. M.; Harpold, A. A.

2016-12-01

Mountain snow storage is the dominant source of water for humans and ecosystems in western North America. Consequently, the spatial distribution of snow-covered area is fundamental to both hydrological, ecological, and climate models. Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) data were collected along the entire Sierra Nevada mountain range extending from north of Lake Tahoe to south of Mt. Whitney during the 2015 and 2016 snow-covered season. The AVIRIS dataset used in this experiment consists of 224 contiguous spectral channels with wavelengths ranging 400-2500 nanometers at a 15-meter spatial pixel size. Data from the Sierras were acquired on four days: 2/24/15 during a very low snow year, 3/24/16 near maximum snow accumulation, and 5/12/16 and 5/18/16 during snow ablation and snow loss. Previous retrieval of subpixel snow-covered area in alpine regions used multiple snow endmembers due to the sensitivity of snow spectral reflectance to grain size. We will present a model that analyzes multiple endmembers of varying snow grain size, vegetation, rock, and soil in segmented regions along the Sierra Nevada to determine snow-cover spatial extent, snow sub-pixel fraction and approximate grain size or melt state. The root mean squared error will provide a spectrum-wide assessment of the mixture model's goodness-of-fit. Analysis will compare snow-covered area and snow-cover depletion in the 2016 year, and annual variation from the 2015 year. Field data were also acquired on three days concurrent with the 2016 flights in the Sagehen Experimental Forest and will support ground validation of the airborne data set.

Forest cover loss and urban area expansion in the Conterminous Unites States in the first decade of the third millennium

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huo, L. Z.; Boschetti, L.

2016-12-01

Remote sensing has been successfully used for global mapping of changes in forest cover, but further analysis is needed to characterize those changes - and in particular to classify the total loss of forest loss (Gross Forest Cover Loss, GFCL) based on the cause (natural/human) and on the outcome of the change (regeneration to forest/transition to non-forest) (Kurtz et al., 2010). While natural forest disturbances (fires, insect outbreaks) and timber harvest generally involve a temporary change of land cover (vegetated to non-vegetated), they generally do not involve a change in land use, and it is expected that the forest cover loss is followed by recovery. Change of land use, such as the conversion of forest to agricultural or urban areas, is instead generally irreversible. The proper classification of forest cover loss is therefore necessary to properly model the long term effects of the disturbances on the carbon budget. The present study presents a spatial and temporal analysis of the forest cover loss due to urban expansion in the Conterminous United States. The Landsat-derived University of Maryland Global Forest Change product (Hansen et al, 2013) is used to identify all the areas of gross forest cover loss, which are subsequently classified into disturbance type (deforestation, stand-replacing natural disturbances, industrial forest clearcuts) using an object-oriented time series analysis (Huo and Boschetti, 2015). A further refinement of the classification is conducted to identify the areas of transition from forest land use to urban land use based on ancillary datasets such as the National Land Cover Database (Homer et al., 2015) and contextual image analysis techniques (analysis of object proximity, and detection of shapes). Results showed that over 4000 km2of forest were lost to urban area expansion in CONUS over the 2001 to 2010 period (1.8% of the gross forest cover loss). Most of the urban growth was concentrated in large urban areas: Atlanta, GA

Determining Distributed Ablation over Dirty Ice Areas of Debris-covered Glaciers Using a UAV-SfM Approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Woodget, A.; Fyffe, C. L.; Kirkbride, M. P.; Deline, P.; Westoby, M.; Brock, B. W.

2017-12-01

Dirty ice areas (where debris cover is discontinuous) are often found on debris-covered glaciers above the limit of continuous debris and are important because they are areas of high melt and have been recognized as the locus of the identified upglacier increase in debris cover. The modelling of glacial ablation in areas of dirty ice is in its infancy and is currently restricted to theoretical studies. Glacial ablation is traditionally determined at point locations using stakes drilled into the ice. However, in areas of dirty ice, ablation is highly spatially variable, since debris a few centimetres thick is near the threshold between enhancing and reducing ablation. As a result, it is very difficult to ascertain if point ablation measurements are representative of ablation of the area surrounding the stake - making these measurements unsuitable for the validation of models of dirty ice ablation. This paper aims to quantify distributed ablation and its relationship to essential dirty ice characteristics with a view to informing the construction of dirty ice melt models. A novel approach to determine distributed ablation is presented which uses repeat aerial imagery acquired from a UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle), processed using SfM (Structure from Motion) techniques, on an area of dirty ice on Miage Glacier, Italian Alps. A spatially continuous ablation map is presented, along with a correlation to the local debris characteristics. Furthermore, methods are developed which link ground truth data on the percentage debris cover, albedo and clast depth to the UAV imagery, allowing these characteristics to be determined for the entire study area, and used as model inputs. For example, debris thickness is determined through a field relationship with clast size, which is then correlated with image texture and point cloud roughness metrics derived from the UAV imagery. Finally, we evaluate the potential of our novel approach to lead to improved modelling of dirty ice

NASA Scientific and Technical Information Standards

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2006-01-01

This document presents general recommended standards for documenting scientific and technical information (STI) from a number of scientific and engineering disciplines. It is a companion publication to NASA SP-7084, "Grammar, Punctuation, and Capitalization: A Handbook for Technical Writers and Editors," and is intended primarily for STI personnel and publishing personnel within NASA and who support NASA STI publishing. Section 1 gives an overview of NASA STI publications. Section 2 discusses figure preparation considerations. Section 3 covers table design, and Section 4 gives information about symbols and math related to STI publishing. Section 5 covers units of measure. Section 6 discusses References, and Section 7 discusses electronic documents. Section 8 covers information related to the review of STI prior to publication; this covers both technical and dissemination review and approval, including data quality. Section 9 discusses printing and dissemination related to STI, and Section 10 gives abbreviations and acronyms used in the document.

Snow cover monitoring model and change over both time and space in pastoral area of northern China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cui, Yan; Li, Suju; Wang, Ping; Zhang, Wei; Nie, Juan; Wen, Qi

2014-11-01

Snow disaster is a natural phenomenon owning to widespread snowfall for a long time and usually affect people's life, property and economic. During the whole disaster management circle, snow disaster in pastoral area of northern china which including Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Qinghai, Tibet has been paid more attention. Thus do a good job in snow cover monitoring then found snow disaster in time can help the people in disaster area to take effective rescue measures, which always been the central and local government great important work. Remote sensing has been used widely in snow cover monitoring for its wide range, high efficiency, less conditions, more methods and large information. NOAA/AVHRR data has been used for wide range, plenty bands information and timely acquired and act as an import data of Snow Cover Monitoring Model (SCMM). SCMM including functions list below: First after NOAA/AVHRR data has been acquired, geometric calibration, radiometric calibration and other pre-processing work has been operated. Second after band operation, four threshold conditions are used to extract snow spectrum information among water, cloud and other features in NOAA/AVHRR image. Third snow cover information has been analyzed one by one and the maximum snow cover from about twenty images in a week has been selected. Then selected image has been mosaic which covered the pastoral area of China. At last both time and space analysis has been carried out through this operational model ,such as analysis on the difference between this week and the same period of last year , this week and last week in three level regional. SCMM have been run successfully for three years, and the results have been take into account as one of the three factors which led to risk warning of snow disaster and analysis results from it always play an important role in disaster reduction and relief.

Land cover mapping with emphasis to burnt area delineation using co-orbital ALI and Landsat TM imagery

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Petropoulos, George P.; Kontoes, Charalambos C.; Keramitsoglou, Iphigenia

2012-08-01

In this study, the potential of EO-1 Advanced Land Imager (ALI) radiometer for land cover and especially burnt area mapping from a single image analysis is investigated. Co-orbital imagery from the Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) was also utilised for comparison purposes. Both images were acquired shortly after the suppression of a fire occurred during the summer of 2009 North-East of Athens, the capital of Greece. The Maximum Likelihood (ML), Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) and Support Vector Machines (SVMs) classifiers were parameterised and subsequently applied to the acquired satellite datasets. Evaluation of the land use/cover mapping accuracy was based on the error matrix statistics. Also, the McNemar test was used to evaluate the statistical significance of the differences between the approaches tested. Derived burnt area estimates were validated against the operationally deployed Services and Applications For Emergency Response (SAFER) Burnt Scar Mapping service. All classifiers applied to either ALI or TM imagery proved flexible enough to map land cover and also to extract the burnt area from other land surface types. The highest total classification accuracy and burnt area detection capability was returned from the application of SVMs to ALI data. This was due to the SVMs ability to identify an optimal separating hyperplane for best classes' separation that was able to better utilise ALI's advanced technological characteristics in comparison to those of TM sensor. This study is to our knowledge the first of its kind, effectively demonstrating the benefits of the combined application of SVMs to ALI data further implying that ALI technology may prove highly valuable in mapping burnt areas and land use/cover if it is incorporated into the development of Landsat 8 mission, planned to be launched in the coming years.

Forecasting land-cover growth using remotely sensed data: a case study of the Igneada protection area in Turkey.

PubMed

Bozkaya, A Gonca; Balcik, Filiz Bektas; Goksel, Cigdem; Esbah, Hayriye

2015-03-01

Human activities in many parts of the world have greatly affected natural areas. Therefore, monitoring and forecasting of land-cover changes are important components for sustainable utilization, conservation, and development of these areas. This research has been conducted on Igneada, a legally protected area on the northwest coast of Turkey, which is famous for its unique, mangrove forests. The main focus of this study was to apply a land use and cover model that could quantitatively and graphically present the changes and its impacts on Igneada landscapes in the future. In this study, a Markov chain-based, stochastic Markov model and cellular automata Markov model were used. These models were calibrated using a time series of developed areas derived from Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) imagery between 1990 and 2010 that also projected future growth to 2030. The results showed that CA Markov yielded reliable information better than St. Markov model. The findings displayed constant but overall slight increase of settlement and forest cover, and slight decrease of agricultural lands. However, even the slightest unsustainable change can put a significant pressure on the sensitive ecosystems of Igneada. Therefore, the management of the protected area should not only focus on the landscape composition but also pay attention to landscape configuration.

Glossary of Mongolian Technical Terms. Program in Oriental Languages. Publications Series B--Aids--Number 13.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Buck, Frederick H.

This glossary of Mongolian technical terms includes approximately 4,500 entries, covering such areas as political administration, economics, science, railways, stockfarming, agriculture, medicine, foreign affairs, military matters and miscellaneous items. A number of colloquial expressions are included, since they occur quite frequently and appear…

Built-Up Area and Land Cover Extraction Using High Resolution Pleiades Satellite Imagery for Midrand, in Gauteng Province, South Africa

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fundisi, E.; Musakwa, W.

2017-09-01

Urban areas, particularly in developing countries face immense challenges such as climate change, poverty, lack of resources poor land use management systems, and week environmental management practices. Mitigating against these challenges is often hampered by lack of data on urban expansion, urban footprint and land cover. To support the recently adopted new urban agenda 2030 there is need for the provision of information to support decision making in the urban areas. Earth observation has been identified as a tool to foster sustainable urban planning and smarter cities as recognized by the new urban agenda, because it is a solution to unavailability of data. Accordingly, this study uses high resolution EO data Pleiades satellite imagery to map and document land cover for the rapidly expanding area of Midrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. An unsupervised land cover classification of the Pleiades satellite imagery was carried out using ENVI software, whereas NDVI was derived using ArcGIS software. The land cover had an accuracy of 85% that is highly adequate to document the land cover in Midrand. The results are useful because it provides a highly accurate land cover and NDVI datasets at localised spatial scale that can be used to support land use management strategies within Midrand and the City of Johannesburg South Africa.

How well do route survey areas represent landscapes at larger spatial extents? An analysis of land cover composition along Breeding Bird Survey routes

USGS Publications Warehouse

Veech, Joseph A.; Pardieck, Keith L.; Ziolkowski, David

2017-01-01

The occurrence of birds in a survey unit is partly determined by the habitat present. Moreover, some bird species preferentially avoid some land cover types and are attracted to others. As such, land cover composition within the 400 m survey areas along a Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) route clearly influences the species available to be detected. Ideally, to extend survey results to the larger landscape, land cover composition within the survey area should be similar to that at larger spatial extents defining the landscape. Such representativeness helps minimize possible roadside effects (bias), here defined as differences in bird species composition and abundance along a roadside as compared to a larger surrounding landscape. We used land cover data from the 2011 National Land Cover Database to examine representativeness of land cover composition along routes. Using ArcGIS, the percentages of each of 15 land cover types within 400 m buffers along 2,696 U.S. BBS routes were calculated and compared to percentages in 2 km, 5 km, and 10 km buffers surrounding each route. This assessment revealed that aquatic cover types and highly urbanized land tend to be slightly underrepresented in the survey areas. Two anthropogenic cover types (pasture/hay and cropland) may be slightly overrepresented in the survey areas. Over all cover types, 92% of the 2,696 routes exhibited “good” representativeness, with <5 percentage points per cover type difference in proportional cover between the 400 m and 10 km buffers. This assessment further supports previous research indicating that any land-cover-based roadside bias in the bird data of the BBS is likely minimal.

THE USE OF NTM DATA FOR THE ACCURACY ASSESSMENT OF LANDSAT DERIVED LAND USE/LAND COVER MAPS

EPA Science Inventory

National Technical Means (NTM) data were utilized to validate the accuracy of a series of LANDSAT derived Land Use / Land Cover (LU/LC) maps for the time frames mid- I 970s, early- I 990s and mid- I 990s. The area-of-interest for these maps is a 2000 square mile portion of the De...

 A global evaluation of forest interior area dynamics using tree cover data from 2000 to 2012

Treesearch

Kurt Riitters; James Wickham; Jennifer K. Costanza; Peter Vogt

2016-01-01

Context Published maps of global tree cover derived from Landsat data have indicated substantial changes in forest area from 2000 to 2012. The changes can be arranged in different patterns, with different consequences for forest fragmentation. Thus, the changes in forest area do not necessarily equate to changes in...

Projecting large-scale area changes in land use and land cover for terrestrial carbon analyses.

PubMed

Alig, Ralph J; Butler, Brett J

2004-04-01

One of the largest changes in US forest type areas over the last half-century has involved pine types in the South. The area of planted pine has increased more than 10-fold since 1950, mostly on private lands. Private landowners have responded to market incentives and government programs, including subsidized afforestation on marginal agricultural land. Timber harvest is a crucial disturbance affecting planted pine area, as other forest types are converted to planted pine after harvest. Conversely, however, many harvested pine plantations revert to other forest types, mainly due to passive regeneration behavior on nonindustrial private timberlands. We model land use and land cover changes as a basis for projecting future changes in planted pine area, to aid policy analysts concerned with mitigation activities for global climate change. Projections are prepared in two stages. Projected land use changes include deforestation due to pressures to develop rural land as the human population expands, which is a larger area than that converted from other rural lands (e.g., agriculture) to forestry. In the second stage, transitions among forest types are projected on land allocated to forestry. We consider reforestation, influences of timber harvest, and natural succession and disturbance processes. Baseline projections indicate a net increase of about 5.6 million ha in planted pine area in the South over the next 50 years, with a notable increase in sequestered carbon. Additional opportunities to expand pine plantation area warrant study of landowner behavior to aid in designing more effective incentives for inducing land use and land cover changes to help mitigate climate change and attain other goals.

EnviroAtlas -Durham, NC- One Meter Resolution Urban Area Land Cover Map (2010)

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

The EnviroAtlas Durham, NC land cover map was generated from USDA NAIP (National Agricultural Imagery Program) four band (red, green, blue and near infrared) aerial photography from July 2010 at 1 m spatial resolution. Five land cover classes were mapped: impervious surface, soil and barren, grass and herbaceous, trees and forest, and water. An accuracy assessment using a stratified random sampling of 500 samples yielded an overall accuracy of 83 percent using a minimum mapping unit of 9 pixels (3x3 pixel window). The area mapped is defined by the US Census Bureau's 2010 Urban Statistical Area for Durham, and includes the cities of Durham, Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Hillsborough, NC. This dataset was produced by the US EPA to support research and online mapping activities related to EnviroAtlas. EnviroAtlas (https://www.epa.gov/enviroatlas ) allows the user to interact with a web-based, easy-to-use, mapping application to view and analyze multiple ecosystem services for the contiguous United States. The dataset is available as downloadable data (https://edg.epa.gov/data/Public/ORD/EnviroAtlas) or as an EnviroAtlas map service. Additional descriptive information about each attribute in this dataset can be found in its associated EnviroAtlas Fact Sheet (https://www.epa.gov/enviroatlas/enviroatlas-fact-sheets ).

Land Cover Mapping using GEOBIA to Estimate Loss of Salacca zalacca Trees in Landslide Area of Clapar, Madukara District of Banjarnegara

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Permata, Anggi; Juniansah, Anwar; Nurcahyati, Eka; Dimas Afrizal, Mousafi; Adnan Shafry Untoro, Muhammad; Arifatha, Na'ima; Ramadhani Yudha Adiwijaya, Raden; Farda, Nur Mohammad

2016-11-01

Landslide is an unpredictable natural disaster which commonly happens in highslope area. Aerial photography in small format is one of acquisition method that can reach and obtain high resolution spatial data faster than other methods, and provide data such as orthomosaic and Digital Surface Model (DSM). The study area contained landslide area in Clapar, Madukara District of Banjarnegara. Aerial photographs of landslide area provided advantage in objects visibility. Object's characters such as shape, size, and texture were clearly seen, therefore GEOBIA (Geography Object Based Image Analysis) was compatible as method for classifying land cover in study area. Dissimilar with PPA (PerPixel Analyst) method that used spectral information as base object detection, GEOBIA could use spatial elements as classification basis to establish a land cover map with better accuracy. GEOBIA method used classification hierarchy to divide post disaster land cover into three main objects: vegetation, landslide/soil, and building. Those three were required to obtain more detailed information that can be used in estimating loss caused by landslide and establishing land cover map in landslide area. Estimating loss in landslide area related to damage in Salak (Salacca zalacca) plantations. This estimation towards quantity of Salak tree that were drifted away by landslide was calculated in assumption that every tree damaged by landslide had same age and production class with other tree that weren't damaged. Loss calculation was done by approximating quantity of damaged trees in landslide area with data of trees around area that were acquired from GEOBIA classification method.

Watershed Scale Analyses of Mangrove Ecosystems in the Americas and the Contributing Upland Area Land Cover Change Over Time

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Corcoran, J.; Simard, M.

2013-12-01

Ecosystems throughout the world have been under pressure by drivers of change both natural and anthropogenic. Coastal and marine ecosystems such as mangrove forests contribute to the biodiversity of land and ocean habitats at various scales, acting as direct link to biogeochemical cycles of both upland and coastal regions. All of the positive and negative drivers of change of both natural and anthropogenic, within watershed and political boundaries, play a role in the health and function of these ecosystems. As a result, they are among the most rapidly changing landscapes in the Americas. This research presents a watershed scale monitoring approach of mangrove ecosystems using datasets that contain several sources of remotely sensed data and intensive ecological field data. Spatially exclusive decision tree models were used to assess and monitor land use and land cover change in mangrove ecosystems for different regions of the Americas, representing varying geomorphologic settings across a latitudinal gradient. The integration of ecological, hydrological, and geomorphologic characteristics of the contributing areas to these critical downstream ecosystems is crucial for both mapping and monitoring these vulnerable ecosystems. This research develops the scientific and technical framework needed for advancement in regional scale natural resource management and valuation, informed policy making, and protection of coastal ecosystems. This research also provides a foundation for the development of forecast models to simulate and assess mangrove area, health, and viability changes under different land management and climate scenarios.

Fully covered stents versus partially covered stents for palliative treatment of esophageal cancer: Is there a difference?

PubMed

Alonso Lárraga, J O; Flores Carmona, D Y; Hernández Guerrero, A; Ramírez Solís, M E; de la Mora Levy, J G; Sánchez Del Monte, J C

2018-02-26

Malignant dysphagia is difficulty swallowing resulting from esophageal obstruction due to cancer. The goal of palliative treatment is to reduce the dysphagia and improve oral dietary intake. Self-expandable metallic stents are the current treatment of choice, given that they enable the immediate restoration of oral intake. The aim of the present study was to describe the results of using totally covered and partially covered esophageal stents for palliating esophageal cancer. A retrospective study was conducted on patients with inoperable esophageal cancer treated with self-expandable metallic stents. The 2 groups formed were: group A, which consisted of patients with a fully covered self-expandable stent (SX-ELLA ® ), and group B, which was made up of patients with a partially covered self-expandable stent (Ultraflex ® ). Of the 69-patient total, 50 were included in the study. Group A had 19 men and 2 women and their mean age was 63.6 years (range 41-84). Technical success was achieved in 100% (n=21) of the cases and clinical success in 90.4% (n=19). Group B had 24 men and 5 women and their mean age was 67.5 years (range 43-92). Technical success was achieved in 100% (n=29) of the cases and clinical success in 89.6% (n=26). Complications were similar in both groups (33.3 vs. 51.7%). There was no difference between the 2 types of stent for the palliative treatment of esophageal cancer with respect to technical success, clinical success, or complications. Copyright © 2018 Asociación Mexicana de Gastroenterología. Publicado por Masson Doyma México S.A. All rights reserved.

Nuclear Propulsion Technical Interchange Meeting, volume 1

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1993-01-01

The Nuclear Propulsion Technical Interchange Meeting (NP-TIM-92) was sponsored and hosted by the Nuclear Propulsion Office at the NASA Lewis Research Center. The purpose of the meeting was to review the work performed in fiscal year 1992 in the areas of nuclear thermal and nuclear electric propulsion technology development. These proceedings are a compilation of the presentations given at the meeting (many of the papers are presented in outline or viewgraph form). Volume 1 covers the introductory presentations and the system concepts and technology developments related to nuclear thermal propulsion.

Multi-Cultural Competency-Based Vocational Curricula. Fiberglass Technician. Multi-Cultural Competency-Based Vocational/Technical Curricula Series.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hepburn, Larry; Shin, Masako

This document, one of eight in a multi-cultural competency-based vocational/technical curricula series, is on fiberglass technician. This program covers 12 instructional areas: orientation, safety, introduction to fiberglass-reinforced plastics, hand lay-up, introduction to equipment operation, chopper operation, gel-coat equipment, finish and…

48 CFR 247.270-2 - Technical provisions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 3 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Technical provisions. 247...-Related Services 247.270-2 Technical provisions. (a) Because conditions vary at different ports, and sometimes within the same port, it is not practical to develop standard technical provisions covering all...

Monitoring land use/land cover transformations from 1945 to 2007 in two peri-urban mountainous areas of Athens metropolitan area, Greece.

PubMed

Mallinis, Giorgos; Koutsias, Nikos; Arianoutsou, Margarita

2014-08-15

The aims of this study were to map and analyze land use/land cover transitions and landscape changes in the Parnitha and Penteli mountains, which surround the Athens metropolitan area of Attica, Greece over a period of 62 years. In order to quantify the changes between land categories through time, we computed the transition matrices for three distinct periods (1945-1960, 1960-1996, and 1996-2007), on the basis of available aerial photographs used to create multi-temporal maps. We identified systematic and stationary transitions with multi-level intensity analysis. Forest areas in Parnitha remained the dominant class of land cover throughout the 62 years studied, while transitional woodlands and shrublands were the main classes involved in LULC transitions. Conversely, in Penteli, transitional woodlands, along with shrublands, dominated the study site. The annual rate of change was faster in the first and third time intervals, compared to the second (1960-1996) time interval, in both study areas. The category level analysis results indicated that in both sites annual crops avoided to gain while discontinuous urban fabric avoided to lose areas. At the transition level of analysis, similarities as well as distinct differences existed between the two areas. In both sites the gaining pattern of permanent crops with respect to annual crops and the gain of forest with respect to transitional woodland/shrublands were stationary across the three time intervals. Overall, we identified more systematic transitions and stationary processes in Penteli. We discussed these LULC changes and associated them with human interference (activity) and other major socio-economic developments that were simultaneously occurring in the area. The different patterns of change of the areas, despite their geographical proximity, throughout the period of analysis imply that site-specific studies are needed in order to comprehensively assess the driving forces and develop models of landscape

Land cover characterization and mapping of continental southeast Asia using multi-resolution satellite sensor data

USGS Publications Warehouse

Giri, Chandra; Defourny, Pierre; Shrestha, Surendra

2003-01-01

Land use/land cover change, particularly that of tropical deforestation and forest degradation, has been occurring at an unprecedented rate and scale in Southeast Asia. The rapid rate of economic development, demographics and poverty are believed to be the underlying forces responsible for the change. Accurate and up-to-date information to support the above statement is, however, not available. The available data, if any, are outdated and are not comparable for various technical reasons. Time series analysis of land cover change and the identification of the driving forces responsible for these changes are needed for the sustainable management of natural resources and also for projecting future land cover trajectories. We analysed the multi-temporal and multi-seasonal NOAA Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) satellite data of 1985/86 and 1992 to (1) prepare historical land cover maps and (2) to identify areas undergoing major land cover transformations (called ‘hot spots’). The identified ‘hot spot’ areas were investigated in detail using high-resolution satellite sensor data such as Landsat and SPOT supplemented by intensive field surveys. Shifting cultivation, intensification of agricultural activities and change of cropping patterns, and conversion of forest to agricultural land were found to be the principal reasons for land use/land cover change in the Oudomxay province of Lao PDR, the Mekong Delta of Vietnam and the Loei province of Thailand, respectively. Moreover, typical land use/land cover change patterns of the ‘hot spot’ areas were also examined. In addition, we developed an operational methodology for land use/land cover change analysis at the national level with the help of national remote sensing institutions.

E-Area Low-Level Waste Facility Cover Overhang Analysis

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hang, T.; Flach, G. P.

2016-05-18

PORFLOW related analyses were performed with a focus on Slit and Engineered Trenches to evaluate the minimum required cover overhang size that would prevent any adverse impact on the ELLWF overall performance. Cover overhang is defined as the lateral distance that a low-infiltration cover extends beyond the edge of the trench unit in any direction. Analyses were carried out for H-3 (short half-life), I-129 (very long half-life), and Sr-90 (moderate half-life with intermediate K d) at different overhang sizes (5ft, 10ft, 20ft, 50ft, and infinite), cover timing (0yr, 10yr, 20yr, and 30yr), and scenarios (Intact and a limited Dynamic Compactionmore » Case). H-3, I-129 and Sr-90 are representative of nuclides that typically drive the sum-of-fractions for a trench disposal unit.« less

Monthly fractional green vegetation cover associated with land cover classes of the conterminous USA

USGS Publications Warehouse

Gallo, Kevin P.; Tarpley, Dan; Mitchell, Ken; Csiszar, Ivan; Owen, Timothy W.; Reed, Bradley C.

2001-01-01

The land cover classes developed under the coordination of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme Data and Information System (IGBP-DIS) have been analyzed for a study area that includes the Conterminous United States and portions of Mexico and Canada. The 1-km resolution data have been analyzed to produce a gridded data set that includes within each 20-km grid cell: 1) the three most dominant land cover classes, 2) the fractional area associated with each of the three dominant classes, and 3) the fractional area covered by water. Additionally, the monthly fraction of green vegetation cover (fgreen) associated with each of the three dominant land cover classes per grid cell was derived from a 5-year climatology of 1-km resolution NOAA-AVHRR data. The variables derived in this study provide a potential improvement over the use of monthly fgreen linked to a single land cover class per model grid cell.

Evaluation of Data Applicability for D-Insar in Areas Covered by Abundant Vegetation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, P.; Zhao, Z.

2018-04-01

In the past few years, the frequent geological disasters have caused enormous casualties and economic losses. Therefore, D-InSAR (differential interferometry synthetic aperture radar) has been widely used in early-warning and post disaster assessment. However, large area of decorrelation often occurs in the areas covered with abundant vegetation, which seriously affects the accuracy of surface deformation monitoring. In this paper, we analysed the effect of sensor parameters and external environment parameters on special decorrelation. Then Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) datasets acquired by X-band TerraSAR-X, Phased Array type L-band Synthetic Aperture Satellite-2 (ALOS-2), and C-band Sentinel-1 in Guizhou province were collected and analysed to generate the maps of coherence, which were used to evaluating the applicability of datasets of different wavelengths for D-InSAR in forest area. Finally, we found that datasets acquired by ALOS-2 had the best monitoring effect.

Multi-Cultural Competency-Based Vocational Curricula. Food Service. Multi-Cultural Competency-Based Vocational/Technical Curricula Series.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hepburn, Larry; Shin, Masako

This document, one of eight in a multi-cultural competency-based vocational/technical curricula series, is on food service. This program is designed to run 24 weeks and cover 15 instructional areas: orientation, sanitation, management/planning, preparing food for cooking, preparing beverages, cooking eggs, cooking meat, cooking vegetables,…

Multi-Cultural Competency-Based Vocational Curricula. Clerical Clusters. Multi-Cultural Competency-Based Vocational/Technical Curricula Series.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hepburn, Larry; Shin, Masako

This document, one of eight in a multi-cultural competency-based vocational/technical curricula series, is on clerical occupations. This program is designed to run 36 weeks and cover 10 instructional areas: beginning typing, typing I, typing II, duplicating, receptionist activities, general office procedures, operation of electronic calculator,…

Technical and legal considerations and solutions in the area of battery charging for electric vehicles

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Juda, Z.

2016-09-01

The issue of protecting health of residents of urbanized areas from the effect of excessive particulate matter and toxic components of car exhaust gases imposes the need of introduction of clean electric vehicles to the market. The increasing market availability of electric vehicles, especially in the segment of short-range (neighborhood) vehicles is followed by development of new and advanced infrastructure solutions. This also applies to the increasingly popular hybrid vehicles PHEV (Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles). However, problems with the existing designs are primarily associated with limited driving range on a single battery charge, the density of charging stations in urban and suburban area, energy system efficiency due to increased electricity demand and the unification of solutions for charging stations, on-board chargers and the necessary accessories. Technical solutions are dependent on many factors, including the type and size of battery in the vehicle and access to power grid with increased load capacity. The article discusses the legal and technical actions outlined in the above directions. It shows the available and planned solutions in this area.

ACCURACY OF THE 1992 NATIONAL LAND COVER DATASET AREA ESTIMATES: AN ANALYSIS AT MULTIPLE SPATIAL EXTENTS

EPA Science Inventory

Abstract for poster presentation:

Site-specific accuracy assessments evaluate fine-scale accuracy of land-use/land-cover(LULC) datasets but provide little insight into accuracy of area estimates of LULC

classes derived from sampling units of varying size. Additiona...

Low-cost computer classification of land cover in the Portland area, Oregon, by signature extension techniques

USGS Publications Warehouse

Gaydos, Leonard

1978-01-01

The cost of classifying 5,607 square kilometers (2,165 sq. mi.) in the Portland area was less than 8 cents per square kilometer ($0.0788, or $0.2041 per square mile). Besides saving in costs, this and other signature extension techniques may be useful in completing land use and land cover mapping in other large areas where multispectral and multitemporal Landsat data are available in digital form but other source materials are generally lacking.

High spatial resolution mapping of land cover types in a priority area for conservation in the Brazilian savanna

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ribeiro, F.; Roberts, D. A.; Hess, L. L.; Davis, F. W.; Caylor, K. K.; Nackoney, J.; Antunes Daldegan, G.

2017-12-01

Savannas are heterogeneous landscapes consisting of highly mixed land cover types that lack clear distinct boundaries. The Brazilian Cerrado is a Neotropical savanna considered a biodiversity hotspot for conservation due to its biodiversity richness and rapid transformation of its landscape by crop and pasture activities. The Cerrado is one of the most threatened Brazilian biomes and only 2.2% of its original extent is strictly protected. Accurate mapping and monitoring of its ecosystems and adjacent land use are important to select areas for conservation and to improve our understanding of the dynamics in this biome. Land cover mapping of savannas is difficult due to spectral similarity between land cover types resulting from similar vegetation structure, floristically similar components, generalization of land cover classes, and heterogeneity usually expressed as small patch sizes within the natural landscape. These factors are the major contributor to misclassification and low map accuracies among remote sensing studies in savannas. Specific challenges to map the Cerrado's land cover types are related to the spectral similarity between classes of land use and natural vegetation, such as natural grassland vs. cultivated pasture, and forest ecosystem vs. crops. This study seeks to classify and evaluate the land cover patterns across an area ranked as having extremely high priority for future conservation in the Cerrado. The main objective of this study is to identify the representativeness of each vegetation type across the landscape using high to moderate spatial resolution imagery using an automated scheme. A combination of pixel-based and object-based approaches were tested using RapidEye 3A imagery (5m spatial resolution) to classify the Cerrado's major land cover types. The random forest classifier was used to map the major ecosystems present across the area, and demonstrated to have an effective result with 68% of overall accuracy. Post

Technical interventions to increase adenoma detection rate in colonoscopy.

PubMed

Rondonotti, Emanuele; Andrealli, Alida; Amato, Arnaldo; Paggi, Silvia; Conti, Clara Benedetta; Spinzi, Giancarlo; Radaelli, Franco

2016-12-01

Adenoma detection rate (ADR) is the most robust colonoscopy quality metric and clinical studies have adopted it as the ideal method to assess the impact of technical interventions. Areas covered: We reviewed papers focusing on the impact of colonoscopy technical issues on ADR, including withdrawal time and technique, second evaluation of the right colon, patient positional changes, gastrointestinal assistant participation during colonoscopy, water-aided technique, optimization of bowel preparation and antispasmodic administration. Expert commentary: Overall, technical interventions are inexpensive, available worldwide and easy to implement. Some of them, such as the adoption of split dose regimen and slow scope withdrawal to allow a careful inspection, have been demonstrated to significantly improve ADR. Emerging data support the use of water-exchange colonoscopy. According to published studies, other technical interventions seem to provide only marginal benefit to ADR. Unfortunately, the available evidence has methodological limitations, such as small sample sizes, the inclusion of expert endoscopists only and the evaluation of single technical interventions. Additionally, larger studies are needed to clarify whether these interventions might have a higher benefit on low adenoma detectors and whether the implementation of a bundle of them, instead of a single technical maneuver, might have a greater impact on ADR.

Spatial electromagnetic field intensity modelling of global system for mobile communication base stations in the Istanbul Technical University Ayazaga campus area.

PubMed

Boz, Kubra; Denli, Hayri Hakan

2018-05-07

The rapid development of the global system for mobile communication services and the consequent increased electromagnetic field (EMF) exposure to the human body have generated debate on the potential danger with respect to human health. The many research studies focused on this subject have, however, not provided any certain evidence about harmful consequences due to mobile communication systems. On the other hand, there are still views suggesting such exposure might affect the human body in different ways. To reduce such effects to a minimum, the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) has declared boundary values for the energy released by the base stations, which are the main source of the electromagnetic fields. These values are accepted by many countries in various parts of the world. The aim of this study was to create EMF intensity maps for the area covered by Istanbul Technical University (ITU) and find areas of potential risk with regard to health considering the current situation and future trends. In this study, the field intensities of electromagnetic signals issued at the frequencies of 900 and 1800 MHz were measured in V/m at 29 pre-specified survey points using a spectrum analyzer (Spectran HF-6065). Geographic information systems and spatial interpolation techniques were used to produce EMF intensity maps. Three different spatial interpolation methods, minimum mean square error, Radial Basis and Empirical Bayesian Kriging, were compared. The results were geographically analyzed and the measurements expressed as heat maps covering the study area. Using these maps, the values measured were compared with the EMF intensity standards issued by ICNIRP. The results showed that the exposure levels to the EMF intensities were all within the ICNIRP limits at the ITU study area. However, since the EMF intensity level with respect to human health is not known, it is not possible to confirm if these levels are safe or not.

Urban green land cover changes and their relation to climatic variables in an anthropogenically impacted area

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zoran, Maria A.; Dida, Adrian I.

2017-10-01

Urban green areas are experiencing rapid land cover change caused by human-induced land degradation and extreme climatic events. Vegetation index time series provide a useful way to monitor urban vegetation phenological variations. This study quantitatively describes Normalized Difference Vegetation Index NDVI) /Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) and Leaf Area Index (LAI) temporal changes for Bucharest metropolitan region land cover in Romania from the perspective of vegetation phenology and its relation with climate changes and extreme climate events. The time series from 2000 to 2016 of the NOAA AVHRR and MODIS Terra/Aqua satellite data were analyzed to extract anomalies. Time series of climatic variables were also analyzed through anomaly detection techniques and the Fourier Transform. Correlations between NDVI/EVI time series and climatic variables were computed. Temperature, rainfall and radiation were significantly correlated with almost all land-cover classes for the harmonic analysis amplitude term. However, vegetation phenology was not correlated with climatic variables for the harmonic analysis phase term suggesting a delay between climatic variations and vegetation response. Training and validation were based on a reference dataset collected from IKONOS high resolution remote sensing data. The mean detection accuracy for period 2000- 2016 was assessed to be of 87%, with a reasonable balance between change commission errors (19.3%), change omission errors (24.7%), and Kappa coefficient of 0.73. This paper demonstrates the potential of moderate - and high resolution, multispectral imagery to map and monitor the evolution of the physical urban green land cover under climate and anthropogenic pressure.

Land-Cover and Imperviousness Data for Regional Areas near Denver, Colorado; Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas; and Milwaukee-Green Bay, Wisconsin - 2001

USGS Publications Warehouse

Falcone, James A.; Pearson, Daniel K.

2006-01-01

This report describes the processing and results of land-cover and impervious surface derivation for parts of three metropolitan areas being studied as part of the U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program Effects of Urbanization on Stream Ecosystems (EUSE). The data were derived primarily from Landsat-7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) satellite imagery from the period 1999-2002, and are provided as 30-meter resolution raster datasets. Data were produced to a standard consistent with data being produced as part of the USGS National Land Cover Database 2001 (NLCD01) Program, and were derived in cooperation with, and assistance from, NLCD01 personnel. The data were intended as surrogates for NLCD01 data because of the EUSE Program's time-critical need for updated land-cover for parts of the United States that would not be available in time from the NLCD01 Program. Six datasets are described in this report: separate land-cover (15-class categorical data) and imperviousness (0-100 percent continuous data) raster datasets for parts of the general Denver, Colorado area (South Platte River Basin), Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas area (Trinity River Basin), and Milwaukee-Green Bay, Wisconsin area (Western Lake Michigan Drainages).

A comparative analysis of the Global Land Cover 2000 and MODIS land cover data sets

USGS Publications Warehouse

Giri, C.; Zhu, Z.; Reed, B.

2005-01-01

Accurate and up-to-date global land cover data sets are necessary for various global change research studies including climate change, biodiversity conservation, ecosystem assessment, and environmental modeling. In recent years, substantial advancement has been achieved in generating such data products. Yet, we are far from producing geospatially consistent high-quality data at an operational level. We compared the recently available Global Land Cover 2000 (GLC-2000) and MODerate resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS) global land cover data to evaluate the similarities and differences in methodologies and results, and to identify areas of spatial agreement and disagreement. These two global land cover data sets were prepared using different data sources, classification systems, and methodologies, but using the same spatial resolution (i.e., 1 km) satellite data. Our analysis shows a general agreement at the class aggregate level except for savannas/shrublands, and wetlands. The disagreement, however, increases when comparing detailed land cover classes. Similarly, percent agreement between the two data sets was found to be highly variable among biomes. The identified areas of spatial agreement and disagreement will be useful for both data producers and users. Data producers may use the areas of spatial agreement for training area selection and pay special attention to areas of disagreement for further improvement in future land cover characterization and mapping. Users can conveniently use the findings in the areas of agreement, whereas users might need to verify the informaiton in the areas of disagreement with the help of secondary information. Learning from past experience and building on the existing infrastructure (e.g., regional networks), further research is necessary to (1) reduce ambiguity in land cover definitions, (2) increase availability of improved spatial, spectral, radiometric, and geometric resolution satellite data, and (3) develop advanced

Evaluation of multiband, multitemporal, and transformed LANDSAT MSS data for land cover area estimation. [North Central Missouri

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stoner, E. R.; May, G. A.; Kalcic, M. T. (Principal Investigator)

1981-01-01

Sample segments of ground-verified land cover data collected in conjunction with the USDA/ESS June Enumerative Survey were merged with LANDSAT data and served as a focus for unsupervised spectral class development and accuracy assessment. Multitemporal data sets were created from single-date LANDSAT MSS acquisitions from a nominal scene covering an eleven-county area in north central Missouri. Classification accuracies for the four land cover types predominant in the test site showed significant improvement in going from unitemporal to multitemporal data sets. Transformed LANDSAT data sets did not significantly improve classification accuracies. Regression estimators yielded mixed results for different land covers. Misregistration of two LANDSAT data sets by as much and one half pixels did not significantly alter overall classification accuracies. Existing algorithms for scene-to scene overlay proved adequate for multitemporal data analysis as long as statistical class development and accuracy assessment were restricted to field interior pixels.

Multi-Cultural Competency-Based Vocational Curricula. Maintenance Mechanics. Multi-Cultural Competency-Based Vocational/Technical Curricula Series.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hepburn, Larry; Shin, Masako

This document, one of eight in a multi-cultural competency-based vocational/technical curricula series, is on maintenance mechanics. This program is designed to run 40 weeks and cover 5 instructional areas: basic electricity (14 weeks); maintenance and repair of heating (4 weeks); maintenance and repair of air conditioning (12 weeks); maintenance…

Proceedings of Technical Sessions, Volumes 1 and 2: the LACIE Symposium

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1979-01-01

The technical design of the Large Area Crop Inventory Experiment is examined and data acquired over 3 global crop years is analyzed with respect to (1) sampling and aggregation; (2) growth size estimation; (3) classification and mensuration; (4) yield estimation; and (5) accuracy assessment. Seventy-nine papers delivered at conference sessions cover system implementation and operation; data processing systems; experiment results and accuracy; supporting research and technology; and the USDA application test system.

Special Analysis: 2017-001 Disposal of Drums Containing Enriched Uranium in Pit 38 at Technical Area 54, Area G

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Birdsell, Kay Hanson; Stauffer, Philip H.; French, Sean B.

Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) generates radioactive waste as a result of various activities. Operational waste is generated from a wide variety of research and development activities including nuclear weapons development, energy production, and medical research. Environmental restoration (ER), and decontamination and decommissioning (D&D) waste is generated as contaminated sites and facilities at LANL undergo cleanup or remediation. The majority of this waste is low-level radioactive waste (LLW) and is disposed of at the Technical Area 54 (TA-54), Area G disposal facility. This special analysis, SA 2017-001, evaluates the potential impacts of disposing of this waste in Pit 38 atmore » Area G based on the assumptions that form the basis of the Area G PA/CA. Section 2 describes the methods used to conduct the analysis; the results of the evaluation are provided in Section 3; and conclusions and recommendations are provided in Section 4.« less

Testing the Enemies Hypothesis in Peach Orchards in Two Different Geographic Areas in Eastern China: The Role of Ground Cover Vegetation

PubMed Central

Wan, Nian-Feng; Ji, Xiang-Yun; Jiang, Jie-Xian

2014-01-01

Many studies have supported the enemies hypothesis, which suggests that natural enemies are more efficient at controlling arthropod pests in polyculture than in monoculture agro-ecosystems. However, we do not yet have evidence as to whether this hypothesis holds true in peach orchards over several geographic locations. In the two different geographic areas in eastern China (Xinchang a town in the Shanghai municipality, and Hudai, a town in Jiangsu Province) during a continuous three-year (2010–2012) investigation, we sampled arthropod pests and predators in Trifolium repens L. and in tree canopies of peach orchards with and without the ground cover plant T. repens. No significant differences were found in the abundances of the main groups of arthropod pests and predators in T. repens between Hudai and Xinchang. The abundance, richness, Simpson's index, Shannon-Wiener index, and Pielou evenness index of canopy predators in ground cover areas increased by 85.5, 27.5, 3.5, 16.7, and 7.9% in Xinchang, and by 87.0, 27.6, 3.5, 17.0 and 8.0% in Hudai compared to those in the controls, respectively. The average abundance of Lepidoptera, Coleoptera, Homoptera, true bugs and Acarina canopy pests in ground cover areas decreased by 9.2, 10.2, 17.2, 19.5 and 14.1% in Xinchang, and decreased by 9.5, 8.2, 16.8, 20.1 and 16.6% in Hudai compared to that in control areas, respectively. Our study also found a higher density of arthropod species resources in T. repens, as some omnivorous pests and predators residing in T. repens could move between the ground cover and the orchard canopy. In conclusion, ground cover in peach orchards supported the enemies hypothesis, as indicated by the fact that ground cover T. repens promoted the abundance and diversity of predators and reduced the number of arthropod pests in tree canopies in both geographical areas. PMID:24963719

Land use/ land cover and ecosystem functions change in the grassland restoration program areas in China from 2000 to 2010

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, H.; Fan, J.

2015-12-01

The grassland restoration areas in China, most of which was located in arid and semi-arid areas, are affected by climate change and anthropogenic activities. Using the 3S (RS, GIS, GPS) technologies, quantitative analysis method of landscape patterns and ecological simulation, this study examines the spatiotemporal characteristics of land use/ land cover and ecosystem functions change in the grassland restoration areas in China from 2000 to 2010. We apply two parameters land use transfer matrix and land use dynamic degree to explore the speed and regional differentiation of land use change. We propose vegetation coverage, net primary production (NPP), soil and water conservation capacity to assess the ecosystem functions. This study analyzes the characteristics of landscape patterns at the class and landscape levels and explores the ecological effect of land use pattern and regional ecological processes. The results show that: (1) Grassland and others were the main landscape types in the study area in the past decade. The ecosystem structure was stable. About 0.37% of the total grassland area in 2000 experienced change in land use / land cover types. The area of woodlands, wetlands, farmlands, and built-up areas expanded. The area of others has declined. (2) The dynamic degree of regional land use was less than one percent in the recent ten years. The speed of land use and land cover change was low, and regional differentiation of change between the provinces was small. (3) The matrix of the landscape did not change in the study area. Landscape fragmentation index values decreased progressively; landscape diversity rose continuously; landscape aggregation and continuity decreased slightly; the landscape maintained relative integrity. (4) Ecosystem functions has increased as a whole. The vegetation coverages with significant increase (with a 1.99% yr-1 slope of regression) in the total study area; NPP has a fluctuating and increasing tendency, ranging from 218.23 g

Minnesota Area Vocational-Technical Institutes. A Plan to Address Declining Enrollments and Resources. Submitted to the Minnesota State Legislature

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Minnesota State Board for Vocational Education, St. Paul.

In March 1982, the Minnesota Division of Vocational-Technical Education received requests from State legislators to develop an action plan to address the problems of declining enrollments and resources. In response to this request, a plan was developed whereby area vocational-technical institutes (AVTIs) in the State would (1) promote a process…

Dependability of technical items: Problems of standardization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fedotova, G. A.; Voropai, N. I.; Kovalev, G. F.

2016-12-01

This paper is concerned with problems blown up in the development of a new version of the Interstate Standard GOST 27.002 "Industrial product dependability. Terms and definitions". This Standard covers a wide range of technical items and is used in numerous regulations, specifications, standard and technical documentation. A currently available State Standard GOST 27.002-89 was introduced in 1990. Its development involved a participation of scientists and experts from different technical areas, its draft was debated in different audiences and constantly refined, so it was a high quality document. However, after 25 years of its application it's become necessary to develop a new version of the Standard that would reflect the current understanding of industrial dependability, accounting for the changes taking place in Russia in the production, management and development of various technical systems and facilities. The development of a new version of the Standard makes it possible to generalize on a terminological level the knowledge and experience in the area of reliability of technical items, accumulated over a quarter of the century in different industries and reliability research schools, to account for domestic and foreign experience of standardization. Working on the new version of the Standard, we have faced a number of issues and problems on harmonization with the International Standard IEC 60500-192, caused first of all by different approaches to the use of terms and differences in the mentalities of experts from different countries. The paper focuses on the problems related to the chapter "Maintenance, restoration and repair", which caused difficulties for the developers to harmonize term definitions both with experts and the International Standard, which is mainly related to differences between the Russian concept and practice of maintenance and repair and foreign ones.

Modelling technical snow production for skiing areas in the Austrian Alps with the physically based snow model AMUNDSEN

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hanzer, F.; Marke, T.; Steiger, R.; Strasser, U.

2012-04-01

Tourism and particularly winter tourism is a key factor for the Austrian economy. Judging from currently available climate simulations, the Austrian Alps show a particularly high vulnerability to climatic changes. To reduce the exposure of ski areas towards changes in natural snow conditions as well as to generally enhance snow conditions at skiing sites, technical snowmaking is widely utilized across Austrian ski areas. While such measures result in better snow conditions at the skiing sites and are important for the local skiing industry, its economic efficiency has also to be taken into account. The current work emerges from the project CC-Snow II, where improved future climate scenario simulations are used to determine future natural and artificial snow conditions and their effects on tourism and economy in the Austrian Alps. In a first step, a simple technical snowmaking approach is incorporated into the process based snow model AMUNDSEN, which operates at a spatial resolution of 10-50 m and a temporal resolution of 1-3 hours. Locations of skiing slopes within a ski area in Styria, Austria, were digitized and imported into the model environment. During a predefined time frame in the beginning of the ski season, the model produces a maximum possible amount of technical snow and distributes the associated snow on the slopes, whereas afterwards, until to the end of the ski season, the model tries to maintain a certain snow depth threshold value on the slopes. Due to only few required input parameters, this approach is easily transferable to other ski areas. In our poster contribution, we present first results of this snowmaking approach and give an overview of the data and methodology applied. In a further step in CC-Snow, this simple bulk approach will be extended to consider actual snow cannon locations and technical specifications, which will allow a more detailed description of technical snow production as well as cannon-based recordings of water and energy

Specifications for updating USGS land use and land cover maps

USGS Publications Warehouse

Milazzo, Valerie A.

1983-01-01

To meet the increasing demands for up-to-date land use and land cover information, a primary goal of the U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) national land use and land cover mapping program is to provide for periodic updating of maps and data in a timely and uniform manner. The technical specifications for updating existing USGS land use and land cover maps that are presented here cover both the interpretive aspects of detecting and identifying land use and land cover changes and the cartographic aspects of mapping and presenting the change data in conventional map format. They provide the map compiler with the procedures and techniques necessary to then use these change data to update existing land use and land cover maps in a manner that is both standardized and repeatable. Included are specifications for the acquisition of remotely sensed source materials, selection of compilation map bases, handling of data base corrections, editing and quality control operations, generation of map update products for USGS open file, and the reproduction and distribution of open file materials. These specifications are planned to become part of the National Mapping Division's Technical Instructions.

Information support of monitoring of technical condition of buildings in construction risk area

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Skachkova, M. E.; Lepihina, O. Y.; Ignatova, V. V.

2018-05-01

The paper presents the results of the research devoted to the development of a model of information support of monitoring buildings technical condition; these buildings are located in the construction risk area. As a result of the visual and instrumental survey, as well as the analysis of existing approaches and techniques, attributive and cartographic databases have been created. These databases allow monitoring defects and damages of buildings located in a 30-meter risk area from the object under construction. The classification of structures and defects of these buildings under survey is presented. The functional capabilities of the developed model and the field of it practical applications are determined.

Rooftop Solar Photovoltaic Technical Potential in the United States

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Gagnon, Pieter; Margolis, Robert; Melius, Jennifer

2016-01-01

How much energy could we generate if PV modules were installed on all of the suitable roof area in the nation? To answer this question, we first use GIS methods to process a lidar dataset and determine the amount of roof area that is suitable for PV deployment in 128 cities nationwide, containing 23% of U.S. buildings, and provide PV-generation results for a subset of those cities. We then extend the insights from that analysis to the entire continental United States. We develop two statistical models -- one for small buildings and one for medium and large buildings -- andmore » populate them with geographic variables that correlate with rooftop's suitability for PV. We simulate the productivity of PV installed on the suitable roof area, and present the technical potential of PV on both small buildings and medium/large buildings for every state in the continental US. Within the 128 cities covered by lidar data, 83% of small buildings have a location suitable for a PV installation, but only 26% of the total rooftop area of small buildings is suitable for development. The sheer number of buildings in this class, however, gives small buildings the greatest technical potential. Small building rooftops could accommodate 731 GW of PV capacity and generate 926 TWh/year of PV energy, approximately 65% of rooftop PV's total technical potential. We conclude by summing the PV-generation results for all building sizes and therefore answering our original question, estimating that the total national technical potential of rooftop PV is 1,118 GW of installed capacity and 1,432 TWh of annual energy generation. This equates to 39% of total national electric-sector sales.« less

Multi-Cultural Competency-Based Vocational Curricula. Machine Trades. Multi-Cultural Competency-Based Vocational/Technical Curricula Series.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hepburn, Larry; Shin, Masako

This document, one of eight in a multi-cultural competency-based vocational/technical curricula series, is on machine trades. This program is designed to run 36 weeks and cover 6 instructional areas: use of measuring tools; benchwork/tool bit grinding; lathe work; milling work; precision grinding; and combination machine work. A duty-task index…

Additional Final Area Designations and Technical Amendment for the 2012 Annual Fine Particle Standard Established in 2012 - Mar 2015

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

EPA is establishing or revising initial area designations and a technical amendment to correct an inadvertent error in the initial designation for one area for the 2012 annual national ambient air quality standards for fine particle pollution.

Advanced Transportation System Studies Technical Area 2 (TA-2) Heavy Lift Launch Vehicle Development Contract. Volume 2; Technical Results

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1995-01-01

The purpose of the Advanced Transportation System Studies (ATSS) Technical Area 2 (TA-2) Heavy Lift Launch Vehicle Development contract was to provide advanced launch vehicle concept definition and analysis to assist NASA in the identification of future launch vehicle requirements. Contracted analysis activities included vehicle sizing and performance analysis, subsystem concept definition, propulsion subsystem definition (foreign and domestic), ground operations and facilities analysis, and life cycle cost estimation. This document is Volume 2 of the final report for the contract. It provides documentation of selected technical results from various TA-2 analysis activities, including a detailed narrative description of the SSTO concept assessment results, a user's guide for the associated SSTO sizing tools, an SSTO turnaround assessment report, an executive summary of the ground operations assessments performed during the first year of the contract, a configuration-independent vehicle health management system requirements report, a copy of all major TA-2 contract presentations, a copy of the FLO launch vehicle final report, and references to Pratt & Whitney's TA-2 sponsored final reports regarding the identification of Russian main propulsion technologies.

A Framework for Evidence-Based Licensure of Adaptive Autonomous Systems: Technical Areas

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-03-01

subjective judgments by human experts . They are design dependent, but address questions of whether the system is performing as needed, as opposed...I N S T I T U T E F O R D E F E N S E A N A L Y S E S A Framework for Evidence-Based Licensure of Adaptive Autonomous Systems : Technical Areas...and Licensure of Autonomous Systems ,” for the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). The views, opinions, and findings should not be construed as

SCMLA: Technical Writing. Proceedings (Houston, Texas, October 1987).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Oklahoma State Univ., Stillwater.

In order to make information about technical writing more available, the South Central Modern Language Association (SCMLA) has collected the papers not subject to copyright restrictions that were presented at the technical writing section of its 1987 meeting. The essays cover a wide range of topics in technical writing pedagogy and research. The…

10 CFR 1304.115 - Systems of records covered by exemptions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... 10 Energy 4 2011-01-01 2011-01-01 false Systems of records covered by exemptions. 1304.115 Section 1304.115 Energy NUCLEAR WASTE TECHNICAL REVIEW BOARD PRIVACY ACT OF 1974 § 1304.115 Systems of records covered by exemptions. The Board currently has no exempt systems of records. ...

10 CFR 1304.115 - Systems of records covered by exemptions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

... 10 Energy 4 2013-01-01 2013-01-01 false Systems of records covered by exemptions. 1304.115 Section 1304.115 Energy NUCLEAR WASTE TECHNICAL REVIEW BOARD PRIVACY ACT OF 1974 § 1304.115 Systems of records covered by exemptions. The Board currently has no exempt systems of records. ...

10 CFR 1304.115 - Systems of records covered by exemptions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

... 10 Energy 4 2012-01-01 2012-01-01 false Systems of records covered by exemptions. 1304.115 Section 1304.115 Energy NUCLEAR WASTE TECHNICAL REVIEW BOARD PRIVACY ACT OF 1974 § 1304.115 Systems of records covered by exemptions. The Board currently has no exempt systems of records. ...

10 CFR 1304.115 - Systems of records covered by exemptions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... 10 Energy 4 2014-01-01 2014-01-01 false Systems of records covered by exemptions. 1304.115 Section 1304.115 Energy NUCLEAR WASTE TECHNICAL REVIEW BOARD PRIVACY ACT OF 1974 § 1304.115 Systems of records covered by exemptions. The Board currently has no exempt systems of records. ...

10 CFR 1304.115 - Systems of records covered by exemptions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... 10 Energy 4 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Systems of records covered by exemptions. 1304.115 Section 1304.115 Energy NUCLEAR WASTE TECHNICAL REVIEW BOARD PRIVACY ACT OF 1974 § 1304.115 Systems of records covered by exemptions. The Board currently has no exempt systems of records. ...

Land cover mapping of the National Park Service northwest Alaska management area using Landsat multispectral and thematic mapper satellite data

USGS Publications Warehouse

Markon, C.J.; Wesser, Sara

1998-01-01

A land cover map of the National Park Service northwest Alaska management area was produced using digitally processed Landsat data. These and other environmental data were incorporated into a geographic information system to provide baseline information about the nature and extent of resources present in this northwest Alaskan environment.This report details the methodology, depicts vegetation profiles of the surrounding landscape, and describes the different vegetation types mapped. Portions of nine Landsat satellite (multispectral scanner and thematic mapper) scenes were used to produce a land cover map of the Cape Krusenstern National Monument and Noatak National Preserve and to update an existing land cover map of Kobuk Valley National Park Valley National Park. A Bayesian multivariate classifier was applied to the multispectral data sets, followed by the application of ancillary data (elevation, slope, aspect, soils, watersheds, and geology) to enhance the spectral separation of classes into more meaningful vegetation types. The resulting land cover map contains six major land cover categories (forest, shrub, herbaceous, sparse/barren, water, other) and 19 subclasses encompassing 7 million hectares. General narratives of the distribution of the subclasses throughout the project area are given along with vegetation profiles showing common relationships between topographic gradients and vegetation communities.

Updating the 2001 National Land Cover Database land cover classification to 2006 by using Landsat imagery change detection methods

USGS Publications Warehouse

Xian, George; Homer, Collin G.; Fry, Joyce

2009-01-01

The recent release of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Land Cover Database (NLCD) 2001, which represents the nation's land cover status based on a nominal date of 2001, is widely used as a baseline for national land cover conditions. To enable the updating of this land cover information in a consistent and continuous manner, a prototype method was developed to update land cover by an individual Landsat path and row. This method updates NLCD 2001 to a nominal date of 2006 by using both Landsat imagery and data from NLCD 2001 as the baseline. Pairs of Landsat scenes in the same season in 2001 and 2006 were acquired according to satellite paths and rows and normalized to allow calculation of change vectors between the two dates. Conservative thresholds based on Anderson Level I land cover classes were used to segregate the change vectors and determine areas of change and no-change. Once change areas had been identified, land cover classifications at the full NLCD resolution for 2006 areas of change were completed by sampling from NLCD 2001 in unchanged areas. Methods were developed and tested across five Landsat path/row study sites that contain several metropolitan areas including Seattle, Washington; San Diego, California; Sioux Falls, South Dakota; Jackson, Mississippi; and Manchester, New Hampshire. Results from the five study areas show that the vast majority of land cover change was captured and updated with overall land cover classification accuracies of 78.32%, 87.5%, 88.57%, 78.36%, and 83.33% for these areas. The method optimizes mapping efficiency and has the potential to provide users a flexible method to generate updated land cover at national and regional scales by using NLCD 2001 as the baseline.

Vegetation study in support of the design and optimization of vegetative soil covers, Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Peace, Gerald; Goering, Timothy James; Knight, Paul J.

A vegetation study was conducted in Technical Area 3 at Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico in 2003 to assist in the design and optimization of vegetative soil covers for hazardous, radioactive, and mixed waste landfills at Sandia National Laboratories/New Mexico and Kirtland Air Force Base. The objective of the study was to obtain site-specific, vegetative input parameters for the one-dimensional code UNSAT-H and to identify suitable, diverse native plant species for use on vegetative soil covers that will persist indefinitely as a climax ecological community with little or no maintenance. The identification and selection of appropriate native plant speciesmore » is critical to the proper design and long-term performance of vegetative soil covers. Major emphasis was placed on the acquisition of representative, site-specific vegetation data. Vegetative input parameters measured in the field during this study include root depth, root length density, and percent bare area. Site-specific leaf area index was not obtained in the area because there was no suitable platform to measure leaf area during the 2003 growing season due to severe drought that has persisted in New Mexico since 1999. Regional LAI data was obtained from two unique desert biomes in New Mexico, Sevilletta Wildlife Refuge and Jornada Research Station.« less

Gateway National Recreational Area - Sandy Hook Unit : automated fee entrance plaza and intelligent transportation system technical requirements

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2009-01-01

The Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (Volpe Center) is providing technical : support to Sandy Hook, a unit of the Gateway National Recreation Area, in the planning and : concept development for possible Intelligent Transportation Systems ...

Milwaukee Area Technical College's Fiscal Condition: Growing Demand, Shrinking Resources. An Independent Third-Party Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Day, Douglass; Allen, Vanessa; Henken, Rob

2010-01-01

The Milwaukee Area Technical College (MATC) is one of the largest local taxpayer-funded entities in southeastern Wisconsin, ranking fourth in assets and budget behind Milwaukee County, the Milwaukee Public Schools, and the City of Milwaukee. The college's fiscal operations are complex and draw on multiple revenue sources, including nearly $150…

Assessment of the vegetation cover in a burned area 22-years ago using remote sensing techniques and GIS analysis (Sierra de las Nieves, South of Spain).

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

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

2015-04-01

The study aim was to characterize the vegetation cover in a burned area 22-years ago considering the previous situation to wildfire in 1991 and the current one in 2013. The objectives were to: (i) compare the current and previous vegetation cover to widlfire; (ii) evaluate whether the current vegetation has recovered the previous cover to wildfire; and (iii) determine the spatial variability of vegetation recovery after 22-years since the wildfire. The study area is located in 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 8156 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 1500 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. Likewise, the Andalucía Regional Government wildfire historic records were used to select the burned area and its geographical limit. 1991 and 2013 land cover map were obtained by means of object-oriented classifications. Also, NDVI and PVI1 vegetation indexes were calculated and mapped for both years. Finally, some images transformations and kernel density images were applied to determine the most recovered areas and to map the spatial concentration of bare soil and pine cover areas in 1991 and 2013, respectively. According to the results, the combination of remote sensing and GIS analysis let

Waukesha County Technical College 1998 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tessmann, Cary A.

Waukesha County Technical College (WCTC) is one of 16 institutions in the Wisconsin Technical College System. The college offers associate of applied science degree programs, technical diplomas and certificates, apprenticeship programs and other adult education services. This financial report covers fiscal year 1998 and is divided into four…

Sortie laboratory, phase B technical summary. [design and operational requirements

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1973-01-01

The design and operational requirements which evolved from Sortie Lab (SL) analysis are summarized. A source of requirements for systems is given along with experimental support for the SL, baseline. Basic design data covered include: configuration definition, mission analysis, experimental integration, safety, and logistics. A technical summary outlines characteristics which reflect the influence of the growth in SL capability and the results of the mission and operational analysis. Each of the selected areas is described in terms of objectives, equipment, operational concept, and support requirements.

40 CFR 80.70 - Covered areas.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

...) Philadelphia. (f) The Chicago-Gary-Lake County, Illinois-Indiana-Wisconsin area, comprised of: (1) The...; and (8) Chambers. (i) The Milwaukee-Racine, Wisconsin area, comprised of the following Wisconsin...

Digital cover photography for estimating leaf area index (LAI) in apple trees using a variable light extinction coefficient.

PubMed

Poblete-Echeverría, Carlos; Fuentes, Sigfredo; Ortega-Farias, Samuel; Gonzalez-Talice, Jaime; Yuri, Jose Antonio

2015-01-28

Leaf area index (LAI) is one of the key biophysical variables required for crop modeling. Direct LAI measurements are time consuming and difficult to obtain for experimental and commercial fruit orchards. Devices used to estimate LAI have shown considerable errors when compared to ground-truth or destructive measurements, requiring tedious site-specific calibrations. The objective of this study was to test the performance of a modified digital cover photography method to estimate LAI in apple trees using conventional digital photography and instantaneous measurements of incident radiation (Io) and transmitted radiation (I) through the canopy. Leaf area of 40 single apple trees were measured destructively to obtain real leaf area index (LAI(D)), which was compared with LAI estimated by the proposed digital photography method (LAI(M)). Results showed that the LAI(M) was able to estimate LAI(D) with an error of 25% using a constant light extinction coefficient (k = 0.68). However, when k was estimated using an exponential function based on the fraction of foliage cover (f(f)) derived from images, the error was reduced to 18%. Furthermore, when measurements of light intercepted by the canopy (Ic) were used as a proxy value for k, the method presented an error of only 9%. These results have shown that by using a proxy k value, estimated by Ic, helped to increase accuracy of LAI estimates using digital cover images for apple trees with different canopy sizes and under field conditions.

Digital Cover Photography for Estimating Leaf Area Index (LAI) in Apple Trees Using a Variable Light Extinction Coefficient

PubMed Central

Poblete-Echeverría, Carlos; Fuentes, Sigfredo; Ortega-Farias, Samuel; Gonzalez-Talice, Jaime; Yuri, Jose Antonio

2015-01-01

Leaf area index (LAI) is one of the key biophysical variables required for crop modeling. Direct LAI measurements are time consuming and difficult to obtain for experimental and commercial fruit orchards. Devices used to estimate LAI have shown considerable errors when compared to ground-truth or destructive measurements, requiring tedious site-specific calibrations. The objective of this study was to test the performance of a modified digital cover photography method to estimate LAI in apple trees using conventional digital photography and instantaneous measurements of incident radiation (Io) and transmitted radiation (I) through the canopy. Leaf area of 40 single apple trees were measured destructively to obtain real leaf area index (LAID), which was compared with LAI estimated by the proposed digital photography method (LAIM). Results showed that the LAIM was able to estimate LAID with an error of 25% using a constant light extinction coefficient (k = 0.68). However, when k was estimated using an exponential function based on the fraction of foliage cover (ff) derived from images, the error was reduced to 18%. Furthermore, when measurements of light intercepted by the canopy (Ic) were used as a proxy value for k, the method presented an error of only 9%. These results have shown that by using a proxy k value, estimated by Ic, helped to increase accuracy of LAI estimates using digital cover images for apple trees with different canopy sizes and under field conditions. PMID:25635411

Technical area status report for waste destruction and stabilization

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Dalton, J.D.; Harris, T.L.; DeWitt, L.M.

1993-08-01

The Office of Environmental Restoration and Waste Management (EM) was established by the Department of Energy (DOE) to direct and coordinate waste management and site remediation programs/activities throughout the DOE complex. In order to successfully achieve the goal of properly managing waste and the cleanup of the DOE sites, the EM was divided into five organizations: the Office of Planning and Resource Management (EM-10); the Office of Environmental Quality Assurance and Resource Management (EM-20); the Office of Waste Operations (EM-30); the Office of Environmental Restoration (EM-40); and the Office of Technology and Development (EM-50). The mission of the Office ofmore » Technology Development (OTD) is to develop treatment technologies for DOE`s operational and environmental restoration wastes where current treatment technologies are inadequate or not available. The Mixed Waste Integrated Program (MWIP) was created by OTD to assist in the development of treatment technologies for the DOE mixed low-level wastes (MLLW). The MWIP has established five Technical Support Groups (TSGs) whose purpose is to identify, evaluate, and develop treatment technologies within five general technical areas representing waste treatment functions from initial waste handling through generation of final waste forms. These TSGs are: (1) Front-End Waste Handling, (2) Physical/Chemical Treatment, (3) Waste Destruction and Stabilization, (4) Second-Stage Destruction and Offgas Treatment, and (5) Final Waste Forms. This report describes the functions of the Waste Destruction and Stabilization (WDS) group. Specifically, the following items are discussed: DOE waste stream identification; summary of previous efforts; summary of WDS treatment technologies; currently funded WDS activities; and recommendations for future activities.« less

Vegetative soil covers for hazardous waste landfills

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Peace, Jerry L.

Shallow land burial has been the preferred method for disposing of municipal and hazardous wastes in the United States because it is the simplest, cheapest, and most cost-effective method of disposal. Arid and semiarid regions of the western United States have received considerable attention over the past two decades in reference to hazardous, radioactive, and mixed waste disposal. Disposal is based upon the premise that low mean annual precipitation, high evapotranspiration, and low or negligible recharge, favor waste isolation from the environment for long periods of time. The objective of this study is to demonstrate that containment of municipal and hazardous wastes in arid and semiarid environments can be accomplished effectively without traditional, synthetic materials and complex, multi-layer systems. This research demonstrates that closure covers utilizing natural soils and native vegetation i.e., vegetative soil covers, will meet the technical equivalency criteria prescribed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for hazardous waste landfills. Vegetative soil cover design combines layers of natural soil, native plant species, and climatic conditions to form a sustainable, functioning ecosystem that maintains the natural water balance. In this study, percolation through a natural analogue and an engineered cover is simulated using the one-dimensional, numerical code UNSAT-H. UNSAT-H is a Richards' equation-based model that simulates soil water infiltration, unsaturated flow, redistribution, evaporation, plant transpiration, and deep percolation. This study incorporates conservative, site-specific soil hydraulic and vegetation parameters. Historical meteorological data from 1919 to 1996 are used to simulate percolation through the natural analogue and an engineered cover, with and without vegetation. This study indicates that a 1 m (3 ft) cover is the minimum design thickness necessary to meet the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

In der fachsprachlichen Didaktik ist der "fachneutrale" Vorkurs ein Umweg (In Teaching Technical Language, a "Neutral Area" Course is an Evasion)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Becker, Norbert

1974-01-01

In learning to read technical language, texts in specialized technical fields are preferable to "neutral area" or popular science texts. Assorted textbooks are suggested, along with suitable types of exercises and their use. Model preparatory exercises and model drills are included. (Text is in German.) (IFS/WGA)

Multitemporal analysis of Landsat images to detect land use land cover changes for monitoring soil sealing in the Nola area (Naples, Italy)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

De Giglio, Michaela; Allocca, Maria; Franci, Francesca

2016-10-01

Land Use Land Cover Changes (LULCC) data provide objective information to support environmental policy, urban planning purposes and sustainable land development. Understanding of past land use/cover practices and current landscape patterns is critical to assess the effects of LULCC on the Earth system. Within the framework of soil sealing in Italy, the present study aims to assess the LULCC of the Nola area (Naples metropolitan area, Italy), relating to a thirty year period from 1984 to 2015. The urban sprawl affects this area causing the impervious surface increase, the loss in rural areas and landscape fragmentation. Located near Vesuvio volcano and crossed by artificial filled rivers, the study area is subject to landslide, hydraulic and volcanic risks. Landsat time series has been processed by means of the supervised per-pixel classification in order to produce multitemporal Land Use Land Cover maps. Then, post-classification comparison approach has been applied to quantify the changes occurring between 1984 and 2015, also analyzing the intermediate variations in 1999, namely every fifteen years. The results confirm the urban sprawl. The increase of the built-up areas mainly causes the habitat fragmentation and the agricultural land conversion of the Nola area that is already damaged by unauthorized disposal of urban waste. Moreover, considering the local risk maps, it was verified that some of the new urban areas were built over known hazardous sites. In order to limit the soil sealing, urgent measures and sustainable urban planning are required.

Effect of partial covering of the visitor viewing area window on positioning and orientation of zoo orangutans: A preference test.

PubMed

Bloomfield, Rachel C; Gillespie, Graeme R; Kerswell, Keven J; Butler, Kym L; Hemsworth, Paul H

2015-01-01

The window of the visitor viewing area adjacent to an animal platform in an orangutan enclosure was altered to produce three viewing treatments in a randomized controlled experiment. These treatments were window uncovered, left side of the window covered or right side of the window covered. Observations were conducted on the orangutans present on the platform, and on their location (left or right side), and orientation (towards or away from the window) while on the platform. The partial covering of the window had little effect on the proportion of time orangutans spent on the viewing platform, or on the direction they faced when on the platform. When the orangutans were facing towards the window, and the right side was uncovered, irrespective of whether the left side was covered, they spent about three quarters of the time on the right side, suggesting a preference for the right side of the platform. However, when the right side was covered and the left side uncovered, the animals facing towards the window spent only about a quarter of the time on the right side, that is, they spent more time on the uncovered side. The results suggest that the orangutans have a preference to position themselves to face the window of the visitor viewing area. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Relationships between Characteristics of Urban Green Land Cover and Mental Health in U.S. Metropolitan Areas.

PubMed

Tsai, Wei-Lun; McHale, Melissa R; Jennings, Viniece; Marquet, Oriol; Hipp, J Aaron; Leung, Yu-Fai; Floyd, Myron F

2018-02-14

Urbanization increases risk for depression and other mental disorders. A growing body of research indicates the natural environment confers numerous psychological benefits including alleviation of mental distress. This study examined land cover types and landscape metrics in relation to mental health for 276 U.S. counties within metropolitan areas having a population of 1 million or more. County Health Rankings and Behavioral Risk and Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) provided a measure of mental health. The 2011 National Land Cover Database (NLCD) provided data on green land cover types, from which seven landscape metrics were generated to characterize landscape patterns. Spearman's rho correlation and stepwise logistic regression models, respectively, were employed to examine bivariate and multivariate relationships. Models were adjusted for county population and housing density, region, race, and income to account for potential confounding. Overall, individual measures of landscape patterns showed stronger associations with mental health than percent total cover alone. Greater edge contrast was associated with 3.81% lower odds of Frequent Mental Distress (FMD) (Adjusted Odd's Ratio (AOR) = 0.9619, 95% CI = 0.9371, 0.9860). Shrubland cohesion was associated with greater odds of FMD (AOR = 1.0751, 95% CI = 1.0196, 1.1379). In addition, distance between shrubland cover was associated with greater odds of FMD (AOR = 1.0027, 95% CI = 1.0016, 1.0041). Although effect sizes were small, findings suggest different types of landscape characteristics may have different roles in improving mental health.

Land-cover mapping of Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area and Coyote Springs, Piute-Eldorado Valley, and Mormon Mesa Areas of Critical Environmental Concern, Clark County, Nevada

USGS Publications Warehouse

Smith, J. LaRue; Damar, Nancy A.; Charlet, David A.; Westenburg, Craig L.

2014-01-01

DigitalGlobe’s QuickBird satellite high-resolution multispectral imagery was classified by using Visual Learning Systems’ Feature Analyst feature extraction software to produce land-cover data sets for the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area and the Coyote Springs, Piute-Eldorado Valley, and Mormon Mesa Areas of Critical Environmental Concern in Clark County, Nevada. Over 1,000 vegetation field samples were collected at the stand level. The field samples were classified to the National Vegetation Classification Standard, Version 2 hierarchy at the alliance level and above. Feature extraction models were developed for vegetation on the basis of the spectral and spatial characteristics of selected field samples by using the Feature Analyst hierarchical learning process. Individual model results were merged to create one data set for the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area and one for each of the Areas of Critical Environmental Concern. Field sample points and photographs were used to validate and update the data set after model results were merged. Non-vegetation data layers, such as roads and disturbed areas, were delineated from the imagery and added to the final data sets. The resulting land-cover data sets are significantly more detailed than previously were available, both in resolution and in vegetation classes.

The evaluation of alternate methodologies for land cover classification in an urbanizing area

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Smekofski, R. M.

1981-01-01

The usefulness of LANDSAT in classifying land cover and in identifying and classifying land use change was investigated using an urbanizing area as the study area. The question of what was the best technique for classification was the primary focus of the study. The many computer-assisted techniques available to analyze LANDSAT data were evaluated. Techniques of statistical training (polygons from CRT, unsupervised clustering, polygons from digitizer and binary masks) were tested with minimum distance to the mean, maximum likelihood and canonical analysis with minimum distance to the mean classifiers. The twelve output images were compared to photointerpreted samples, ground verified samples and a current land use data base. Results indicate that for a reconnaissance inventory, the unsupervised training with canonical analysis-minimum distance classifier is the most efficient. If more detailed ground truth and ground verification is available, the polygons from the digitizer training with the canonical analysis minimum distance is more accurate.

Assimilation of snow covered area information into hydrologic and land-surface models

USGS Publications Warehouse

Clark, M.P.; Slater, A.G.; Barrett, A.P.; Hay, L.E.; McCabe, G.J.; Rajagopalan, B.; Leavesley, G.H.

2006-01-01

This paper describes a data assimilation method that uses observations of snow covered area (SCA) to update hydrologic model states in a mountainous catchment in Colorado. The assimilation method uses SCA information as part of an ensemble Kalman filter to alter the sub-basin distribution of snow as well as the basin water balance. This method permits an optimal combination of model simulations and observations, as well as propagation of information across model states. Sensitivity experiments are conducted with a fairly simple snowpack/water-balance model to evaluate effects of the data assimilation scheme on simulations of streamflow. The assimilation of SCA information results in minor improvements in the accuracy of streamflow simulations near the end of the snowmelt season. The small effect from SCA assimilation is initially surprising. It can be explained both because a substantial portion of snowmelts before any bare ground is exposed, and because the transition from 100% to 0% snow coverage occurs fairly quickly. Both of these factors are basin-dependent. Satellite SCA information is expected to be most useful in basins where snow cover is ephemeral. The data assimilation strategy presented in this study improved the accuracy of the streamflow simulation, indicating that SCA is a useful source of independent information that can be used as part of an integrated data assimilation strategy. ?? 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

75 FR 33989 - Export Administration Regulations: Technical Corrections

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-06-16

... 0694-AE69 Export Administration Regulations: Technical Corrections AGENCY: Bureau of Industry and... section of Export Control Classification Number 2B001 and the other is in the Technical Note on Adjusted... language regarding certain performance criteria of turning machines covered by Export Control...

Carrier Battle Group (CVBG) Homeporting in the Puget Sound Area, Washington State. Technical Appendices.

DTIC Science & Technology

1986-11-01

whales , sei whales , sperm whales and leatherback sea turtles within t e inland waters of Puget Sound clearly indicates that the...AL)-A175 114 CARRIER BATTLE GROUP CCVBG) HOKEPORTING In THE PUGET In SOUND AREA WASHINGTON STATE TECHNICAL APPENDICESeu) CORPS OF ENGINEERS SEATTLE...34 , ,’ ’, ’ , % ". ". ", ." , , -,, ". ", . ,,, ’. .. ". -"’. -".’-".’,. Final Supplemental to U.S. Navy/ Environmental Impact Statement Carrier Battle Group

CAT-ASVAB Technical Bulletin Number 1

DTIC Science & Technology

2006-03-01

CAT -ASVAB Technical Bulletin #1 Personnel Testing Division Defense Manpower Data Center March 2006 Report...2. REPORT TYPE N/A 3. DATES COVERED - 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE CAT -ASVAB Technical Bulletin #1 5a. CONTRACT NUMBER 5b. GRANT NUMBER 5c...Hetter, R. D. "Psychometric Procedures for Administering CAT -ASVAB" (pp. 131-140) Chapter 4 Hetter, R. D., & Sympson J. B. "Item Exposure

Mapping Mountain Front Recharge Areas in Arid Watersheds Based on a Digital Elevation Model and Land Cover Types

DOE PAGES

Bowen, Esther E.; Hamada, Yuki; O’Connor, Ben L.

2014-06-01

Here, a recent assessment that quantified potential impacts of solar energy development on water resources in the southwestern United States necessitated the development of a methodology to identify locations of mountain front recharge (MFR) in order to guide land development decisions. A spatially explicit, slope-based algorithm was created to delineate MFR zones in 17 arid, mountainous watersheds using elevation and land cover data. Slopes were calculated from elevation data and grouped into 100 classes using iterative self-organizing classification. Candidate MFR zones were identified based on slope classes that were consistent with MFR. Land cover types that were inconsistent with groundwatermore » recharge were excluded from the candidate areas to determine the final MFR zones. No MFR reference maps exist for comparison with the study’s results, so the reliability of the resulting MFR zone maps was evaluated qualitatively using slope, surficial geology, soil, and land cover datasets. MFR zones ranged from 74 km2 to 1,547 km2 and accounted for 40% of the total watershed area studied. Slopes and surficial geologic materials that were present in the MFR zones were consistent with conditions at the mountain front, while soils and land cover that were present would generally promote groundwater recharge. Visual inspection of the MFR zone maps also confirmed the presence of well-recognized alluvial fan features in several study watersheds. While qualitative evaluation suggested that the algorithm reliably delineated MFR zones in most watersheds overall, the algorithm was better suited for application in watersheds that had characteristic Basin and Range topography and relatively flat basin floors than areas without these characteristics. Because the algorithm performed well to reliably delineate the spatial distribution of MFR, it would allow researchers to quantify aspects of the hydrologic processes associated with MFR and help local land resource managers to

Mapping Mountain Front Recharge Areas in Arid Watersheds Based on a Digital Elevation Model and Land Cover Types

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Bowen, Esther E.; Hamada, Yuki; O’Connor, Ben L.

Here, a recent assessment that quantified potential impacts of solar energy development on water resources in the southwestern United States necessitated the development of a methodology to identify locations of mountain front recharge (MFR) in order to guide land development decisions. A spatially explicit, slope-based algorithm was created to delineate MFR zones in 17 arid, mountainous watersheds using elevation and land cover data. Slopes were calculated from elevation data and grouped into 100 classes using iterative self-organizing classification. Candidate MFR zones were identified based on slope classes that were consistent with MFR. Land cover types that were inconsistent with groundwatermore » recharge were excluded from the candidate areas to determine the final MFR zones. No MFR reference maps exist for comparison with the study’s results, so the reliability of the resulting MFR zone maps was evaluated qualitatively using slope, surficial geology, soil, and land cover datasets. MFR zones ranged from 74 km2 to 1,547 km2 and accounted for 40% of the total watershed area studied. Slopes and surficial geologic materials that were present in the MFR zones were consistent with conditions at the mountain front, while soils and land cover that were present would generally promote groundwater recharge. Visual inspection of the MFR zone maps also confirmed the presence of well-recognized alluvial fan features in several study watersheds. While qualitative evaluation suggested that the algorithm reliably delineated MFR zones in most watersheds overall, the algorithm was better suited for application in watersheds that had characteristic Basin and Range topography and relatively flat basin floors than areas without these characteristics. Because the algorithm performed well to reliably delineate the spatial distribution of MFR, it would allow researchers to quantify aspects of the hydrologic processes associated with MFR and help local land resource managers to

Assessing multi-decadal land-cover – land-use change in two wildlife protected areas in Tanzania using Landsat imagery

PubMed Central

Mtui, Devolent T.; Lepczyk, Christopher A.; Chen, Qi; Miura, Tomoaki; Cox, Linda J.

2017-01-01

Landscape change in and around protected areas is of concern worldwide given the potential impacts of such change on biodiversity. Given such impacts, we sought to understand the extent of changes in different land-cover types at two protected areas, Tarangire and Katavi National Parks in Tanzania, over the past 27 years. Using Maximum Likelihood classification procedures we derived eight land-cover classes from Landsat TM and ETM+ images, including: woody savannah, savannah, grassland, open and closed shrubland, swamp and water, and bare land. We determined the extent and direction of changes for all land-cover classes using a post-classification comparison technique. The results show declines in woody savannah and increases in barren land and swamps inside and outside Tarangire National Park and increases in woody savannah and savannah, and declines of shrubland and grassland inside and outside Katavi National Park. The decrease of woody savannah was partially due to its conversion into grassland and barren land, possibly caused by human encroachment by cultivation and livestock. Based upon these changes, we recommend management actions to prevent detrimental effects on wildlife populations. PMID:28957397

The French Space Operation Act: Technical Regulations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Trinchero, J. P.; Lazare, B.

2010-09-01

The French Space Operation Act(FSOA) stipulates that a prime objective of the National technical regulations is to protect people, property, public health and the environment. Compliance with these technical regulations is mandatory as of 10 December 2010 for space operations by French space operators and for space operations from French territory. The space safety requirements and regulations governing procedures are based on national and international best practices and experience. A critical design review of the space system and procedures shall be carried out by the applicant, in order to verify compliance with the Technical Regulations. An independent technical assessment of the operation is delegated to CNES. The principles applied when drafting technical regulations are as follows: requirements must as far as possible establish the rules according to the objective to be obtained, rather than how it is to be achieved; requirements must give preference to international standards recognised as being the state of the art; requirements must take previous experience into account. Technical regulations are divided into three sections covering common requirements for the launch, control and return of a space object. A dedicated section will cover specific rules to be applied at the Guiana Space Centre. The main topics addressed by the technical regulations are: operator safety management system; study of risks to people, property, public health and the Earth’s environment; impact study on the outer space environment: space debris generated by the operation; planetary protection.

Forward-looking Assimilation of MODIS-derived Snow Covered Area into a Land Surface Model

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Zaitchik, Benjamin F.; Rodell, Matthew

2008-01-01

Snow cover over land has a significant impact on the surface radiation budget, turbulent energy fluxes to the atmosphere, and local hydrological fluxes. For this reason, inaccuracies in the representation of snow covered area (SCA) within a land surface model (LSM) can lead to substantial errors in both offline and coupled simulations. Data assimilation algorithms have the potential to address this problem. However, the assimilation of SCA observations is complicated by an information deficit in the observation SCA indicates only the presence or absence of snow, and not snow volume and by the fact that assimilated SCA observations can introduce inconsistencies with atmospheric forcing data, leading to non-physical artifacts in the local water balance. In this paper we present a novel assimilation algorithm that introduces MODIS SCA observations to the Noah LSM in global, uncoupled simulations. The algorithm utilizes observations from up to 72 hours ahead of the model simulation in order to correct against emerging errors in the simulation of snow cover while preserving the local hydrologic balance. This is accomplished by using future snow observations to adjust air temperature and, when necessary, precipitation within the LSM. In global, offline integrations, this new assimilation algorithm provided improved simulation of SCA and snow water equivalent relative to open loop integrations and integrations that used an earlier SCA assimilation algorithm. These improvements, in turn, influenced the simulation of surface water and energy fluxes both during the snow season and, in some regions, on into the following spring.

Hydropedology of a mildly-arid loess covered area, southern Israel

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yair, Aaron; Goldshleger, Naftali

2016-04-01

Extensive loess covered areas characterize the mildly arid areas of western Israel, where average annual rainfall is 280 mm. Hydrological data available point to a peculiar hydrological behavior of the ephemeral streams. The frequency of channel flow is very high. Four to eight flows are recorded annually. However, even in extreme rain events peak discharges are extremely low representing 0.002-0.005% of the rain amount received by the basin at peak flow. In addition, hydrographs are usually characterized by very steep rising and falling limbs, representative of saturated or nearly saturated areas, extending over a limited part of the watershed. Following this observation we advanced the hypothesis that storm channel runoff originated in the channel itself, with negligible contribution from the adjoining hillslopes. The study was based on two complementary approaches. The hydrological approach was based on the detailed analysis of rainfall-runoff relationships in a small watershed (11 km2). The second approach was based on the toposequence concept. According to this concept soil's properties are closely related to the position of a soil along a slope. Constituents and water lost by the upper part of the slope accumulate in its lower part, which is richer in clay and better leached. Several boreholes were dug along a hillslope 400 m long. Soil samples were collected for chemical and particle size analysis. In addition, samples for soil moisture data were taken following each major rain event. Chemical data obtained show no significant observable difference in the downslope direction. Similar results were also obtained for the particle size distribution and soil moisture content. However, particle size distribution in the active channel reveals very high clay content down to 60 cm. Data obtained lead to two main conclusions. 1. Data presented perfectly fit the concept of "Partial Area Contribution", in its narrow sense, as it presents an extreme case of hydrological

Monitoring urban land cover change by updating the national land cover database impervious surface products

USGS Publications Warehouse

Xian, George Z.; Homer, Collin G.

2009-01-01

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Land Cover Database (NLCD) 2001 is widely used as a baseline for national land cover and impervious conditions. To ensure timely and relevant data, it is important to update this base to a more recent time period. A prototype method was developed to update the land cover and impervious surface by individual Landsat path and row. This method updates NLCD 2001 to a nominal date of 2006 by using both Landsat imagery and data from NLCD 2001 as the baseline. Pairs of Landsat scenes in the same season from both 2001 and 2006 were acquired according to satellite paths and rows and normalized to allow calculation of change vectors between the two dates. Conservative thresholds based on Anderson Level I land cover classes were used to segregate the change vectors and determine areas of change and no-change. Once change areas had been identified, impervious surface was estimated for areas of change by sampling from NLCD 2001 in unchanged areas. Methods were developed and tested across five Landsat path/row study sites that contain a variety of metropolitan areas. Results from the five study areas show that the vast majority of impervious surface changes associated with urban developments were accurately captured and updated. The approach optimizes mapping efficiency and can provide users a flexible method to generate updated impervious surface at national and regional scales.

First Chance Network and Technical Assistance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Trohanis, Pascal L.

1973-01-01

Article seeks to cover the following topics: an overview of First Chance; a description of TADS (Technical Assistance Development System); and a discussion of the organization's Media and Information division. (Author)

Research in Technical Colleges

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

MacLennan, A.

2008-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to list and demonstrate areas in which research needs to be carried out, or questions answered, in order to raise the quality of technical education. Design/methodology/approach: The area of technical education expanded very rapidly in the late 1950s, and there was little comprehensive knowledge regarding the…

Human Resource Development: Technical Education's Challenge. Proceedings of the Annual National Clinic on Technical Education (12th, Spokane, Washington, March 26-28, 1975).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Washington State Community Coll. District 17, Spokane.

Speeches and discussions are transcribed in this report, which also includes a listing of the American Technical Education Association (ATEA) committee members, exhibitors, officers, and directory of speakers. Speeches covered "Human Resource Development" by Gene Rutledge; "The Impact of Technical Education on Economic…

A large-area, spatially continuous assessment of land cover map error and its impact on downstream analyses.

PubMed

Estes, Lyndon; Chen, Peng; Debats, Stephanie; Evans, Tom; Ferreira, Stefanus; Kuemmerle, Tobias; Ragazzo, Gabrielle; Sheffield, Justin; Wolf, Adam; Wood, Eric; Caylor, Kelly

2018-01-01

Land cover maps increasingly underlie research into socioeconomic and environmental patterns and processes, including global change. It is known that map errors impact our understanding of these phenomena, but quantifying these impacts is difficult because many areas lack adequate reference data. We used a highly accurate, high-resolution map of South African cropland to assess (1) the magnitude of error in several current generation land cover maps, and (2) how these errors propagate in downstream studies. We first quantified pixel-wise errors in the cropland classes of four widely used land cover maps at resolutions ranging from 1 to 100 km, and then calculated errors in several representative "downstream" (map-based) analyses, including assessments of vegetative carbon stocks, evapotranspiration, crop production, and household food security. We also evaluated maps' spatial accuracy based on how precisely they could be used to locate specific landscape features. We found that cropland maps can have substantial biases and poor accuracy at all resolutions (e.g., at 1 km resolution, up to ∼45% underestimates of cropland (bias) and nearly 50% mean absolute error (MAE, describing accuracy); at 100 km, up to 15% underestimates and nearly 20% MAE). National-scale maps derived from higher-resolution imagery were most accurate, followed by multi-map fusion products. Constraining mapped values to match survey statistics may be effective at minimizing bias (provided the statistics are accurate). Errors in downstream analyses could be substantially amplified or muted, depending on the values ascribed to cropland-adjacent covers (e.g., with forest as adjacent cover, carbon map error was 200%-500% greater than in input cropland maps, but ∼40% less for sparse cover types). The average locational error was 6 km (600%). These findings provide deeper insight into the causes and potential consequences of land cover map error, and suggest several recommendations for land

Assessing uncertainties in land cover projections.

PubMed

Alexander, Peter; Prestele, Reinhard; Verburg, Peter H; Arneth, Almut; Baranzelli, Claudia; Batista E Silva, Filipe; Brown, Calum; Butler, Adam; Calvin, Katherine; Dendoncker, Nicolas; Doelman, Jonathan C; Dunford, Robert; Engström, Kerstin; Eitelberg, David; Fujimori, Shinichiro; Harrison, Paula A; Hasegawa, Tomoko; Havlik, Petr; Holzhauer, Sascha; Humpenöder, Florian; Jacobs-Crisioni, Chris; Jain, Atul K; Krisztin, Tamás; Kyle, Page; Lavalle, Carlo; Lenton, Tim; Liu, Jiayi; Meiyappan, Prasanth; Popp, Alexander; Powell, Tom; Sands, Ronald D; Schaldach, Rüdiger; Stehfest, Elke; Steinbuks, Jevgenijs; Tabeau, Andrzej; van Meijl, Hans; Wise, Marshall A; Rounsevell, Mark D A

2017-02-01

Understanding uncertainties in land cover projections is critical to investigating land-based climate mitigation policies, assessing the potential of climate adaptation strategies and quantifying the impacts of land cover change on the climate system. Here, we identify and quantify uncertainties in global and European land cover projections over a diverse range of model types and scenarios, extending the analysis beyond the agro-economic models included in previous comparisons. The results from 75 simulations over 18 models are analysed and show a large range in land cover area projections, with the highest variability occurring in future cropland areas. We demonstrate systematic differences in land cover areas associated with the characteristics of the modelling approach, which is at least as great as the differences attributed to the scenario variations. The results lead us to conclude that a higher degree of uncertainty exists in land use projections than currently included in climate or earth system projections. To account for land use uncertainty, it is recommended to use a diverse set of models and approaches when assessing the potential impacts of land cover change on future climate. Additionally, further work is needed to better understand the assumptions driving land use model results and reveal the causes of uncertainty in more depth, to help reduce model uncertainty and improve the projections of land cover. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Area changes for forest cover types in the United States, 1952 to 1997, with projections to 2050.

Treesearch

Ralph J. Alig; Brett J. Butler

2004-01-01

The United States has a diverse array of forest cover types on its 747 million acres of forest land. Forests in the United States have been shaped by many natural and human-caused forces, including climate, physiography, geology, soils, water, fire, land use changes, timber harvests, and other human interventions. The major purpose of this document is to describe area...

Rooftop Solar Photovoltaic Technical Potential in the United States. A Detailed Assessment

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Gagnon, Pieter; Margolis, Robert; Melius, Jennifer

2016-01-01

How much energy could be generated if PV modules were installed on all of the suitable roof area in the nation? To answer this question, we first use GIS methods to process a lidar dataset and determine the amount of roof area that is suitable for PV deployment in 128 cities nationwide, containing 23% of U.S. buildings, and provide PV-generation results for a subset of those cities. We then extend the insights from that analysis to the entire continental United States. We develop two statistical models--one for small buildings and one for medium and large buildings--and populate them with geographicmore » variables that correlate with rooftop's suitability for PV. We simulate the productivity of PV installed on the suitable roof area, and present the technical potential of PV on both small buildings and medium/large buildings for every state in the continental US. Within the 128 cities covered by lidar data, 83% of small buildings have a location suitable for a PV installation, but only 26% of the total rooftop area of small buildings is suitable for development. The sheer number of buildings in this class, however, gives small buildings the greatest technical potential. Small building rooftops could accommodate 731 GW of PV capacity and generate 926 TWh/year of PV energy, approximately 65% of rooftop PV's total technical potential. We conclude by summing the PV-generation results for all building sizes and therefore answering our original question, estimating that the total national technical potential of rooftop PV is 1,118 GW of installed capacity and 1,432 TWh of annual energy generation. This equates to 39% of total national electric-sector sales.« less

NASA/DOD Flight Experiments Technical Interchange Meeting Proceedings

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1992-01-01

This document contains the proceedings of the Flight Experiments Technical Interchange Meeting held in Monterey California, October 5-9, 1992. Technical sessions 4 through 8 addressing space structures, propulsion, space power systems, space environments and effects, and space operations are covered. Many of the papers are presented in outline and viewgraph form.

Mapping moderate-scale land-cover over very large geographic areas within a collaborative framework: A case study of the Southwest Regional Gap Analysis Project (SWReGAP)

USGS Publications Warehouse

Lowry, J.; Ramsey, R.D.; Thomas, K.; Schrupp, D.; Sajwaj, T.; Kirby, J.; Waller, E.; Schrader, S.; Falzarano, S.; Langs, L.; Manis, G.; Wallace, C.; Schulz, K.; Comer, P.; Pohs, K.; Rieth, W.; Velasquez, C.; Wolk, B.; Kepner, W.; Boykin, K.; O'Brien, L.; Bradford, D.; Thompson, B.; Prior-Magee, J.

2007-01-01

Land-cover mapping efforts within the USGS Gap Analysis Program have traditionally been state-centered; each state having the responsibility of implementing a project design for the geographic area within their state boundaries. The Southwest Regional Gap Analysis Project (SWReGAP) was the first formal GAP project designed at a regional, multi-state scale. The project area comprises the southwestern states of Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah. The land-cover map/dataset was generated using regionally consistent geospatial data (Landsat ETM+ imagery (1999-2001) and DEM derivatives), similar field data collection protocols, a standardized land-cover legend, and a common modeling approach (decision tree classifier). Partitioning of mapping responsibilities amongst the five collaborating states was organized around ecoregion-based "mapping zones". Over the course of 21/2 field seasons approximately 93,000 reference samples were collected directly, or obtained from other contemporary projects, for the land-cover modeling effort. The final map was made public in 2004 and contains 125 land-cover classes. An internal validation of 85 of the classes, representing 91% of the land area was performed. Agreement between withheld samples and the validated dataset was 61% (KHAT = .60, n = 17,030). This paper presents an overview of the methodologies used to create the regional land-cover dataset and highlights issues associated with large-area mapping within a coordinated, multi-institutional management framework. ?? 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Spatial analysis and statistical modelling of snow cover dynamics in the Central Himalayas, Nepal

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Weidinger, Johannes; Gerlitz, Lars; Böhner, Jürgen

2017-04-01

General circulation models are able to predict large scale climate variations in global dimensions, however small scale dynamic characteristics, such as snow cover and its temporal variations in high mountain regions, are not represented sufficiently. Detailed knowledge about shifts in seasonal ablation times and spatial distribution of snow cover are crucial for various research interests. Since high mountain areas, for instance the Central Himalayas in Nepal, are generally remote, it is difficult to obtain data in high spatio-temporal resolutions. Regional climate models and downscaling techniques are implemented to compensate coarse resolution. Furthermore earth observation systems, such as MODIS, also permit bridging this gap to a certain extent. They offer snow (cover) data in daily temporal and medium spatial resolution of around 500 m, which can be applied as evaluation and training data for dynamical hydrological and statistical analyses. Within this approach two snow distribution models (binary snow cover and fractional snow cover) as well as one snow recession model were implemented for a research domain in the Rolwaling Himal in Nepal, employing the random forest technique, which represents a state of the art machine learning algorithm. Both bottom-up strategies provide inductive reasoning to derive rules for snow related processes out of climate (temperature, precipitation and irradiance) and climate-related topographic data sets (elevation, aspect and convergence index) obtained by meteorological network stations, remote sensing products (snow cover - MOD10-A1 and land surface temperatures - MOD11-A1) along with GIS. Snow distribution is predicted reliably on a daily basis in the research area, whereas further effort is necessary for predicting daily snow cover recession processes adequately. Swift changes induced by clear sky conditions with high insolation rates are well represented, whereas steady snow loss still needs continuing effort. All

Proceedings of the Annual National Clinic on Technical Education (12th, Spokane, Washington, March 26-28, 1975). Human Resource Development: Technical Education's Challenge.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rutledge, Gene; And Others

This report includes the presentations of the speakers appearing before the National Clinic on Technical Education. Topics cover human resource development; the impact of technical education on economic development (in Mississippi); economics of allied health education; manpower implications of environmental protection; manpower needs for…

Marketing information: The technical report as product

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stoher, F. F.; Pinelli, T. E.

1981-01-01

Technical reports constitute a product, the primary means for communicating the results of research to the user. The Langley scientific and technical information (STI) review and evaluation project undertook a review of the technical report as an effective product for information communication. Style manuals describing theory and practice in technical report preparation; publication manuals covering such factors as design, layout, and type style; and copies of technical reports were obtained from industrial, academic, governmental, and research organizations. Based on an analysis of this material, criteria will be established for the report components, for the relationship of the components within the report context, and for the overall report organization. The criteria will be used as bench marks and compared with the publication standards currently used to prepare NASA technical reports.

EnviroAtlas -Durham, NC- One Meter Resolution Urban Area Land Cover Map (2010) Web Service

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

This EnviroAtlas web service supports research and online mapping activities related to EnviroAtlas (https://www.epa.gov/enviroatlas ). The EnviroAtlas Durham, NC land cover map was generated from USDA NAIP (National Agricultural Imagery Program) four band (red, green, blue and near infrared) aerial photography from July 2010 at 1 m spatial resolution. Five land cover classes were mapped: impervious surface, soil and barren, grass and herbaceous, trees and forest, and water. An accuracy assessment using a stratified random sampling of 500 samples yielded an overall accuracy of 83 percent using a minimum mapping unit of 9 pixels (3x3 pixel window). The area mapped is defined by the US Census Bureau's 2010 Urban Statistical Area for Durham, and includes the cities of Durham, Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Hillsborough, NC. This dataset was produced by the US EPA to support research and online mapping activities related to EnviroAtlas. EnviroAtlas (https://www.epa.gov/enviroatlas ) allows the user to interact with a web-based, easy-to-use, mapping application to view and analyze multiple ecosystem services for the contiguous United States. The dataset is available as downloadable data (https://edg.epa.gov/data/Public/ORD/EnviroAtlas) or as an EnviroAtlas map service. Additional descriptive information about each attribute in this dataset can be found in its associated EnviroAtlas Fact Sheet (https://www.epa.gov/enviroatlas/enviroatlas-fact-sheets ).

Monitoring urban expansion and land use/land cover changes of Shanghai metropolitan area during the transitional economy (1979-2009) in China.

PubMed

Yin, Jie; Yin, Zhane; Zhong, Haidong; Xu, Shiyuan; Hu, Xiaomeng; Wang, Jun; Wu, Jianping

2011-06-01

This study explored the spatio-temporal dynamics and evolution of land use/cover changes and urban expansion in Shanghai metropolitan area, China, during the transitional economy period (1979-2009) using multi-temporal satellite images and geographic information systems (GIS). A maximum likelihood supervised classification algorithm was employed to extract information from four landsat images, with the post-classification change detection technique and GIS-based spatial analysis methods used to detect land-use and land-cover (LULC) changes. The overall Kappa indices of land use/cover change maps ranged from 0.79 to 0.89. Results indicated that urbanization has accelerated at an unprecedented scale and rate during the study period, leading to a considerable reduction in the area of farmland and green land. Findings further revealed that water bodies and bare land increased, obviously due to large-scale coastal development after 2000. The direction of urban expansion was along a north-south axis from 1979 to 2000, but after 2000 this growth changed to spread from both the existing urban area and along transport routes in all directions. Urban expansion and subsequent LULC changes in Shanghai have largely been driven by policy reform, population growth, and economic development. Rapid urban expansion through clearing of vegetation has led to a wide range of eco-environmental degradation.

A priori evaluation of two-stage cluster sampling for accuracy assessment of large-area land-cover maps

USGS Publications Warehouse

Wickham, J.D.; Stehman, S.V.; Smith, J.H.; Wade, T.G.; Yang, L.

2004-01-01

Two-stage cluster sampling reduces the cost of collecting accuracy assessment reference data by constraining sample elements to fall within a limited number of geographic domains (clusters). However, because classification error is typically positively spatially correlated, within-cluster correlation may reduce the precision of the accuracy estimates. The detailed population information to quantify a priori the effect of within-cluster correlation on precision is typically unavailable. Consequently, a convenient, practical approach to evaluate the likely performance of a two-stage cluster sample is needed. We describe such an a priori evaluation protocol focusing on the spatial distribution of the sample by land-cover class across different cluster sizes and costs of different sampling options, including options not imposing clustering. This protocol also assesses the two-stage design's adequacy for estimating the precision of accuracy estimates for rare land-cover classes. We illustrate the approach using two large-area, regional accuracy assessments from the National Land-Cover Data (NLCD), and describe how the a priorievaluation was used as a decision-making tool when implementing the NLCD design.

An Evaluation of the Employee Training and Development Process for Nicolet Area Technical College's Basic Education Program.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Karl, Luis C.

The adult basic education (ABE) program at Nicolet Area Technical College (NATC) evaluated its training and development (T&D) process for new basic education instructors. The study gathered monitoring and screening criteria that addressed valuable components for use in an instrument for validating effectiveness of the ABE program (T&D)…

DESIGN, CONSTRUCTION, AND MAINTENANCE OF COVER SYSTEMS FOR HAZARDOUS WASTE: AN ENGINEERING GUIDANCE DOCUMENT

EPA Science Inventory

Engineering for cover over solid hazardous waste addresses complex interactions among many technical, environmental, and economical factors. The document emphasizes the special characteristics of solid waste management as they bear on the cover system while at the same time stres...

Advanced transportation system studies technical area 2(TA-2): Heavy lift launch vehicle development. volume 1; Executive summary

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

McCurry, J.

1995-01-01

The purpose of the TA-2 contract was to provide advanced launch vehicle concept definition and analysis to assist NASA in the identification of future launch vehicle requirements. Contracted analysis activities included vehicle sizing and performance analysis, subsystem concept definition, propulsion subsystem definition (foreign and domestic), ground operations and facilities analysis, and life cycle cost estimation. This document is part of the final report for the TA-2 contract. The final report consists of three volumes: Volume 1 is the Executive Summary, Volume 2 is Technical Results, and Volume 3 is Program Cost Estimates. The document-at-hand, Volume 1, provides a summary description of the technical activities that were performed over the entire contract duration, covering three distinct launch vehicle definition activities: heavy-lift (300,000 pounds injected mass to low Earth orbit) launch vehicles for the First Lunar Outpost (FLO), medium-lift (50,000-80,000 pounds injected mass to low Earth orbit) launch vehicles, and single-stage-to-orbit (SSTO) launch vehicles (25,000 pounds injected mass to a Space Station orbit).

Land cover mapping of the upper Kuskokwim Resource Managment Area using LANDSAT and a digital data base approach

USGS Publications Warehouse

Markon, Carl J.

1988-01-01

Digital land cover and terrain data for the Upper Kuskokwim Resource Hanagement Area (UKRMA) were produced by the U.S. Geological Survey, Earth Resources Observation Systems Field Office, Anchorage, Alaska for the Bureau of Land Management. These and other environmental data, were incorporated into a digital data base to assist in the management and planning of the UKRMA. The digital data base includes land cover classifications, elevation, slope, and aspect data centering on the UKRMA boundaries. The data are stored on computer compatible tapes at a 50-m pixel size. Additional digital data in the data base include: (a) summer and winter Landsat multispectral scanner (MSS) data registered to a 50-m Universal Transverse Mercator grid; (b) elevation, slope, aspect, and solar illumination data; (c) soils and surficial geology; and (e) study area boundary. The classification of Landsat MSS data resulted in seven major classes and 24 subclasses. Major classes include: forest, shrubland, dwarf scrub, herbaceous, barren, water, and other. The final data base will be used by resource personnel for management and planning within the UKRMA.

Engineering Technical Review Planning Briefing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gardner, Terrie

2012-01-01

The general topics covered in the engineering technical planning briefing are 1) overviews of NASA, Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), and Engineering, 2) the NASA Systems Engineering(SE) Engine and its implementation , 3) the NASA Project Life Cycle, 4) MSFC Technical Management Branch Services in relation to the SE Engine and the Project Life Cycle , 5) Technical Reviews, 6) NASA Human Factor Design Guidance , and 7) the MSFC Human Factors Team. The engineering technical review portion of the presentation is the primary focus of the overall presentation and will address the definition of a design review, execution guidance, the essential stages of a technical review, and the overall review planning life cycle. Examples of a technical review plan content, review approaches, review schedules, and the review process will be provided and discussed. The human factors portion of the presentation will focus on the NASA guidance for human factors. Human factors definition, categories, design guidance, and human factor specialist roles will be addressed. In addition, the NASA Systems Engineering Engine description, definition, and application will be reviewed as background leading into the NASA Project Life Cycle Overview and technical review planning discussion.

Continental estimates of forest cover and forest cover changes in the dry ecosystems of Africa between 1990 and 2000

PubMed Central

Bodart, Catherine; Brink, Andreas B; Donnay, François; Lupi, Andrea; Mayaux, Philippe; Achard, Frédéric

2013-01-01

Aim This study provides regional estimates of forest cover in dry African ecoregions and the changes in forest cover that occurred there between 1990 and 2000, using a systematic sample of medium-resolution satellite imagery which was processed consistently across the continent. Location The study area corresponds to the dry forests and woodlands of Africa between the humid forests and the semi-arid regions. This area covers the Sudanian and Zambezian ecoregions. Methods A systematic sample of 1600 Landsat satellite imagery subsets, each 20 km × 20 km in size, were analysed for two reference years: 1990 and 2000. At each sample site and for both years, dense tree cover, open tree cover, other wooded land and other vegetation cover were identified from the analysis of satellite imagery, which comprised multidate segmentation and automatic classification steps followed by visual control by national forestry experts. Results Land cover and land-cover changes were estimated at continental and ecoregion scales and compared with existing pan-continental, regional and local studies. The overall accuracy of our land-cover maps was estimated at 87%. Between 1990 and 2000, 3.3 million hectares (Mha) of dense tree cover, 5.8 Mha of open tree cover and 8.9 Mha of other wooded land were lost, with a further 3.9 Mha degraded from dense to open tree cover. These results are substantially lower than the 34 Mha of forest loss reported in the FAO's 2010 Global Forest Resources Assessment for the same period and area. Main conclusions Our method generates the first consistent and robust estimates of forest cover and change in dry Africa with known statistical precision at continental and ecoregion scales. These results reduce the uncertainty regarding vegetation cover and its dynamics in these previously poorly studied ecosystems and provide crucial information for both science and environmental policies. PMID:23935237

A Water Balance Study of Four Landfill Cover Designs at Material Disposal Area B in Los Alamos, New Mexico

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

David D. Breshears; Fairley J. Barnes; John W. Nyhan

1998-09-01

The goal of disposing of low-level radioactive and hazardous waste in shallow landfills is to reduce risk to human health and the environment by isolating contaminants until they no longer pose an unacceptable hazard. In order to achieve this, the Department of Energy Environmental Restoration Program is comparing the performance of several different surface covers at Material Disposal Area (MDA) B in Los Alamos. Two conventional landfill were compared with an improved cover designed to minimize plant and animal intrusion and to minimize water infiltration into the underlying wastes. The conventional covers varied in depth and both conventional and improvedmore » designs had different combinations of vegetation (grass verses shrub) and gravel mulch (no mulch verses mulch). These treatments were applied to each of 12 plots and water balance parameters were measured from March1987 through June 1995. Adding a gravel mulch significantly influenced the plant covered field plots receiving no gravel mulch averaged 21.2% shrub cover, while plots with gravel had a 20% larger percent cover of shrubs. However, the influence of gravel mulch on the grass cover was even larger than the influence on shrub cover, average grass cover on the plots with no gravel was 16.3%, compared with a 42% increase in grass cover due to gravel mulch. These cover relationships are important to reduce runoff on the landfill cover, as shown by a regression model that predicts that as ground cover is increased from 30 to 90%,annual runoff is reduced from 8.8 to 0.98 cm-a nine-fold increase. We also found that decreasing the slope of the landfill cover from 6 to 2% reduced runoff from the landfill cover by 2.7-fold. To minimize the risk of hazardous waste from landfills to humans, runoff and seepage need to be minimized and evapotranspiration maximized on the landfill cover. This has to be accomplished for dry and wet years at MDA B. Seepage consisted of 1.9% and 6.2% of the precipitation in the

Going beyond the green: senesced vegetation material predicts basal area and biomass in remote sensing of tree cover conditions in an African tropical dry forest (miombo woodland) landscape

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mayes, Marc; Mustard, John; Melillo, Jerry; Neill, Christopher; Nyadzi, Gerson

2017-08-01

In sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), tropical dry forests and savannas cover over 2.5 million km2 and support livelihoods for millions in fast-growing nations. Intensifying land use pressures have driven rapid changes in tree cover structure (basal area, biomass) that remain poorly characterized at regional scales. Here, we posed the hypothesis that tree cover structure related strongly to senesced and non-photosynthetic (NPV) vegetation features in a SSA tropical dry forest landscape, offering improved means for satellite remote sensing of tree cover structure compared to vegetation greenness-based methods. Across regrowth miombo woodland sites in Tanzania, we analyzed relationships among field data on tree structure, land cover, and satellite indices of green and NPV features based on spectral mixture analyses and normalized difference vegetation index calculated from Landsat 8 data. From satellite-field data relationships, we mapped regional basal area and biomass using NPV and greenness-based metrics, and compared map performances at landscape scales. Total canopy cover related significantly to stem basal area (r 2 = 0.815, p < 0.01) and biomass (r 2 = 0.635, p < 0.01), and NPV dominated ground cover (> 60%) at all sites. From these two conditions emerged a key inverse relationship: skyward exposure of NPV ground cover was high at sites with low tree basal area and biomass, and decreased with increasing stem basal area and biomass. This pattern scaled to Landsat NPV metrics, which showed strong inverse correlations to basal area (Pearson r = -0.85, p < 0.01) and biomass (r = -0.86, p < 0.01). Biomass estimates from Landsat NPV-based maps matched field data, and significantly differentiated landscape gradients in woody biomass that greenness metrics failed to track. The results suggest senesced vegetation metrics at Landsat scales are a promising means for improved monitoring of tree structure across disturbance and ecological gradients

Upgrades and Enclosure of Building 15 at Technical Area 40: Los Alamos National Laboratory

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Plimpton, Kathryn D; Garcia, Kari L. M; Brunette, Jeremy Christopher

The U.S. Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration, Los Alamos Field Office (Field Office) proposes to upgrade and enclose Building 15 at Technical Area (TA) 40, Los Alamos National Laboratory. Building TA-40-15, a Cold War-era firing site, was determined eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places (Register) in DX Division’s Facility Strategic Plan: Consolidation and Revitalization at Technical Areas 6, 8, 9, 14, 15, 22, 36, 39, 40, 60, and 69 (McGehee et al. 2005). Building TA-40-15 was constructed in 1950 to support detonator testing. The firing site will be enclosed by a steel building tomore » create a new indoor facility that will allow for year-round mission capability. Enclosing TA-40-15 will adversely affect the building by altering the characteristics that make it eligible for the Register. In compliance with Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, as amended, the Field Office is initiating consultation for this proposed undertaking. The Field Office is also requesting concurrence with the use of standard practices to resolve adverse effects as defined in the Programmatic Agreement among the U.S. Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration, Los Alamos Field Office, the New Mexico State Historic Preservation Office and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation Concerning Management of the Historic Properties at Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico.« less

Modeling of surface dust concentration in snow cover at industrial area using neural networks and kriging

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sergeev, A. P.; Tarasov, D. A.; Buevich, A. G.; Shichkin, A. V.; Tyagunov, A. G.; Medvedev, A. N.

2017-06-01

Modeling of spatial distribution of pollutants in the urbanized territories is difficult, especially if there are multiple emission sources. When monitoring such territories, it is often impossible to arrange the necessary detailed sampling. Because of this, the usual methods of analysis and forecasting based on geostatistics are often less effective. Approaches based on artificial neural networks (ANNs) demonstrate the best results under these circumstances. This study compares two models based on ANNs, which are multilayer perceptron (MLP) and generalized regression neural networks (GRNNs) with the base geostatistical method - kriging. Models of the spatial dust distribution in the snow cover around the existing copper quarry and in the area of emissions of a nickel factory were created. To assess the effectiveness of the models three indices were used: the mean absolute error (MAE), the root-mean-square error (RMSE), and the relative root-mean-square error (RRMSE). Taking into account all indices the model of GRNN proved to be the most accurate which included coordinates of the sampling points and the distance to the likely emission source as input parameters for the modeling. Maps of spatial dust distribution in the snow cover were created in the study area. It has been shown that the models based on ANNs were more accurate than the kriging, particularly in the context of a limited data set.

RTO Technical Report: A Quarterly Listing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2002-01-01

This is a listing of recent unclassified RTO technical publications processed by the NASA Center for AeroSpace Information from April 1,2002 through June 30, 2002. Topics covered include: intrusion detection and design loads for aircraft.

Deployment Area Selection and Land Withdrawal/Acquisition. M-X/MPS (M-X/Multiple Protective Shelter) Environmental Technical Report. Washington County, Utah.

DTIC Science & Technology

1981-10-02

file a FEIS for the MPS system. However, the attached preliminary FEIS captures the environ- mental data and analysis in the document that was nearing...efforts in the study area. There- fore, in response to requests for environmental technical data from the Congress, federal agencies and the states involved...associated Environmental Technical Reports (ETRs). The data tables presented here provide projections of the key socioeconomic impacts of M-X deployment for

6 CFR 27.120 - Designation of a coordinating official; Consultations and technical assistance.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... covered facility shall submit a written request for consultation or technical assistance to the...; Consultations and technical assistance. 27.120 Section 27.120 Domestic Security DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY... coordinating official; Consultations and technical assistance. (a) The Assistant Secretary will designate a...

Snow cover monitoring over French Alps based on Spot-Vegetation S-10 products. Application to the Vercors area for the time period 1998-2008.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bigot, S.; Dedieu, Jp.; Rome, S.

2009-04-01

Sylvain.bigot@ujf-grenoble.fr Jean-pierre.dedieu@hmg.inpg.fr Sandra.rome@ujf-grenoble.fr Estimation of the Snow Covered Area (SCA) is an important issue for meteorological application and hydrological modeling of runoff. With spectral bands in the visible, near and middle infrared, the SPOT-4 and -5 VEGETATION sensors are used to detect snow cover because of large differences between reflectance from snow covered and snow free surfaces. At the same time, it allows separation between snow and clouds. Moreover, the sensor provides a daily coverage of large areas. However, as the pixel size is 1km x 1km, a VGT pixel may be partially covered by snow, particularly in Alpine areas, where snow may not be present in valleys lying at lower altitudes. Also, variation of reflectance due to differential sunlit effects as a function of slope and aspect, as well as bidirectional effects may be present in images. Nevertheless, it is possible to estimate snow cover at the sub-pixel level with a relatively good accuracy and with very good results if the sub-pixel estimations are integrated for a few pixels relative to an entire watershed. Application of this approach in the French Alps is presented over the Vercors Natural Park area (N 44°.50' / E 05°.30'), based on 10-day Synthetic products for the 1998-2008 time period, and using the NDSII (Normalized Difference Snow/Ice Index) as numerical threshold. This work performs an analysis of climate impact on snow cover spatial and temporal variability, at mid-elevation mountain range (1500 m asl) under temperate climate conditions. The results indicates (i) a increasing temporal and spatial variability of snow coverage, and (ii) a high sensitivity to low variation of air temperature, often close to 1° C. This is the case in particular for the beginning and the end of the winter season. The regional snow cover depletion is both influenced by thermal positives anomalies (e.g. 2000 and 2006), and the general trend of rising atmospheric

Developed land cover of Puerto Rico

Treesearch

William A. Gould; Sebastian Martinuzzi; Olga M. Ramos Gonzalez

2008-01-01

This map shows the distribution of developed land cover in Puerto Rico (Martinuzzi et al. 2007). Developed land cover refers to urban, built-up and non-vegetated areas that result from human activity. These typically include built structures, concrete, asphalt, and other infrastructure. The developed land cover was estimated using Landsat 7 ETM+ satellite images pan...

Coupled Environmental Processes in the Mojave Desert and Implications for ET Covers as Stable Landforms

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

D. Shafer; M. Y oung; S. Zitzer

2006-01-18

Monolayer evapotranspiration (ET) covers are the baseline method for closure of disposal sites for low-level radioactive waste (LLW), mixed LLW, and transuranic (TRU) waste at the Nevada Test Site (NTS). The regulatory timeline is typically 1,000 years for LLW and 10,000 years for TRU waste. Covers for such waste have different technical considerations than those with shorter timelines because they are subject to environmental change for longer periods of time, and because the environmental processes are often coupled. To evaluate these changes, four analog sites (approximately 30, 1,000 to 2,000, 7,000 to 12,500, and 125,000 years in age) on themore » NTS were analyzed to address the early post-institutional control period (the youngest site), the 1,000-year compliance period for disposal of LLW, and the 10,000-year period for TRU waste. Tests included soil texture, structure, and morphology; surface soil infiltration and hydraulic conductivity; vegetation and faunal surveys; and literature reviews. Separate measurements were made in plant undercanopy and intercanopy areas. The results showed a progressive increase in silt and clay content of surface soils with age. Changes in soil texture and structure led to a fivefold decline in saturated hydraulic conductivity in intercanopy areas, but no change in undercanopies, which were subject to bioturbation. These changes may have been responsible for the reduction in total plant cover, most dramatically in intercanopy areas, primarily because more precipitation either runs off the site or is held nearer to the surface where plant roots are less common. The results suggest that covers may evolve over longer timeframes to stable landforms that minimize the need for active maintenance.« less

Detailed geomorphological mapping of debris-covered and rock glaciers in the Hólar area, Tröllaskagi Peninsula (northern Iceland).

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tanarro, Luis M.; Palacios, David; Zamorano, Jose J.; Andres, Nuria

2017-04-01

Most studies conducted on rock and debris-covered glaciers only include simplified geomorphological maps representing main units (ridges, furrows, front, and thermokarst depressions). The aim of this study is to develop a detailed geomorphological mapping of the Hóladalsjökull debris-covered glacier (65°42' N; 18°57' W) and the Fremri-Grjótárdalur rock glacier (65°43' N 19° W), located near Hólar, a village in the central area of the Trolläskagi peninsula (northern Iceland). The mapping process has been conducted using standard stereo-photointerpretation of aerial photographs and stereo-plotting of a topographic map at 1:2000 scale. Also, landforms have been represented in different transects. Lastly, the geomorphological map has been designed using the elevation digital model, and a 3D pdf file has been generated, allowing for better viewing and understanding the different units and their modelling. The geomorphological mapping of the Hóladalsjökull debris-covered glacier and the Fremri-Grjótárdalur rock glacier represents the prominent walls of their valley heads and their summits, which form a flat highland at 1,200-1,330 metres above sea level, covered by blockfield and patterned ground features. Rockfall and slide landforms are common processes at the foot of these 100-170 metre-high cirque-walls. Debris-covered glaciers and rock glaciers are born right under these walls, building up a spoon-shaped hollow around glacial ice, surrounded by young moraine ridges at their fronts. The dominant features in the Hóladalsjökull debris-covered glacier are large longitudinal ridges and furrows, stretching over 1.5 km in length in the central and western areas. Medium-sized thermokarst depressions (between 15-40 metres in diameter), often running parallel to the furrows, dot the surface of the debris-covered glacier. Parallel alternate ridges and furrows can be seen near the snout. Ridges are rugged and fall around 30-40 metres, with over 30 degree slopes

A Comprehensive Review of Selected Business Programs in Community Colleges and Area Vocational-Technical Centers. Program Review Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Florida State Dept. of Education, Tallahassee. Div. of Vocational, Adult, and Community Education.

In 1988, a review was conducted of the business component of associate in arts and associate in science (AS) degree programs, and of the certificate programs in business in Florida community colleges and area vocational-technical centers. Focusing primarily on business programs in marketing, general business management, and small business…

Hydraulic Testing of Polymer Matrix Composite 102mm Tube Section Technical Report

DTIC Science & Technology

2018-04-01

Technical Report ARWSB-TR-18025 Hydraulic Testing of Polymer Matrix Composite 102mm Tube Section Technical Report Lucas B...1. REPORT DATE (DD-MM-YYYY) April 2018 2. REPORT TYPE Technical 3. DATES COVERED (From - To) 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE Hydraulic Testing of...Polymer Matrix Composite 102mm Tube Section Technical Report 5a. CONTRACT NUMBER 5b. GRANT NUMBER 5c. PROGRAM ELEMENT NUMBER

USING CLASSIFICATION CONSISTENCY IN INTER-SCENE OVERLAP AREAS TO MODEL SPATIAL VARIATIONS IN LAND-COVER ACCURACY OVER LARGE GEOGRAPHIC REGIONS

EPA Science Inventory

During the last decade, a number of initiatives have been undertaken to create systematic national and global data sets of processed satellite imagery. An important application of these data is the derivation of large area (i.e. multi-scene) land cover products. Such products, ho...

The Change in the area of various land covers on the Tibetan Plateau during 1957-2015

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cuo, Lan; Zhang, Yongxin

2017-04-01

With average elevation of 4000 m and area of 2.5×106 km2, Tibetan Plateau hosts various fragile ecosystems such as perennial alpine meadow, perennial alpine steppe, temperate evergreen needleleaf trees, temperate deciduous trees, temperate shrub grassland, and barely vegetated desert. Perennial alpine meadow and steppe are the two dominant vegetation types on the heartland of the plateau. MODIS Leaf Area Index (LAI) ranges from 0 to 2 in most part of the plateau. With climate change, these ecosystems are expected to undergo alteration. This study uses a dynamic vegetation model - Lund-Potsdam-Jena (LPJ) to investigate the change of the barely vegetated area and other vegetation types caused by climate change during 1957-2015 on the Tibetan Plateau. Model simulated foliage projective coverage (FPC) and plant functional types (PFTs) are selected for the investigation. The model is evaluated first using both field surveyed land cover map and MODIS LAI images. Long term trends of vegetation FPC is examined. Decadal variations of vegetated and barely vegetated land are compared. The impacts of extreme precipitation, air temperature and CO2 on the expansion and contraction of barely vegetated and vegetated areas are shown. The study will identify the dominant climate factors in affecting the desert area in the region.

Modeling Aeolian Transport of Contaminated Sediments at Los Alamos National Laboratory, Technical Area 54, Area G: Sensitivities to Succession, Disturbance, and Future Climate

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Whicker, Jeffrey J.; Kirchner, Thomas B.; Breshears, David D.

2012-03-27

The Technical Area 54 (TA-54) Area G disposal facility is used for the disposal of radioactive waste at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Order 435.1 (DOE, 2001) requires that radioactive waste be managed in a manner that protects public health and safety and the environment. In compliance with that requirement, DOE field sites must prepare and maintain site-specific radiological performance assessments for facilities that receive waste after September 26, 1988. Sites are also required to conduct composite analyses for facilities that receive waste after this date; these analyses account for the cumulative impacts of allmore » waste that has been (and will be) disposed of at the facilities and other sources of radioactive material that may interact with these facilities. LANL issued Revision 4 of the Area G performance assessment and composite analysis in 2008. In support of those analyses, vertical and horizontal sediment flux data were collected at two analog sites, each with different dominant vegetation characteristics, and used to estimate rates of vertical resuspension and wind erosion for Area G. The results of that investigation indicated that there was no net loss of soil at the disposal site due to wind erosion, and suggested minimal impacts of wind on the long-term performance of the facility. However, that study did not evaluate the potential for contaminant transport caused by the horizontal movement of soil particles over long time frames. Since that time, additional field data have been collected to estimate wind threshold velocities for initiating sediment transport due to saltation and rates of sediment transport once those thresholds are reached. Data such as these have been used in the development of the Vegetation Modified Transport (VMTran) model. This model is designed to estimate patterns and long-term rates of contaminant redistribution caused by winds at the site, taking into account the impacts of

Bibliography--Unclassified Technical Reports, Special Reports, and Technical Notes: FY 1982.

DTIC Science & Technology

1982-11-01

in each category are listed in chronological order under seven areas: manpower management, personnel administration , organization management, education...7633). Technical reports listed that have unlimited distribution can also be obtained from the National Technical Information Service , 5285 Port Royal...simulations of manpower systems. This research exploits the technology of computer-managed large-scale data bases. PERSONNEL ADMINISTRATION The personnel

Emerging factors associated with the decline of a gray fox population and multi-scale land cover associations of mesopredators in the Chicago metropolitan area.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Willingham, Alison N.; /Ohio State U.

Statewide surveys of furbearers in Illinois indicate gray (Urocyon cinereoargenteus) and red (Vulpes vulpes) foxes have experienced substantial declines in relative abundance, whereas other species such as raccoons (Procyon lotor) and coyotes (Canis latrans) have exhibited dramatic increases during the same time period. The cause of the declines of gray and red foxes has not been identified, and the current status of gray foxes remains uncertain. Therefore, I conducted a large-scale predator survey and tracked radiocollared gray foxes from 2004 to 2007 in order to determine the distribution, survival, cause-specific mortality sources and land cover associations of gray foxes inmore » an urbanized region of northeastern Illinois, and examined the relationships between the occurrence of gray fox and the presence other species of mesopredators, specifically coyotes and raccoons. Although generalist mesopredators are common and can reach high densities in many urban areas their urban ecology is poorly understood due to their secretive nature and wariness of humans. Understanding how mesopredators utilize urbanized landscapes can be useful in the management and control of disease outbreaks, mitigation of nuisance wildlife issues, and gaining insight into how mesopredators shape wildlife communities in highly fragmented areas. I examined habitat associations of raccoons, opossums (Didelphis virginiana), domestic cats (Felis catus), coyotes, foxes (gray and red), and striped skunks (Mephitis mephitis) at multiple spatial scales in an urban environment. Gray fox occurrence was rare and widely dispersed, and survival estimates were similar to other studies. Gray fox occurrence was negatively associated with natural and semi-natural land cover types. Fox home range size increased with increasing urban development suggesting that foxes may be negatively influenced by urbanization. Gray fox occurrence was not associated with coyote or raccoon presence. However, spatial

Enrollment and Follow-Up Trends of Students of Full-Time Day Programs of Minnesota Area Vocational-Technical Institutes.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pucel, David J.; Murphy, Herb

The study examines trends among students and graduates of the Minnesota Area Vocational Technical Institutes (AVTIs). Some of the data were gathered yearly between 1970-71 and 1973-74; some were gathered yearly between 1971-72 and 1973-74. Seventeen selected variables were reviewed. Relatively minor changes occurred over the years on seven of the…

RTO Technical Publications: A Quarterly Listing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2002-01-01

This is a listing of recent unclassified RTO technical publications processed by the NASA Center for AeroSpace Information from Jan 1, 2002 through Mar 31, 2002. Topics covered included information management, ice accretion, digital flight control systems, supercavitation flows, and tactical decision aids.

Transperitoneal Laparoscopic Approach to the Perinephric Area in Children: Technical Report and Lessons Learned.

PubMed

Mattioli, Girolamo; Avanzini, Stefano; Pio, Luca; Costanzo, Sara; Faticato, Maria Grazia; Montobbio, Giovanni; Disma, Nicola; Buffa, Piero

2015-10-01

This study presents a technical report of a standardized approach to the perinephric area in a series of pediatric patients, demonstrating that whatever renal or suprarenal surgery is planned, this can be approached and accomplished laparoscopically with an identical or very similar port triangulation, thus facilitating the learning curve within the same surgical team. All patients undergoing renal and adrenal gland surgery with a minimally invasive approach in the period from October 2008 to November 2013 were retrospectively reviewed and included in the study. Technical details and clinical outcomes are described. In total, 68 patients matched the inclusion criteria and were therefore retrospectively examined. No major intraoperative complication occurred. Two patients developed recurrent pelvic-ureteric junction obstruction and were managed with double J stent positioning and laparoscopic dismembered pyeloplasty, respectively. Two patients presenting with adrenal mass experienced a moderate bleeding that could be treated conservatively. Thanks to the reproducibility of the procedure and on the grounds of the presented experience, we support the proposal that the transperitoneal laparoscopic approach to the kidney and the adrenal gland could represent a relatively easy and safe way to quickly achieve confidence and skill in the management of related diseases.

United states national land cover data base development? 1992-2001 and beyond

USGS Publications Warehouse

Yang, L.

2008-01-01

An accurate, up-to-date and spatially-explicate national land cover database is required for monitoring the status and trends of the nation's terrestrial ecosystem, and for managing and conserving land resources at the national scale. With all the challenges and resources required to develop such a database, an innovative and scientifically sound planning must be in place and a partnership be formed among users from government agencies, research institutes and private sectors. In this paper, we summarize major scientific and technical issues regarding the development of the NLCD 1992 and 2001. Experiences and lessons learned from the project are documented with regard to project design, technical approaches, accuracy assessment strategy, and projecti imiplementation.Future improvements in developing next generation NLCD beyond 2001 are suggested, including: 1) enhanced satellite data preprocessing in correction of atmospheric and adjacency effect and the topographic normalization; 2) improved classification accuracy through comprehensive and consistent training data and new algorithm development; 3) multi-resolution and multi-temporal database targeting major land cover changes and land cover database updates; 4) enriched database contents by including additional biophysical parameters and/or more detailed land cover classes through synergizing multi-sensor, multi-temporal, and multi-spectral satellite data and ancillary data, and 5) transform the NLCD project into a national land cover monitoring program. ?? 2008 IEEE.

Heat strain models applicable for protective clothing: Comparison of core temperature response. Technical report

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Gonzalez, R.R.; McLellan, T.M.; Withey, W.R.

This report represents the results of TTCP-UTP6 efforts on modeling aspects when chemical protective ensembles are worn which need to be considered in warm environments. Since 1983, a significant data base has been collected using human experimental studies and wide clothing systems from which predictive modeling equations have been developed with individuals working in temperate and hot environments, but few comparisons of the -- results from various model outputs have ever been carried out. This initial comparison study was part of a key technical area (KIA) project for The Technical Cooperation Program (TTCP) UTP-6 working party. A modeling workshop wasmore » conducted in Toronto, Canada on 9-10 June 1994 to discuss the data reduction and results acquired in an initial clothing analysis study of TTCP using various chemical protective garments. To our knowledge, no comprehensive study to date has ever focused on comparing experimental results using an international standardized heat stress procedure matched to physiological outputs from various model predictions in individuals dressed in chemical protective clothing systems. This is the major focus of this TTCP key technical study. This technical report covers one aspect of the working party`s results.« less

Methods for projecting large-scale area changes for U.S. land uses and land covers: the past and the future.

Treesearch

Ralph J. Alig

2004-01-01

Over the past 25 years, renewable resource assessments have addressed demand, supply, and inventory of various renewable resources in increasingly sophisticated fashion, including simulation and optimization analyses of area changes in land uses (e.g., urbanization) and land covers (e.g., plantations vs. naturally regenerated forests). This synthesis reviews related...

[Difference of Karst Carbon Sink Under Different Land Use and Land Cover Areas in Dry Season].

PubMed

Zhao, Rui-yi; Liang, Zuo-bing; Wang, Zun-bo; Yu, Zheng-liang; Jiang, Ze-li

2015-05-01

In order to identify the distinction of soil CO2 consumed by carbonate rock dissolution, Baishuwan spring, Lanhuagou spring and Hougou spring were selected as objects to monitor the hydrochemistry from November 2013 to May 2014. The results showed that the highest HCO3- concentration was observed in Baishuwan spring which is covered by pine forest, while the lowest HCO3- concentration was observed in Hougou spring which is mainly covered by cultivated land. In Baishuwan spring, HCO3- was mainly derived from carbonic acid dissolving carbonate rock and the molar ratio between Ca(2+) + Mg2+ and HCO3- was close to 0. 5; while the molar ratio between Ca(2+) + Mg2+ and HCO3- exceeded 0.5 because the carbonate rock in Lanhuagou spring and Hougou spring was mainly dissolved by nitric acid and sulfuric acid. Because of the input of litter and the fact that gas-permeability of soil was limited in Baishuwan spring catchment, most of soil CO2 was dissolved in infiltrated water and reacted with bedrock. However, in Lanhuagou spring catchment and Hougou spring catchment, porous soil made soil CO2 easier to return to the atmosphere in the form of soil respiration. Therefore, in order to accurately estimate karst carbon sink, it was required to clarify the distinction of CO2 consumption by carbonate rock dissolution under different land use and land cover areas.

Land cover changes in central Sonora Mexico

Treesearch

Diego Valdez-Zamudio; Alejandro Castellanos-Villegas; Stuart Marsh

2000-01-01

Remote sensing techniques have been demonstrated to be very effective tools to help detect, analyze, and evaluate land cover changes in natural areas of the world. Changes in land cover can generally be attributed to either natural or anthropogenic forces. Multitemporal satellite imagery and airborne videography were used to detect, analyze, and evaluate land cover...

The composing process in technical communication

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Masse, R. E.

1981-01-01

The theory and application of the composing process in technical communications is addressed. The composing process of engineers, some implications for composing research for the teaching and research of technical communication, and an interpretation of the processes as creative experience are also discussed. Two areas of technical communications summarized concern: the rhetorical features of technical communications, and the theoretical background for a process-based view, a problem-solving approach to technical writing.

Effects of tourism and globalization on land cover and the influence on the quality of life of Paphos area in Cyprus

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Italos, Chrysostomos; Akylas, Evangelos; Hadjimitsis, Diofantos G.

2014-08-01

Since 1960 most of the coastal area cites across the Mediterranean Sea concentrates people due mass immigration of people from the rural to urban areas. The extensive tourism development especially across the coastal areas, create demand of infrastructures and new work positions and intensive pressure to the environment. The new spirit of the globalization creates movability of people and goods around the word. The free transfer of people from countries with big population and low economical wealth, which are moved to areas where they can work. All the above generate demands of labor and Paphos is one of these areas where during the last decades was transformed from a small agriculture village in one excellent tourist destination. Across the coastal areas big tourist infrastructure was built and lot of different people travel from all areas around the word especially during the summer months. All these generate continuous changes to the environment, to the people and the society. The globalization of the universe commerce and the free transfer of goods and people modify the community stratification. The inflow of agricultures products from third countries reduces the local production and generates degradation and desertification of the rural areas. The periodical variation of the population of the area during the summer and winter periods affect to the environment. The increment demand of sources (water, energy and food) during the summer months pressurize the coastal strip area. By estimating a ratio of inflows by the outflows of goods, people and services of the study area and a ratio of the tourists by the local population, a general index can by arise which will clarify the effects on the environment on the study area. This paper presents the results obtained by this study by examining the effects of tourism on land cover and effects on quality of life for the Paphos area in Cyprus. The authors explores the potential of blending in the sustainability study the

Multispectral LiDAR Data for Land Cover Classification of Urban Areas

PubMed Central

Morsy, Salem; Shaker, Ahmed; El-Rabbany, Ahmed

2017-01-01

Airborne Light Detection And Ranging (LiDAR) systems usually operate at a monochromatic wavelength measuring the range and the strength of the reflected energy (intensity) from objects. Recently, multispectral LiDAR sensors, which acquire data at different wavelengths, have emerged. This allows for recording of a diversity of spectral reflectance from objects. In this context, we aim to investigate the use of multispectral LiDAR data in land cover classification using two different techniques. The first is image-based classification, where intensity and height images are created from LiDAR points and then a maximum likelihood classifier is applied. The second is point-based classification, where ground filtering and Normalized Difference Vegetation Indices (NDVIs) computation are conducted. A dataset of an urban area located in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada, is classified into four classes: buildings, trees, roads and grass. An overall accuracy of up to 89.9% and 92.7% is achieved from image classification and 3D point classification, respectively. A radiometric correction model is also applied to the intensity data in order to remove the attenuation due to the system distortion and terrain height variation. The classification process is then repeated, and the results demonstrate that there are no significant improvements achieved in the overall accuracy. PMID:28445432

Multispectral LiDAR Data for Land Cover Classification of Urban Areas.

PubMed

Morsy, Salem; Shaker, Ahmed; El-Rabbany, Ahmed

2017-04-26

Airborne Light Detection And Ranging (LiDAR) systems usually operate at a monochromatic wavelength measuring the range and the strength of the reflected energy (intensity) from objects. Recently, multispectral LiDAR sensors, which acquire data at different wavelengths, have emerged. This allows for recording of a diversity of spectral reflectance from objects. In this context, we aim to investigate the use of multispectral LiDAR data in land cover classification using two different techniques. The first is image-based classification, where intensity and height images are created from LiDAR points and then a maximum likelihood classifier is applied. The second is point-based classification, where ground filtering and Normalized Difference Vegetation Indices (NDVIs) computation are conducted. A dataset of an urban area located in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada, is classified into four classes: buildings, trees, roads and grass. An overall accuracy of up to 89.9% and 92.7% is achieved from image classification and 3D point classification, respectively. A radiometric correction model is also applied to the intensity data in order to remove the attenuation due to the system distortion and terrain height variation. The classification process is then repeated, and the results demonstrate that there are no significant improvements achieved in the overall accuracy.

Modeling percent tree canopy cover: a pilot study

Treesearch

John W. Coulston; Gretchen G. Moisen; Barry T. Wilson; Mark V. Finco; Warren B. Cohen; C. Kenneth Brewer

2012-01-01

Tree canopy cover is a fundamental component of the landscape, and the amount of cover influences fire behavior, air pollution mitigation, and carbon storage. As such, efforts to empirically model percent tree canopy cover across the United States are a critical area of research. The 2001 national-scale canopy cover modeling and mapping effort was completed in 2006,...

Object-based land cover classification and change analysis in the Baltimore metropolitan area using multitemporal high resolution remote sensing data

Treesearch

Weiqi Zhou; Austin Troy; Morgan Grove

2008-01-01

Accurate and timely information about land cover pattern and change in urban areas is crucial for urban land management decision-making, ecosystem monitoring and urban planning. This paper presents the methods and results of an object-based classification and post-classification change detection of multitemporal high-spatial resolution Emerge aerial imagery in the...

Environmental Science and Research Foundation, Inc. annual technical report: Calendar year 1997

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Reynolds, R.D.; Warren, R.W.

This Annual Technical Report describes work conducted for the Department of Energy, Idaho Operations Office (DOE-ID), by the Environmental Science and Research Foundation (Foundation). The Foundation`s mission to DOE-ID provides support in several key areas. The Foundation conducts an environmental monitoring and surveillance program over an area covering much of the upper Snake River Plain, and provides environmental education and support services related to Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL) natural resource issues. Also, the Foundation, with its University Affiliates, conducts ecological and radioecological research on the Idaho National Environmental Research Park. This research benefits major DOE-ID programs includingmore » Waste Management, Environmental Restoration, Spent Nuclear Fuels, and Land Management Issues. Summaries are included of the individual research projects.« less

A Quantitative Method to Identify Lithology Beneath Cover

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gettings, M. E.

2008-12-01

Geophysical terranes (map areas of similar potential field data response) can be used in the estimation of geological map units beneath cover (bedrock, alluvium, or tectonic block). Potential field data over nearby bedrock terranes defines "candidate terranes". Geophysical anomaly dimensions, shapes, amplitudes, trends/structural grain, and fractal measures yield a vector of measures characterizing the terrane. To compare candidate terranes fields with those for covered areas, the effect of depth of cover must be taken into account. Gravity anomaly data yields depth estimates by which the aeromagnetic data of candidate terranes are then upward continued. Comparison of characteristics of the upward continued fields from the candidate terranes to those of covered areas rank the candidates. Because of signal loss in upward continuation and overlap of physical properties, the vectors of measures for the candidate terranes are usually not unique. Possibility theory offers a relatively objective and robust method that can be used to rank terrane types that includes uncertainty. The strategy is to prepare membership functions for each measure of each candidate terrane and the covered area, based on observed values and degree of knowledge, and then form the fuzzy-logical combination of these to estimate the possibility and its uncertainty for each candidate terrane. Membership functions include uncertainty by the degree of membership for various possibility values. With no other information, uncertainty is based on information content from survey specifications and geologic features dimensions. Geologic data can also be included, such as structural trends, proximity, and tectonic history. Little knowledge implies wide membership functions; perfect knowledge, a delta function. This and the combination rules in fuzzy logic yield a robust estimation method. An uncertain membership function of a characteristic contributes much less to the possibility than a precise one. The

Intercomparison of Satellite-Derived Snow-Cover Maps

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hall, Dorothy K.; Tait, Andrew B.; Foster, James L.; Chang, Alfred T. C.; Allen, Milan

1999-01-01

In anticipation of the launch of the Earth Observing System (EOS) Terra, and the PM-1 spacecraft in 1999 and 2000, respectively, efforts are ongoing to determine errors of satellite-derived snow-cover maps. EOS Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer-E (AMSR-E) snow-cover products will be produced. For this study we compare snow maps covering the same study area acquired from different sensors using different snow- mapping algorithms. Four locations are studied: 1) southern Saskatchewan; 2) a part of New England (New Hampshire, Vermont and Massachusetts) and eastern New York; 3) central Idaho and western Montana; and 4) parts of North and South Dakota. Snow maps were produced using a prototype MODIS snow-mapping algorithm used on Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) scenes of each study area at 30-m and when the TM data were degraded to 1 -km resolution. National Operational Hydrologic Remote Sensing Center (NOHRSC) 1 -km resolution snow maps were also used, as were snow maps derived from 1/2 deg. x 1/2 deg. resolution Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/1) data. A land-cover map derived from the International Geosphere-Biosphere Program (IGBP) land-cover map of North America was also registered to the scenes. The TM, NOHRSC and SSM/I snow maps, and land-cover maps were compared digitally. In most cases, TM-derived maps show less snow cover than the NOHRSC and SSM/I maps because areas of incomplete snow cover in forests (e.g., tree canopies, branches and trunks) are seen in the TM data, but not in the coarser-resolution maps. The snow maps generally agree with respect to the spatial variability of the snow cover. The 30-m resolution TM data provide the most accurate snow maps, and are thus used as the baseline for comparison with the other maps. Comparisons show that the percent change in amount of snow cover relative to the 3 0-m resolution TM maps is lowest using the TM I -km resolution maps, ranging from 0 to 40

Environmental Science and Research Foundation annual technical report: Calendar year 1996

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Morris, R.C.; Blew, R.D.

1997-07-01

This Annual Technical Report describes work conducted for the Department of Energy, Idaho Operations Office (DOE-ID), by the Environmental Science and Research Foundation (Foundation). The Foundation`s mission to DOE-ID provides support in several key areas. The authors conduct an environmental monitoring and surveillance program over an area covering much of the upper Snake River Plain, and provide environmental education and support services related to Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL) natural resource issues. Also, the Foundation, with its University Affiliates, conducts ecological and radioecological research in the Idaho National Environmental Research Park. This research benefits major DOE-ID programs includingmore » Waste Management, Environmental Restoration, Spent Nuclear Fuels, and Land Management Issues. The major accomplishments of the Foundation and its University Affiliates during the calendar year 1996 are discussed.« less

Study on Classification Accuracy Inspection of Land Cover Data Aided by Automatic Image Change Detection Technology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xie, W.-J.; Zhang, L.; Chen, H.-P.; Zhou, J.; Mao, W.-J.

2018-04-01

The purpose of carrying out national geographic conditions monitoring is to obtain information of surface changes caused by human social and economic activities, so that the geographic information can be used to offer better services for the government, enterprise and public. Land cover data contains detailed geographic conditions information, thus has been listed as one of the important achievements in the national geographic conditions monitoring project. At present, the main issue of the production of the land cover data is about how to improve the classification accuracy. For the land cover data quality inspection and acceptance, classification accuracy is also an important check point. So far, the classification accuracy inspection is mainly based on human-computer interaction or manual inspection in the project, which are time consuming and laborious. By harnessing the automatic high-resolution remote sensing image change detection technology based on the ERDAS IMAGINE platform, this paper carried out the classification accuracy inspection test of land cover data in the project, and presented a corresponding technical route, which includes data pre-processing, change detection, result output and information extraction. The result of the quality inspection test shows the effectiveness of the technical route, which can meet the inspection needs for the two typical errors, that is, missing and incorrect update error, and effectively reduces the work intensity of human-computer interaction inspection for quality inspectors, and also provides a technical reference for the data production and quality control of the land cover data.

The effects of dust on Colorado mountain snow cover albedo and compositional links to dust-source areas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Goldstein, H. L.; Reynolds, R. L.; Landry, C.; Derry, J. E.; Kokaly, R. F.; Breit, G. N.

2016-12-01

Dust deposited on mountain snow cover (DOS) changes snow albedo, enhances absorption of solar radiation, and effectively increases rates of snow melt, leading to earlier-than-normal runoff and overall smaller late-season water supplies for tens of millions of people and industries in the American West. Visible-spectrum reflectance of DOS samples is on the order of 0.2 (80% absorption), in stark contrast to the high reflectivity of pure snow which approaches 1.0. Samples of DOS were collected from 12 high-elevation Colorado mountain sites near the end of spring from 2013 through 2016 prior to complete snow melt, when most dust layers had merged into one layer. These samples were analyzed to measure dust properties that affect snow albedo and to link DOS to dust-source areas. Dust mass loadings to snow during water year 2014 varied from 5 to 30 g/m2. Median particle sizes centered around 20 micrometers with more than 80% of the dust <63 micrometers. Dark minerals, carbonaceous matter, and iron oxides, including nano-sized hematite and goethite, together diminished reflectance according to their variable concentrations. Documenting variations in dust-particle masses, sizes, and compositions helps determine their influences on snow-melt and may be useful for modeling snow-melt effects from future dust. Furthermore, variations in dust components and particle sizes lead to new ways to recognize sources of dust by comparison with properties of fine-grained sediments in dust-source areas. Much of the DOS in the San Juan Mountains, Colorado can be linked to southern Colorado Plateau source areas by compositional similarities and satellite imagery. Understanding dust properties that affect snow albedo and recognizing the sources of dust deposited on snow cover may guide mitigation of dust emission that affects water resources of the Colorado River basin.

The Thermal Collector With Varied Glass Covers

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Luminosu, I.; Pop, N.

2010-08-04

The thermal collector with varied glass covers represents an innovation realized in order to build a collector able to reach the desired temperature by collecting the solar radiation from the smallest surface, with the highest efficiency. In the case of the thermal collector with variable cover glasses, the number of the glass plates covering the absorber increases together with the length of the circulation pipe for the working fluid. The thermal collector with varied glass covers compared to the conventional collector better meet user requirements because: for the same temperature increase, has the collecting area smaller; for the same collectionmore » area, realizes the highest temperature increase and has the highest efficiency. This works is addressed to researchers in the solar energy and to engineers responsible with air-conditioning systems design or industrial and agricultural products drying.« less

The Thermal Collector With Varied Glass Covers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Luminosu, I.; Pop, N.

2010-08-01

The thermal collector with varied glass covers represents an innovation realized in order to build a collector able to reach the desired temperature by collecting the solar radiation from the smallest surface, with the highest efficiency. In the case of the thermal collector with variable cover glasses, the number of the glass plates covering the absorber increases together with the length of the circulation pipe for the working fluid. The thermal collector with varied glass covers compared to the conventional collector better meet user requirements because: for the same temperature increase, has the collecting area smaller; for the same collection area, realizes the highest temperature increase and has the highest efficiency. This works is addressed to researchers in the solar energy and to engineers responsible with air-conditioning systems design or industrial and agricultural products drying.

Estimation of Land Surface Temperature for the Quantitative Analysis of Land Cover of Lower Areas of Sindh to Assess the Impacts of Climate Variability

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Qaisar, Maha

2016-07-01

Due to the present land use practices and climate variability, drastic shifts in regional climate and land covers are easily seen and their future reduction and gain are too well predicted. Therefore, there is an increasing need for data on land-cover changes at narrow and broad spatial scales. In this study, a remote sensing-based technique for land-cover-change analysis is applied to the lower Sindh areas for the last decade. Landsat satellite products were analyzed on an alternate yearly basis, from 1990 to 2016. Then Land-cover-change magnitudes were measured and mapped for alternate years. Land Surface Temperature (LST) is one of the critical elements in the natural phenomena of surface energy and water balance at local and global extent. However, LST was computed by using Landsat thermal bands via brightness temperature and a vegetation index. Normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) was interpreted and maps were achieved. LST reflected NDVI patterns with complexity of vegetation patterns. Along with this, Object Based Image Analysis (OBIA) was done for classifying 5 major classes of water, vegetation, urban, marshy lands and barren lands with significant map layouts. Pakistan Meteorological Department provided the climate data in which rainfall, temperature and air temperature are included. Once the LST and OBIA are performed, overlay analysis was done to correlate the results of LST with OBIA and LST with meteorological data to ascertain the changes in land covers due to increasing centigrade of LST. However, satellite derived LST was also correlated with climate data for environmental analysis and to estimate Land Surface Temperature for assessing the inverse impacts of climate variability. This study's results demonstrate the land-cover changes in Lower Areas of Sindh including the Indus Delta mostly involve variations in land-cover conditions due to inter-annual climatic variability and temporary shifts in seasonality. However it is too concluded

Time series change detection: Algorithms for land cover change

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Boriah, Shyam

The climate and earth sciences have recently undergone a rapid transformation from a data-poor to a data-rich environment. In particular, climate and ecosystem related observations from remote sensors on satellites, as well as outputs of climate or earth system models from large-scale computational platforms, provide terabytes of temporal, spatial and spatio-temporal data. These massive and information-rich datasets offer huge potential for advancing the science of land cover change, climate change and anthropogenic impacts. One important area where remote sensing data can play a key role is in the study of land cover change. Specifically, the conversion of natural land cover into humandominated cover types continues to be a change of global proportions with many unknown environmental consequences. In addition, being able to assess the carbon risk of changes in forest cover is of critical importance for both economic and scientific reasons. In fact, changes in forests account for as much as 20% of the greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere, an amount second only to fossil fuel emissions. Thus, there is a need in the earth science domain to systematically study land cover change in order to understand its impact on local climate, radiation balance, biogeochemistry, hydrology, and the diversity and abundance of terrestrial species. Land cover conversions include tree harvests in forested regions, urbanization, and agricultural intensification in former woodland and natural grassland areas. These types of conversions also have significant public policy implications due to issues such as water supply management and atmospheric CO2 output. In spite of the importance of this problem and the considerable advances made over the last few years in high-resolution satellite data, data mining, and online mapping tools and services, end users still lack practical tools to help them manage and transform this data into actionable knowledge of changes in forest ecosystems that

Consequences of land use and land cover change

USGS Publications Warehouse

Slonecker, E. Terrence; Barnes, Christopher; Karstensen, Krista; Milheim, Lesley E.; Roig-Silva, Coral M.

2013-01-01

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Climate and Land Use Change Mission Area is one of seven USGS mission areas that focuses on making substantial scientific "...contributions to understanding how Earth systems interact, respond to, and cause global change". Using satellite and other remotely sensed data, USGS scientists monitor patterns of land cover change over space and time at regional, national, and global scales. These data are analyzed to understand the causes and consequences of changing land cover, such as economic impacts, effects on water quality and availability, the spread of invasive species, habitats and biodiversity, carbon fluctuations, and climate variability. USGS scientists are among the leaders in the study of land cover, which is a term that generally refers to the vegetation and artificial structures that cover the land surface. Examples of land cover include forests, grasslands, wetlands, water, crops, and buildings. Land use involves human activities that take place on the land. For example, "grass" is a land cover, whereas pasture and recreational parks are land uses that produce a cover of grass.

30 CFR 7.44 - Technical requirements.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... APPROVAL OF MINING PRODUCTS TESTING BY APPLICANT OR THIRD PARTY Battery Assemblies § 7.44 Technical requirements. (a)(1) Battery boxes and covers constructed of AISI 1010 hot rolled steel shall have the following minimum thicknesses based on the total weight of a unit of the battery assembly charged and ready...

30 CFR 7.44 - Technical requirements.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... APPROVAL OF MINING PRODUCTS TESTING BY APPLICANT OR THIRD PARTY Battery Assemblies § 7.44 Technical requirements. (a)(1) Battery boxes and covers constructed of AISI 1010 hot rolled steel shall have the following minimum thicknesses based on the total weight of a unit of the battery assembly charged and ready...

Comparison between uncovered and covered self-expandable metal stent placement in malignant duodenal obstruction.

PubMed

Kim, Ji Won; Jeong, Ji Bong; Lee, Kook Lae; Kim, Byeong Gwan; Ahn, Dong Won; Lee, Jae Kyung; Kim, Su Hwan

2015-02-07

To compare the clinical outcomes of uncovered and covered self-expandable metal stent placements in patients with malignant duodenal obstruction. A total of 67 patients were retrospectively enrolled from January 2003 to June 2013. All patients had symptomatic obstruction characterized by nausea, vomiting, reduced oral intake, and weight loss. The exclusion criteria included asymptomatic duodenal obstruction, perforation or peritonitis, concomitant small bowel obstruction, or duodenal obstruction caused by benign strictures. The technical and clinical success rate, complication rate, and stent patency were compared according to the placement of uncovered (n = 38) or covered (n = 29) stents. The technical and clinical success rates did not differ between the uncovered and covered stent groups (100% vs 96.6% and 89.5% vs 82.8%). There were no differences in the overall complication rates between the uncovered and covered stent groups (31.6% vs 41.4%). However, stent migration occurred more frequently with covered than uncovered stents [20.7% (6/29) vs 0% (0/38), P < 0.05]. Moreover, the overall cumulative median duration of stent patency was longer in uncovered than in covered stents [251 d (95%CI: 149.8 d-352.2 d) vs 139 d (95%CI: 45.5 d-232.5 d), P < 0.05 by log-rank test] The overall cumulative median survival period was not different between the uncovered stent (70 d) and covered stent groups (60 d). Uncovered stents may be preferable in malignant duodenal obstruction because of their greater resistance to stent migration and longer stent patency than covered stents.

Comparison between uncovered and covered self-expandable metal stent placement in malignant duodenal obstruction

PubMed Central

Kim, Ji Won; Jeong, Ji Bong; Lee, Kook Lae; Kim, Byeong Gwan; Ahn, Dong Won; Lee, Jae Kyung; Kim, Su Hwan

2015-01-01

AIM: To compare the clinical outcomes of uncovered and covered self-expandable metal stent placements in patients with malignant duodenal obstruction. METHODS: A total of 67 patients were retrospectively enrolled from January 2003 to June 2013. All patients had symptomatic obstruction characterized by nausea, vomiting, reduced oral intake, and weight loss. The exclusion criteria included asymptomatic duodenal obstruction, perforation or peritonitis, concomitant small bowel obstruction, or duodenal obstruction caused by benign strictures. The technical and clinical success rate, complication rate, and stent patency were compared according to the placement of uncovered (n = 38) or covered (n = 29) stents. RESULTS: The technical and clinical success rates did not differ between the uncovered and covered stent groups (100% vs 96.6% and 89.5% vs 82.8%). There were no differences in the overall complication rates between the uncovered and covered stent groups (31.6% vs 41.4%). However, stent migration occurred more frequently with covered than uncovered stents [20.7% (6/29) vs 0% (0/38), P < 0.05]. Moreover, the overall cumulative median duration of stent patency was longer in uncovered than in covered stents [251 d (95%CI: 149.8 d-352.2 d) vs 139 d (95%CI: 45.5 d-232.5 d), P < 0.05 by log-rank test] The overall cumulative median survival period was not different between the uncovered stent (70 d) and covered stent groups (60 d). CONCLUSION: Uncovered stents may be preferable in malignant duodenal obstruction because of their greater resistance to stent migration and longer stent patency than covered stents. PMID:25663777

Technical communication. Perspectives for the Eighties, part 2

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mathes, J. C. (Compiler); Pinelli, T. E. (Compiler)

1981-01-01

The importance of technical writing as a separate discipline is suggested. Some specific areas addressed were: technical writing skills industry needs, definitions of technical writing, the hows and whys of inhouse writing, and the nature of the composing process in technical comunication.

Dimer covering and percolation frustration.

PubMed

Haji-Akbari, Amir; Haji-Akbari, Nasim; Ziff, Robert M

2015-09-01

Covering a graph or a lattice with nonoverlapping dimers is a problem that has received considerable interest in areas, such as discrete mathematics, statistical physics, chemistry, and materials science. Yet, the problem of percolation on dimer-covered lattices has received little attention. In particular, percolation on lattices that are fully covered by nonoverlapping dimers has not evidently been considered. Here, we propose a procedure for generating random dimer coverings of a given lattice. We then compute the bond percolation threshold on random and ordered coverings of the square and the triangular lattices on the remaining bonds connecting the dimers. We obtain p_{c}=0.367713(2) and p_{c}=0.235340(1) for random coverings of the square and the triangular lattices, respectively. We observe that the percolation frustration induced as a result of dimer covering is larger in the low-coordination-number square lattice. There is also no relationship between the existence of long-range order in a covering of the square lattice and its percolation threshold. In particular, an ordered covering of the square lattice, denoted by shifted covering in this paper, has an unusually low percolation threshold and is topologically identical to the triangular lattice. This is in contrast to the other ordered dimer coverings considered in this paper, which have higher percolation thresholds than the random covering. In the case of the triangular lattice, the percolation thresholds of the ordered and random coverings are very close, suggesting the lack of sensitivity of the percolation threshold to microscopic details of the covering in highly coordinated networks.

On the impact of snow cover on daytime pollution dispersion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Segal, M.; Garratt, J. R.; Pielke, R. A.; Hildebrand, P.; Rogers, F. A.; Cramer, J.; Schanot, A.

A preliminary evaluation of the impact of snow cover on daytime pollutant dispersion conditions is made by using conceptual, scaling, and observational analyses. For uniform snow cover and synoptically unperturbed sunny conditions, observations indicate a considerate suppression of the surface sensible heat flux, the turbulence, and the development of the daytime atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) when compared to snow-free conditions. However, under conditions of non-uniform snow cover, as in urban areas, or associated with vegetated areas or bare ground patches, a milder effect on pollutant dispersion conditions would be expected. Observed concentrations of atmospheric particles within the ABL, and surface pollutant concentrations in urban areas, reflect the impact of snow cover on the modification of ABL characteristics.

Continental-scale Sensitivity of Water Yield to Changes in Impervious Cover

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Caldwell, P.; Sun, G.; McNulty, S.; Cohen, E.; Moore Myers, J.

2012-12-01

Projected land conversion from native forest, grassland, and shrubland to urban impervious cover will alter watershed water balances by reducing groundwater recharge and evapotranspiration, increasing surface runoff, and potentially altering regional weather patterns. These hydrologic changes have important ecohydrological implications to local watersheds, including stream channel habitat degradation and the loss of aquatic biodiversity. Many observational studies have evaluated the impact of urbanization on water yield in small catchments downstream of specific urban areas. However it is often difficult to separate the impact of impervious cover from other impacts of urbanization such as leaking water infrastructure, irrigation runoff, water supply withdrawals, and effluent discharge. In addition, the impact of impervious cover has not been evaluated at scales large enough to assess spatial differences in water yield sensitivity to changes in impervious cover. The objective of this study was to assess the sensitivity of water yield to impervious cover across the conterminous U.S., and to identify locations where water yield will be most impacted by future urbanization. We used the Water Supply Stress Index (WaSSI) model to simulate monthly water yield as impacted by impervious cover for the approximately 82,000 12-digit HUC watersheds across the conterminous U.S. WaSSI computed infiltration, surface runoff, soil moisture, and baseflow processes explicitly for ten vegetative land cover classes and impervious cover in each watershed using the 2006 National Land Cover Dataset estimates of impervious cover. Our results indicate that impervious cover has increased total water yield in urban areas (relative to native vegetation), and that the increase was most significant during the growing season. The proportion of stream flow that occurred as baseflow decreased, even though total water yield increased as a result of impervious cover. Water yield was most sensitive to

Modeling Land Use/Cover Changes in an African Rural Landscape

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kamusoko, C.; Aniya, M.

2006-12-01

Land use/cover changes are analyzed in the Bindura district of Zimbabwe, Africa through the integration of data from a time series of Landsat imagery (1973, 1989 and 2000), a household survey and GIS coverages. We employed a hybrid supervised/unsupervised classification approach to generate land use/cover maps from which landscape metrics were calculated. Population and other household variables were derived from a sample of surveyed villages, while road accessibility and slope were obtained from topographic maps and digital elevation model, respectively. Markov-cellular automata modeling approach that incorporates Markov chain analysis, cellular automata and multi-criteria evaluation (MCE) / multi-objective allocation (MOLA) procedures was used to simulate land use/cover changes. A GIS-based MCE technique computed transition potential maps, whereas transition areas were derived from the 1973-2000 land use/cover maps using the Markov chain analysis. A 5 x 5 cellular automata filter was used to develop a spatially explicit contiguity- weighting factor to change the cells based on its previous state and those of its neighbors, while MOLA resolved land use/cover class allocation conflicts. The kappa index of agreement was used for model validation. Observed trends in land use/cover changes indicate that deforestation and the encroachment of cultivation in woodland areas is a continuous trend in the study area. This suggests that economic activities driven by agricultural expansion were the main causes of landscape fragmentation, leading to landscape degradation. Rigorous calibration of transition potential maps done by a MCE algorithm and Markovian transition probabilities produced accurate inputs for the simulation of land use/cover changes. Overall standard kappa index of agreement ranged from 0.73 to 0.83, which is sufficient for simulating land use/cover changes in the study area. Land use/cover simulations under the 1989 and 2000 scenario indicated further

Improvement of Operational Streamflow Prediction with MODIS-derived Fractional Snow Covered Area Observations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bender, S.; Burgess, A.; Goodale, C. E.; Mattmann, C. A.; Miller, W. P.; Painter, T. H.; Rittger, K. E.; Stokes, M.; Werner, K.

2013-12-01

Water managers in the western United States depend heavily on the timing and magnitude of snowmelt-driven runoff for municipal supply, irrigation, maintenance of environmental flows, and power generation. The Colorado Basin River Forecast Center (CBRFC) of the National Weather Service issues operational forecasts of snowmelt-driven streamflow for watersheds within the Colorado River Basin (CRB) and eastern Great Basin (EGB), across a wide variety of scales. Therefore, the CBRFC and its stakeholders consider snowpack observations to be highly valuable. Observations of fractional snow covered area (fSCA) from satellite-borne instrumentation can better inform both forecasters and water users with respect to subsequent snowmelt runoff, particularly when combined with observations from ground-based station networks and/or airborne platforms. As part of a multi-year collaborative effort, CBRFC has partnered with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) under funding from NASA to incorporate observations of fSCA from NASA's Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) into the operational CBRFC hydrologic forecasting and modeling process. In the first year of the collaboration, CBRFC and NASA/JPL integrated snow products into the forecasting and decision making processes of the CBRFC and showed preliminary improvement in operational streamflow forecasts. In late 2012, CBRFC and NASA/JPL began retrospective analysis of relationships between the MODIS Snow Covered Area and Grain size (MODSCAG) fSCA and streamflow patterns for several watersheds within the CRB and the EGB. During the 2013 snowmelt runoff season, CBRFC forecasters used MODIS-derived fSCA semi-quantitatively as a binary indicator of the presence or lack of snow. Indication of the presence or lack of snow by MODIS assisted CBRFC forecasters in determining the cause of divergence between modeled and recently observed streamflow. Several examples of improved forecasts from across the CRB and EGB, informed by

Soil cover of gas-bearing areas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mozharova, N. V.

2010-08-01

Natural soils with disturbed functioning parameters compared to the background soils with conservative technogenic-pedogenic features were distinguished on vast areas above the artificial underground gas storages in the zones of spreading and predominant impact of hydrocarbon gases. The disturbance of the functioning parameters is related to the increase in the methane concentration, the bacterial oxidation intensity and destruction, and the complex microbiological and physicochemical synthesis of iron oxides. The technogenic-pedogenic features include neoformations of bacteriomorphic microdispersed iron oxides. The impurity components consist of elements typical for biogenic structures. New soil layers, horizons, specific anthropogenically modified soils, and soil-like structures were formed on small areas in the industrial zones of underground gas storages due to the mechanical disturbance, the deposition of drilling sludge, and the chemical contamination. Among the soils, postlithogenic formations were identified—chemotechnosols (soddy-podzolic soils and chernozems), as well as synlithogenic ones: strato-chemotechnosols and stratochemoembryozems. The soil-like bodies included postlithogenic soil-like structures (chemotechnozems) and synlithogenic ones (strato-chemotechnozems). A substantive approach was used for the soil diagnostics. The morphological and magnetic profiles and the physical, chemical, and physicochemical properties of the soils were analyzed. The micromorphological composition of the soil magnetic fraction was used as a magnetic label.

Percutaneous biliary covered stent insertion in patients with malignant duodenobiliary obstruction.

PubMed

Lee, Eunsol; Gwon, Dong Il; Ko, Gi-Young; Sung, Kyu-Bo; Yoon, Hyun-Ki; Shin, Ji Hoon; Kim, Jin Hyoung; Ko, Heung Kyu; Song, Ho-Young

2015-02-01

Although the use of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE)-covered biliary stents has proven to be feasible for the treatment of benign and malignant biliary disease, less is known regarding the outcomes of percutaneous placement of a covered stent in patients with malignant duodenobiliary obstruction. To investigate the technical and clinical efficacy of the percutaneous placement of a PTFE-covered biliary stent in patients with malignant duodenobiliary obstruction. From April 2007 to September 2012, the medical records of 45 consecutive patients with malignant duodenobiliary obstruction were retrospectively reviewed. All percutaneous biliary stent deployment was performed using PTFE-covered stents, whereas duodenal stent insertion was performed either fluoroscopically or endoscopically using covered or uncovered stents. Biliary stent deployment was technically successful in all patients. None of the stents migrated after deployment. Procedure-related minor complications, including self-limiting hemobilia, occurred in three (7%) patients. Successful internal drainage was achieved in 39 (87%) of the 45 patients. The median survival time after biliary stent placement was 62 days (95% confidence interval, 8-116 days), and the cumulative stent patency rates at 1, 3, 6, and 12 months were 96%, 92%, 75%, and 38%, respectively. The causes of biliary stent dysfunction included stent occlusion caused by a subsequently inserted duodenal stent (n = 7), food impaction (n = 3), and sludge incrustation (n = 1). One patient developed acute cholecystitis 131 days after biliary stent placement and underwent percutaneous transhepatic gallbladder drainage. Percutaneous insertion of a PTFE-covered stent is a safe and effective method for palliative treatment of patients with malignant duodenobiliary obstruction. If possible, subsequent biliary stent insertion is preferable in order to prevent possible biliary stent dysfunction caused by subsequent insertion of a duodenal stent. �

Final Technical Report for Award DESC0011912, "Trimodal Tapping Mode Atomic Force Microscopy: Simultaneous 4D Mapping of Conservative and Dissipative Probe-Sample Interactions of Energy-Relevant Materials”

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Solares, Santiago D.

The final project report covering the period 7/1/14-6/30/17 provides an overview of the technical accomplishments in the areas of (i) fundamental viscoelasticity, (ii) multifrequency atomic force microscopy, and (iii) characterization of energy-relevant materials with atomic force microscopy. A list of publications supported by the project is also provided.

10 CFR 455.123 - Grantee records and reports for State grants for administrative expenses, technical assistance...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

....123 Grantee records and reports for State grants for administrative expenses, technical assistance... institutions participating in the technical assistance phase of this program and upon the energy use reports... to time request. (c) Each copy of any report covering grants for State administrative, technical...

10 CFR 455.123 - Grantee records and reports for State grants for administrative expenses, technical assistance...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

....123 Grantee records and reports for State grants for administrative expenses, technical assistance... institutions participating in the technical assistance phase of this program and upon the energy use reports... to time request. (c) Each copy of any report covering grants for State administrative, technical...

10 CFR 455.123 - Grantee records and reports for State grants for administrative expenses, technical assistance...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

....123 Grantee records and reports for State grants for administrative expenses, technical assistance... institutions participating in the technical assistance phase of this program and upon the energy use reports... to time request. (c) Each copy of any report covering grants for State administrative, technical...

10 CFR 455.123 - Grantee records and reports for State grants for administrative expenses, technical assistance...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

....123 Grantee records and reports for State grants for administrative expenses, technical assistance... institutions participating in the technical assistance phase of this program and upon the energy use reports... to time request. (c) Each copy of any report covering grants for State administrative, technical...

A Comprehensive Study of Vocational Interests, Occupational Opportunities and Cooperative Education for the Mid-Plains Nebraska Technical Community College Area.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Boardman, Gerald R.; Mendenhall, Elton B.

The main purpose of the study was to develop a cooperative education plan for the Mid-Plains Technical Community College area through assessment of: (1) vocational interests of students in grades 9-12, (2) occupational opportunities of employers, and (3) various existing cooperative education programs. Vocational interest assessment consisted of…

Introduction to Technical Services. Seventh Edition. Library and Information Science Text Series.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Evans, G. Edward; Intner, Sheila S.; Weihs, Jean

This updated edition covers all aspects of library technical services--from acquisitions to managing the cataloging department--with new emphasis on automation as it affects technical services work and those skills that can be developed through work experience or classroom instruction. Part One, General Background, consists of four chapters that…

Dual Durameter Blow Molded Rocker Cover Design With Unique Isolation Strategy

DOEpatents

Freese, V, Charles Edwin

2000-07-11

The rocker arm cover on a diesel engine can be formed of a rigid molded plastic material to minimize the transmission of noise into the atmosphere. Sonic vibration of the cover can be reduced by reducing the cover material stiffness. The reduced stiffness of the cover material allows the roof area of the cover to be momentarily displaced away from the cylinder head in the presence of an acoustic wave, so that the roof area is not able to develop the restoring force that is necessary for vibrational motion.

Managed Clearings: an Unaccounted Land-cover in Urbanizing Regions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Singh, K. K.; Madden, M.; Meentemeyer, R. K.

2016-12-01

Managed clearings (MC), such as lawns, public parks and grassy transportation medians, are a common and ecologically important land cover type in urbanizing regions, especially those characterized by sprawl. We hypothesize that MC is underrepresented in land cover classification schemes and data products such as NLCD (National Land Cover Database) data, which may impact environmental assessments and models of urban ecosystems. We visually interpreted and mapped fine scale land cover with special attention to MC using 2012 NAIP (National Agriculture Imagery Program) images and compared the output with NLCD data. Areas sampled were 50 randomly distributed 1*1km blocks of land in three cities of the Char-lanta mega-region (Atlanta, Charlotte, and Raleigh). We estimated the abundance of MC relative to other land cover types, and the proportion of land-cover types in NLCD data that are similar to MC. We also assessed if the designations of recreation, transportation, and utility in MC inform the problem differently than simply tallying MC as a whole. 610 ground points, collected using the Google Earth, were used to evaluate accuracy of NLCD data and visual interpretation for consistency. Overall accuracy of visual interpretation and NLCD data was 78% and 58%, respectively. NLCD data underestimated forest and MC by 14.4km2 and 6.4km2, respectively, while overestimated impervious surfaces by 10.2km2 compared to visual interpretation. MC was the second most dominant land cover after forest (40.5%) as it covered about 28% of the total area and about 13% higher than impervious surfaces. Results also suggested that recreation in MC constitutes up to 90% of area followed by transportation and utility. Due to the prevalence of MC in urbanizing regions, the addition of MC to the synthesis of land-cover data can help delineate realistic cover types and area proportions that could inform ecologic/hydrologic models, and allow for accurate prediction of ecological phenomena.

Forest cover of Champaign County, Illinois in 1993

Treesearch

Jesus Danilo Chinea; Louis R. Iverson

1997-01-01

The forest cover of Champaign County, in east-central Illinois, was mapped from 1993 aerial photography and entered in a geographical information system database. One hundred and six forest patches cover 3,380 ha. These patches have a mean area of 32 ha, a mean perimeter of 4,851 m, a mean perimeter to area ratio of 237, a fractal dimension of 1.59, and a mean nearest...

Multidecadal Changes in Near-Global Cloud Cover and Estimated Cloud Cover Radiative Forcing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Norris, Joel

2005-01-01

The first paper was Multidecadal changes in near-global cloud cover and estimated cloud cover radiative forcing, by J. R. Norris (2005, J. Geophys. Res. - Atmos., 110, D08206, doi: lO.l029/2004JD005600). This study examined variability in zonal mean surface-observed upper-level (combined midlevel and high-level) and low-level cloud cover over land during 1971-1 996 and over ocean during 1952-1997. These data were averaged from individual synoptic reports in the Extended Edited Cloud Report Archive (EECRA). Although substantial interdecadal variability is present in the time series, long-term decreases in upper-level cloud cover occur over land and ocean at low and middle latitudes in both hemispheres. Near-global upper-level cloud cover declined by 1.5%-sky-cover over land between 1971 and 1996 and by 1.3%-sky-cover over ocean between 1952 and 1997. Consistency between EECRA upper-level cloud cover anomalies and those from the International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP) during 1984-1 997 suggests the surface-observed trends are real. The reduction in surface-observed upper-level cloud cover between the 1980s and 1990s is also consistent with the decadal increase in all-sky outgoing longwave radiation reported by the Earth Radiation Budget Satellite (EMS). Discrepancies occur between time series of EECRA and ISCCP low-level cloud cover due to identified and probable artifacts in satellite and surface cloud data. Radiative effects of surface-observed cloud cover anomalies, called "cloud cover radiative forcing (CCRF) anomalies," are estimated based on a linear relationship to climatological cloud radiative forcing per unit cloud cover. Zonal mean estimated longwave CCRF has decreased over most of the globe. Estimated shortwave CCRF has become slightly stronger over northern midlatitude oceans and slightly weaker over northern midlatitude land areas. A long-term decline in the magnitude of estimated shortwave CCRF occurs over low-latitude land and ocean

Advanced transportation system studies, technical area 3. Alternate propulsion subsystem concepts: J-2S restart study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vilja, John; Levack, Daniel

1993-04-01

The objectives were to assess what design changes would be required to remit late production of the J-2S engine for use as a large high energy upper stage engine. The study assessed design changes required to perform per the J-2S model specification, manufacturing changes required due to obsolescence or improvements in state-of-the-practice, availability issues for supplier provided items, and provided cost and schedule estimates for this configuration. The confidence that J-2S production could be reinitiated within reasonable costs and schedules was provided. No significant technical issues were identified in either the producibility study or in the review of previous technical data. Areas of potential cost reduction were identified which could be quantified to a greater extent with further manufacturing planning. The proposed schedule can be met with no foreseeable impacts. The results of the study provided the necessary foundation for the detailed manufacturing and test plans and non-recurring and recurring cost estimates that are needed to complete the effort to reinitiate production of the J-2S engine system.

Mapping land cover through time with the Rapid Land Cover Mapper—Documentation and user manual

USGS Publications Warehouse

Cotillon, Suzanne E.; Mathis, Melissa L.

2017-02-15

The Rapid Land Cover Mapper is an Esri ArcGIS® Desktop add-in, which was created as an alternative to automated or semiautomated mapping methods. Based on a manual photo interpretation technique, the tool facilitates mapping over large areas and through time, and produces time-series raster maps and associated statistics that characterize the changing landscapes. The Rapid Land Cover Mapper add-in can be used with any imagery source to map various themes (for instance, land cover, soils, or forest) at any chosen mapping resolution. The user manual contains all essential information for the user to make full use of the Rapid Land Cover Mapper add-in. This manual includes a description of the add-in functions and capabilities, and step-by-step procedures for using the add-in. The Rapid Land Cover Mapper add-in was successfully used by the U.S. Geological Survey West Africa Land Use Dynamics team to accurately map land use and land cover in 17 West African countries through time (1975, 2000, and 2013).

Third SEI Technical Interchange: Proceedings

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1992-01-01

Given here are the proceedings of the 3rd Space Exploration Initiative (SEI) Technical Interchange. Topics covered include the First Lunar Outpost (FLO), the Lunar Resource Mapper, lunar rovers, lunar habitat concepts, lunar shelter construction analysis, thermoelectric nuclear power systems for SEI, cryogenic storage, a space network for lunar communications, the moon as a solar power satellite, and off-the-shelf avionics for future SEI missions.

Double-layered PTFE-covered nitinol stents: experience in 32 patients with malignant esophageal strictures.

PubMed

Park, Jung Gu; Jung, Gyoo-Sik; Oh, Kyung Seung; Park, Seon-Ja

2010-08-01

We evaluated the effectiveness of a double-layered polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE)-covered nitinol stent in the palliative treatment of malignant esophageal strictures. A double-layered PTFE-covered nitinol stent was designed to reduce the propensity to migration of conventional covered stent. The stent consists of an inner PTFE-covered stent and an outer uncovered nitinol stent tube. With fluoroscopic guidance, the stent was placed in 32 consecutive patients with malignant esophageal strictures. During the follow-up period, the technical and clinical success rates, complications, and cumulative patient survival and stent patency were evaluated. Stent placement was technically successful in all patients, and no procedural complications occurred. After stent placement, the symptoms of 30 patients (94%) showed improvement. During the mean follow-up of 103 days (range, 9-348 days), 11 (34%) of 32 patients developed recurrent symptoms due to tumor overgrowth in five patients (16%), tumor ingrowth owing to detachment of the covering material (PTFE) apart from the stent wire in 3 (9%), mucosal hyperplasia in 2 (6%), and stent migration in 1 (3%). Ten of these 11 patients were treated by means of placing a second covered stent. Thirty patients died, 29 as a result of disease progression and 1 from aspiration pneumonia. The median survival period was 92 days. The median period of primary stent patency was 190 days. The double-layered PTFE-covered nitinol stent seems to be effective for the palliative treatment of malignant esophageal strictures. We believe that the double-layer configuration of this stent can contribute to decreasing the stent's migration rate.

Effects of spatial resolution and landscape structure on land cover characterization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yang, Wenli

This dissertation addressed problems in scaling, problems that are among the main challenges in remote sensing. The principal objective of the research was to investigate the effects of changing spatial scale on the representation of land cover. A second objective was to determine the relationship between such effects, characteristics of landscape structure and scaling procedures. Four research issues related to spatial scaling were examined. They included: (1) the upscaling of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI); (2) the effects of spatial scale on indices of landscape structure; (3) the representation of land cover databases at different spatial scales; and (4) the relationships between landscape indices and land cover area estimations. The overall bias resulting from non-linearity of NDVI in relation to spatial resolution is generally insignificant as compared to other factors such as influences of aerosols and water vapor. The bias is, however, related to land surface characteristics. Significant errors may be introduced in heterogeneous areas where different land cover types exhibit strong spectral contrast. Spatially upscaled SPOT and TM NDVIs have information content comparable with the AVHRR-derived NDVI. Indices of landscape structure and spatial resolution are generally related, but the exact forms of the relationships are subject to changes in other factors including the basic patch unit constituting a landscape and the proportional area of foreground land cover under consideration. The extent of agreement between spatially aggregated coarse resolution land cover datasets and full resolution datasets changes with the properties of the original datasets, including the pixel size and class definition. There are close relationships between landscape structure and class areas estimated from spatially aggregated land cover databases. The relationships, however, do not permit extension from one area to another. Inversion calibration across different

Development of 2010 national land cover database for the Nepal.

PubMed

Uddin, Kabir; Shrestha, Him Lal; Murthy, M S R; Bajracharya, Birendra; Shrestha, Basanta; Gilani, Hammad; Pradhan, Sudip; Dangol, Bikash

2015-01-15

Land cover and its change analysis across the Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) region is realized as an urgent need to support diverse issues of environmental conservation. This study presents the first and most complete national land cover database of Nepal prepared using public domain Landsat TM data of 2010 and replicable methodology. The study estimated that 39.1% of Nepal is covered by forests and 29.83% by agriculture. Patch and edge forests constituting 23.4% of national forest cover revealed proximate biotic interferences over the forests. Core forests constituted 79.3% of forests of Protected areas where as 63% of area was under core forests in the outside protected area. Physiographic regions wise forest fragmentation analysis revealed specific conservation requirements for productive hill and mid mountain regions. Comparative analysis with Landsat TM based global land cover product showed difference of the order of 30-60% among different land cover classes stressing the need for significant improvements for national level adoption. The online web based land cover validation tool is developed for continual improvement of land cover product. The potential use of the data set for national and regional level sustainable land use planning strategies and meeting several global commitments also highlighted. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

What is Technical English, American Style?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sims, Diana Mae

The rise of American English as the medium for exhange of scientific and technical information worldwide is a linguistic phenomenon. For some time, applied linguists in Britain have provided texts to meet the demand for English for special purposes and English for science and technology. Their works use a British form of language and cover British…

Summary of Tiger Team Assessment and Technical Safety Appraisal recurring concerns in the Maintenance Area

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Not Available

1993-01-01

Tiger Team Assessments and Technical Safety Appraisals (TSA) were reviewed and evaluated for concerns in the Maintenance Area (MA). Two hundred and thirty one (231) maintenance concerns were identified by the Tiger Team Assessments and TSA reports. These recurring concerns appear below. A summary of the Noteworthy Practices that were identified and a compilation of the maintenance concerns for each performance objective that were not considered as recurring are also included. Where the Tiger Team Assessment and TSA identified the operating contractor or facility by name, the concern has been modified to remove the name while retaining the intent ofmore » the comment.« less

Approaches to consider covers and liners in a low-level waste disposal facility performance assessment

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Seitz, Roger; Phifer, Mark; Suttora, Linda

2015-03-17

On-site disposal cells are in use and being considered at several USDOE sites as the final disposition for large amounts of waste associated with cleanup of contaminated areas and facilities. These disposal cells are typically regulated by States and/or the USEPA in addition to having to comply with requirements in DOE Order 435.1, Radioactive Waste Management. The USDOE-EM Office of Site Restoration formed a working group to foster improved communication and sharing of information for personnel associated with these Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) disposal cells and work towards more consistent assumptions, as appropriate, for technical andmore » policy considerations related to performance and risk assessments in support of a Record of Decision and Disposal Authorization Statement. One task completed by the working group addressed approaches for considering the performance of covers and liners/leachate collection systems in the context of a performance assessment (PA). A document has been prepared which provides recommendations for a general approach to address covers and liners/leachate collection systems in a PA and how to integrate assessments with defense-in-depth considerations such as design, operations and waste acceptance criteria to address uncertainties. Specific information and references are provided for details needed to address the evolution of individual components of cover and liner/leachate collection systems. This information is then synthesized into recommendations for best practices for cover and liner system design and examples of approaches to address the performance of covers and liners as part of a performance assessment of the disposal system.« less

Development of deforestation and land cover database for Bhutan (1930-2014).

PubMed

Reddy, C Sudhakar; Satish, K V; Jha, C S; Diwakar, P G; Murthy, Y V N Krishna; Dadhwal, V K

2016-12-01

Bhutan is a mountainous country located in the Himalayan biodiversity hotspot. This study has quantified the total area under land cover types, estimated the rate of forest cover change, analyzed the changes across forest types, and modeled forest cover change hotpots in Bhutan. The topographical maps and satellite remote sensing images were analyzed to get the spatial patterns of forest and associated land cover changes over the past eight decades (1930-1977-1987-1995-2005-2014). Forest is the largest land cover in Bhutan and constitutes 68.3% of the total geographical area in 2014. Subtropical broad leaved hill forest is predominant type occupies 34.1% of forest area in Bhutan, followed by montane dry temperate (20.9%), montane wet temperate (18.9%), Himalayan moist temperate (10%), and tropical moist sal (8.1%) in 2014. The major forest cover loss is observed in subtropical broad leaved hill forest (64.5 km 2 ) and moist sal forest (9.9 km 2 ) from 1977 to 2014. The deforested areas have mainly been converted into agriculture and contributed for 60.9% of forest loss from 1930 to 2014. In spite of major decline of forest cover in time interval of 1930-1977, there is no net rate of deforestation is recorded in Bhutan since 1995. Forest cover change analysis has been carried out to evaluate the conservation effectiveness in "Protected Areas" of Bhutan. Hotspots that have undergone high transformation in forest cover for afforestation and deforestation were highlighted in the study for conservation prioritisation. Forest conservation policies in Bhutan are highly effective in controlling deforestation as compared to neighboring Asian countries and such service would help in mitigating climate change.

All Conservation Opportunity Areas (ECO.RES.ALL_OP_AREAS)

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

The All_OP_Areas GIS layer are all the Conservation Opportunity Areas identified by MoRAP (produced for EPA Region 7). They designate areas with potential for forest, grassland and forest/grassland mosaic conservation. These are areas of natural or semi-natural forest land cover that are at least 75 meters away from roads and away from patch edges. OAs were modeled by creating distance grids using the National Land Cover Database and the Census Bureau's TIGER roads files.

Interim Status Closure Plan Open Burning Treatment Unit Technical Area 16-399 Burn Tray

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Vigil-Holterman, Luciana R.

2012-05-07

This closure plan describes the activities necessary to close one of the interim status hazardous waste open burning treatment units at Technical Area (TA) 16 at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL or the Facility), hereinafter referred to as the 'TA-16-399 Burn Tray' or 'the unit'. The information provided in this closure plan addresses the closure requirements specified in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), Title 40, Part 265, Subparts G and P for the thermal treatment units operated at the Facility under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) and the New Mexico Hazardous Waste Act. Closure of themore » open burning treatment unit will be completed in accordance with Section 4.1 of this closure plan.« less

Evaluation and parameterization of ATCOR3 topographic correction method for forest cover mapping in mountain areas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Balthazar, Vincent; Vanacker, Veerle; Lambin, Eric F.

2012-08-01

A topographic correction of optical remote sensing data is necessary to improve the quality of quantitative forest cover change analyses in mountainous terrain. The implementation of semi-empirical correction methods requires the calibration of model parameters that are empirically defined. This study develops a method to improve the performance of topographic corrections for forest cover change detection in mountainous terrain through an iterative tuning method of model parameters based on a systematic evaluation of the performance of the correction. The latter was based on: (i) the general matching of reflectances between sunlit and shaded slopes and (ii) the occurrence of abnormal reflectance values, qualified as statistical outliers, in very low illuminated areas. The method was tested on Landsat ETM+ data for rough (Ecuadorian Andes) and very rough mountainous terrain (Bhutan Himalayas). Compared to a reference level (no topographic correction), the ATCOR3 semi-empirical correction method resulted in a considerable reduction of dissimilarities between reflectance values of forested sites in different topographic orientations. Our results indicate that optimal parameter combinations are depending on the site, sun elevation and azimuth and spectral conditions. We demonstrate that the results of relatively simple topographic correction methods can be greatly improved through a feedback loop between parameter tuning and evaluation of the performance of the correction model.

Impact of land cover change on the environmental hydrology characteristics in Kelantan river basin, Malaysia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Saadatkhah, Nader; Mansor, Shattri; Khuzaimah, Zailani; Asmat, Arnis; Adnan, Noraizam; Adam, Siti Noradzah

2016-09-01

Changing the land cover/ land use has serious environmental impacts affecting the ecosystem in Malaysia. The impact of land cover changes on the environmental functions such as surface water, loss water, and soil moisture is considered in this paper on the Kelantan river basin. The study area at the east coast of the peninsular Malaysia has suffered significant land cover changes in the recent years. The current research tried to assess the impact of land cover changes in the study area focused on the surface water, loss water, and soil moisture from different land use classes and the potential impact of land cover changes on the ecosystem of Kelantan river basin. To simulate the impact of land cover changes on the environmental hydrology characteristics, a deterministic regional modeling were employed in this study based on five approaches, i.e. (1) Land cover classification based on Landsat images; (2) assessment of land cover changes during last three decades; (3) Calculation the rate of water Loss/ Infiltration; (4) Assessment of hydrological and mechanical effects of the land cover changes on the surface water; and (5) evaluation the impact of land cover changes on the ecosystem of the study area. Assessment of land cover impact on the environmental hydrology was computed with the improved transient rainfall infiltration and grid based regional model (Improved-TRIGRS) based on the transient infiltration, and subsequently changes in the surface water, due to precipitation events. The results showed the direct increased in surface water from development area, agricultural area, and grassland regions compared with surface water from other land covered areas in the study area. The urban areas or lower planting density areas tend to increase for surface water during the monsoon seasons, whereas the inter flow from forested and secondary jungle areas contributes to the normal surface water.

Snow cover and snow goose Anser caerulescens caerulescens distribution during spring migration

USGS Publications Warehouse

Hupp, Jerry W.; Zacheis, Amy B.; Anthony, R. Michael; Robertson, Donna G.; Erickson, Wallace P.; Palacios, Kelly C.

2001-01-01

Arctic geese often use spring migration stopover areas when feeding habitats are partially snow covered. Melting of snow during the stopover period causes spatial and temporal variability in distribution and abundance of feeding habitat. We recorded changes in snow cover and lesser snow goose Anser caerulescens caerulescens distribution on a spring migration stopover area in south-central Alaska during aerial surveys in 1993-1994. Our objectives were to determine whether geese selected among areas with different amounts of snow cover and to assess how temporal changes in snow cover affected goose distribution. We also measured temporal changes in chemical composition of forage species after snow melt. We divided an Arc/Info coverage of the approximately 210 km2 coastal stopover area into 2-km2 cells, and measured snow cover and snow goose use of cells. Cells that had 10-49.9% snow cover were selected by snow geese, whereas cells that lacked snow cover were avoided. In both years, snow cover diminished along the coast between mid-April and early May. Flock distribution changed as snow geese abandoned snow-free areas in favour of cells where snow patches were interspersed with bare ground. Snow-free areas may have been less attractive to geese because available forage had been quickly exploited as bare ground was exposed, and because soils became drier making extraction of underground forage more difficult. Fiber content of two forage species increased whereas non-structural carbohydrate concentrations of forage plants appeared to diminish after snow melt, but changes in nutrient concentrations likely occurred too slowly to account for abandonment of snow-free areas by snow geese.

NASA Technical Standards Program and Implications for Lessons Learned and Technical Standard Integration

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gill, Paul S.; Garcia, Danny; Vaughan, William W.; Parker, Nelson C. (Technical Monitor)

2002-01-01

The National Aeronautics and Space Agency consists of fourteen Facilities throughout the United States. They are organized to support the Agency's principal Enterprises: (1) Space Science, (2) Earth Science, (3) Aerospace Technology, (4) Human Exploration and Development of Space, and (5) Biological and Physical Research. Technical Standards are important to the activities of each Enterprise and have been an integral part in the development and operation of NASA Programs and Projects since the Agency was established in 1959. However, for years each Center was responsible for its own standards development and selection of non-NASA technical standards that met the needs of Programs and Projects for which they were responsible. There were few Agencywide applicable Technical Standards, mainly those in area of safety. Department of Defense Standards and Specifications were the foundation and main source for Technical Standards used by the Agency. This process existed until about 1997 when NASA embarked on a Program to convert NASA's Center-developed Technical Standards into Agencywide endorsed NASA Preferred Technical Standards. In addition, action was taken regarding the formal adoption of non-NASA Technical Standards (DOD, SAE, ASTM, ASME, IEEE, etc.) as NASA Preferred Technical Standards.

Evaluation of DGVMs in tropical areas: linking patterns of vegetation cover, climate and fire to ecological processes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

D'Onofrio, Donatella; von Hardenberg, Jost; Baudena, Mara

2017-04-01

Many current Dynamic Global Vegetation Models (DGVMs), including those incorporated into Earth System Models (ESMs), are able to realistically reproduce the distribution of the most worldwide biomes. However, they display high uncertainty in predicting the forest, savanna and grassland distributions and the transitions between them in tropical areas. These biomes are the most productive terrestrial ecosystems, and owing to their different biogeophysical and biogeochemical characteristics, future changes in their distributions could have also impacts on climate states. In particular, expected increasing temperature and CO2, modified precipitation regimes, as well as increasing land-use intensity could have large impacts on global biogeochemical cycles and precipitation, affecting the land-climate interactions. The difficulty of the DGVMs in simulating tropical vegetation, especially savanna structure and occurrence, has been associated with the way they represent the ecological processes and feedbacks between biotic and abiotic conditions. The inclusion of appropriate ecological mechanisms under present climatic conditions is essential for obtaining reliable future projections of vegetation and climate states. In this work we analyse observed relationships of tree and grass cover with climate and fire, and the current ecological understanding of the mechanisms driving the forest-savanna-grassland transition in Africa to evaluate the outcomes of a current state-of-the-art DGVM and to assess which ecological processes need to be included or improved within the model. Specifically, we analyse patterns of woody and herbaceous cover and fire return times from MODIS satellite observations, rainfall annual average and seasonality from TRMM satellite measurements and tree phenology information from the ESA global land cover map, comparing them with the outcomes of the LPJ-GUESS DGVM, also used by the EC-Earth global climate model. The comparison analysis with the LPJ

SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL MANPOWER RESOURCES, SUMMARY INFORMATION ON EMPLOYMENT, CHARACTERISTICS, SUPPLY, AND TRAINING.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

National Science Foundation, Washington, DC.

THE LEGISLATION ESTABLISHING THE NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION STIPULATED THAT IT MAINTAIN A REGISTER OF SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL PERSONNEL AND IN OTHER WAYS PROVIDE A CENTRAL CLEARINGHOUSE FOR INFORMATION COVERING ALL SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL PERSONNEL IN THE UNITED STATES. THIS PUBLICATION BRINGS TOGETHER INFORMATION FROM MANY SOURCES ON THE…

Tree and impervious cover in the United States

Treesearch

David J. Nowak; Eric J. Greenfield

2012-01-01

Using aerial photograph interpretation of circa 2005 imagery, percent tree canopy and impervious surface cover in the conterminous United States are estimated at 34.2% (standard error (SE) = 0.2%) and 2.4% (SE = 0.1%), respectively. Within urban/community areas, percent tree cover (35.1%, SE = 0.4%) is similar to the national value, but percent impervious cover is...

Comparison of U.S. Forest Land AreaEstimates From Forest Inventory and Analysis, National Resources Inventory, and Four Satellite Image-Derived Land Cover Data Sets

Treesearch

Mark D. Nelson; Ronald E. McRoberts; Veronica C. Lessard

2005-01-01

Our objective was to test one application of remote sensing technology for complementing forest resource assessments by comparing a variety of existing satellite image-derived land cover maps with national inventory-derived estimates of United States forest land area. National Resources Inventory (NRI) 1997 estimates of non-Federal forest land area differed by 7.5...

Improving Running Times for the Determination of Fractional Snow-Covered Area from Landsat TM/ETM+ via Utilization of the CUDA® Programming Paradigm

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McGibbney, L. J.; Rittger, K.; Painter, T. H.; Selkowitz, D.; Mattmann, C. A.; Ramirez, P.

2014-12-01

As part of a JPL-USGS collaboration to expand distribution of essential climate variables (ECV) to include on-demand fractional snow cover we describe our experience and implementation of a shift towards the use of NVIDIA's CUDA® parallel computing platform and programming model. In particular the on-demand aspect of this work involves the improvement (via faster processing and a reduction in overall running times) for determination of fractional snow-covered area (fSCA) from Landsat TM/ETM+. Our observations indicate that processing tasks associated with remote sensing including the Snow Covered Area and Grain Size Model (SCAG) when applied to MODIS or LANDSAT TM/ETM+ are computationally intensive processes. We believe the shift to the CUDA programming paradigm represents a significant improvement in the ability to more quickly assert the outcomes of such activities. We use the TMSCAG model as our subject to highlight this argument. We do this by describing how we can ingest a LANDSAT surface reflectance image (typically provided in HDF format), perform spectral mixture analysis to produce land cover fractions including snow, vegetation and rock/soil whilst greatly reducing running time for such tasks. Within the scope of this work we first document the original workflow used to assert fSCA for Landsat TM and it's primary shortcomings. We then introduce the logic and justification behind the switch to the CUDA paradigm for running single as well as batch jobs on the GPU in order to achieve parallel processing. Finally we share lessons learned from the implementation of myriad of existing algorithms to a single set of code in a single target language as well as benefits this ultimately provides scientists at the USGS.

Land cover trends dataset, 1973-2000

USGS Publications Warehouse

Soulard, Christopher E.; Acevedo, William; Auch, Roger F.; Sohl, Terry L.; Drummond, Mark A.; Sleeter, Benjamin M.; Sorenson, Daniel G.; Kambly, Steven; Wilson, Tamara S.; Taylor, Janis L.; Sayler, Kristi L.; Stier, Michael P.; Barnes, Christopher A.; Methven, Steven C.; Loveland, Thomas R.; Headley, Rachel; Brooks, Mark S.

2014-01-01

The U.S. Geological Survey Land Cover Trends Project is releasing a 1973–2000 time-series land-use/land-cover dataset for the conterminous United States. The dataset contains 5 dates of land-use/land-cover data for 2,688 sample blocks randomly selected within 84 ecological regions. The nominal dates of the land-use/land-cover maps are 1973, 1980, 1986, 1992, and 2000. The land-use/land-cover maps were classified manually from Landsat Multispectral Scanner, Thematic Mapper, and Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus imagery using a modified Anderson Level I classification scheme. The resulting land-use/land-cover data has a 60-meter resolution and the projection is set to Albers Equal-Area Conic, North American Datum of 1983. The files are labeled using a standard file naming convention that contains the number of the ecoregion, sample block, and Landsat year. The downloadable files are organized by ecoregion, and are available in the ERDAS IMAGINETM (.img) raster file format.

About soil cover heterogeneity of agricultural research stations' experimental fields

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rannik, Kaire; Kõlli, Raimo; Kukk, Liia

2013-04-01

Depending on local pedo-ecological conditions (topography, (geo) diversity of soil parent material, meteorological conditions) the patterns of soil cover and plant cover determined by soils are very diverse. Formed in the course of soil-plant mutual relationship, the natural ecosystems are always influenced to certain extent by the other local soil forming conditions or they are site specific. The agricultural land use or the formation of agro-ecosystems depends foremost on the suitability of soils for the cultivation of feed and food crops. As a rule, the most fertile or the best soils of the area, which do not present any or present as little as possible constraints for agricultural land use, are selected for this purpose. Compared with conventional field soils, the requirements for the experimental fields' soil cover quality are much higher. Experimental area soils and soil cover composition should correspond to local pedo-ecological conditions and, in addition to that, represent the soil types dominating in the region, whereas the fields should be as homogeneous as possible. The soil cover heterogeneity of seven arable land blocks of three research stations (Jõgeva, Kuusiku and Olustvere) was studied 1) by examining the large scale (1:10 000) digital soil map (available via the internet), and 2) by field researches using the transect method. The stages of soils litho-genetic and moisture heterogeneities were estimated by using the Estonian normal soils matrix, however, the heterogeneity of top- and subsoil texture by using the soil texture matrix. The quality and variability of experimental fields' soils humus status, was studied more thoroughly from the aspect of humus concentration (g kg-1), humus cover thickness (cm) and humus stocks (Mg ha-1). The soil cover of Jõgeva experimental area, which presents an accumulative drumlin landscape (formed during the last glacial period), consist from loamy Luvisols and associated to this Cambisols. In Kuusiku area

Proceedings: Computer Science and Data Systems Technical Symposium, volume 1

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Larsen, Ronald L.; Wallgren, Kenneth

1985-01-01

Progress reports and technical updates of programs being performed by NASA centers are covered. Presentations in viewgraph form are included for topics in three categories: computer science, data systems and space station applications.

Special Analysis: Disposal Plan for Pit 38 at Technical Area 54, Area G

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

French, Sean B.; Shuman, Rob

2012-06-26

Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) generates radioactive waste as a result of various activities. Operational waste is generated from a wide variety of research and development activities including nuclear weapons development, energy production, and medical research; environmental restoration (ER), and decontamination and decommissioning (D&D) waste is generated as contaminated sites and facilities at LANL undergo cleanup or remediation. The majority of this waste is low-level radioactive waste (LLW) and is disposed of at the Technical Area 54 (TA-54), Area G disposal facility. U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Order 435.1 (DOE, 2001) requires that radioactive waste be managed in a mannermore » that protects public health and safety, and the environment. To comply with this order, DOE field sites must prepare site-specific radiological performance assessments for LLW disposal facilities that accept waste after September 26, 1988. Furthermore, sites are required to conduct composite analyses that account for the cumulative impacts of all waste that has been (or will be) disposed of at the facilities and other sources of radioactive material that may interact with the facilities. Revision 4 of the Area G performance assessment and composite analysis was issued in 2008 (LANL, 2008). These analyses estimate rates of radionuclide release from the waste disposed of at the facility, simulate the movement of radionuclides through the environment, and project potential radiation doses to humans for several on- and off-site exposure scenarios. The assessments are based on existing site and disposal facility data, and on assumptions about future rates and methods of waste disposal. The Area G disposal facility consists of Material Disposal Area (MDA) G and the Zone 4 expansion area. To date, disposal operations have been confined to MDA G and are scheduled to continue in that region until MDA G undergoes final closure at the end of 2013. Given its impending closure

Cluster: Drafting. Course: Introduction to Technical Drafting.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sanford - Lee County Schools, NC.

The set of 10 units is designed for use with an instructor as an introduction to technical drafting, and is also keyed to other texts. Each unit contains several task packages specifying prerequisites, rationale for learning, objectives, learning activities to be supervised by the instructor, and learning practice. The units cover: drafting…

A cloud cover model based on satellite data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Somerville, P. N.; Bean, S. J.

1980-01-01

A model for worldwide cloud cover using a satellite data set containing infrared radiation measurements is proposed. The satellite data set containing day IR, night IR and incoming and absorbed solar radiation measurements on a 2.5 degree latitude-longitude grid covering a 45 month period was converted to estimates of cloud cover. The global area was then classified into homogeneous cloud cover regions for each of the four seasons. It is noted that the developed maps can be of use to the practicing climatologist who can obtain a considerable amount of cloud cover information without recourse to large volumes of data.

Multispectral determination of vegetative cover in corn crop canopy

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stoner, E. R.; Baumgardner, M. F.

1972-01-01

The relationship between different amounts of vegetative ground cover and the energy reflected by corn canopies was investigated. Low altitude photography and an airborne multispectral scanner were used to measure this reflected energy. Field plots were laid out, representing four growth stages of corn. Two plot locations were chosen-on a very dark and a very light surface soil. Color and color infrared photographs were taken from a vertical distance of 10 m. Estimates of ground cover were made from these photographs and were related to field measurements of leaf area index. Ground cover could be predicted from leaf area index measurements by a second order equation. Microdensitometry and digitzation of the three separated dye layers of color infrared film showed that the near infrared dye layer is most valuable in ground cover determinations. Computer analysis of the digitized photography provided an accurate method of determining precent ground cover.

Business Industry Technical Assistance Center, Hazard Community College.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marrow, Alvin J.

The Business Industry and Technical Assistance Center (BITAC) was established in 1986 at Hazard Community College, in Kentucky, to serve as an information and technical assistance center for small business. As the local area began to face layoffs in the coal mining industry, however, the center extended its services in four principal areas:…

Technical Assistance to Developers

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Rockward, Tommy; Borup, Rodney L.; Garzon, Fernando H.

2012-07-17

This task supports the allowance of technical assistance to fuel-cell component and system developers as directed by the DOE. This task includes testing of novel materials and participation in the further development and validation of single cell test protocols. This task also covers technical assistance to DOE Working Groups, the U.S. Council for Automotive Research (USCAR) and the USCAR/DOE Driving Research and Innovation for Vehicle efficiency and Energy sustainability (U.S. Drive) Fuel Cell Technology Team. Assistance includes technical validation of new fuel cell materials and methods, single cell fuel cell testing to support the development of targets and test protocols,more » and regular advisory participation in other working groups and reviews. This assistance is made available to PEM fuel cell developers by request and DOE Approval. The objectives are to: (1) Support technically, as directed by DOE, fuel cell component and system developers; (2) Assess fuel cell materials and components and give feedback to developers; (3) Assist the DOE Durability Working Group with the development of various new material durability Testing protocols; and (4) Provide support to the U.S. Council for Automotive Research (USCAR) and the USCAR/DOE Fuel Cell Technology Team. FY2012 specific technical objectives are: (1) Evaluate novel MPL materials; (2) Develop of startup/ shutdown protocol; (3) Test the impact of hydrophobic treatment on graphite bi-polar plates; (4) Perform complete diagnostics on metal bi-polar plates for corrosion; and (5) Participate and lead efforts in the DOE Working Groups.« less

Malignant Hilar Biliary Obstruction: Treatment by Means of Placement of a Newly Designed Y-Shaped Branched Covered Stent.

PubMed

Yun, Jong Hyouk; Jung, Gyoo-Sik; Park, Jung Gu; Kang, Byung Chul; Shin, Dong-Hoon; Yun, Byung Chul; Lee, Sang Uk

2016-04-01

To evaluate the technical feasibility and clinical efficacy of placement of a newly designed Y-shaped branched covered stent for palliative treatment of malignant hilar biliary obstruction. From June 2011 to September 2014, 34 consecutive patients with malignant hilar biliary obstruction underwent percutaneous placement of a Y-shaped branched covered stent for palliative treatment. Technical and clinical success, complications, cumulative patient survival, and stent patency were evaluated. Stent placement was technically successful in all patients. All patients showed adequate biliary drainage on the follow-up cholangiogram. Mean serum bilirubin level (10.9 mg/dl) decreased significantly 1 week (5.7 mg/dl) and 1 month (2.6 mg/dl) after stent placement (p < 0.01). Complications associated with the procedure included hemobilia (n = 3) and biloma (n = 1). During the mean follow-up period of 225 (range 12-820) days, nine patients (26.5%) developed stent occlusion caused by tumor overgrowth (n = 8) and sludge (n = 1). Two of them underwent coaxial placement of a second stent with good results. The median survival time was 281 days and median primary stent patency was 337 days. There were no significant differences in the patient survival and stent patency rates in relation to age, sex, or Bismuth type. Percutaneous placement of the Y-shaped branched covered stent seems to be technically feasible and clinically effective for palliative treatment of malignant hilar biliary obstruction.

Lake Michigan Diversion Accounting land cover change estimation by use of the National Land Cover Dataset and raingage network partitioning analysis

USGS Publications Warehouse

Sharpe, Jennifer B.; Soong, David T.

2015-01-01

This study used the National Land Cover Dataset (NLCD) and developed an automated process for determining the area of the three land cover types, thereby allowing faster updating of future models, and for evaluating land cover changes by use of historical NLCD datasets. The study also carried out a raingage partitioning analysis so that the segmentation of land cover and rainfall in each modeled unit is directly applicable to the HSPF modeling. Historical and existing impervious, grass, and forest land acreages partitioned by percentages covered by two sets of raingages for the Lake Michigan diversion SCAs, gaged basins, and ungaged basins are presented.

Consequences of land-cover misclassification in models of impervious surface

USGS Publications Warehouse

McMahon, G.

2007-01-01

Model estimates of impervious area as a function of landcover area may be biased and imprecise because of errors in the land-cover classification. This investigation of the effects of land-cover misclassification on impervious surface models that use National Land Cover Data (NLCD) evaluates the consequences of adjusting land-cover within a watershed to reflect uncertainty assessment information. Model validation results indicate that using error-matrix information to adjust land-cover values used in impervious surface models does not substantially improve impervious surface predictions. Validation results indicate that the resolution of the landcover data (Level I and Level II) is more important in predicting impervious surface accurately than whether the land-cover data have been adjusted using information in the error matrix. Level I NLCD, adjusted for land-cover misclassification, is preferable to the other land-cover options for use in models of impervious surface. This result is tied to the lower classification error rates for the Level I NLCD. ?? 2007 American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing.

The managed clearing: An overlooked land-cover type in urbanizing regions?

PubMed

Singh, Kunwar K; Madden, Marguerite; Gray, Josh; Meentemeyer, Ross K

2018-01-01

Urban ecosystem assessments increasingly rely on widely available map products, such as the U.S. Geological Service (USGS) National Land Cover Database (NLCD), and datasets that use generic classification schemes to detect and model large-scale impacts of land-cover change. However, utilizing existing map products or schemes without identifying relevant urban class types such as semi-natural, yet managed land areas that account for differences in ecological functions due to their pervious surfaces may severely constrain assessments. To address this gap, we introduce the managed clearings land-cover type-semi-natural, vegetated land surfaces with varying degrees of management practices-for urbanizing landscapes. We explore the extent to which managed clearings are common and spatially distributed in three rapidly urbanizing areas of the Charlanta megaregion, USA. We visually interpreted and mapped fine-scale land cover with special attention to managed clearings using 2012 U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP) images within 150 randomly selected 1-km2 blocks in the cities of Atlanta, Charlotte, and Raleigh, and compared our maps with National Land Cover Database (NLCD) data. We estimated the abundance of managed clearings relative to other land use and land cover types, and the proportion of land-cover types in the NLCD that are similar to managed clearings. Our study reveals that managed clearings are the most common land cover type in these cities, covering 28% of the total sampled land area- 6.2% higher than the total area of impervious surfaces. Managed clearings, when combined with forest cover, constitutes 69% of pervious surfaces in the sampled region. We observed variability in area estimates of managed clearings between the NAIP-derived and NLCD data. This suggests using high-resolution remote sensing imagery (e.g., NAIP) instead of modifying NLCD data for improved representation of spatial heterogeneity and

Operational monitoring of land-cover change using multitemporal remote sensing data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rogan, John

2005-11-01

Land-cover change, manifested as either land-cover modification and/or conversion, can occur at all spatial scales, and changes at local scales can have profound, cumulative impacts at broader scales. The implication of operational land-cover monitoring is that researchers have access to a continuous stream of remote sensing data, with the long term goal of providing for consistent and repetitive mapping. Effective large area monitoring of land-cover (i.e., >1000 km2) can only be accomplished by using remotely sensed images as an indirect data source in land-cover change mapping and as a source for land-cover change model projections. Large area monitoring programs face several challenges: (1) choice of appropriate classification scheme/map legend over large, topographically and phenologically diverse areas; (2) issues concerning data consistency and map accuracy (i.e., calibration and validation); (3) very large data volumes; (4) time consuming data processing and interpretation. Therefore, this dissertation research broadly addresses these challenges in the context of examining state-of-the-art image pre-processing, spectral enhancement, classification, and accuracy assessment techniques to assist the California Land-cover Mapping and Monitoring Program (LCMMP). The results of this dissertation revealed that spatially varying haze can be effectively corrected from Landsat data for the purposes of change detection. The Multitemporal Spectral Mixture Analysis (MSMA) spectral enhancement technique produced more accurate land-cover maps than those derived from the Multitemporal Kauth Thomas (MKT) transformation in northern and southern California study areas. A comparison of machine learning classifiers showed that Fuzzy ARTMAP outperformed two classification tree algorithms, based on map accuracy and algorithm robustness. Variation in spatial data error (positional and thematic) was explored in relation to environmental variables using geostatistical interpolation

COVER Project and Earth resources research transition

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Botkin, D. B.; Estes, J. E. (Principal Investigator)

1986-01-01

Results of research in the remote sensing of natural boreal forest vegetation (the COVER project) are summarized. The study objectives were to establish a baseline forest test site; develop transforms of LANDSAT MSS and TM data for forest composition, biomass, leaf area index, and net primary productivity; and perform tasks required for testing hypotheses regarding observed spectral responses to changes in leaf area index in aspen. In addition, the transfer and documentation of data collected in the COVER project (removed from the Johnson Space Center following the discontinuation of Earth resources research at that facility) is described.

Dredging Operations Technical Support Program. Design and Management of Dredged Material Containment Areas to Improve Hydraulic Performance.

DTIC Science & Technology

1987-06-01

in chlorine contact chambers were not sensit ive to experimentil procedure, and ’"When the dye test was repeated on the same hsin undcr ident i ; I I...neither YA t 1idth nor Ienzth ar’ 1n t -r,1ined i u , nd i t ion, costs are , iunti , t ion I .< and N . ( u yen % and Iltl ;I<,, r[i,. hte used tc com...DREDGING OPERATIONS TECHNICAL SUPPORT PROGRAM TEHIA REPORT D-87-2 DESIGN AND MANAGEMENT OF DREDGED MATERIAL CONTAINMENT AREAS TO% N IMPROVE

Validation of Land Cover Maps Utilizing Astronaut Acquired Imagery

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Estes, John E.; Gebelein, Jennifer

1999-01-01

This report is produced in accordance with the requirements outlined in the NASA Research Grant NAG9-1032 titled "Validation of Land Cover Maps Utilizing Astronaut Acquired Imagery". This grant funds the Remote Sensing Research Unit of the University of California, Santa Barbara. This document summarizes the research progress and accomplishments to date and describes current on-going research activities. Even though this grant has technically expired, in a contractual sense, work continues on this project. Therefore, this summary will include all work done through and 5 May 1999. The principal goal of this effort is to test the accuracy of a sub-regional portion of an AVHRR-based land cover product. Land cover mapped to three different classification systems, in the southwestern United States, have been subjected to two specific accuracy assessments. One assessment utilizing astronaut acquired photography, and a second assessment employing Landsat Thematic Mapper imagery, augmented in some cases, high aerial photography. Validation of these three land cover products has proceeded using a stratified sampling methodology. We believe this research will provide an important initial test of the potential use of imagery acquired from Shuttle and ultimately the International Space Station (ISS) for the operational validation of the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS) land cover products.

Tree and impervious cover change in U.S

Treesearch

David J. Nowak; Eric J. Greenfield

2012-01-01

Paired aerial photographs were interpreted to assess recent changes in tree, impervious and other cover types in 20 U.S. cities as well as urban land within the conterminous United States. National results indicate that tree cover in urban areas of the United States is on the decline at a rate of about 7900 ha/yr or 4.0 million trees per year. Tree cover in 17 of the...

Land cover change monitoring within the east central Louisiana study site: A case for large area surveys with LANDSAT multispectral scanner data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Burns, G. S.

1983-01-01

Results established for four digital procedures developed for characterizing the radiometric changes between multidate LANDSAT spectral data sets into meaningful measures of land cover/use dynamics are documented. Each technique's performance was contrasted against digitized land use change maps, which were produced from contemporaneous, retrospective aerophoto coverage, in a cell by cell comparison over a one half by one degree area in east central Louisiana as a standard for comparison. The four techniques identify from 10.5 to 13.0% loss in area of forestland in a five year period; however, they differ more by how accurately this amount of change is distributed, the need for ancillary ground truth, and amount of usable information that is extractable. All require some method of digitally co-registering the two data sets. All are capable of providing tabular statistics as well as map products. Two are capable of detecting changes and identifying their locations. The other two, in addition to this, provide information to qualify land cover conditions at each end of the study interval.

Snow cover correlation between Mt. Villarrica and Mt. Lliama in Chile

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kim, Jeong-Cheol; Park, Sung-Hwan; Jung, Hyung-Sup

2014-11-01

The Southern Volcanic Zone (SVZ) of Chile consists of many volcanoes, and all of the volcanoes are covered with snow at the top of mountain. Monitoring snow cover variations in these regions can give us a key parameter in order to understand the mechanisms of volcanic activity. In this study, we investigate on the volcanic activity and snow cover interaction from snow cover area mapping, snow-line extraction. The study areas cover Mt. Villarrica and Mt. Llaima, Chile. Both of them are most active volcanos in SVZ. Sixty Landsat TM and Landsat ETM+ images are used for observing snow cover variations of Mt. Villarrica and Mt. Llaima, spanning the 25 years from September 1986 to February 2011. Results show that snow cover area between volcanic activity and non-activity are largely changed from 42.84 km2 to 13.41 km2, temporarily decreased 79% at the Mt. Villarrica and from 28.98 km2 to 3.82 km2, temporarily decreased 87% at the Mt. Villarrica. The snow line elevation of snow cover retreated by approximately 260 m from 1,606m to 1,871 m at the Mt. Villarrica, approximately 266m from 1,741m to 2,007m at the Mt. Llaima. The results show that there are definitely correlations between snow cover and volcanic activity.

MODIS land cover uncertainty in regional climate simulations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Xue; Messina, Joseph P.; Moore, Nathan J.; Fan, Peilei; Shortridge, Ashton M.

2017-12-01

MODIS land cover datasets are used extensively across the climate modeling community, but inherent uncertainties and associated propagating impacts are rarely discussed. This paper modeled uncertainties embedded within the annual MODIS Land Cover Type (MCD12Q1) products and propagated these uncertainties through the Regional Atmospheric Modeling System (RAMS). First, land cover uncertainties were modeled using pixel-based trajectory analyses from a time series of MCD12Q1 for Urumqi, China. Second, alternative land cover maps were produced based on these categorical uncertainties and passed into RAMS. Finally, simulations from RAMS were analyzed temporally and spatially to reveal impacts. Our study found that MCD12Q1 struggles to discriminate between grasslands and croplands or grasslands and barren in this study area. Such categorical uncertainties have significant impacts on regional climate model outputs. All climate variables examined demonstrated impact across the various regions, with latent heat flux affected most with a magnitude of 4.32 W/m2 in domain average. Impacted areas were spatially connected to locations of greater land cover uncertainty. Both biophysical characteristics and soil moisture settings in regard to land cover types contribute to the variations among simulations. These results indicate that formal land cover uncertainty analysis should be included in MCD12Q1-fed climate modeling as a routine procedure.

Proceedings: Computer Science and Data Systems Technical Symposium, volume 2

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Larsen, Ronald L.; Wallgren, Kenneth

1985-01-01

Progress reports and technical updates of programs being performed by NASA centers are covered. Presentations in viewgraph form, along with abstracts, are included for topics in three catagories: computer science, data systems, and space station applications.

Technical Entrepreneurship: A Symposium.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cooper, Arnold C., Ed.; Komives, John L., Ed.

Contained in this document are papers presented at the Symposium on Technical Entrepreneurship at Purdue University by researchers who were then or had previously been engaged in research in the area. Because formal research in this area was in its infancy, there was a particular need to afford investigators in the field opportunities to compare…

Comprehensive monitoring of Bangladesh tree cover inside and outside of forests, 2000-2014

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Potapov, P.; Siddiqui, B. N.; Iqbal, Z.; Aziz, T.; Zzaman, B.; Islam, A.; Pickens, A.; Talero, Y.; Tyukavina, A.; Turubanova, S.; Hansen, M. C.

2017-10-01

A novel approach for satellite-based comprehensive national tree cover change assessment was developed and applied in Bangladesh, a country where trees outside of forests play an important role in the national economy and carbon sequestration. Tree cover change area was quantified using the integration of wall-to-wall Landsat-based mapping with a higher spatial resolution sample-based assessment. The total national tree canopy cover area was estimated as 3165 500 ± 186 600 ha in the year 2000, with trees outside forests making up 54% of total canopy cover. Total tree canopy cover increased by 135 700 (± 116 600) ha (4.3%) during the 2000-2014 time interval. Bangladesh exhibits a national tree cover dynamic where net change is rather small, but gross dynamics significant and variable by forest type. Despite the overall gain in tree cover, results revealed the ongoing clearing of natural forests, especially within the Chittagong hill tracts. While forests decreased their tree cover area by 83 600 ha, the trees outside forests (including tree plantations, village woodlots, and agroforestry) increased their canopy area by 219 300 ha. Our results demonstrated method capability to quantify tree canopy cover dynamics within a fine-scale agricultural landscape. Our approach for comprehensive monitoring of tree canopy cover may be recommended for operational implementation in Bangladesh and other countries with significant tree cover outside of forests.

A Novel Partially Covered Self-Expandable Metallic Stent with Proximal Flare in Patients with Malignant Gastric Outlet Obstruction.

PubMed

Takahara, Naminatsu; Isayama, Hiroyuki; Nakai, Yousuke; Yoshida, Shuntaro; Saito, Tomotaka; Mizuno, Suguru; Yagioka, Hiroshi; Kogure, Hirofumi; Togawa, Osamu; Matsubara, Saburo; Ito, Yukiko; Yamamoto, Natsuyo; Tada, Minoru; Koike, Kazuhiko

2017-07-15

Endoscopic placement of self-expandable metal stents (SEMSs) has emerged as a palliative treatment for malignant gastric outlet obstruction (GOO). Although covered SEMSs can prevent tumor ingrowth, frequent migration of covered SEMSs may offset their advantages in preventing tumor ingrowth. We conducted this multicenter, single-arm, retrospective study at six tertiary referral centers to evaluate the safety and efficacy of a partially covered SEMS with an uncovered large-bore flare at the proximal end as an antimigration system in 41 patients with symptomatic malignant GOO. The primary outcome was clinical success, and the secondary outcomes were technical success, stent dysfunction, adverse events, and survival after stent placement. The technical and clinical success rates were 100% and 95%, respectively. Stent dysfunctions occurred in 17 patients (41%), including stent migration in nine (23%), tumor ingrowth in one (2%), and tumor overgrowth in four (10%). Two patients (5%) developed adverse events: one pancreatitis and one perforation. No procedure-related death was observed. A novel partially covered SEMS with a large-bore flare proximal end was safe and effective for malignant GOO but failed to prevent stent migration. Further research is warranted to develop a covered SEMS with an optimal antimigration system.

Quality Career/Technical Programs Prepare Students to Succeed in a New, More Challenging Economy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Southern Regional Education Board (SREB), 2008

2008-01-01

Quality career/technical education and its role in school improvement was a primary theme of the 2008 "High Schools That Work" ("HSTW") Staff Development Conference. This newsletter covers crucial topics in quality CTE (career and technical education), including assessing the quality and effectiveness of CT programs, preparing students to succeed…

Creating high-resolution time series land-cover classifications in rapidly changing forested areas with BULC-U in Google Earth Engine

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cardille, J. A.; Lee, J.

2017-12-01

With the opening of the Landsat archive, there is a dramatically increased potential for creating high-quality time series of land use/land-cover (LULC) classifications derived from remote sensing. Although LULC time series are appealing, their creation is typically challenging in two fundamental ways. First, there is a need to create maximally correct LULC maps for consideration at each time step; and second, there is a need to have the elements of the time series be consistent with each other, without pixels that flip improbably between covers due only to unavoidable, stray classification errors. We have developed the Bayesian Updating of Land Cover - Unsupervised (BULC-U) algorithm to address these challenges simultaneously, and introduce and apply it here for two related but distinct purposes. First, with minimal human intervention, we produced an internally consistent, high-accuracy LULC time series in rapidly changing Mato Grosso, Brazil for a time interval (1986-2000) in which cropland area more than doubled. The spatial and temporal resolution of the 59 LULC snapshots allows users to witness the establishment of towns and farms at the expense of forest. The new time series could be used by policy-makers and analysts to unravel important considerations for conservation and management, including the timing and location of past development, the rate and nature of changes in forest connectivity, the connection with road infrastructure, and more. The second application of BULC-U is to sharpen the well-known GlobCover 2009 classification from 300m to 30m, while improving accuracy measures for every class. The greatly improved resolution and accuracy permits a better representation of the true LULC proportions, the use of this map in models, and quantification of the potential impacts of changes. Given that there may easily be thousands and potentially millions of images available to harvest for an LULC time series, it is imperative to build useful algorithms

Impact of Automation on Technical Services.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rooks, Dana C.; Thompson, Linda L.

1988-01-01

Discusses the impact of automation on library technical services, and the need for library managers to be aware of the issues involved and to plan for future developments. The discussion focuses on the areas of job related concerns of technical staff, organizational structures, recruitment and training, and ergonomic considerations. (CLB)

Habitat Evaluation Procedures (HEP) Report : Rainwater Wildlife Area, 1998-2001 Technical Report.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Childs, Allen

The 8,768 acre Rainwater Wildlife Area was acquired in September 1998 by the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR) through an agreement with Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) to partially offset habitat losses associated with construction of the John Day and McNary hydroelectric facilities on the mainstem Columbia River. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) Habitat Evaluation Procedures (HEP) were used to determine the number of habitat units credited to BPA for acquired lands. Upland and riparian forest, upland and riparian shrub, and grassland rover types are evaluated in this study. Targeted wildlife species include downy woodpecker (Picoides pubescens),more » black-capped chickadee (Parus atricopillus), blue grouse (Dendragapus obscurus), great blue heron (Ardea herodias), yellow warbler (Dendroica petechia), mink (Mustela vison), and Western meadowlark (Sturnella neglects). Habitat surveys were conducted in 1998 and 1999 in accordance with published HEP protocols and included 65,300, 594m{sup 2} plots, and 112 one-tenth-acre plots. Between 153.3 and 7,187.46 acres were evaluated for each target wildlife mitigation species. Derived habitat suitability indices were multiplied by corresponding cover-type acreages to determine the number of habitat units for each species. The total baseline habitat units credited to BPA for the Rainwater Wildlife Area and its seven target species is 5,185.3 habitat units. Factors limiting habitat suitability are related to the direct, indirect, and cumulative effects of past livestock grazing, road construction, and timber harvest which have simplified the structure, composition, and diversity of native plant communities. Alternatives for protecting and improving habitat suitability include exclusion of livestock grazing, road de-commissioning/obliteration, reforestation and thinning, control of competing and unwanted vegetation (including noxious weeds), reestablishing displaced or reduced native

Comparison of covered and uncovered self-expandable stents in the treatment of malignant biliary obstruction.

PubMed

Flores Carmona, Diana Yamel; Alonso Lárraga, Juan Octavio; Hernández Guerrero, Angélica; Ramírez Solís, Mauro Eduardo

2016-05-01

Drainage with metallic stents is the treatment of choice in malignant obstructive jaundice. Technical and clinical success with metallic stents is obtained in over 90% and 80% of cases, respectively. There are self-expandable metallic stents designed to increase permeability. The aim of this study was to describe the results obtained with totally covered self-expandable and uncovered self-expandable metallic stents in the palliative treatment of malignant biliary obstruction. Sixty eight patients with malignant obstructive jaundice secondary to pancreatobiliary or metastatic disease not amenable to surgery were retrospectively included. Two groups were created: group A (covered self-expandable metallic stents) (n = 22) and group B (uncovered self-expandable metallic stents) (n = 46). Serum total bilirubin, direct bilirubin, alkaline phosphatase and gamma glutamyl transferase levels decreased in both groups and no statistically significant difference was detected (p = 0.800, p = 0.190, p = 0.743, p = 0.521). Migration was greater with covered stents but it was not statistically significant either (p = 0.101). Obstruction was greater in the group with uncovered stents but it was not statistically significant either (p = 0.476). There are no differences when using covered self-expandable stents or uncovered self-expandable stents in terms of technical and clinical success or complications in the palliative treatment of malignant obstructive jaundice.

Cloud cover estimation: Use of GOES imagery in development of cloud cover data base for insolation assessment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Huning, J. R.; Logan, T. L.; Smith, J. H.

1982-01-01

The potential of using digital satellite data to establish a cloud cover data base for the United States, one that would provide detailed information on the temporal and spatial variability of cloud development are studied. Key elements include: (1) interfacing GOES data from the University of Wisconsin Meteorological Data Facility with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's VICAR image processing system and IBIS geographic information system; (2) creation of a registered multitemporal GOES data base; (3) development of a simple normalization model to compensate for sun angle; (4) creation of a variable size georeference grid that provides detailed cloud information in selected areas and summarized information in other areas; and (5) development of a cloud/shadow model which details the percentage of each grid cell that is cloud and shadow covered, and the percentage of cloud or shadow opacity. In addition, comparison of model calculations of insolation with measured values at selected test sites was accomplished, as well as development of preliminary requirements for a large scale data base of cloud cover statistics.

MODIS Tree Cover Validation for the Circumpolar Taiga-Tundra Transition Zone

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Montesano, P. M.; Nelson, R.; Sun, G.; Margolis, H.; Kerber, A.; Ranson, K. J.

2009-01-01

A validation of the 2005 500m MODIS vegetation continuous fields (VCF) tree cover product in the circumpolar taiga-tundra ecotone was performed using high resolution Quickbird imagery. Assessing the VCF's performance near the northern limits of the boreal forest can help quantify the accuracy of the product within this vegetation transition area. The circumpolar region was divided into longitudinal zones and validation sites were selected in areas of varying tree cover where Quickbird imagery is available in Google Earth. Each site was linked to the corresponding VCF pixel and overlaid with a regular dot grid within the VCF pixel's boundary to estimate percent tree crown cover in the area. Percent tree crown cover was estimated using Quickbird imagery for 396 sites throughout the circumpolar region and related to the VCF's estimates of canopy cover for 2000-2005. Regression results of VCF inter-annual comparisons (2000-2005) and VCF-Quickbird image-interpreted estimates indicate that: (1) Pixel-level, inter-annual comparisons of VCF estimates of percent canopy cover were linearly related (mean R(sup 2) = 0.77) and exhibited an average root mean square error (RMSE) of 10.1 % and an average root mean square difference (RMSD) of 7.3%. (2) A comparison of image-interpreted percent tree crown cover estimates based on dot counts on Quickbird color images by two different interpreters were more variable (R(sup 2) = 0.73, RMSE = 14.8%, RMSD = 18.7%) than VCF inter-annual comparisons. (3) Across the circumpolar boreal region, 2005 VCF-Quickbird comparisons were linearly related, with an R(sup 2) = 0.57, a RMSE = 13.4% and a RMSD = 21.3%, with a tendency to over-estimate areas of low percent tree cover and anomalous VCF results in Scandinavia. The relationship of the VCF estimates and ground reference indicate to potential users that the VCF's tree cover values for individual pixels, particularly those below 20% tree cover, may not be precise enough to monitor 500m pixel

Quantifying environmental limiting factors on tree cover using geospatial data.

PubMed

Greenberg, Jonathan A; Santos, Maria J; Dobrowski, Solomon Z; Vanderbilt, Vern C; Ustin, Susan L

2015-01-01

Environmental limiting factors (ELFs) are the thresholds that determine the maximum or minimum biological response for a given suite of environmental conditions. We asked the following questions: 1) Can we detect ELFs on percent tree cover across the eastern slopes of the Lake Tahoe Basin, NV? 2) How are the ELFs distributed spatially? 3) To what extent are unmeasured environmental factors limiting tree cover? ELFs are difficult to quantify as they require significant sample sizes. We addressed this by using geospatial data over a relatively large spatial extent, where the wall-to-wall sampling ensures the inclusion of rare data points which define the minimum or maximum response to environmental factors. We tested mean temperature, minimum temperature, potential evapotranspiration (PET) and PET minus precipitation (PET-P) as potential limiting factors on percent tree cover. We found that the study area showed system-wide limitations on tree cover, and each of the factors showed evidence of being limiting on tree cover. However, only 1.2% of the total area appeared to be limited by the four (4) environmental factors, suggesting other unmeasured factors are limiting much of the tree cover in the study area. Where sites were near their theoretical maximum, non-forest sites (tree cover < 25%) were primarily limited by cold mean temperatures, open-canopy forest sites (tree cover between 25% and 60%) were primarily limited by evaporative demand, and closed-canopy forests were not limited by any particular environmental factor. The detection of ELFs is necessary in order to fully understand the width of limitations that species experience within their geographic range.

Spatial Patterns of Forest Cover Loss in the Democratic Republic of Congo

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Molinario, G.; Hansen, M.; Potapov, P.; Justice, C. O.

2013-12-01

Three groups of metrics of spatial patterns of forest cover loss were calculated for the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). While other studies had previously assessed landscape patterns in the Congo Basin, they had done so for small areas due to data limitations. The input data for this study, the Forets d;Afrique Central Evaluee par Teledetection(FACET), allowed the analysis to be performed at the national level. FACET is a landsat-scale dataset giving an unprecedented synoptic view of forest cover and forest cover loss for the DRC for three time periods: 2000, 2005 and 2010. The three groups of metrics evaluated the following spatial characteristics of forest cover loss for the same standard 1.5km unit of area: proportions of typologies of forest lost, forest fragmentation and proximity of forest loss patches from other land cover types. Results indicate that there are several different typologies of forest cover loss in the DRC, and offer quantitative explanations of these differences, providing a valuable locally-relevant tool for land use planning, available at the national level. Spatial patterns of forest cover loss highlight differences between areas of high primary forest loss due to agriculture conversion in frontier deforestation, such as in the east of the country, areas of equivalent primary and secondary forest loss emanating from the rural complex and areas of variable proportions of primary and secondary forest loss but important ecological repercussions of forest fragmentation due to isolated, but systematic forest perforations. Typologies of spatial patterns of forest cover loss are presented as well as their correlated drivers, and ecological, conservation and land use planning considerations are discussed.

Land Cover Change Monitoring of Typical Functional Communities of Sichuan Province Based on ZY-3 Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, G. M.; Li, S.; Ying, G. W.; Wu, X. P.

2018-04-01

According to the function, land space types are divided into key development areas, restricted development areas and forbidden development areas in Sichuan Province. This paper monitors and analyses the changes of land cover in different typical functional areas from 2010 to 2017, which based on ZY-3 high-score images data and combined with statistical yearbook and thematic data of Sichuan Province. The results show that: The land cover types of typical key development zones are mainly composed of cultivated land, forest land, garden land, and housing construction land, which accounts for the total area of land cover 87 %. The land cover types of typical restricted development zone mainly consists of forest land and grassland, which occupy 97.71 % of the total area of the surface coverage. The land cover types of the typical prohibition development zone mainly consist of forest land, grassland, desert and bared earth, which accounts for the total area of land cover 99.31 %.

Differences in breeding bird assemblages related to reed canary grass cover cover and forest structure on the Upper Mississippi River

USGS Publications Warehouse

Kirsch, Eileen M.; Gray, Brian R.

2017-01-01

Floodplain forest of the Upper Mississippi River provides habitat for an abundant and diverse breeding bird community. However, reed canary grass Phalaris arundinacea invasion is a serious threat to the future condition of this forest. Reed canary grass is a well-known aggressive invader of wetland systems in the northern tier states of the conterminous United States. Aided by altered flow regimes and nutrient inputs from agriculture, reed canary grass has formed dense stands in canopy gaps and forest edges, retarding tree regeneration. We sampled vegetation and breeding birds in Upper Mississippi River floodplain forest edge and interior areas to 1) measure reed canary grass cover and 2) evaluate whether the breeding bird assemblage responded to differences in reed canary grass cover. Reed canary grass was found far into forest interiors, and its cover was similar between interior and edge sites. Bird assemblages differed between areas with more or less reed canary grass cover (.53% cover breakpoint). Common yellowthroat Geothlypis trichas, black-capped chickadee Parus atricapillus, and rose-breasted grosbeak Pheucticus ludovicianus were more common and American redstart Setophaga ruticilla, great crested flycatcher Myiarchus crinitus, and Baltimore oriole Icterus galbula were less common in sites with more reed canary grass cover. Bird diversity and abundance were similar between sites with different reed canary grass cover. A stronger divergence in bird assemblages was associated with ground cover ,15%, resulting from prolonged spring flooding. These sites hosted more prothonotary warbler Protonotaria citrea, but they had reduced bird abundance and diversity compared to other sites. Our results indicate that frequently flooded sites may be important for prothonotary warblers and that bird assemblages shift in response to reed canary grass invasion.

Cluster: Drafting. Course: Basic Technical Drafting. Research Project.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sanford - Lee County Schools, NC.

The set of six units is designed for use with an instructor in basic technical drafting and is also keyed to other texts. Each unit contains several task packages specifying prerequisites, rationale for learning, objectives, learning activities to be supervised by the instructor, and learning practice. The units cover: pictorial drawing; screw…

Liver CT image processing: a short introduction of the technical elements.

PubMed

Masutani, Y; Uozumi, K; Akahane, Masaaki; Ohtomo, Kuni

2006-05-01

In this paper, we describe the technical aspects of image analysis for liver diagnosis and treatment, including the state-of-the-art of liver image analysis and its applications. After discussion on modalities for liver image analysis, various technical elements for liver image analysis such as registration, segmentation, modeling, and computer-assisted detection are covered with examples performed with clinical data sets. Perspective in the imaging technologies is also reviewed and discussed.

RTO Technical Publications: A Quarterly Listing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2004-01-01

This is a listing of recent unclassified RTO technical publications for April 1, 2004 through June 30, 2004, processed by the NASA Center for AeroSpace Information. Topics covered include: heat transfer and cooling in propulsion and power systems; assessment of operator functional state; microwaves; aerodynamics in solid rocket propulsion; command, control, communications and intelligence modeling; personal protective equipment against anti-personnel mine blast; and data fusion and visualization.

"Proximal Sensing" capabilities for snow cover monitoring

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Valt, Mauro; Salvatori, Rosamaria; Plini, Paolo; Salzano, Roberto; Giusti, Marco; Montagnoli, Mauro; Sigismondi, Daniele; Cagnati, Anselmo

2013-04-01

The seasonal snow cover represents one of the most important land cover class in relation to environmental studies in mountain areas, especially considering its variation during time. Snow cover and its extension play a relevant role for the studies on the atmospheric dynamics and the evolution of climate. It is also important for the analysis and management of water resources and for the management of touristic activities in mountain areas. Recently, webcam images collected at daily or even hourly intervals are being used as tools to observe the snow covered areas; those images, properly processed, can be considered a very important environmental data source. Images captured by digital cameras become a useful tool at local scale providing images even when the cloud coverage makes impossible the observation by satellite sensors. When suitably processed these images can be used for scientific purposes, having a good resolution (at least 800x600x16 million colours) and a very good sampling frequency (hourly images taken through the whole year). Once stored in databases, those images represent therefore an important source of information for the study of recent climatic changes, to evaluate the available water resources and to analyse the daily surface evolution of the snow cover. The Snow-noSnow software has been specifically designed to automatically detect the extension of snow cover collected from webcam images with a very limited human intervention. The software was tested on images collected on Alps (ARPAV webcam network) and on Apennine in a pilot station properly equipped for this project by CNR-IIA. The results obtained through the use of Snow-noSnow are comparable to the one achieved by photo-interpretation and could be considered as better as the ones obtained using the image segmentation routine implemented into image processing commercial softwares. Additionally, Snow-noSnow operates in a semi-automatic way and has a reduced processing time. The analysis

Mapping Surface Cover Parameters Using Aggregation Rules and Remotely Sensed Cover Classes. Version 1.9

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Arain, Altaf M.; Shuttleworth, W. James; Yang, Z-Liang; Michaud, Jene; Dolman, Johannes

1997-01-01

A coupled model, which combines the Biosphere-Atmosphere Transfer Scheme (BATS) with an advanced atmospheric boundary-layer model, was used to validate hypothetical aggregation rules for BATS-specific surface cover parameters. The model was initialized and tested with observations from the Anglo-Brazilian Amazonian Climate Observational Study and used to simulate surface fluxes for rain forest and pasture mixes at a site near Manaus in Brazil. The aggregation rules are shown to estimate parameters which give area-average surface fluxes similar to those calculated with explicit representation of forest and pasture patches for a range of meteorological and surface conditions relevant to this site, but the agreement deteriorates somewhat when there are large patch-to-patch differences in soil moisture. The aggregation rules, validated as above, were then applied to remotely sensed 1 km land cover data set to obtain grid-average values of BATS vegetation parameters for 2.8 deg x 2.8 deg and 1 deg x 1 deg grids within the conterminous United States. There are significant differences in key vegetation parameters (aerodynamic roughness length, albedo, leaf area index, and stomatal resistance) when aggregate parameters are compared to parameters for the single, dominant cover within the grid. However, the surface energy fluxes calculated by stand-alone BATS with the 2-year forcing, data from the International Satellite Land Surface Climatology Project (ISLSCP) CDROM were reasonably similar using aggregate-vegetation parameters and dominant-cover parameters, but there were some significant differences, particularly in the western USA.

Changes in vegetation cover and composition in the Swedish mountain region.

PubMed

Hedenås, Henrik; Christensen, Pernilla; Svensson, Johan

2016-08-01

Climate change, higher levels of natural resource demands, and changing land use will likely lead to changes in vegetation configuration in the mountain regions. The aim of this study was to determine if the vegetation cover and composition have changed in the Swedish region of the Scandinavian Mountain Range, based on data from the long-term landscape biodiversity monitoring program NILS (National Inventory of Landscapes in Sweden). Habitat type and vegetation cover were assessed in 1740 systematically distributed permanent field plots grouped into 145 sample units across the mountain range. Horvitz-Thompson estimations were used to estimate the present areal extension of the alpine and the mountain birch forest areas of the mountain range, the cover of trees, shrubs, and plants, and the composition of the bottom layer vegetation. We employed the data from two subsequent 5-year monitoring periods, 2003-2007 and 2008-2012, to determine if there have been any changes in these characteristics. We found that the extension of the alpine and the mountain birch forest areas has not changed between the inventory phases. However, the total tree canopy cover increased in the alpine area, the cover of graminoids and dwarf shrubs and the total cover of field vegetation increased in both the alpine area and the mountain birch forest, the bryophytes decreased in the alpine area, and the foliose lichens decreased in the mountain birch forest. The observed changes in vegetation cover and composition, as assessed by systematic data in a national and regional monitoring scheme, can validate the results of local studies, experimental studies, and models. Through benchmark assessments, monitoring data also contributes to governmental policies and land-management strategies as well as to directed cause and effect analyses.

EnviroAtlas - Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN - One Meter Resolution Urban Area Land Cover Map (MULC) (2010)

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

The Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN EnviroAtlas Meter-scale Urban Land Cover (MULC) data were generated from four-band (red, green, blue, and near infrared) aerial photography provided by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Agricultural Imagery Program (NAIP). The NAIP imagery for the state of Minnesota was collected during the summer and fall of 2010. Lidar data and relevant ancillary datasets contributed to the classification. Eight land cover types were classified: water, impervious surface, soil and barren land, trees and forest, grass and herbaceous, agriculture, woody wetland, and emergent wetland. An accuracy assessment of 644 completely random and 62 stratified random photointerpreted reference points yielded an overall User's Accuracy of 83 percent. The boundary of this data layer is delineated by the US Census Bureau's 2010 Urban Statistical Area for Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN plus a 1-km buffer. This dataset was produced by the US EPA to support research and online mapping activities related to EnviroAtlas. EnviroAtlas (https://www.epa.gov/enviroatlas) allows the user to interact with a web-based, easy-to-use, mapping application to view and analyze multiple ecosystem services for the contiguous United States. The dataset is available as downloadable data (https://edg.epa.gov/data/Public/ORD/EnviroAtlas) or as an EnviroAtlas map service. Additional descriptive information about each attribute in this dataset can be found in its associat

The managed clearing: An overlooked land-cover type in urbanizing regions?

PubMed Central

Madden, Marguerite; Gray, Josh; Meentemeyer, Ross K.

2018-01-01

Urban ecosystem assessments increasingly rely on widely available map products, such as the U.S. Geological Service (USGS) National Land Cover Database (NLCD), and datasets that use generic classification schemes to detect and model large-scale impacts of land-cover change. However, utilizing existing map products or schemes without identifying relevant urban class types such as semi-natural, yet managed land areas that account for differences in ecological functions due to their pervious surfaces may severely constrain assessments. To address this gap, we introduce the managed clearings land-cover type–semi-natural, vegetated land surfaces with varying degrees of management practices–for urbanizing landscapes. We explore the extent to which managed clearings are common and spatially distributed in three rapidly urbanizing areas of the Charlanta megaregion, USA. We visually interpreted and mapped fine-scale land cover with special attention to managed clearings using 2012 U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP) images within 150 randomly selected 1-km2 blocks in the cities of Atlanta, Charlotte, and Raleigh, and compared our maps with National Land Cover Database (NLCD) data. We estimated the abundance of managed clearings relative to other land use and land cover types, and the proportion of land-cover types in the NLCD that are similar to managed clearings. Our study reveals that managed clearings are the most common land cover type in these cities, covering 28% of the total sampled land area– 6.2% higher than the total area of impervious surfaces. Managed clearings, when combined with forest cover, constitutes 69% of pervious surfaces in the sampled region. We observed variability in area estimates of managed clearings between the NAIP-derived and NLCD data. This suggests using high-resolution remote sensing imagery (e.g., NAIP) instead of modifying NLCD data for improved representation of spatial heterogeneity and

Study on resources and environmental data integration towards data warehouse construction covering trans-boundary area of China, Russia and Mongolia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, J.; Song, J.; Gao, M.; Zhu, L.

2014-02-01

The trans-boundary area between Northern China, Mongolia and eastern Siberia of Russia is a continuous geographical area located in north eastern Asia. Many common issues in this region need to be addressed based on a uniform resources and environmental data warehouse. Based on the practice of joint scientific expedition, the paper presented a data integration solution including 3 steps, i.e., data collection standards and specifications making, data reorganization and process, data warehouse design and development. A series of data collection standards and specifications were drawn up firstly covering more than 10 domains. According to the uniform standard, 20 resources and environmental survey databases in regional scale, and 11 in-situ observation databases were reorganized and integrated. North East Asia Resources and Environmental Data Warehouse was designed, which included 4 layers, i.e., resources layer, core business logic layer, internet interoperation layer, and web portal layer. The data warehouse prototype was developed and deployed initially. All the integrated data in this area can be accessed online.

45 CFR 1211.1-5 - Matters not covered.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... 45 Public Welfare 4 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Matters not covered. 1211.1-5 Section 1211.1-5... SERVICE VOLUNTEER GRIEVANCE PROCEDURES § 1211.1-5 Matters not covered. Matters not within the definition... following are specific examples of excluded areas and are not intended as a complete listing of the matters...

45 CFR 1211.1-5 - Matters not covered.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-10-01

... 45 Public Welfare 4 2014-10-01 2014-10-01 false Matters not covered. 1211.1-5 Section 1211.1-5... SERVICE VOLUNTEER GRIEVANCE PROCEDURES § 1211.1-5 Matters not covered. Matters not within the definition... following are specific examples of excluded areas and are not intended as a complete listing of the matters...

45 CFR 1211.1-5 - Matters not covered.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

... 45 Public Welfare 4 2013-10-01 2013-10-01 false Matters not covered. 1211.1-5 Section 1211.1-5... SERVICE VOLUNTEER GRIEVANCE PROCEDURES § 1211.1-5 Matters not covered. Matters not within the definition... following are specific examples of excluded areas and are not intended as a complete listing of the matters...

45 CFR 1211.1-5 - Matters not covered.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... 45 Public Welfare 4 2012-10-01 2012-10-01 false Matters not covered. 1211.1-5 Section 1211.1-5... SERVICE VOLUNTEER GRIEVANCE PROCEDURES § 1211.1-5 Matters not covered. Matters not within the definition... following are specific examples of excluded areas and are not intended as a complete listing of the matters...

45 CFR 1211.1-5 - Matters not covered.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... 45 Public Welfare 4 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Matters not covered. 1211.1-5 Section 1211.1-5... SERVICE VOLUNTEER GRIEVANCE PROCEDURES § 1211.1-5 Matters not covered. Matters not within the definition... following are specific examples of excluded areas and are not intended as a complete listing of the matters...

Space Shuttle Technical Conference, Part 2

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chaffee, Norman (Compiler)

1985-01-01

The retrospective presentation provides technical disciplinary focus in the following technical areas: (1) integrated avionics; (2) guidance, navigation, and control; (3) aerodynamics; (4) structures; (5) life support, environmental control, and crew station; (6) ground operations; (7) propulsion and power; (8) communications and tracking; (9) mechanics and mechanical systems; and (10) thermal and contamination environments and protection systems.

Optimal shortening of uniform covering arrays

PubMed Central

Rangel-Valdez, Nelson; Avila-George, Himer; Carrizalez-Turrubiates, Oscar

2017-01-01

Software test suites based on the concept of interaction testing are very useful for testing software components in an economical way. Test suites of this kind may be created using mathematical objects called covering arrays. A covering array, denoted by CA(N; t, k, v), is an N × k array over Zv={0,…,v-1} with the property that every N × t sub-array covers all t-tuples of Zvt at least once. Covering arrays can be used to test systems in which failures occur as a result of interactions among components or subsystems. They are often used in areas such as hardware Trojan detection, software testing, and network design. Because system testing is expensive, it is critical to reduce the amount of testing required. This paper addresses the Optimal Shortening of Covering ARrays (OSCAR) problem, an optimization problem whose objective is to construct, from an existing covering array matrix of uniform level, an array with dimensions of (N − δ) × (k − Δ) such that the number of missing t-tuples is minimized. Two applications of the OSCAR problem are (a) to produce smaller covering arrays from larger ones and (b) to obtain quasi-covering arrays (covering arrays in which the number of missing t-tuples is small) to be used as input to a meta-heuristic algorithm that produces covering arrays. In addition, it is proven that the OSCAR problem is NP-complete, and twelve different algorithms are proposed to solve it. An experiment was performed on 62 problem instances, and the results demonstrate the effectiveness of solving the OSCAR problem to facilitate the construction of new covering arrays. PMID:29267343

Middlesex Community College Software Technical Writing Program.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Middlesex Community Coll., Bedford, MA.

This document describes the Software Technical Writing Program at Middlesex Community College (Massachusetts). The program is a "hands-on" course designed to develop job-related skills in three major areas: technical writing, software, and professional skills. The program was originally designed in cooperation with the Massachusetts High…

KSC Technical Capabilities Website

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Nufer, Brian; Bursian, Henry; Brown, Laurette L.

2010-01-01

This document is the website pages that review the technical capabilities that the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) has for partnership opportunities. The purpose of this information is to make prospective customers aware of the capabilities and provide an opportunity to form relationships with the experts at KSC. The technical capabilities fall into these areas: (1) Ground Operations and Processing Services, (2) Design and Analysis Solutions, (3) Command and Control Systems / Services, (4) Materials and Processes, (5) Research and Technology Development and (6) Laboratories, Shops and Test Facilities.

Instructional Design in Technical Areas. Australian Education Review, No. 43.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sweller, John

This book details the findings from a research team that used cognitive principles and a large range of experiments to devise a variety of instructional designs. Their recommendations are based on 20 years of objective, published research. Although the program focused on technical subjects, the findings can easily be applied to a range of…

Land Cover Analysis of Temperate Asia

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Justice, Chris

1998-01-01

Satellite data from the advanced very high resolution radiometer (AVHRR) instrument were used to produce a general land cover distribution of temperate Asia (referred to hence as Central Asia) from 1982, starting with the NOAA-7 satellite, and continuing through 1991, ending with the NOAA-11 satellite. Emphasis was placed upon delineating the and and semi-arid zones of Central Asia (largely Mongolia and adjacent areas), mapping broad categories of aggregated land cover, and upon studying photosynthetic capacity increases in Central Asia from 1982 to 1991.

Regional Climate Modeling over the Marmara Region, Turkey, with Improved Land Cover Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sertel, E.; Robock, A.

2007-12-01

Land surface controls the partitioning of available energy at the surface between sensible and latent heat,and controls partitioning of available water between evaporation and runoff. Current land cover data available within the regional climate models such as Regional Atmospheric Modeling System (RAMS), the Fifth-Generation NCAR/Penn State Mesoscale Model (MM5) and Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) was obtained from 1- km Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer satellite images spanning April 1992 through March 1993 with an unsupervised classification technique. These data are not up-to-date and are not accurate for all regions and some land cover types such as urban areas. Here we introduce new, up-to-date and accurate land cover data for the Marmara Region, Turkey derived from Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper images into the WRF regional climate model. We used several image processing techniques to create accurate land cover data from Landsat images obtained between 2001 and 2005. First, all images were atmospherically and radiometrically corrected to minimize contamination effects of atmospheric particles and systematic errors. Then, geometric correction was performed for each image to eliminate geometric distortions and define images in a common coordinate system. Finally, unsupervised and supervised classification techniques were utilized to form the most accurate land cover data yet for the study area. Accuracy assessments of the classifications were performed using error matrix and kappa statistics to find the best classification results. Maximum likelihood classification method gave the most accurate results over the study area. We compared the new land cover data with the default WRF land cover data. WRF land cover data cannot represent urban areas in the cities of Istanbul, Izmit, and Bursa. As an example, both original satellite images and new land cover data showed the expansion of urban areas into the Istanbul metropolitan area, but in the WRF

An evaluation of terrain-based downscaling of fractional snow covered area data sets based on LiDAR-derived snow data and orthoimagery

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cristea, Nicoleta C.; Breckheimer, Ian; Raleigh, Mark S.; HilleRisLambers, Janneke; Lundquist, Jessica D.

2017-08-01

Reliable maps of snow-covered areas at scales of meters to tens of meters, with daily temporal resolution, are essential to understanding snow heterogeneity, melt runoff, energy exchange, and ecological processes. Here we develop a parsimonious downscaling routine that can be applied to fractional snow covered area (fSCA) products from satellite platforms such as the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) that provide daily ˜500 m data, to derive higher-resolution snow presence/absence grids. The method uses a composite index combining both the topographic position index (TPI) to represent accumulation effects and the diurnal anisotropic heat (DAH, sun exposure) index to represent ablation effects. The procedure is evaluated and calibrated using airborne-derived high-resolution data sets across the Tuolumne watershed, CA using 11 scenes in 2014 to downscale to 30 m resolution. The average matching F score was 0.83. We then tested our method's transferability in time and space by comparing against the Tuolumne watershed in water years 2013 and 2015, and over an entirely different site, Mt. Rainier, WA in 2009 and 2011, to assess applicability to other topographic and climatic conditions. For application to sites without validation data, we recommend equal weights for the TPI and DAH indices and close TPI neighborhoods (60 and 27 m for downscaling to 30 and 3 m, respectively), which worked well in both our study areas. The method is less effective in forested areas, which still requires site-specific treatment. We demonstrate that the procedure can even be applied to downscale to 3 m resolution, a very fine scale relevant to alpine ecohydrology research.

A new fractional snow-covered area parameterization for the Community Land Model and its effect on the surface energy balance

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Swenson, S. C.; Lawrence, D. M.

2011-11-01

One function of the Community Land Model (CLM4) is the determination of surface albedo in the Community Earth System Model (CESM1). Because the typical spatial scales of CESM1 simulations are large compared to the scales of variability of surface properties such as snow cover and vegetation, unresolved surface heterogeneity is parameterized. Fractional snow-covered area, or snow-covered fraction (SCF), within a CLM4 grid cell is parameterized as a function of grid cell mean snow depth and snow density. This parameterization is based on an analysis of monthly averaged SCF and snow depth that showed a seasonal shift in the snow depth-SCF relationship. In this paper, we show that this shift is an artifact of the monthly sampling and that the current parameterization does not reflect the relationship observed between snow depth and SCF at the daily time scale. We demonstrate that the snow depth analysis used in the original study exhibits a bias toward early melt when compared to satellite-observed SCF. This bias results in a tendency to overestimate SCF as a function of snow depth. Using a more consistent, higher spatial and temporal resolution snow depth analysis reveals a clear hysteresis between snow accumulation and melt seasons. Here, a new SCF parameterization based on snow water equivalent is developed to capture the observed seasonal snow depth-SCF evolution. The effects of the new SCF parameterization on the surface energy budget are described. In CLM4, surface energy fluxes are calculated assuming a uniform snow cover. To more realistically simulate environments having patchy snow cover, we modify the model by computing the surface fluxes separately for snow-free and snow-covered fractions of a grid cell. In this configuration, the form of the parameterized snow depth-SCF relationship is shown to greatly affect the surface energy budget. The direct exposure of the snow-free surfaces to the atmosphere leads to greater heat loss from the ground during autumn

A new fractional snow-covered area parameterization for the Community Land Model and its effect on the surface energy balance

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Swenson, S. C.; Lawrence, D. M.

2012-11-01

One function of the Community Land Model (CLM4) is the determination of surface albedo in the Community Earth System Model (CESM1). Because the typical spatial scales of CESM1 simulations are large compared to the scales of variability of surface properties such as snow cover and vegetation, unresolved surface heterogeneity is parameterized. Fractional snow-covered area, or snow-covered fraction (SCF), within a CLM4 grid cell is parameterized as a function of grid cell mean snow depth and snow density. This parameterization is based on an analysis of monthly averaged SCF and snow depth that showed a seasonal shift in the snow depth-SCF relationship. In this paper, we show that this shift is an artifact of the monthly sampling and that the current parameterization does not reflect the relationship observed between snow depth and SCF at the daily time scale. We demonstrate that the snow depth analysis used in the original study exhibits a bias toward early melt when compared to satellite-observed SCF. This bias results in a tendency to overestimate SCF as a function of snow depth. Using a more consistent, higher spatial and temporal resolution snow depth analysis reveals a clear hysteresis between snow accumulation and melt seasons. Here, a new SCF parameterization based on snow water equivalent is developed to capture the observed seasonal snow depth-SCF evolution. The effects of the new SCF parameterization on the surface energy budget are described. In CLM4, surface energy fluxes are calculated assuming a uniform snow cover. To more realistically simulate environments having patchy snow cover, we modify the model by computing the surface fluxes separately for snow-free and snow-covered fractions of a grid cell. In this configuration, the form of the parameterized snow depth-SCF relationship is shown to greatly affect the surface energy budget. The direct exposure of the snow-free surfaces to the atmosphere leads to greater heat loss from the ground during autumn

Tree cover and aridity projections to 2060: a technical document supporting the Forest Service 2010 RPA assessment

Treesearch

Eric J. Greenfield; David J. Nowak

2013-01-01

Future projections of tree cover and climate change are useful to natural resource managers as they illustrate potential changes to our natural resources and the ecosystem services they provide. This report a) details three projections of tree cover change across the conterminous United States based on predicted land-use changes from 2000 to 2060; b) evaluates nine...

Land cover change impact on urban flood modeling (case study: Upper Citarum watershed)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Siregar, R. I.

2018-03-01

The upper Citarum River watershed utilizes remote sensing technology in Geographic Information System to provide information on land coverage by interpretation of objects in the image. Rivers that pass through urban areas will cause flooding problems causing disadvantages, and it disrupts community activities in the urban area. Increased development in a city is related to an increase in the number of population growth that added by increasing quality and quantity of life necessities. Improved urban lifestyle changes have an impact on land cover. The impact in over time will be difficult to control. This study aims to analyze the condition of flooding in urban areas caused by upper Citarum watershed land-use change in 2001 with the land cover change in 2010. This modeling analyzes with the help of HEC-RAS to describe flooded inundation urban areas. Land cover change in upper Citarum watershed is not very significant; it based on the results of data processing of land cover has the difference of area that changed is not enormous. Land cover changes for the floods increased dramatically to a flow coefficient for 2001 is 0.65 and in 2010 at 0.69. In 2001, the inundation area about 105,468 hectares and it were about 92,289 hectares in 2010.

24 CFR 570.402 - Technical assistance awards.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-04-01

... CFR part 571); and the Special Purpose Grants for Insular Areas, Community Development Work Study and... attended by more than one unit of government. (d) Eligible activities. Activities eligible for technical.... Activities for which costs are ineligible under this section include: (1) In the case of technical assistance...

24 CFR 570.402 - Technical assistance awards.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-04-01

... CFR part 571); and the Special Purpose Grants for Insular Areas, Community Development Work Study and... attended by more than one unit of government. (d) Eligible activities. Activities eligible for technical.... Activities for which costs are ineligible under this section include: (1) In the case of technical assistance...

Ground cover in old-growth forests of the central hardwood region

Treesearch

Martin A. Spetich; Stephen R. Shifley; George R. Parker; Felix, Jr. Ponder

1997-01-01

Differences in ground cover (percent cover of litter, percent cover of vegetation and litter weight) in old-growth forests across this region are not well understood. We initiated a long-term study in a three-state region to enhance knowledge in this area. We present baseline results for ground cover and compare these data across productivity regions. Thirty 0.25-ac (0...

Cover design for radioactive and AMD-producing mine waste in the Ronneburg area, eastern Thuringia.

PubMed

Gatzweiler, R; Jahn, S; Neubert, G; Paul, M

2001-01-01

At the former uranium mining site of Ronneburg, large scale underground and open pit mining for nearly 40 years resulted in a production of about 113,000 tonnes of uranium and about 200 million cubic metres of mine waste. In their present state, these materials cause risks to human health and strong environmental impacts and therefore demand remedial action. The remediation options available are relocation of mine spoil into the open pit and on site remediation by landscaping/contouring, placement of a cover and revegetation. A suitable vegetated cover system combined with a surface water drainage system provides long-term stability against erosion and reduces acid generation thereby meeting the main remediation objectives which are long-term reduction of radiological exposure and contaminant emissions and recultivation. The design of the cover system includes the evaluation of geotechnical, radiological, hydrological, geochemical and ecological criteria and models. The optimized overall model for the cover system has to comply with general conditions as, e.g. economic efficiency, public acceptance and sustainability. Most critical elements for the long-term performance of the cover system designed for the Beerwalde dump are the barrier system and its long-term integrity and a largely self-sustainable vegetation.

Estimating Accuracy of Land-Cover Composition From Two-Stage Clustering Sampling

EPA Science Inventory

Land-cover maps are often used to compute land-cover composition (i.e., the proportion or percent of area covered by each class), for each unit in a spatial partition of the region mapped. We derive design-based estimators of mean deviation (MD), mean absolute deviation (MAD), ...

Report format preferences of technical managers and nonmanagers

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pinelli, T. E.; Cordle, V. M.; Glassman, M.; Vondran, R. F., Jr.

1984-01-01

A survey of engineers and scientists concerning the format of NASA technical reports indicates that a summary as well as an abstract should be included, that the definitions of symbols and glossary of terms should be located in the front of the report, and that the illustrative material should be integrated with the text rather than grouped at the end of the report. Citation of references by number, one-column, ragged-right-margin layout, and third-person writing style are also preferred by a majority of the respondents. The preferences of managers and nonmanagers are very similar for all aspects of technical report format covered by the survey.

A land cover change detection and classification protocol for updating Alaska NLCD 2001 to 2011

USGS Publications Warehouse

Jin, Suming; Yang, Limin; Zhu, Zhe; Homer, Collin G.

2017-01-01

Monitoring and mapping land cover changes are important ways to support evaluation of the status and transition of ecosystems. The Alaska National Land Cover Database (NLCD) 2001 was the first 30-m resolution baseline land cover product of the entire state derived from circa 2001 Landsat imagery and geospatial ancillary data. We developed a comprehensive approach named AKUP11 to update Alaska NLCD from 2001 to 2011 and provide a 10-year cyclical update of the state's land cover and land cover changes. Our method is designed to characterize the main land cover changes associated with different drivers, including the conversion of forests to shrub and grassland primarily as a result of wildland fire and forest harvest, the vegetation successional processes after disturbance, and changes of surface water extent and glacier ice/snow associated with weather and climate changes. For natural vegetated areas, a component named AKUP11-VEG was developed for updating the land cover that involves four major steps: 1) identify the disturbed and successional areas using Landsat images and ancillary datasets; 2) update the land cover status for these areas using a SKILL model (System of Knowledge-based Integrated-trajectory Land cover Labeling); 3) perform decision tree classification; and 4) develop a final land cover and land cover change product through the postprocessing modeling. For water and ice/snow areas, another component named AKUP11-WIS was developed for initial land cover change detection, removal of the terrain shadow effects, and exclusion of ephemeral snow changes using a 3-year MODIS snow extent dataset from 2010 to 2012. The overall approach was tested in three pilot study areas in Alaska, with each area consisting of four Landsat image footprints. The results from the pilot study show that the overall accuracy in detecting change and no-change is 90% and the overall accuracy of the updated land cover label for 2011 is 86%. The method provided a robust

The function of report components in the screening and reading of technical reports

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pinelli, T. E.; Cordle, V. M.; Vondran, R. F.

1984-01-01

A reader preference survey of engineers and scientists at the NASA Langley Research Center and in three professional/technical societies was conducted to determine the opinions of report users and producers concerning the format (organization) of NASA technical reports and the usage of technical report components. The survey questionnaire contained fourteen questions covering twelve survey topics. This article reports the findings of two survey topics: the components initially reviewed or read to determine whether to read a report in its entirety and the order in which report components are read.

Satellite Earth observation data to identify anthropogenic pressures in selected protected areas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nagendra, Harini; Mairota, Paola; Marangi, Carmela; Lucas, Richard; Dimopoulos, Panayotis; Honrado, João Pradinho; Niphadkar, Madhura; Mücher, Caspar A.; Tomaselli, Valeria; Panitsa, Maria; Tarantino, Cristina; Manakos, Ioannis; Blonda, Palma

2015-05-01

Protected areas are experiencing increased levels of human pressure. To enable appropriate conservation action, it is critical to map and monitor changes in the type and extent of land cover/use and habitat classes, which can be related to human pressures over time. Satellite Earth observation (EO) data and techniques offer the opportunity to detect such changes. Yet association with field information and expert interpretation by ecologists is required to interpret, qualify and link these changes to human pressure. There is thus an urgent need to harmonize the technical background of experts in the field of EO data analysis with the terminology of ecologists, protected area management authorities and policy makers in order to provide meaningful, context-specific value-added EO products. This paper builds on the DPSIR framework, providing a terminology to relate the concepts of state, pressures, and drivers with the application of EO analysis. The type of pressure can be inferred through the detection of changes in state (i.e. changes in land cover and/or habitat type and/or condition). Four broad categories of changes in state are identified, i.e. land cover/habitat conversion, land cover/habitat modification, habitat fragmentation and changes in landscape connectivity, and changes in plant community structure. These categories of change in state can be mapped through EO analyses, with the goal of using expert judgement to relate changes in state to causal direct anthropogenic pressures. Drawing on expert knowledge, a set of protected areas located in diverse socio-ecological contexts and subject to a variety of pressures are analysed to (a) link the four categories of changes in state of land cover/habitats to the drivers (anthropogenic pressure), as relevant to specific target land cover and habitat classes; (b) identify (for pressure mapping) the most appropriate spatial and temporal EO data sources as well as interpretations from ecologists and field data

Plastic-covered agriculture forces the regional climate to change

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yang, D.; Chen, J.; Chen, X.; Cao, X.

2016-12-01

The practice of plastic-covered agriculture as a solution to moderate the dilemma of global food shortage, meanwhile, brings great pressure to the local environment. This research was conducted to reveal the impacts of plastic-covered agritulture on regional climate change by experimenting in a plastic greenhouse (PG) dominated area - Weifang district, Shandong province, China. Based on a new plastic greenhouse index (PGI) proposed in this study, we reconstructed the spatial distribution of PG across 1995-2015 in the study area. With that, land surface temperature (LST) dataset combined with surface evapotranspiration, surface reflectance and precipitation data, was applied to the probe of PG's climatic impacts. Results showed that PG, in the study area, has experienced a striking spatial expansion during the past 20 years, and more important, the expansion correlated strongly to the local climate change. It showed that the annual precipitation, in the study area, decreased during these years, which constrasts to a slightly increasing trend of the adjacent districts without PG construction. In addition, resulting from the greenhouse effect, PG area presented a harsher increase of surface temperature compared to the non-PG areas. Our study also telled that the evapotranspiration of PG area has been largely cutted down ascribing to the gas tightness of plastic materials, showing a decline around 40%. This indicates a way that the development of plastic-covered agriculture may contribute to the change of the local climate.

Near Road Tree Cover in the Portland, ME EnviroAtlas Community Area

EPA Science Inventory

Internationally, local air pollution from busy roadways is a significant issue for public health. Recent studies have shown that having tree cover between highly-traveled roads and people living, working, and going to school nearby can help to mitigate pollution and potentially r...

Consideration of liners and covers in performance assessments

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Phifer, Mark A.; Seitz, Robert R.; Suttora, Linda C.

2014-09-18

On-site disposal cells are in use and being considered at several United States Department of Energy (USDOE) sites as the final disposition for large amounts of waste associated with cleanup of contaminated areas and facilities. These disposal cells are typically regulated by States and/or the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) in addition to having to comply with requirements in DOE Order 435.1, Radioactive Waste Management due to the radioactive waste. The USDOE-Environmental Management Office of Site Restoration formed a working group to foster improved communication and sharing of information for personnelmore » associated with these CERCLA disposal cells and work towards more consistent assumptions, as appropriate, for technical and policy considerations related to CERCLA risk assessments and DOE Order 435.1 performance assessments in support of a Record of Decision and Disposal Authorization Statement, respectively. One of the issues considered by the working group, which is addressed in this report, was how to appropriately consider the performance of covers and liners/leachate collections systems in the context of a DOE Order 435.1 performance assessment (PA). This same information may be appropriate for consideration within CERCLA risk assessments for these facilities. These OSDCs are generally developed to meet hazardous waste (HW) disposal design standards under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) as well as the DOE Order 435.1 performance based standards for disposal of radioactive waste. To meet the standards for HW, the facilities typically include engineered covers and liner/leachate collection systems. Thus, when considering such facilities in the context of a DOE Order 435.1 PA, there is a need to address the evolution of performance of covers and liner/leachate collection systems in the context of meeting a performance standard considering

Technical writing versus technical writing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dillingham, J. W.

1981-01-01

Two terms, two job categories, 'technical writer' and 'technical author' are discussed in terms of industrial and business requirements and standards. A distinction between 'technical writing' and technical 'writing' is made. The term 'technical editor' is also considered. Problems inherent in the design of programs to prepare and train students for these jobs are discussed. A closer alliance between industry and academia is suggested as a means of preparing students with competent technical communication skills (especially writing and editing skills) and good technical skills.

Malignant Hilar Biliary Obstruction: Treatment by Means of Placement of a Newly Designed Y-Shaped Branched Covered Stent

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Yun, Jong Hyouk, E-mail: xell1015@naver.com; Jung, Gyoo-Sik, E-mail: gsjung@medimail.co.kr; Park, Jung Gu

PurposeTo evaluate the technical feasibility and clinical efficacy of placement of a newly designed Y-shaped branched covered stent for palliative treatment of malignant hilar biliary obstruction.MethodsFrom June 2011 to September 2014, 34 consecutive patients with malignant hilar biliary obstruction underwent percutaneous placement of a Y-shaped branched covered stent for palliative treatment. Technical and clinical success, complications, cumulative patient survival, and stent patency were evaluated.ResultsStent placement was technically successful in all patients. All patients showed adequate biliary drainage on the follow-up cholangiogram. Mean serum bilirubin level (10.9 mg/dl) decreased significantly 1 week (5.7 mg/dl) and 1 month (2.6 mg/dl) after stent placement (p < 0.01). Complications associated withmore » the procedure included hemobilia (n = 3) and biloma (n = 1). During the mean follow-up period of 225 (range 12–820) days, nine patients (26.5 %) developed stent occlusion caused by tumor overgrowth (n = 8) and sludge (n = 1). Two of them underwent coaxial placement of a second stent with good results. The median survival time was 281 days and median primary stent patency was 337 days. There were no significant differences in the patient survival and stent patency rates in relation to age, sex, or Bismuth type.ConclusionPercutaneous placement of the Y-shaped branched covered stent seems to be technically feasible and clinically effective for palliative treatment of malignant hilar biliary obstruction.« less

An automated approach for mapping persistent ice and snow cover over high latitude regions

USGS Publications Warehouse

Selkowitz, David J.; Forster, Richard R.

2016-01-01

We developed an automated approach for mapping persistent ice and snow cover (glaciers and perennial snowfields) from Landsat TM and ETM+ data across a variety of topography, glacier types, and climatic conditions at high latitudes (above ~65°N). Our approach exploits all available Landsat scenes acquired during the late summer (1 August–15 September) over a multi-year period and employs an automated cloud masking algorithm optimized for snow and ice covered mountainous environments. Pixels from individual Landsat scenes were classified as snow/ice covered or snow/ice free based on the Normalized Difference Snow Index (NDSI), and pixels consistently identified as snow/ice covered over a five-year period were classified as persistent ice and snow cover. The same NDSI and ratio of snow/ice-covered days to total days thresholds applied consistently across eight study regions resulted in persistent ice and snow cover maps that agreed closely in most areas with glacier area mapped for the Randolph Glacier Inventory (RGI), with a mean accuracy (agreement with the RGI) of 0.96, a mean precision (user’s accuracy of the snow/ice cover class) of 0.92, a mean recall (producer’s accuracy of the snow/ice cover class) of 0.86, and a mean F-score (a measure that considers both precision and recall) of 0.88. We also compared results from our approach to glacier area mapped from high spatial resolution imagery at four study regions and found similar results. Accuracy was lowest in regions with substantial areas of debris-covered glacier ice, suggesting that manual editing would still be required in these regions to achieve reasonable results. The similarity of our results to those from the RGI as well as glacier area mapped from high spatial resolution imagery suggests it should be possible to apply this approach across large regions to produce updated 30-m resolution maps of persistent ice and snow cover. In the short term, automated PISC maps can be used to rapidly

Interpretation of high-resolution imagery for detecting vegetation cover composition change after fuels reduction treatments in woodlands

USGS Publications Warehouse

Karl, Jason W.; Gillan, Jeffrey K.; Barger, Nichole N.; Herrick, Jeffrey E.; Duniway, Michael C.

2014-01-01

The use of very high resolution (VHR; ground sampling distances < ∼5 cm) aerial imagery to estimate site vegetation cover and to detect changes from management has been well documented. However, as the purpose of monitoring is to document change over time, the ability to detect changes from imagery at the same or better level of accuracy and precision as those measured in situ must be assessed for image-based techniques to become reliable tools for ecosystem monitoring. Our objective with this study was to quantify the relationship between field-measured and image-interpreted changes in vegetation and ground cover measured one year apart in a Piñon and Juniper (P–J) woodland in southern Utah, USA. The study area was subject to a variety of fuel removal treatments between 2009 and 2010. We measured changes in plant community composition and ground cover along transects in a control area and three different treatments prior to and following P–J removal. We compared these measurements to vegetation composition and change based on photo-interpretation of ∼4 cm ground sampling distance imagery along similar transects. Estimates of cover were similar between field-based and image-interpreted methods in 2009 and 2010 for woody vegetation, no vegetation, herbaceous vegetation, and litter (including woody litter). Image-interpretation slightly overestimated cover for woody vegetation and no-vegetation classes (average difference between methods of 1.34% and 5.85%) and tended to underestimate cover for herbaceous vegetation and litter (average difference of −5.18% and 0.27%), but the differences were significant only for litter cover in 2009. Level of agreement between the field-measurements and image-interpretation was good for woody vegetation and no-vegetation classes (r between 0.47 and 0.89), but generally poorer for herbaceous vegetation and litter (r between 0.18 and 0.81) likely due to differences in image quality by year and the difficulty in

Treatment of esophagopleural fistulas using covered retrievable expandable metallic stents.

PubMed

Kim, Tae-Hyung; Shin, Ji Hoon; Kim, Kyung Rae; Park, Jung-Hoon; Kim, Jin Hyoung; Song, Ho-Young

2014-04-01

To evaluate the clinical efficacy of placement of covered retrievable expandable metallic stents for esophagopleural fistulas (EPFs). During the period 1997-2013, nine patients with EPF were treated using covered retrievable expandable metallic stents. The underlying causes of EPF were esophageal carcinoma (n = 6), lung cancer (n = 2), and postoperative empyema for Boerhaave syndrome (n = 1). Technical success was achieved in eight patients (88.9%). In one patient, incomplete EPF closure was due to incomplete stent expansion. Clinical success, defined as complete EPF closure within 7 days, was achieved in five patients (55.6%). Overall fistula persistence (n = 1) or reopening (n = 4) occurred in five patients (55.6%) 0-15 days after stent placement. The causes of reopening were due to the gap between the stent and the esophagus (n = 3) or stent migration (n = 1). For fistula persistence or reopening, additional interventional management, such as gastrostomy, stent removal, or stent reinsertion, was performed. Stent migration occurred as a complication in one patient with EPF from a benign cause secondary to postoperative empyema. In the eight patients who died during the follow-up period, the mean and median survival times were 78.8 days and 46 days, respectively. Placement of a covered expandable metallic esophageal stent for the palliative treatment of EPF is technically feasible, although the rate of clinical success was poor secondary to fistula persistence or reopening. Fistula reopening was caused by the gap between the stent and the esophagus or by stent migration, and additional interventional treatment was useful to ensure enteral nutritional support. Copyright © 2014 SIR. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Utilizing Multiple Datasets for Snow Cover Mapping

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tait, Andrew B.; Hall, Dorothy K.; Foster, James L.; Armstrong, Richard L.

1999-01-01

Snow-cover maps generated from surface data are based on direct measurements, however they are prone to interpolation errors where climate stations are sparsely distributed. Snow cover is clearly discernable using satellite-attained optical data because of the high albedo of snow, yet the surface is often obscured by cloud cover. Passive microwave (PM) data is unaffected by clouds, however, the snow-cover signature is significantly affected by melting snow and the microwaves may be transparent to thin snow (less than 3cm). Both optical and microwave sensors have problems discerning snow beneath forest canopies. This paper describes a method that combines ground and satellite data to produce a Multiple-Dataset Snow-Cover Product (MDSCP). Comparisons with current snow-cover products show that the MDSCP draws together the advantages of each of its component products while minimizing their potential errors. Improved estimates of the snow-covered area are derived through the addition of two snow-cover classes ("thin or patchy" and "high elevation" snow cover) and from the analysis of the climate station data within each class. The compatibility of this method for use with Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data, which will be available in 2000, is also discussed. With the assimilation of these data, the resolution of the MDSCP would be improved both spatially and temporally and the analysis would become completely automated.

Technical needs and research opportunities provided by projected aeronautical and space systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Noor, Ahmed K.

1992-01-01

The overall goal of the present task is to identify the enabling and supporting technologies for projected aeronautical and space systems. A detailed examination was made of the technical needs in the structures, dynamics and materials areas required for the realization of these systems. Also, the level of integration required with other disciplines was identified. The aeronautical systems considered cover the broad spectrum of rotorcraft; subsonic, supersonic and hypersonic aircraft; extremely high-altitude aircraft; and transatmospheric vehicles. The space systems considered include space transportation systems; spacecrafts for near-earth observation; spacecrafts for planetary and solar exploration; and large space systems. A monograph is being compiled which summarizes the results of this study. The different chapters of the monograph are being written by leading experts from governmental laboratories, industry and universities.

Key team physical and technical performance indicators indicative of team quality in the soccer Chinese super league.

PubMed

Yang, Gai; Leicht, Anthony S; Lago, Carlos; Gómez, Miguel-Ángel

2018-01-01

The aim of this study was to identify the key physical and technical performance variables related to team quality in the Chinese Super League (CSL). Teams' performance variables were collected from 240 matches and analysed via analysis of variance between end-of-season-ranked groups and multinomial logistic regression. Significant physical performance differences between groups were identified for sprinting (top-ranked group vs. upper-middle-ranked group) and total distance covered without possession (upper and upper-middle-ranked groups and lower-ranked group). For technical performance, teams in the top-ranked group exhibited a significantly greater amount of possession in opponent's half, number of entry passes in the final 1/3 of the field and the Penalty Area, and 50-50 challenges than lower-ranked teams. Finally, time of possession increased the probability of a win compared with a draw. The current study identified key performance indicators that differentiated end-season team quality within the CSL.

Mapping and measuring land-cover characteristics of New River Basin, Tennessee, using Landsat digital tapes

USGS Publications Warehouse

Hollyday, E.F.; Sauer, S.P.

1976-01-01

Land-cover information is needed to select subbasins within the New River basin, Tennessee, for the study of hydrologic processes and also is needed to transfer study results to other sites affected by coal mining. It was believed that data recorded by the first Earth Resources Technology Satellite (Landsat-1) could be processed to yield the needed land-cover information. This study demonstrates that digital computer processing of the spectral information contained in each picture element (pixel) of 1.1 acres (4,500 m2) can produce maps and tables of the areal extent of selected land-cover categories.The distribution of water, rock, agricultural areas, evergreens, bare earth, hardwoods, and uncategorized areas, is portrayed on a map of the entire New River basin (1:62,500 scale) and on 15 quadrangles (1:24,000 scale). Although some categories are a mixture of land-cover types, they portray the predominant component named. Tables quantify the area of each category and indicate that agriculture covers 5 percent of the basin, evergreens cover 7 percent, bare earth covers 6 percent, three categories of hardwoods cover 81 percent, and water, rock, and uncategorized areas each cover less than 1 percent of the basin.

Forest Cover Estimation in Ireland Using Radar Remote Sensing: A Comparative Analysis of Forest Cover Assessment Methodologies.

PubMed

Devaney, John; Barrett, Brian; Barrett, Frank; Redmond, John; O Halloran, John

2015-01-01

Quantification of spatial and temporal changes in forest cover is an essential component of forest monitoring programs. Due to its cloud free capability, Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is an ideal source of information on forest dynamics in countries with near-constant cloud-cover. However, few studies have investigated the use of SAR for forest cover estimation in landscapes with highly sparse and fragmented forest cover. In this study, the potential use of L-band SAR for forest cover estimation in two regions (Longford and Sligo) in Ireland is investigated and compared to forest cover estimates derived from three national (Forestry2010, Prime2, National Forest Inventory), one pan-European (Forest Map 2006) and one global forest cover (Global Forest Change) product. Two machine-learning approaches (Random Forests and Extremely Randomised Trees) are evaluated. Both Random Forests and Extremely Randomised Trees classification accuracies were high (98.1-98.5%), with differences between the two classifiers being minimal (<0.5%). Increasing levels of post classification filtering led to a decrease in estimated forest area and an increase in overall accuracy of SAR-derived forest cover maps. All forest cover products were evaluated using an independent validation dataset. For the Longford region, the highest overall accuracy was recorded with the Forestry2010 dataset (97.42%) whereas in Sligo, highest overall accuracy was obtained for the Prime2 dataset (97.43%), although accuracies of SAR-derived forest maps were comparable. Our findings indicate that spaceborne radar could aid inventories in regions with low levels of forest cover in fragmented landscapes. The reduced accuracies observed for the global and pan-continental forest cover maps in comparison to national and SAR-derived forest maps indicate that caution should be exercised when applying these datasets for national reporting.

Forest Cover Estimation in Ireland Using Radar Remote Sensing: A Comparative Analysis of Forest Cover Assessment Methodologies

PubMed Central

Devaney, John; Barrett, Brian; Barrett, Frank; Redmond, John; O`Halloran, John

2015-01-01

Quantification of spatial and temporal changes in forest cover is an essential component of forest monitoring programs. Due to its cloud free capability, Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is an ideal source of information on forest dynamics in countries with near-constant cloud-cover. However, few studies have investigated the use of SAR for forest cover estimation in landscapes with highly sparse and fragmented forest cover. In this study, the potential use of L-band SAR for forest cover estimation in two regions (Longford and Sligo) in Ireland is investigated and compared to forest cover estimates derived from three national (Forestry2010, Prime2, National Forest Inventory), one pan-European (Forest Map 2006) and one global forest cover (Global Forest Change) product. Two machine-learning approaches (Random Forests and Extremely Randomised Trees) are evaluated. Both Random Forests and Extremely Randomised Trees classification accuracies were high (98.1–98.5%), with differences between the two classifiers being minimal (<0.5%). Increasing levels of post classification filtering led to a decrease in estimated forest area and an increase in overall accuracy of SAR-derived forest cover maps. All forest cover products were evaluated using an independent validation dataset. For the Longford region, the highest overall accuracy was recorded with the Forestry2010 dataset (97.42%) whereas in Sligo, highest overall accuracy was obtained for the Prime2 dataset (97.43%), although accuracies of SAR-derived forest maps were comparable. Our findings indicate that spaceborne radar could aid inventories in regions with low levels of forest cover in fragmented landscapes. The reduced accuracies observed for the global and pan-continental forest cover maps in comparison to national and SAR-derived forest maps indicate that caution should be exercised when applying these datasets for national reporting. PMID:26262681

Development of the USGS national land-cover database over two decades

USGS Publications Warehouse

Xian, George Z.; Homer, Collin G.; Yang, Limin; Weng, Qihao

2011-01-01

Land-cover composition and change have profound impacts on terrestrial ecosystems. Land-cover and land-use (LCLU) conditions and their changes can affect social and physical environments by altering ecosystem conditions and services. Information about LCLU change is often used to produce landscape-based metrics and evaluate landscape conditions to monitor LCLU status and trends over a specific time interval (Loveland et al. 2002; Coppin et al. 2004; Lunetta et al. 2006). Continuous, accurate, and up-to-date land-cover data are important for natural resource and ecosystem management and are needed to support consistent monitoring of landscape attributes over time. Large-area land-cover information at regional, national, and global scales is critical for monitoring landscape variations over large areas.

Technical Services Research Needs for the 1990s.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Veaner, Allen B.

1983-01-01

Research needs in area of library technical services are identified, focusing on costs, the catalog, bibliographic data, new cataloging code, subject access in online catalogs, acquisitions, serials control system, universal technical processing terminals, data storage devices, robots and artificial intelligence, bibliographic instruction, and…

Vocational and Technical Education Performance Standards and Competencies.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Connecticut State Board of Education, Hartford.

These Connecticut vocational and technical performance standards and competencies are a guide for overall quality attainment in these seven vocational and technical program areas: agricultural science technology education; business and finance technology education; cooperative work education; family and consumer sciences education; marketing…

Full area covered 3D profile measurement of special-shaped optics based on a new prototype non-contact profiler

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Du, Hui-Lin; Zhou, Zhao-Zhong; Sun, Ze-Qing; Ju, Bing-Feng; Xu, Shaoning; Sun, Anyu

2017-06-01

A new prototype non-contact profiler based on surface tracking has been specially developed. Surface tracking is carried out by a specially designed dual stage probe system with the aid of a four-Degree Of Freedom high-precision motion platform. The dual stage probe system keeps a short-range optical probe constantly tracking the surface by a self-developed voice coil motor servo, by which a wide measuring range of up to 10 mm is realized. The system performance evaluation including resolution, repeatability, and scanning speed proved the good capability of the new prototype non-contact profiler. To realize a full area covered 3D profile measurement of special-shaped optics within one scanning procedure, a signal intensity monitor integrated in the surface tracking controller is specially developed. In the experiment, a snip-single-corner-rectangular-shaped freeform surface was successfully measured over full area by the new non-contact profiler. This work provides an effective solution for 3D profile measurement of special-shaped optical surfaces over full reflecting area. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed measuring system is of great significance in quality evaluation of optical surfaces.

Full area covered 3D profile measurement of special-shaped optics based on a new prototype non-contact profiler.

PubMed

Du, Hui-Lin; Zhou, Zhao-Zhong; Sun, Ze-Qing; Ju, Bing-Feng; Xu, Shaoning; Sun, Anyu

2017-06-01

A new prototype non-contact profiler based on surface tracking has been specially developed. Surface tracking is carried out by a specially designed dual stage probe system with the aid of a four-Degree Of Freedom high-precision motion platform. The dual stage probe system keeps a short-range optical probe constantly tracking the surface by a self-developed voice coil motor servo, by which a wide measuring range of up to 10 mm is realized. The system performance evaluation including resolution, repeatability, and scanning speed proved the good capability of the new prototype non-contact profiler. To realize a full area covered 3D profile measurement of special-shaped optics within one scanning procedure, a signal intensity monitor integrated in the surface tracking controller is specially developed. In the experiment, a snip-single-corner-rectangular-shaped freeform surface was successfully measured over full area by the new non-contact profiler. This work provides an effective solution for 3D profile measurement of special-shaped optical surfaces over full reflecting area. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed measuring system is of great significance in quality evaluation of optical surfaces.

Decadal land cover change dynamics in Bhutan.

PubMed

Gilani, Hammad; Shrestha, Him Lal; Murthy, M S R; Phuntso, Phuntso; Pradhan, Sudip; Bajracharya, Birendra; Shrestha, Basanta

2015-01-15

Land cover (LC) is one of the most important and easily detectable indicators of change in ecosystem services and livelihood support systems. This paper describes the decadal dynamics in LC changes at national and sub-national level in Bhutan derived by applying object-based image analysis (OBIA) techniques to 1990, 2000, and 2010 Landsat (30 m spatial resolution) data. Ten LC classes were defined in order to give a harmonized legend land cover classification system (LCCS). An accuracy of 83% was achieved for LC-2010 as determined from spot analysis using very high resolution satellite data from Google Earth Pro and limited field verification. At the national level, overall forest increased from 25,558 to 26,732 km(2) between 1990 and 2010, equivalent to an average annual growth rate of 59 km(2)/year (0.22%). There was an overall reduction in grassland, shrubland, and barren area, but the observations were highly dependent on time of acquisition of the satellite data and climatic conditions. The greatest change from non-forest to forest (277 km(2)) was in Bumthang district, followed by Wangdue Phodrang and Trashigang, with the least (1 km(2)) in Tsirang. Forest and scrub forest covers close to 75% of the land area of Bhutan, and just over half of the total area (51%) has some form of conservation status. This study indicates that numerous applications and analyses can be carried out to support improved land cover and land use (LCLU) management. It will be possible to replicate this study in the future as comparable new satellite data is scheduled to become available. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

NASA Hydrogen Peroxide Propellant Hazards Technical Manual

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Baker, David L.; Greene, Ben; Frazier, Wayne

2005-01-01

The Fire, Explosion, Compatibility and Safety Hazards of Hydrogen Peroxide NASA technical manual was developed at the NASA Johnson Space Center White Sands Test Facility. NASA Technical Memorandum TM-2004-213151 covers topics concerning high concentration hydrogen peroxide including fire and explosion hazards, material and fluid reactivity, materials selection information, personnel and environmental hazards, physical and chemical properties, analytical spectroscopy, specifications, analytical methods, and material compatibility data. A summary of hydrogen peroxide-related accidents, incidents, dose calls, mishaps and lessons learned is included. The manual draws from art extensive literature base and includes recent applicable regulatory compliance documentation. The manual may be obtained by United States government agencies from NASA Johnson Space Center and used as a reference source for hazards and safe handling of hydrogen peroxide.

GENERATING HIGH QUALITY IMPERVIOUS COVER DATA

EPA Science Inventory

Nonpoint source pollution (NPS) from urban/ suburban areas is rapidly increasing as the population increases in the United States. Research in recent years has consistently shown a strong relationship between the percentage of impervious cover in a drainage basin and the health...

Globally scalable generation of high-resolution land cover from multispectral imagery

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stutts, S. Craig; Raskob, Benjamin L.; Wenger, Eric J.

2017-05-01

We present an automated method of generating high resolution ( 2 meter) land cover using a pattern recognition neural network trained on spatial and spectral features obtained from over 9000 WorldView multispectral images (MSI) in six distinct world regions. At this resolution, the network can classify small-scale objects such as individual buildings, roads, and irrigation ponds. This paper focuses on three key areas. First, we describe our land cover generation process, which involves the co-registration and aggregation of multiple spatially overlapping MSI, post-aggregation processing, and the registration of land cover to OpenStreetMap (OSM) road vectors using feature correspondence. Second, we discuss the generation of land cover derivative products and their impact in the areas of region reduction and object detection. Finally, we discuss the process of globally scaling land cover generation using cloud computing via Amazon Web Services (AWS).

Vocational Training for Economic Development: A Report on Business/Industry Relationships with Kansas Community Colleges and Area Vocational-Technical Schools, 1990-91 Academic Year.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kansas State Board of Education, Topeka. Lifelong Learning Div.

In order to provide educational opportunities for entry into and advancement within the work force, Kansas' 19 public community colleges and 14 area vocational technical schools (AVTSs) have expanded their offerings to include customized training for businesses and industries within Kansas. Vocational training is also supported by the Kansas…

Financing Technical and Vocational Education: Modalities and Experiences.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

German Foundation for International Development (DSE), Bonn (Germany).

The two papers in this document explain various options and modalities for UNEVOC (International Project on Technical and Vocational Education) Member States' financing of their individual systems of technical and vocational education and disseminating experiences in this area. "Financing Vocational Education and Training in Developing…

Gulf Coast Salt Domes geologic Area Characterization Report, East Texas Study Area. Volume II. Technical report. [Contains glossary of geological terms; Oakwood, Keechi, and Palestine domes

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Not Available

1982-07-01

The East Texas Area Characterization Report (ACR) is a compilation of data gathered during the Area Characterization phase of the Department of Energy's National Waste Terminal Storage program in salt. The characterization of Gulf Coast Salt Domes as a potential site for storage of nuclear waste is an ongoing process. This report summarizes investigations covering an area of approximately 2590 km/sup 2/ (1000 mi/sup 2/). Data on Oakwood, Keechi, and Palestine Domes are given. Subsequent phases of the program will focus on smaller land areas and fewer specific salt domes, with progressively more detailed investigations, possibly culminating with a licensemore » application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The data in this report are a result of drilling and sampling, geophysical and geologic field work, and intensive literature review. The ACR contains text discussing data usage, interpretations, results and conclusions based on available geologic and hydrologic data, and figures including diagrams showing data point locations, geologic and hydrologic maps, geologic cross sections, and other geologic and hydrologic information. An appendix contains raw data gathered during this phase of the project and used in the preparation of these reports.« less

Spatiotemporal changes of snow cover over the Tibetan plateau based on cloud-removed moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer fractional snow cover product from 2001 to 2011

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tang, Zhiguang; Wang, Jian; Li, Hongyi; Yan, Lili

2013-01-01

Snow cover changes over the Tibetan plateau (TP) are examined using moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) daily fractional snow cover (FSC) data from 2001 to 2011 as well as in situ temperature data. First, the accuracy of the MODIS FSC data under clear sky conditions is evaluated by comparing with Landsat 30-m observations. Then we describe a cloud-gap-filled (CGF) method using cubic spline interpolation algorithm to fill in data gaps caused by clouds. Finally, the spatial and temporal changes of snow cover are analyzed on the basis of the MODIS-derived snow-covered area and snow-covered days (SCD) data. Results show that the mean absolute error of MODIS FSC data under clear sky condition is about 0.098 over the TP. The CGF method is efficient in cloud reduction (overall mean absolute error of the retrieved FSC data is 0.092). There is a very high inter-annual and intra-seasonal variability of snow cover in the 11 years. The higher snow cover corresponds well with the huge mountains. The accumulation and melt periods of snow cover vary in different elevation zones. About 34.14% (5.56% with a significant decline) and 24.75% (3.9% with a significant increase) of the study area presents declining and increasing trend in SCD, respectively. The inter-annual fluctuation of snow cover can be explained by the high negative correlations observed between the snow cover and the in situ temperature, especially in some elevations of February, April, May, August, and September.

Estimation of vegetation cover at subpixel resolution using LANDSAT data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jasinski, Michael F.; Eagleson, Peter S.

1986-01-01

The present report summarizes the various approaches relevant to estimating canopy cover at subpixel resolution. The approaches are based on physical models of radiative transfer in non-homogeneous canopies and on empirical methods. The effects of vegetation shadows and topography are examined. Simple versions of the model are tested, using the Taos, New Mexico Study Area database. Emphasis has been placed on using relatively simple models requiring only one or two bands. Although most methods require some degree of ground truth, a two-band method is investigated whereby the percent cover can be estimated without ground truth by examining the limits of the data space. Future work is proposed which will incorporate additional surface parameters into the canopy cover algorithm, such as topography, leaf area, or shadows. The method involves deriving a probability density function for the percent canopy cover based on the joint probability density function of the observed radiances.

Corrective Action Decision Document/Corrective Action Plan for the 92-Acre Area and Corrective Action Unit 111: Area 5 WMD Retired Mixed Waste Pits, Nevada Test Site, Nevada

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

NSTec Environmental Restoration

2009-07-31

the potential CAAs, Closure in Place with Administrative Controls is the preferred CAA for the 92-Acre Area. Closure activities will include the following: (1) Constructing an engineered evapotranspiration cover over the 92-Acre Area; (2) Installing use restriction (UR) warning signs, concrete monuments, and subsidence survey monuments; (3) Establishing vegetation on the cover; (4) Implementing a UR; and (5) Implementing post-closure inspections and monitoring. The Closure in Place with Administrative Controls alternative meets all requirements for the technical components evaluated, fulfills all applicable federal and state regulations for closure of the site, and will minimize potential future exposure pathways to the buried waste at the site.« less

Evaluation of forest cover estimates for Haiti using supervised classification of Landsat data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Churches, Christopher E.; Wampler, Peter J.; Sun, Wanxiao; Smith, Andrew J.

2014-08-01

This study uses 2010-2011 Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) imagery to estimate total forested area in Haiti. The thematic map was generated using radiometric normalization of digital numbers by a modified normalization method utilizing pseudo-invariant polygons (PIPs), followed by supervised classification of the mosaicked image using the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations Land Cover Classification System. Classification results were compared to other sources of land-cover data produced for similar years, with an emphasis on the statistics presented by the FAO. Three global land cover datasets (GLC2000, Globcover, 2009, and MODIS MCD12Q1), and a national-scale dataset (a land cover analysis by Haitian National Centre for Geospatial Information (CNIGS)) were reclassified and compared. According to our classification, approximately 32.3% of Haiti's total land area was tree covered in 2010-2011. This result was confirmed using an error-adjusted area estimator, which predicted a tree covered area of 32.4%. Standardization to the FAO's forest cover class definition reduces the amount of tree cover of our supervised classification to 29.4%. This result was greater than the reported FAO value of 4% and the value for the recoded GLC2000 dataset of 7.0%, but is comparable to values for three other recoded datasets: MCD12Q1 (21.1%), Globcover (2009) (26.9%), and CNIGS (19.5%). We propose that at coarse resolutions, the segmented and patchy nature of Haiti's forests resulted in a systematic underestimation of the extent of forest cover. It appears the best explanation for the significant difference between our results, FAO statistics, and compared datasets is the accuracy of the data sources and the resolution of the imagery used for land cover analyses. Analysis of recoded global datasets and results from this study suggest a strong linear relationship (R2 = 0.996 for tree cover) between spatial resolution and land cover estimates.

Health Related Occupations. Revised Summary Report: Technical Employment in Northeast Florida.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Baker, William E.; And Others

The document is one of five summary reports, all part of a Pre-Technical Curriculum Planning Project for secondary students who aspire to technical employment or post secondary technical education. This report represents the results of an assessment of the northeast Florida area's technical occupations in health related occupations. A three-phase…

Association of Physical and Technical Activities With Partial Match Status in a Soccer Professional Team.

PubMed

Moalla, Wassim; Fessi, Mohamed Saieffedin; Makni, Emna; Dellal, Alexandre; Filetti, Cristoforo; Di Salvo, Valter; Chamari, Karim

2018-06-01

Moalla, W, Fessi, MS, Makni, E, Dellal, A, Filetti, C, Di Salvo, V, and Chamari, K. Association of physical and technical activities with partial match status in a soccer professional team. J Strength Cond Res 32(6): 1708-1714, 2018-The purpose of this study was to examine the association between physical and technical activities and partial match status (winning, drawing, or losing) in a professional soccer team over 2 seasons. Physical and technical activities of 52 official matches were collected and analyzed at each 15-minute interval, for each half (45 minutes), and full match (90 minutes) using a multiple-camera computerized tracking system. The results indicated that according to full match outcome: winning status was characterized by players covering more total distance (p ≤ 0.05) and low-intensity running (<14.4 km·h) (p ≤ 0.05), whereas, losing status induced more sprinting (≥25.2 km·h) (p < 0.01) and high-intensity running (≥19.8 km·h) (p ≤ 0.05). However, according to partial match status (i.e., 15 minutes and half time), players covered more distance for all running intensities while winning (p < 0.01). Technical match performance scores were not influenced by match status. In conclusion, the present study showed that the physical activities including high-intensity running and total distance covered were related to the match status, whereas technical activities were not. The overall outcome shows that higher physical activity was associated with winning partial match periods. This approach highlights the importance of physical fitness in soccer and may help coaches to better modulate players' roles and team tactical organization throughout the match.

Technical aspects of a demonstration tape for three-dimensional sound displays

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Begault, Durand R.; Wenzel, Elizabeth M.

1990-01-01

This document was developed to accompany an audio cassette that demonstrates work in three-dimensional auditory displays, developed at the Ames Research Center Aerospace Human Factors Division. It provides a text version of the audio material, and covers the theoretical and technical issues of spatial auditory displays in greater depth than on the cassette. The technical procedures used in the production of the audio demonstration are documented, including the methods for simulating rotorcraft radio communication, synthesizing auditory icons, and using the Convolvotron, a real-time spatialization device.

Urban cover mapping using digital, high-resolution aerial imagery

Treesearch

Soojeong Myeong; David J. Nowak; Paul F. Hopkins; Robert H. Brock

2003-01-01

High-spatial resolution digital color-infrared aerial imagery of Syracuse, NY was analyzed to test methods for developing land cover classifications for an urban area. Five cover types were mapped: tree/shrub, grass/herbaceous, bare soil, water and impervious surface. Challenges in high-spatial resolution imagery such as shadow effect and similarity in spectral...

Habitat Evaluation Procedures (HEP) Report; Precious Lands Wildlife Management Area, Technical Report 2000-2003.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kozusko, Shana

The Nez Perce Tribe (NPT) currently manages a 15,325 acre parcel of land known as the Precious Lands Wildlife Management Area that was purchased as mitigation for losses incurred by construction of the four lower Snake River dams. The Management Area is located in northern Wallowa County, Oregon and southern Asotin County, Washington (Figure 1). It is divided into three management parcels--the Buford parcel is located on Buford Creek and straddles the WA-OR state line, and the Tamarack and Basin parcels are contiguous to each other and located between the Joseph Creek and Cottonwood Creek drainages in Wallowa County, OR.more » The project was developed under the Pacific Northwest Electric Power Planning and Conservation Act of 1980 (P.L. 96-501), with funding from the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA). The acreage protected under this contract will be credited to BPA as habitat permanently dedicated to wildlife and wildlife mitigation. A modeling strategy known as Habitat Evaluation Procedure (HEP) was developed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and adopted by BPA as a habitat equivalency accounting system. Nine wildlife species models were used to evaluate distinct cover type features and provide a measure of habitat quality. Models measure a wide range of life requisite variables for each species and monitor overall trends in vegetation community health and diversity. One product of HEP is an evaluation of habitat quality expressed in Habitat Units (HUs). This HU accounting system is used to determine the amount of credit BPA receives for mitigation lands. After construction of the four lower Snake River dams, a HEP loss assessment was conducted to determine how many Habitat Units were inundated behind the dams. Twelve target species were used in that evaluation: Canada goose, mallard, river otter, downy woodpecker, song sparrow, yellow warbler, marsh wren, western meadowlark, chukar, ring-necked pheasant, California quail, and mule deer. The U.S. Army

MONTE CARLO METHODS. A Bibliography covering the Period 1949 to June 1961

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kraft, R.; Wensrich, C.J.

1961-09-11

A partially annotated bibliography is presented containing 508 references to Monte Carlo methods, covering the period from 1947 to June 1961. The references are arranged alphabetically by author. The sources consulted include: Abstracts of Classified Reports; Applied Science and Technology Index; Armed Services Technical Information Agency; Bibliographic Index; Bibliographie der Fremsprachigen Zeitschrifften Literatur; Mathematical Reviews; Nuclear Science Abstracts; and Operations Research, an Annotated Bibliography. (T.F.H.)

Comparison of LiDAR- and photointerpretation-based estimates of canopy cover

Treesearch

Demetrios Gatziolis

2012-01-01

An evaluation of the agreement between photointerpretation- and LiDARbased estimates of canopy cover was performed using 397 90 x 90 m reference areas in Oregon. It was determined that at low canopy cover levels LiDAR estimates tend to exceed those from photointerpretation and that this tendency reverses at high canopy cover levels. Characteristics of the airborne...

Technical Assistance to Early Interventionists in Rural Areas: An Empirical Evaluation.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cooper, Carolyn S.; McEvoy, Mary A.

This study assessed the effectiveness of a model for providing long distance technical assistance on teacher implementation of an intervention designed to increase child-child social interaction. Subjects were 10 preschool special education teachers and 40 preschool-aged children (some developing normally and some with mild to moderate…

Covered Biodegradable Stent: New Therapeutic Option for the Management of Esophageal Perforation or Anastomotic Leak

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Cerna, Marie; Koecher, Martin, E-mail: martin.kocher@seznam.cz; Valek, Vlastimil

2011-12-15

Purpose: This study was designed to evaluate our experience with the treatment of postoperative anastomotic leaks and benign esophageal perforations with covered biodegradable stents. Materials and Methods: From 2008 to 2010, we treated five men with either an anastomotic leak or benign esophageal perforation by implanting of covered biodegradable Ella-BD stents. The average age of the patients was 60 (range, 38-74) years. Postoperative anastomotic leaks were treated in four patients (1 after esophagectomy, 1 after resection of diverticulum, 2 after gastrectomy). In one patient, perforation occurred as a complication of the treatment of an esophageal rupture (which occurred during amore » balloon dilatation of benign stenosis) with a metallic stent. Results: Seven covered biodegradable stents were implanted in five patients. Primary technical success was 100%. Clinical success (leak sealing) was achieved in four of the five patients (80%). Stent migration occurred in three patients. In two of these patients, the leak had been sealed by the time of stent migration, therefore no reintervention was necessary. In one patient an additional stent had to be implanted. Conclusion: The use of biodegradable covered stents for the treatment of anastomotic leaks or esophageal perforations is technically feasible and safe. The initial results are promising; however, larger number of patients will be required to evaluate the capability of these biodegradable stents in the future. The use of biodegradable material for coverage of the stent is essential.« less

Book Review: New Perspectives on Technical Editing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Murphy, A. J. (Ed.); Sterken, Christiaan

2012-08-01

skills, or do not have a very broad knowledge base. The language fluency of every contributor makes this book a pleasure to read, and this particular volume of Baywood's Technical Communications Series is very well edited. The subject index covers almost 8 two-column pages.

Assessing winter cover crop nutrient uptake efficiency using a water quality simulation model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yeo, I.-Y.; Lee, S.; Sadeghi, A. M.; Beeson, P. C.; Hively, W. D.; McCarty, G. W.; Lang, M. W.

2014-12-01

Winter cover crops are an effective conservation management practice with potential to improve water quality. Throughout the Chesapeake Bay watershed (CBW), which is located in the mid-Atlantic US, winter cover crop use has been emphasized, and federal and state cost-share programs are available to farmers to subsidize the cost of cover crop establishment. The objective of this study was to assess the long-term effect of planting winter cover crops to improve water quality at the watershed scale (~ 50 km2) and to identify critical source areas of high nitrate export. A physically based watershed simulation model, Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT), was calibrated and validated using water quality monitoring data to simulate hydrological processes and agricultural nutrient cycling over the period of 1990-2000. To accurately simulate winter cover crop biomass in relation to growing conditions, a new approach was developed to further calibrate plant growth parameters that control the leaf area development curve using multitemporal satellite-based measurements of species-specific winter cover crop performance. Multiple SWAT scenarios were developed to obtain baseline information on nitrate loading without winter cover crops and to investigate how nitrate loading could change under different winter cover crop planting scenarios, including different species, planting dates, and implementation areas. The simulation results indicate that winter cover crops have a negligible impact on the water budget but significantly reduce nitrate leaching to groundwater and delivery to the waterways. Without winter cover crops, annual nitrate loading from agricultural lands was approximately 14 kg ha-1, but decreased to 4.6-10.1 kg ha-1 with cover crops resulting in a reduction rate of 27-67% at the watershed scale. Rye was the most effective species, with a potential to reduce nitrate leaching by up to 93% with early planting at the field scale. Early planting of cover crops (~ 30

Monitoring land use/land cover changes using CORINE land cover data: a case study of Silivri coastal zone in Metropolitan Istanbul.

PubMed

Yilmaz, Rüya

2010-06-01

The objective of the present study was to assess changes in land use/land cover patterns in the coastal town of Silivri, a part of greater Istanbul administratively. In the assessment, remotely sensed data, in the form of satellite images, and geographic information systems were used. Types of land use/land cover were designated as the percentage of the total area studied. Results calculated from the satellite data for land cover classification were compared successfully with the database Coordination of Information on the Environment (CORINE). This served as a reference to appraise the reliability of the study presented here. The CORINE Program was established by the European Commission to create a harmonized Geographical Information System on the state of the environment in the European Community. Unplanned urbanization is causing land use changes mainly in developing countries such as Turkey. This situation in Turkey is frequently observed in the city of Istanbul. There are only a few studies of land use-land cover changes which provide an integrated assessment of the biophysical and societal causes and consequences of environmental degradation in Istanbul. The research area comprised greater Silivri Town which is situated by the coast of Marmara Sea, and it is located approximately 60 km west of Istanbul. The city of Istanbul is one of the largest metropolises in Europe with ca. 15 million inhabitants. Additionally, greater Silivri is located near the terminal point of the state highway connecting Istanbul with Europe. Measuring of changes occurring in land use would help control future planning of settlements; hence, it is of importance for the Greater Silivri and Silivri Town. Following our evaluations, coastal zone of Silivri was classified into the land use groups of artificial surfaces agricultural areas and forests and seminatural areas with 47.1%, 12.66%, and 22.62%, respectively.

Corrective Action Decision Document/Corrective Action Plan for the 92-Acre Area and Corrective Action Unit 111: Area 5 WMD Retired Mixed Waste Pits, Nevada National Security Site, Nevada

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

NSTec Environmental Restoration

comparative analysis of the potential CAAs, Closure in Place with Administrative Controls is the preferred CAA for the 92-Acre Area. Closure activities will include the following: (1) Constructing an engineered evapotranspiration cover over the 92-Acre Area; (2) Installing use restriction (UR) warning signs, concrete monuments, and subsidence survey monuments; (3) Establishing vegetation on the cover; (4) Implementing a UR; and (5) Implementing post-closure inspections and monitoring. The Closure in Place with Administrative Controls alternative meets all requirements for the technical components evaluated, fulfills all applicable federal and state regulations for closure of the site, and will minimize potential future exposure pathways to the buried waste at the site.« less

Mapping Land Use/Land Cover in the Ambos Nogales Study Area

USGS Publications Warehouse

Norman, Laura M.; Wallace, Cynthia S.A.

2008-01-01

The Ambos Nogales watershed, which surrounds the twin cities of Nogales, Arizona, United States and Nogales, Sonora, Mexico, has a history of problems related to flooding. This paper describes the process of creating a high-resolution, binational land-cover dataset to be used in modeling the Ambos Nogales watershed. The Automated Geospatial Watershed Assessment tool will be used to model the Ambos Nogales watershed to identify focal points for planning efforts and to anticipate ramifications of implementing detention reservoirs at certain watershed planes.

Large-area Mapping of Forest Cover and Biomass using ALOS PALSAR

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cartus, O.; Kellndorfer, J. M.; Walker, W. S.; Goetz, S. J.; Laporte, N.; Bishop, J.; Cormier, T.; Baccini, A.

2011-12-01

In the frame of a Pantropical mapping project, we aim at producing high-resolution forest cover maps from ALOS PALSAR. The ALOS data was obtained through the Americas ALOS Data Node (AADN) at ASF. For the forest cover classification, a pan-tropical network of calibrated reference data was generated from ancillary satellite data (ICESAT GLAS). These data are used to classify PALSAR swath data to be combined to continental forest probability maps. The maps are validated with withheld training data for testing, as well as through independent operator verification with very high-resolution image. In addition, we aim at developing robust algorithms for the mapping of forest biophysical parameters like stem volume or biomass using synergy of PALSAR, optical and Lidar data. Currently we are testing different approaches for the mapping of forest biophysical parameters. 1) For the showcase scenario of Mexico, where we have access to ~1400 PALSAR FBD images as well as the 30 m Landsat Vegetation Continuous Field product, VCF, we test a traditional ground-data based approach. The PALSAR HH/HV intensity data and VCF are used as predictor layers in RandomForest for predicting aboveground forest biomass. A network of 40000 in situ biomass plots is used for model development (for each PALSAR swath) as well as for validation. With this approach a first 30 m biomass map for entire Mexico was produced. An initial validation of the map resulted in an RMSE of 41 t/ha and an R2 of 0.42. Pronounced differences between different ecozones were observed. In some areas the retrieval reached an R2 of 0.6 (e.g. pine-oak forests) whereas, for instance, in dry woodlands, the retrieval accuracy was much lower (R2 of 0.1). A major limitation of the approach was also represented by the fact that for the development of models for each ALOS swath, in some cases too few sample plots were available. 2) Chile: At a forest site in Central Chile, dominated by plantations of pinus radiata, synergy of ALOS

Annotated Bibliography of the Air Force Human Resources Laboratory Technical Reports - 1979.

DTIC Science & Technology

1981-05-01

Force Human Resources Laboratory, March 1980. (Covers all AFHRL projects.) NTIS. This document provides the academic and industrial R&D community with...D-AI02 04𔃾 AIR FORCE HUMAN RESOURCES LAB BROOKS AF TX F/G 5/2 ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE AIR FORCE HUMAN RESOURCES LABORAT--ETC(U) MAY 81 E M...OF THE AIR FORCE HUMAN RESOURCES LABORATORY TECHNICAL REPORTS - 1979U M By M Esther M. Barlow A N TECHNICAL SERVICES DIVISION Brooks Air Force Base

Seasonal land-cover regions of the United States

USGS Publications Warehouse

Loveland, Thomas R.; Merchant, James W.; Brown, Jesslyn F.; Ohlen, Donald O.; Reed, Bradley C.; Olson, Paul; Hutchinson, John

1995-01-01

Global-change investigations have been hindered by deficiencies in the availability and quality of land-cover data. The U.S. Geological Survey and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln have collaborated on the development of a new approach to land-cover characterization that attempts to address requirements of the global-change research community and others interested in regional patterns of land cover. An experimental 1 -kilometer-resolution database of land-cover characteristics for the coterminous U.S. has been prepared to test and evaluate the approach. Using multidate Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) satellite data complemented by elevation, climate, ecoregions, and other digital spatial datasets, the authors define 152, seasonal land-cover regions. The regionalization is based on a taxonomy of areas with respect to data on land cover, seasonality or phenology, and relative levels of primary production. The resulting database consists of descriptions of the vegetation, land cover, and seasonal, spectral, and site characteristics for each region. These data are used in the construction of an illustrative 1:7,500,000-scaIe map of the seasonal land-cover regions as well as of smaller-scale maps portraying general land cover and seasonality. The seasonal land-cover characteristics database can also be tailored to provide a broad range of other landscape parameters useful in national and global-scale environmental modeling and assessment.

National forest cover monitoring in mainland South and Southeast Asia: method development and capacity building

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tyukavina, A.; Potapov, P.; Hansen, M.; Talero, Y.; Turubanova, S.; Pickering, J.; Pickens, A. H.; Quyen, N. H.; Spirovska Kono, M.

2017-12-01

Timely forest monitoring data produced following good practice guidance are required for national reporting on greenhouse gas emissions, national forest resource assessments, and monitoring for REDD+ projects. Remote sensing provides a cost-efficient supplement to national forest inventories, and is often the single viable source of data on forest extent for countries still in the process of establishing field-based inventories. Operational forest monitoring using remotely sensed data requires technical capacity to store, process, and analyze high volumes of satellite imagery. The University of Maryland Global Land Analysis and Discovery (UMD GLAD) lab possesses such technical capacity and is seeking to transfer it to national agencies responsible for forest reporting, national academic institutions, and NGOs. Our projects in South and Southeast Asia include regional forest monitoring in the lower Mekong region in support of the Regional Land Cover Monitoring System (funded by the NASA SERVIR program) and building capacity for forest monitoring in Nepal, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, and Thailand (funded by the SilvaCarbon program). Our forest monitoring approach is a regional scale adaptation of methods developed for the global analysis (Hansen et al. 2013). The methodology to track large-scale clearing of natural forests (e.g. in Brazil and Indonesia) is well established; however, the methods for small-scale disturbance mapping and tree cover rotation assessment are still in development. In Bangladesh our mapping of tree cover change between 2000-2014 revealed that 54% of the tree canopy cover was outside forests, and the majority of canopy changes were smaller than 0.1 ha. Landsat's 30-m resolution was therefore insufficient to monitor changes in tree cover. By using a probability sample of high resolution (circa 1 m) imagery we were able to quantify change in tree canopy cover outside forests (including village woodlots, tree plantations and agroforestry

Large Decadal Decline of the Arctic Multiyear Ice Cover

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Comiso, Josefino C.

2012-01-01

The perennial ice area was drastically reduced to 38% of its climatological average in 2007 but recovered slightly in 2008, 2009, and 2010 with the areas being 10%, 24%, and 11% higher than in 2007, respectively. However, trends in extent and area remained strongly negative at -12.2% and -13.5% decade (sup -1), respectively. The thick component of the perennial ice, called multiyear ice, as detected by satellite data during the winters of 1979-2011 was studied, and results reveal that the multiyear ice extent and area are declining at an even more rapid rate of -15.1% and -17.2% decade(sup -1), respectively, with a record low value in 2008 followed by higher values in 2009, 2010, and 2011. Such a high rate in the decline of the thick component of the Arctic ice cover means a reduction in the average ice thickness and an even more vulnerable perennial ice cover. The decline of the multiyear ice area from 2007 to 2008 was not as strong as that of the perennial ice area from 2006 to 2007, suggesting a strong role of second-year ice melt in the latter. The sea ice cover is shown to be strongly correlated with surface temperature, which is increasing at about 3 times the global average in the Arctic but appears weakly correlated with the Arctic Oscillation (AO), which controls the atmospheric circulation in the region. An 8-9-yr cycle is apparent in the multiyear ice record, which could explain, in part, the slight recovery in the last 3 yr.

Large Decadal Decline of the Arctic Multiyear Ice Cover

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Comiso, Josefino C.

2011-01-01

The perennial ice area was drastically reduced to 38% of its climatological average in 2007 but recovered somewhat in 2008, 2009 and 2010 with the areas being 10%, 24%, and 11% higher than in 2007, respectively. However, the trends in the extent and area remain strongly negative at -12.2% and -13.5 %/decade, respectively. The thick component of the perennial ice, called multiyear ice, as detected by satellite data in the winters of 1979 to 2011 was studied and results reveal that the multiyear ice extent and area are declining at an even more rapid rate of -15.1% and -17.2 % per decade, respectively, with record low value in 2008 followed by higher values in 2009, 2010 and 2011. Such high rate in the decline of the thick component of the Arctic ice cover means a reduction in average ice thickness and an even more vulnerable perennial ice cover. The decline of the multiyear ice area from 2007 to 2008 was not as strong as that of the perennial ice area from 2006 to 2007 suggesting a strong role of second year ice melt in the latter. The sea ice cover is shown to be strongly correlated with surface temperature which is increasing at about three times global average in the Arctic but appears weakly correlated with the AO which controls the dynamics of the region. An 8 to 9-year cycle is apparent in the multiyear ice record which could explain in part the slight recovery in the last three years.

Large area robust identification of snow cover from multitemporal COSMO-SkyMed images

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pettinato, S.; Santi, E.; Paloscia, S.; Aiazzi, B.; Baronti, S.; Palchetti, E.; Garzelli, A.

2015-10-01

This paper investigates the ability of the Information Theoretic Snow Detection Algorithm (ITSDA) in detecting changes due to snow cover between summer and winter seasons on large area images acquired by COSMO-SkyMed constellation. ITSDA is a method for change detection in multitemporal SAR images, which has been recently applied by the authors to a subset of Cosmo-SkyMed data. The proposed technique is based on a nonparametric approach in the framework of Shannon's information theory, and in particular it features the conditional probability of the local means between the two images taken at different times. Such an unsupervised approach does not require any preliminary despeckling procedure to be performed before the calculation of the change map. In the case of a low quantity of anomalous changes in relatively small-size images, a mean shift procedure can be utilized for refining the map. However, in the present investigation, the changes to be identified are pervasive in large size images. Consequently, for computational issues, the mean shift refinement has been omitted in the present work. However, a simplified implementation of mean shift procedure to save time will be possibly considered in future submissions. In any case, the present version of ITSDA method preserve its characteristics of flexibility and sensibility to backscattering changes, thanks to the possibility of setting up the number of quantization levels in the estimation of the conditional probability between the amplitude values at the two acquisition dates.

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR VOCATIONAL-TECHNICAL EDUCATION, 1966.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

BRUNETTI, FRANK; WILLIAMS, JEROME

MORE THAN 1,000 ITEMS ARE LISTED ALPHABETICALLY WITHIN SUBJECT AREAS. THE AREAS INCLUDE AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION, ART INDUSTRIES AND TRADE, BUSINESS EDUCATION, ECONOMICS, JOB ANALYSIS, LABOR AND DEMOCRACY, MANPOWER, OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH NURSING, OCCUPATIONS, PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT, TECHNICAL EDUCATION, VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE, VOCATIONAL MATHEMATICS,…

Tracheal stricture and fistula: management with a barbed silicone-covered retrievable expandable nitinol stent.

PubMed

Kim, Yong Hee; Shin, Ji Hoon; Song, Ho-Young; Kim, Jin Hyoung

2010-02-01

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of a barbed silicone-covered retrievable expandable nitinol stent in preventing stent migration in patients with tracheal strictures or fistulas. Under fluoroscopic guidance, barbed silicone-covered retrievable expandable nitinol stents were placed in 15 patients with tracheal strictures, two patients with fistulas, two patients with combined strictures and fistulas, and one patient with variable extrathoracic airway obstruction. The three pairs of barbs were attached to the external stent surface at the middle of the stent at equal intervals. Technical success, improvement in respiratory status, complications, and related interventions were evaluated. The technical success rate was 100%, and respiratory status improved or the fistula closed in all 20 patients. Complications included sputum retention (three patients), tumor overgrowth (three patients), pain (one patient), and granulation tissue formation (one patient). No stent migration occurred, even in the three patients without fixed strictures. Four stents subsequently were removed because of complications, and one stent was removed because the patient's condition improved. Stent removal was not difficult and was uneventful. The silicone membranes and barbs of the removed stents were intact. Use of a barbed silicone-covered retrievable expandable nitinol stent relieves dyspnea and facilitates fistula closure in patients with benign or malignant tracheal strictures or fistulas. The barbed design of the stent is important in preventing migration.

44 CFR 65.3 - Requirement to submit new technical data.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... available, a community shall notify the Administrator of the changes by submitting technical or scientific... IDENTIFICATION AND MAPPING OF SPECIAL HAZARD AREAS § 65.3 Requirement to submit new technical data. A community's...

Computer Education Curriculum. Connecticut Vocational Technical School System. Version 4.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kittell, Linda; Walczak, Joseph

This computer education curriculum is designed specifically for Connecticut's Regional Vocational Technical Schools' grade 9 computer education course. Each of the 24 lessons is expected to cover at least one class period of 50 minutes. Introductory materials include a listing of course goals and objectives, an outline of sequence and scope via…

Teaching Technical Writing in a Lab Course in Chemical Engineering

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lombardo, Stephen J.

2010-01-01

Techniques are presented for improving the technical writing of chemical engineering students enrolled in an undergraduate laboratory course. The principles of writing covered are adopted from the book, Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace, by Joseph M. Williams: General examples of writing are taken from this book and then are recast into examples…

Effect of land cover change on runoff curve number estimation in Iowa, 1832-2001

USGS Publications Warehouse

Wehmeyer, Loren L.; Weirich, Frank H.; Cuffney, Thomas F.

2011-01-01

Within the first few decades of European-descended settlers arriving in Iowa, much of the land cover across the state was transformed from prairie and forest to farmland, patches of forest, and urbanized areas. Land cover change over the subsequent 126 years was minor in comparison. Between 1832 and 1859, the General Land Office conducted a survey of the State of Iowa to aid in the disbursement of land. In 1875, an illustrated atlas of the State of Iowa was published, and in 2001, the US Geological Survey National Land Cover Dataset was compiled. Using these three data resources for classifying land cover, the hydrologic impact of the land cover change at three points in time over a period of 132+ years is presented in terms of the effect on the area-weighted average curve number, a term commonly used to predict peak runoff from rainstorms. In the four watersheds studied, the area-weighted average curve number associated with the first 30 years of settlement increased from 61·4 to 77·8. State-wide mapped forest area over this same period decreased 19%. Over the next 126 years, the area-weighted average curve number decreased to 76·7, despite an additional forest area reduction of 60%. This suggests that degradation of aquatic resources (plants, fish, invertebrates, and habitat) arising from hydrologic alteration was likely to have been much higher during the 30 years of initial settlement than in the subsequent period of 126 years in which land cover changes resulted primarily from deforestation and urbanization. 

Engineering and Industrial Fields. Revised Summary Report: Technical Employment in Northeast Florida.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Baker, William E.; And Others

The document is one of five summary reports, all part of a Pre-Technical Curriculum Planning Project for secondary students who aspire to technical employment or post secondary technical education. This report represents the results of an assessment of the northeast Florida area's technical occupations in engineering and industrial fields. A…

Agriculture and Related Businesses. Revised Summary Report: Technical Employment in Northeast Florida.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Baker, William E.; And Others

The document is one of five summary reports, all part of a Pre-Technical Curriculum Planning Project for secondary students who aspire to technical employment or post secondary technical education. This report represents the results of an assessment of the northeast Florida area's technical occupations in agriculture and related businesses. A…

Combining MODIS and Landsat imagery to estimate and map boreal forest cover loss

USGS Publications Warehouse

Potapov, P.; Hansen, Matthew C.; Stehman, S.V.; Loveland, Thomas R.; Pittman, K.

2008-01-01

Estimation of forest cover change is important for boreal forests, one of the most extensive forested biomes, due to its unique role in global timber stock, carbon sequestration and deposition, and high vulnerability to the effects of global climate change. We used time-series data from the MODerate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) to produce annual forest cover loss hotspot maps. These maps were used to assign all blocks (18.5 by 18.5 km) partitioning the boreal biome into strata of high, medium and low likelihood of forest cover loss. A stratified random sample of 118 blocks was interpreted for forest cover and forest cover loss using high spatial resolution Landsat imagery from 2000 and 2005. Area of forest cover gross loss from 2000 to 2005 within the boreal biome is estimated to be 1.63% (standard error 0.10%) of the total biome area, and represents a 4.02% reduction in year 2000 forest cover. The proportion of identified forest cover loss relative to regional forest area is much higher in North America than in Eurasia (5.63% to 3.00%). Of the total forest cover loss identified, 58.9% is attributable to wildfires. The MODIS pan-boreal change hotspot estimates reveal significant increases in forest cover loss due to wildfires in 2002 and 2003, with 2003 being the peak year of loss within the 5-year study period. Overall, the precision of the aggregate forest cover loss estimates derived from the Landsat data and the value of the MODIS-derived map displaying the spatial and temporal patterns of forest loss demonstrate the efficacy of this protocol for operational, cost-effective, and timely biome-wide monitoring of gross forest cover loss.

MODIS Vegetative Cover Conversion and Vegetation Continuous Fields

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Carroll, Mark; Townshend, John; Hansen, Matthew; DiMiceli, Charlene; Sohlberg, Robert; Wurster, Karl

Land cover change occurs at various spatial and temporal scales. For example, large-scale mechanical removal of forests for agro-industrial activities contrasts with the small-scale clearing of subsistence farmers. Such dynamics vary in spatial extent and rate of land conversion. Such changes are attributable to both natural and anthropogenic factors. For example, lightning- or human-ignited fires burn millions of acres of land surface each year. Further, land cover conversion requires ­contrasting with the land cover modification. In the first instance, the dynamic represents extensive categorical change between two land cover types. Land cover modification mechanisms such as selective logging and woody encroachment depict changes within a given land cover type rather than a conversion from one land cover type to another. This chapter describes the production of two standard MODIS land products used to document changes in global land cover. The Vegetative Cover Conversion (VCC) product is designed primarily to serve as a global alarm for areas where land cover change occurs rapidly (Zhan et al. 2000). The Vegetation Continuous Fields (VCF) product is designed to continuously ­represent ground cover as a proportion of basic vegetation traits. Terra's launch in December 1999 afforded a new opportunity to observe the entire Earth every 1.2 days at 250-m spatial resolution. The MODIS instrument's appropriate spatial and ­temporal resolutions provide the opportunity to substantially improve the characterization of the land surface and changes occurring thereupon (Townshend et al. 1991).

A Study of the Role of Clouds in the Relationship Between Land Use/Land Cover and the Climate and Air Quality of the Atlanta Area

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kidder, Stanley Q.; Hafner, Jan

2001-01-01

The goal of Project ATLANTA is to derive a better scientific understanding of how land cover changes associated with urbanization affect climate and air quality. In this project the role that clouds play in this relationship was studied. Through GOES satellite observations and RAMS modeling of the Atlanta area, we found that in Atlanta (1) clouds are more frequent than in the surrounding rural areas; (2) clouds cool the surface by shading and thus tend to counteract the warming effect of urbanization; (3) clouds reflect sunlight, which might other wise be used to produce ozone; and (4) clouds decrease biogenic emission of ozone precursors, and they probably decrease ozone concentration. We also found that mesoscale modeling of clouds, especially of small, summertime clouds, needs to be improved and that coupled mesoscale and air quality models are needed to completely understand the mediating role that clouds play in the relationship between land use/land cover change and the climate and air quality of Atlanta. It is strongly recommended that more cities be studied to strengthen and extend these results.

Land cover

USGS Publications Warehouse

Jorgenson, Janet C.; Joria, Peter C.; Douglas, David C.; Douglas, David C.; Reynolds, Patricia E.; Rhode, E.B.

2002-01-01

Documenting the distribution of land-cover types on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge coastal plain is the foundation for impact assessment and mitigation of potential oil exploration and development. Vegetation maps facilitate wildlife studies by allowing biologists to quantify the availability of important wildlife habitats, investigate the relationships between animal locations and the distribution or juxtaposition of habitat types, and assess or extrapolate habitat characteristics across regional areas.To meet the needs of refuge managers and biologists, satellite imagery was chosen as the most cost-effective method for mapping the large, remote landscape of the 1002 Area.Objectives of our study were the following: 1) evaluate a vegetation classification scheme for use in mapping. 2) determine optimal methods for producing a satellite-based vegetation map that adequately met the needs of the wildlife research and management objectives; 3) produce a digital vegetation map for the Arctic Refuge coastal plain using Lands at-Thematic Mapper(TM) satellite imagery, existing geobotanical classifications, ground data, and aerial photographs, and 4) perform an accuracy assessment of the map.

Seasonal snow cover regime and historical change in Central Asia from 1986 to 2008

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhou, Hang; Aizen, Elena; Aizen, Vladimir

2017-01-01

A series of statistics describing seasonal Snow Cover Extent and timing in Central Asia (CA) have been derived from AVHRR satellite images for the time period from 1986 to 2008. Analysis of long term mean snow cover statistics shows that the area weighted mean of long term Snow Covering Days (SCD) for the whole CA is 95.2 ± 65.7 days. High elevation mountainous areas above 3000 m in Altai, Tien Shan and Pamir, which account for about 2.8% of total area in CA, have SCD > 240 days. Deserts (Karakorum Desert, Taklamakan Desert, Kumtag Desert) and rain shadow areas of major mountains, accounting for 27.0% of total area in CA, have SCD in the range of 0-30 days. Factors affecting snow cover distribution have been analyzed using simple linear regression and segmented regression. For plain regions and windward regions, the SCD rate is + 5.9 days/100 m, while for leeward regions, the rate jumps from + 0.7 days/100 m to + 10.0 days/100 m at about 2335 m. Latitude affects the SCD, especially in plain regions with insignificant change of elevation, with rates of 9-10 days/degree from south to north. The Mann-Kendal test and the Theil-Sen regression methods have been applied to analyze the spatial heterogeneous trends of change of SCD, Snow Cover Onset Date (SCOD), and Snow Cover Melt Date (SCMD). Area weighed mean SCD in the whole CA does not exhibit significant trend of change from 1986 to 2008. Increase of SCD was observed in the northeastern Kazakh Steppe. Low elevation areas below 2000 m in Central Tien Shan and Eastern Tien Shan, as well as mid-elevation areas from 1000 m to 3000 m in Western Tien Shan, Pamiro-Alai and Western Pamir, also experienced increase of SCD, associated with both earlier SCOD and later SCMD. Decrease of SCD was observed in mountainous areas of Altai, Tien Shan and Pamir, and vast areas in plains surrounding the Aral Sea.

Land cover characterization and land surface parameterization research

USGS Publications Warehouse

Steyaert, Louis T.; Loveland, Thomas R.; Parton, William J.

1997-01-01

The understanding of land surface processes and their parameterization in atmospheric, hydrologic, and ecosystem models has been a dominant research theme over the past decade. For example, many studies have demonstrated the key role of land cover characteristics as controlling factors in determining land surface processes, such as the exchange of water, energy, carbon, and trace gases between the land surface and the lower atmosphere. The requirements for multiresolution land cover characteristics data to support coupled-systems modeling have also been well documented, including the need for data on land cover type, land use, and many seasonally variable land cover characteristics, such as albedo, leaf area index, canopy conductance, surface roughness, and net primary productivity. Recently, the developers of land data have worked more closely with the land surface process modelers in these efforts.

Spatial and temporal land cover changes in Terminos Lagoon Reserve, Mexico.

PubMed

Soto-Galera, Ernesto; Piera, Jaume; López, Pilar

2010-06-01

Terminos Lagoon ecosystem is the largest fluvial-lagoon estuarine system in the country and one of the most important reserves of coastal flora and fauna in Mexico. Since the seventies, part of the main infrastructure for country's oil extraction is located in this area. Its high biodiversity has motivated different type of studies including deforestation processes and land use planning. In this work we used satellite image analysis to determine land cover changes in the area from 1974 to 2001. Our results indicate that tropical forest and mangroves presented the most extensive losses in its coverage. In contrast, urban areas and induced grassland increased considerably. In 2001 more than half of the ecosystem area showed changes from its original land cover, and a third part of it was deteriorated. The main causes of deforestation were both the increase in grassland and the growth of urban areas. However, deforestation was attenuated by natural reforestation and plant canopy recovery. We conclude that the introduction of cattle and urban development were the main causes for the land cover changes; however, the oil industry activity located in the ecosystem, has promoted indirectly to urban growth and rancher boom.

Tree Cover Mapping Tool—Documentation and user manual

USGS Publications Warehouse

Cotillon, Suzanne E.; Mathis, Melissa L.

2016-06-02

The Tree Cover Mapping (TCM) tool was developed by scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey Earth Resources Observation and Science Center to allow a user to quickly map tree cover density over large areas using visual interpretation of high resolution imagery within a geographic information system interface. The TCM tool uses a systematic sample grid to produce maps of tree cover. The TCM tool allows the user to define sampling parameters to estimate tree cover within each sample unit. This mapping method generated the first on-farm tree cover maps of vast regions of Niger and Burkina Faso. The approach contributes to implementing integrated landscape management to scale up re-greening and restore degraded land in the drylands of Africa. The TCM tool is easy to operate, practical, and can be adapted to many other applications such as crop mapping, settlements mapping, or other features. This user manual provides step-by-step instructions for installing and using the tool, and creating tree cover maps. Familiarity with ArcMap tools and concepts is helpful for using the tool.

Area-averaged evapotranspiration over a heterogeneous land surface: aggregation of multi-point EC flux measurements with a high-resolution land-cover map and footprint analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xu, Feinan; Wang, Weizhen; Wang, Jiemin; Xu, Ziwei; Qi, Yuan; Wu, Yueru

2017-08-01

The determination of area-averaged evapotranspiration (ET) at the satellite pixel scale/model grid scale over a heterogeneous land surface plays a significant role in developing and improving the parameterization schemes of the remote sensing based ET estimation models and general hydro-meteorological models. The Heihe Watershed Allied Telemetry Experimental Research (HiWATER) flux matrix provided a unique opportunity to build an aggregation scheme for area-averaged fluxes. On the basis of the HiWATER flux matrix dataset and high-resolution land-cover map, this study focused on estimating the area-averaged ET over a heterogeneous landscape with footprint analysis and multivariate regression. The procedure is as follows. Firstly, quality control and uncertainty estimation for the data of the flux matrix, including 17 eddy-covariance (EC) sites and four groups of large-aperture scintillometers (LASs), were carefully done. Secondly, the representativeness of each EC site was quantitatively evaluated; footprint analysis was also performed for each LAS path. Thirdly, based on the high-resolution land-cover map derived from aircraft remote sensing, a flux aggregation method was established combining footprint analysis and multiple-linear regression. Then, the area-averaged sensible heat fluxes obtained from the EC flux matrix were validated by the LAS measurements. Finally, the area-averaged ET of the kernel experimental area of HiWATER was estimated. Compared with the formerly used and rather simple approaches, such as the arithmetic average and area-weighted methods, the present scheme is not only with a much better database, but also has a solid grounding in physics and mathematics in the integration of area-averaged fluxes over a heterogeneous surface. Results from this study, both instantaneous and daily ET at the satellite pixel scale, can be used for the validation of relevant remote sensing models and land surface process models. Furthermore, this work will be

Satellite assessment of increasing tree cover 1982-2016

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Song, X. P.; Hansen, M.

2017-12-01

The Earth's vegetation has undergone dramatic changes as we enter the Anthropocene. Recent studies have quantified global forest cover dynamics and resulting biogeochemical and biophysical impacts to the climate for the post-2000 time period. However, long-term gradual changes in undisturbed forests are less well quantified. We mapped annual tree cover using satellite data and quantified tree cover change during 1982-2016. The dataset was produced by combining optical observations from multiple satellite sensors, including the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, the Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus and various very high spatial resolution sensors. Contrary to current understanding of forest area change, global tree cover increased by 7%. The overall net gain in tree cover is a result of net loss in the tropics overweighed by net gain in the subtropical, temperate and boreal zones. All mountain systems, regardless of climate domain, experienced increases in tree cover. Regional patterns of tree cover gain including eastern United States, eastern Europe and southern China, indicate profound influences of socioeconomic, political or land management changes in shaping long-term environmental change. Results provide the first comprehensive record of global tree cover dynamics over the past four decades and may be used to reduce uncertainties in the quantification of the global carbon cycle.

Snow cover dynamics in the Catalan Pyrenees range using remote sensing data from 2002 to 2008 period

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cea, C.; Cristóbal, J.; Pons, X.

2009-04-01

Snow cover dynamics in the Catalan Pyrenees range using remote sensing data from 2002 to 2008 period. C. Cea (1), J. Cristóbal (1), X. Pons (1, 2) (1) Department of Geography. Autonomous University of Barcelona. Cerdanyola del Vallès, 08193. Cristina.Cea@uab.cat, (2) Center for Ecological Research and Forestry Applications (CREAF) Cerdanyola del Vallès, 08193. Water resources and its management are essential in many alpine mountainous areas. Snow cover monitoring in the Mediterranean zone requires obtaining accurate snow cartography to estimate the volume of water derived from snow melting and species distribution modelling. Snow data is usually obtained by field campaigns, but to obtain a spatial and temporal cover of enough detail and quality it is necessary collect an important number of data. However, when a continuous surface is needed, Remote Sensing could provide better snow cover estimation due to its spatial and temporal resolution. The aim of this study is to map snow cover and analyse its spatial and temporal dynamics using medium and coarse remote sensing data at a regional scale over an heterogeneous area, the Catalan Pyrenees (NE of the Iberian Peninsula). The seasonal snow cover period is from October to June. In this period, regular snowfalls usually take place from December to April, although during the rest of the period, punctual but important episodes of snowfalls are frequent. To perform this analysis, a set of 96 Landsat images (36 Landsat-5 TM and 60 Landsat-7 ETM+) of path 197 and 198 and rows 31 and 32 from January 2002 to April 2007, and 90 Terra-MODIS images from October 2007 to July 2008, with a different percentage of cloudiness, have been chosen. The computation of the Landsat-5 TM and Landsat-7 ETM+ data used in snow cover mapping has been carried out by means of the following methodologies. Images have been geometrically corrected by means of techniques based on first order polynomials taking into account the effect of the relief

Forest Cover Change Analysis in Inner Mongolia Using Remote Sensing Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xie, S.; Gong, J.; Huang, X.

2018-04-01

Forest is the lung of the earth, and it has important effect on maintaining the ecological balance of the whole earth. This study was conducted in Inner Mongolia during the year 1990-2015. Land use and land cover data were used to obtain forest cover change of Inner Mongolia. In addition, protected area data, road data, ASTER GDEM data were combined with forest cover change data to analyze the relationship between them. Moreover, patch density and landscape shape index were calculated to analyze forest change in perspective of landscape aspect. The results indicated that forest area increased overall during the study period. However, a few cities still had a phenomenon of reduced forest area. Results also demonstrated that the construction of protected area had positive effect on protecting forest while roads may disturbed forest due to human activities. In addition, forest patches in most of cities of Inner Mongolia tended to be larger and less fragmented. This paper reflected forest change in Inner Mongolia objectively, which is helpful for policy making by government.

Continental land cover classification using meteorological satellite data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tucker, C. J.; Townshend, J. R. G.; Goff, T. E.

1983-01-01

The use of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's advanced very high resolution radiometer satellite data for classifying land cover and monitoring of vegetation dynamics over an extremely large area is demonstrated for the continent of Africa. Data from 17 imaging periods of 21 consecutive days each were composited by a technique sensitive to the in situ green-leaf biomass to provide cloud-free imagery for the whole continent. Virtually cloud-free images were obtainable even for equatorial areas. Seasonal variation in the density and extent of green leaf vegetation corresponded to the patterns of rainfall associated with the inter-tropical convergence zone. Regional variations, such as the 1982 drought in east Africa, were also observed. Integration of the weekly satellite data with respect to time produced a remotely sensed assessment of biological activity based upon density and duration of green-leaf biomass. Two of the 21-day composited data sets were used to produce a general land cover classification. The resultant land cover distributions correspond well to those of existing maps.

Changes in Andes snow cover from MODIS data, 2000-2016

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Saavedra, Freddy A.; Kampf, Stephanie K.; Fassnacht, Steven R.; Sibold, Jason S.

2018-03-01

The Andes span a length of 7000 km and are important for sustaining regional water supplies. Snow variability across this region has not been studied in detail due to sparse and unevenly distributed instrumental climate data. We calculated snow persistence (SP) as the fraction of time with snow cover for each year between 2000 and 2016 from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellite sensors (500 m, 8-day maximum snow cover extent). This analysis is conducted between 8 and 36° S due to high frequency of cloud (> 30 % of the time) south and north of this range. We ran Mann-Kendall and Theil-Sens analyses to identify areas with significant changes in SP and snowline (the line at lower elevation where SP = 20 %). We evaluated how these trends relate to temperature and precipitation from Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications-2 (MERRA2) and University of Delaware datasets and climate indices as El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), Southern Annular Mode (SAM), and Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO). Areas north of 29° S have limited snow cover, and few trends in snow persistence were detected. A large area (34 370 km2) with persistent snow cover between 29 and 36° S experienced a significant loss of snow cover (2-5 fewer days of snow year-1). Snow loss was more pronounced (62 % of the area with significant trends) on the east side of the Andes. We also found a significant increase in the elevation of the snowline at 10-30 m year-1 south of 29-30° S. Decreasing SP correlates with decreasing precipitation and increasing temperature, and the magnitudes of these correlations vary with latitude and elevation. ENSO climate indices better predicted SP conditions north of 31° S, whereas the SAM better predicted SP south of 31° S.

Gross and net land cover changes in the main plant functional types derived from the annual ESA CCI land cover maps (1992-2015)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Wei; MacBean, Natasha; Ciais, Philippe; Defourny, Pierre; Lamarche, Céline; Bontemps, Sophie; Houghton, Richard A.; Peng, Shushi

2018-01-01

Land-use and land-cover change (LULCC) impacts local energy and water balance and contributes on global scale to a net carbon emission to the atmosphere. The newly released annual ESA CCI (climate change initiative) land cover maps provide continuous land cover changes at 300 m resolution from 1992 to 2015, and can be used in land surface models (LSMs) to simulate LULCC effects on carbon stocks and on surface energy budgets. Here we investigate the absolute areas and gross and net changes in different plant functional types (PFTs) derived from ESA CCI products. The results are compared with other datasets. Global areas of forest, cropland and grassland PFTs from ESA are 30.4, 19.3 and 35.7 million km2 in the year 2000. The global forest area is lower than that from LUH2v2h (Hurtt et al., 2011), Hansen et al. (2013) or Houghton and Nassikas (2017) while cropland area is higher than LUH2v2h (Hurtt et al., 2011), in which cropland area is from HYDE 3.2 (Klein Goldewijk et al., 2016). Gross forest loss and gain during 1992-2015 are 1.5 and 0.9 million km2 respectively, resulting in a net forest loss of 0.6 million km2, mainly occurring in South and Central America. The magnitudes of gross changes in forest, cropland and grassland PFTs in the ESA CCI are smaller than those in other datasets. The magnitude of global net cropland gain for the whole period is consistent with HYDE 3.2 (Klein Goldewijk et al., 2016), but most of the increases happened before 2004 in ESA and after 2007 in HYDE 3.2. Brazil, Bolivia and Indonesia are the countries with the largest net forest loss from 1992 to 2015, and the decreased areas are generally consistent with those from Hansen et al. (2013) based on Landsat 30 m resolution images. Despite discrepancies compared to other datasets, and uncertainties in converting into PFTs, the new ESA CCI products provide the first detailed long-term time series of land-cover change and can be implemented in LSMs to characterize recent carbon dynamics

Cooperative Education Guidelines for Technical Colleges and Other Associate Degree Programs.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Streb, Thomas C.; Hammen, William C.

Guidelines for cooperative education in two-year technical colleges as well as for other associate degree programs are presented in this 15 chapter manual. Chapter 1 covers cooperative education history, current status, advantages and disadvantages, purposes, and information sources. Chapter 2 on personnel presents an overview and discusses the…

Detection of short-term changes in vegetation cover by use of LANDSAT imagery. [Arizona

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Turner, R. M. (Principal Investigator); Wiseman, F. M.

1975-01-01

The author has identified the following significant results. By using a constant band 6 to band 5 radiance ratio of 1.25, the changing pattern of areas of relatively dense vegetation cover was detected for the semiarid region in the vicinity of Tucson, Arizona. Electronically produced binary thematic masks were used to map areas with dense vegetation. The foliar cover threshold represented by the ratio was not accurately determined but field measurements show that the threshold lies in the range of 10 to 25 percent foliage cover. Montana evergreen forests with constant dense cover were correctly shown to exceed the threshold on all dates. The summer active grassland exceeded the threshold in the summer unless rainfall was insufficient. Desert areas exceeded the threshold during the spring of 1973 following heavy rains; the same areas during the rainless spring of 1974 did not exceed threshold. Irrigated fields, parks, golf courses, and riparian communities were among the habitats most frequently surpassing the threshold.

Ten Years of Forest Cover Change in the Sierra Nevada Detected Using Landsat Satellite Image Analysis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Potter, Christopher S.

2014-01-01

The Landsat Ecosystem Disturbance Adaptive Processing System (LEDAPS) methodology was applied to detected changes in forest vegetation cover for areas burned by wildfires in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California between the periods of 1975- 79 and 1995-1999. Results for areas burned by wildfire between 1995 and 1999 confirmed the importance of regrowing forest vegetation over 17% of the combined burned areas. A notable fraction (12%) of the entire 5-km (unburned) buffer area outside the 1995-199 fires perimeters showed decline in forest cover, and not nearly as many regrowing forest areas, covering only 3% of all the 1995-1999 buffer areas combined. Areas burned by wildfire between 1975 and 1979 confirmed the importance of disturbed (or declining evergreen) vegetation covering 13% of the combined 1975- 1979 burned areas. Based on comparison of these results to ground-based survey data, the LEDAPS methodology should be capable of fulfilling much of the need for consistent, low-cost monitoring of changes due to climate and biological factors in western forest regrowth following stand-replacing disturbances.

Long-term impacts of land cover changes on stream channel loss

EPA Science Inventory

Land cover change and stream channel loss are two related global environmental changes that are expanding and intensifying. Here, we examine how different types and transitions of land cover change impact stream channel loss across a large urbanizing watershed with large areas of...

The current evolution of complex high mountain debris-covered glacier systems and its relation with ground ice nature and distribution: the case of Rognes and Pierre Ronde area (Mont-Blanc range, France).

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bosson, Jean-Baptiste; Lambiel, Christophe

2014-05-01

The current climate forcing, through negative glacier mass balance and rockfall intensification, is leading to the rapid burring of many small glacier systems. When the debris mantle exceeds some centimeters of thickness, the climate control on ice melt is mitigated and delayed. As well, debris-covered glaciers respond to climate forcing in a complex way. This situation is emphasised in high mountain environments, where topo-climatic conditions, such as cold temperatures, amount of solid precipitation, duration of snow cover, nebulosity or shadow effect of rockwalls, limit the influence of rising air temperatures in the ground. Beside, due to Holocene climate history, glacier-permafrost interactions are not rare within the periglacial belt. Glacier recurrence may have removed and assimilated former ice-cemented sediments, the negative mass balance may have led to the formation of ice-cored rock glaciers and neopermafrost may have formed recently under cold climate conditions. Hence, in addition to sedimentary ice, high mountain debris-covered glacier systems can contain interstitial magmatic ice. Especially because of their position at the top of alpine cascade systems and of the amount of water and (unconsolidated) sediment involved, it is important to understand and anticipate the evolution of these complex landforms. Due to the continuous and thick debris mantle and to the common existence of dead ice in deglaciated areas, the current extent of debris-covered glacier can be difficult to point out. Thus, the whole system, according to Little Ice Age (LIA) extent, has sometimes to be investigated to understand the current response of glacier systems to the climate warming. In this context, two neighbouring sites, Rognes and Pierre Ronde systems (45°51'38''N, 6°48'40''E; 2600-3100m a.s.l), have been studied since 2011. These sites are almost completely debris-covered and only few ice outcrops in the upper slopes still witness the existence of former glaciers

Guide for In-Place Treatment of Covered and Timber Bridges

Treesearch

Stan Lebow; Grant Kirker; Robert White; Terry Amburgey; H. Michael Barnes; Michael Sanders; Jeff Morrell

2012-01-01

Historic covered bridges and current timber bridges can be vulnerable to damage from biodeterioration or fire. This guide describes procedures for selecting and applying in-place treatments to prevent or arrest these forms of degradation. Vulnerable areas for biodeterioration in covered bridges include members contacting abutments, members near the ends of bridges...

Development of a 30 m Spatial Resolution Land Cover of Canada: Contribution to the Harmonized North America Land Cover Dataset

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pouliot, D.; Latifovic, R.; Olthof, I.

2017-12-01

Land cover is needed for a large range of environmental applications regarding climate impacts and adaption, emergency response, wildlife habitat, air quality, water yield, etc. In Canada a 2008 user survey revealed that the most practical scale for provision of land cover data is 30 m, nationwide, with an update frequency of five years (Ball, 2008). In response to this need the Canada Centre for Remote Sensing has generated a 30 m land cover of Canada for the base year 2010 as part of a planned series of maps at the recommended five year update frequency. This land cover is the Canadian contribution to the North American Land Change Monitoring System initiative, which seeks to provide harmonized land cover across Canada, the United States, and Mexico. The methodology developed in this research utilized a combination of unsupervised and machine learning techniques to map land cover, blend results between mapping units, locally optimize results, and process some thematic attributes with specific features sets. Accuracy assessment with available field data shows it was on average 75% for the five study areas assessed. In this presentation an overview of the unique processing aspects, example results, and initial accuracy assessment will be discussed.

Gigabit Ethernet: A Technical Assessment.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Axner, David

1997-01-01

Describes gigabit ethernet for LAN (local area network) technology that will expand ethernet bandwidth. Technical details are discussed, including protocol stacks, optical fiber, deployment strategy for performance improvement, ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode), real-time protocol, reserve reservation protocol, and standards. (LRW)

Exploring diversity in ensemble classification: Applications in large area land cover mapping

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mellor, Andrew; Boukir, Samia

2017-07-01

Ensemble classifiers, such as random forests, are now commonly applied in the field of remote sensing, and have been shown to perform better than single classifier systems, resulting in reduced generalisation error. Diversity across the members of ensemble classifiers is known to have a strong influence on classification performance - whereby classifier errors are uncorrelated and more uniformly distributed across ensemble members. The relationship between ensemble diversity and classification performance has not yet been fully explored in the fields of information science and machine learning and has never been examined in the field of remote sensing. This study is a novel exploration of ensemble diversity and its link to classification performance, applied to a multi-class canopy cover classification problem using random forests and multisource remote sensing and ancillary GIS data, across seven million hectares of diverse dry-sclerophyll dominated public forests in Victoria Australia. A particular emphasis is placed on analysing the relationship between ensemble diversity and ensemble margin - two key concepts in ensemble learning. The main novelty of our work is on boosting diversity by emphasizing the contribution of lower margin instances used in the learning process. Exploring the influence of tree pruning on diversity is also a new empirical analysis that contributes to a better understanding of ensemble performance. Results reveal insights into the trade-off between ensemble classification accuracy and diversity, and through the ensemble margin, demonstrate how inducing diversity by targeting lower margin training samples is a means of achieving better classifier performance for more difficult or rarer classes and reducing information redundancy in classification problems. Our findings inform strategies for collecting training data and designing and parameterising ensemble classifiers, such as random forests. This is particularly important in large area

Environment Online: The Greening of Databases. Part 2. Scientific and Technical Databases.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alston, Patricia Gayle

1991-01-01

This second in a series of articles about online sources of environmental information describes scientific and technical databases that are useful for searching environmental data. Topics covered include chemicals and hazardous substances; agriculture; pesticides; water; forestry, oil, and energy resources; air; environmental and occupational…

Center for Space Transportation and Applied Research Fifth Annual Technical Symposium Proceedings

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1993-01-01

This Fifth Annual Technical Symposium, sponsored by the UT-Calspan Center for Space Transportation and Applied Research (CSTAR), is organized to provide an overview of the technical accomplishments of the Center's five Research and Technology focus areas during the past year. These areas include chemical propulsion, electric propulsion, commerical space transportation, computational methods, and laser materials processing. Papers in the area of artificial intelligence/expert systems are also presented.

The Agreement between the Southwest Wisconsin Board of Vocational, Technical & Adult Education and the Professional Staff Association, 1987-1990.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Southwest Wisconsin Vocational, Technical, and Adult Education District 3, Fennimore.

The collective bargaining agreement between the Southwest Wisconsin Board of Vocational, Technical and Adult Education and the Professional Staff Association of Southwest Wisconsin Technical Institute, the exclusive bargaining agent for all full-time teaching personnel in the college, is presented, covering the period 1987 to 1990. The 11 articles…

Knowledge discovery from data and Monte-Carlo DEA to evaluate technical efficiency of mental health care in small health areas

PubMed Central

García-Alonso, Carlos; Pérez-Naranjo, Leonor

2009-01-01

Introduction Knowledge management, based on information transfer between experts and analysts, is crucial for the validity and usability of data envelopment analysis (DEA). Aim To design and develop a methodology: i) to assess technical efficiency of small health areas (SHA) in an uncertainty environment, and ii) to transfer information between experts and operational models, in both directions, for improving expert’s knowledge. Method A procedure derived from knowledge discovery from data (KDD) is used to select, interpret and weigh DEA inputs and outputs. Based on KDD results, an expert-driven Monte-Carlo DEA model has been designed to assess the technical efficiency of SHA in Andalusia. Results In terms of probability, SHA 29 is the most efficient being, on the contrary, SHA 22 very inefficient. 73% of analysed SHA have a probability of being efficient (Pe) >0.9 and 18% <0.5. Conclusions Expert knowledge is necessary to design and validate any operational model. KDD techniques make the transfer of information from experts to any operational model easy and results obtained from the latter improve expert’s knowledge.

Technical Assistance for Arts Facilities: A Sourcebook. A Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Educational Facilities Labs., Inc., New York, NY.

This booklet is a directory of sources of technical assistance on problems relating to physical facilities for arts organizations. Wherever possible, agencies and organizations are described in their own words. Technical assistance in the area of physical facilities encompasses planning, financing, acquiring, renovating, designing, and maintaining…

Land use and land cover mapping: City of Palm Bay, Florida

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Barile, D. D.; Pierce, R.

1977-01-01

Two different computer systems were compared for use in making land use and land cover maps. The Honeywell 635 with the LANDSAT signature development program (LSDP) produced a map depicting general patterns, but themes were difficult to classify as specific land use. Urban areas were unclassified. The General Electric Image 100 produced a map depicting eight land cover categories classifying 68 percent of the total area. Ground truth, LSDP, and Image 100 maps were all made to the same scale for comparison. LSDP agreed with the ground truth 60 percent and 64 percent within the two test areas compared and Image 100 was in agreement 70 percent and 80 percent.

Allelopathic influence of a wheat or rye cover crop on growth and yield of no-till cotton

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT No-till planting cotton into small grain cover crops has many benefits including reducing soil erosion and allelopathic suppression of weeds. It is suggested that the potentials of allelopathy on cotton plants. Nevertheless, little is known about the actual effects of alleloche...

Ecosystem services from converted land: the importance of tree cover in Amazonian pastures

USGS Publications Warehouse

Barrett, Kirsten; Valentim, Judson; Turner, B. L.

2013-01-01

Deforestation is responsible for a substantial fraction of global carbon emissions and changes in surface energy budgets that affect climate. Deforestation losses include wildlife and human habitat, and myriad forest products on which rural and urban societies depend for food, fiber, fuel, fresh water, medicine, and recreation. Ecosystem services gained in the transition from forests to pasture and croplands, however, are often ignored in assessments of the impact of land cover change. The role of converted lands in tropical areas in terms of carbon uptake and storage is largely unknown. Pastures represent the fastest-growing form of converted land use in the tropics, even in some areas of rapid urban expansion. Tree biomass stored in these areas spans a broad range, depending on tree cover. Trees in pasture increase carbon storage, provide shade for cattle, and increase productivity of forage material. As a result, increasing fractional tree cover can provide benefits land managers as well as important ecosystem services such as reducing conversion pressure on forests adjacent to pastures. This study presents an estimation of fractional tree cover in pasture in a dynamic region on the verge of large-scale land use change. An appropriate sampling interval is established for similar studies, one that balances the need for independent samples of sufficient number to characterize a pasture in terms of fractional tree cover. This information represents a useful policy tool for government organizations and NGOs interested in encouraging ecosystem services on converted lands. Using high spatial resolution remotely sensed imagery, fractional tree cover in pasture is quantified for the municipality of Rio Branco, Brazil. A semivariogram and devolving spatial resolution are employed to determine the coarsest sampling interval that may be used, minimizing effects of spatial autocorrelation. The coarsest sampling interval that minimizes spatial dependence was about 22 m. The

Technical Assistance and Program Support; DOD Historical Black Colleges and Universities and Minority Institutions Program.

DTIC Science & Technology

2000-04-01

AD Award Number: DAMD17-98-2-8012 TITLE: Technical Assistance and Program Support; DOD Historical Black Colleges and Universities and Minority...2000 3. REPORT TYPE AND DATES COVERED Annual (1 May 99 - 30 Apr 00): 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE Technical Assistance and Program Support; DOD...UNCF’s Infrastructure Development Assistance Program (IDAP) has been involved myriad of tasks to support the Department of Defense’s interest to

Monitored Natural Attenuation of Inorganic Contaminants in Ground Water – Technical Report Series

EPA Science Inventory

This presentation will cover the development and content of new EPA Technical Resource Documents on the application of monitored natural attenuation for inorganic contaminants in ground water. This presentation discusses the various mechanisms that are recognized to result in th...

Index to Nuclear Safety. A technical progress review by chronology, permuted title, and author. Vol. 11, No. 1--Vol. 17, No. 6