Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Sustainability
Assessing the effectiveness of irrigator-driven groundwater conservation programs to drought: a case study of the northwestern Kansas Local Enhanced Management Areas
Published: 2025-04-08
Subjects: Agriculture, Hydrology, Natural Resources and Conservation, Natural Resources Management and Policy, Sustainability, Water Resource Management
Groundwater pumping for irrigation has led to declining groundwater levels in agricultural areas around the world, including the U.S. High Plains Aquifer. Here, we used a process-based crop model, AquaCrop, to assess the effectiveness of different irrigation management strategies during a synthetic multi-year drought. We focused on the Groundwater Management District 4 Local Enhanced Management [...]
Salinas Valley Integrated Hydrologic and Reservoir Operations Models, Monterey and San Luis Obispo Counties, California Pre-Print
Published: 2025-04-04
Subjects: Hydrology, Sustainability, Water Resource Management
The area surrounding the Salinas Valley groundwater basin in Monterey and San Luis Obispo Counties of California is a highly productive agricultural area, contributes significantly to the local economy, and provides a substantial portion of vegetables and other agricultural commodities to the Nation. This region of California provides about half of the Nation’s lettuce, celery, broccoli, and [...]
Impact of GHG mitigation measures in sanitation service chains: A focus on septic tanks and sewers
Published: 2025-03-26
Subjects: Environmental Engineering, Environmental Monitoring, Sustainability
Sanitation service chains (SSCs) often consist of a complex mix of different components, frequently involving the coexistence of non-sewered sanitation (e.g., septic tanks) and sewered sanitation. Poorly-maintained components within these chains can lead to substantial, yet potentially avoidable greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In this study, we developed a model for estimating the impact of GHG [...]
Enhancing the Normalized Difference Water Index for Improved Urban Flood Detection
Published: 2025-03-21
Subjects: Environmental Monitoring, Geographic Information Sciences, Hydrology, Natural Resource Economics, Other Earth Sciences, Physical and Environmental Geography, Remote Sensing, Spatial Science, Sustainability, Water Resource Management
Accurate urban flood detection is crucial for effective disaster management and urban planning. Traditional indices like the Normalized Difference Water Index and Modified Normalized Difference Water Index often produce inaccurate results due to spectral confusion in urban areas and sensitivity to shadows. Moreover, MNDWI's reliance on the Shortwave Infrared band limits its use with certain [...]
Rewetting drained boreal peatland forests does not mitigate climate warming in the 21st century
Published: 2025-02-08
Subjects: Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Structural Biology, Biogeochemistry, Forest Sciences, Natural Resources and Conservation, Natural Resources Management and Policy, Sustainability
Rewetting of drained peatland forests restores ecosystem functions and improves peatland ecological status. It is also considered to mitigate climate change, yet some studies challenge this view Recently, Laine et al. (2024, Restoration Ecology, 32(7), p.e14213) considered feasible restoration outcomes of boreal forestry drained peatlands and proposed that rewetting nutrient-rich peatland forests [...]
Predicting Land Surface Temperature With Uncertainty Estimation Using a Community Sensor Network and Machine Learning
Published: 2025-01-31
Subjects: Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment, Environmental Monitoring, Sustainability
Urban Heat Islands (UHIs) are areas in cities that experience higher temperatures than surrounding areas due to construction features such as buildings, roads, and a general lack of vegetation. UHIs, which pose a threat to public health while also increasing energy usage, are often defined using land surface temperatures. Our study demonstrates how a community sensor network from the Baltimore [...]
Climate change impacts on compound renewable energy droughts under evolving infrastructure in the Western United States
Published: 2025-01-14
Subjects: Oil, Gas, and Energy, Power and Energy, Sustainability
If renewable energy resources continue to become a larger part of the generation mix in the United States (U.S.), so does the potential impact of prolonged periods of low wind and solar generation, known as variable renewable energy (VRE) droughts. In such a future, naturally occurring VRE droughts need to be evaluated for their potential impact on grid reliability. This study is the first of its [...]
Sea level rise submergence simulations suggest substantial deterioration of Indian River Lagoon ecosystem services by 2050, Florida, U.S.A.
Published: 2025-01-03
Subjects: Climate, Earth Sciences, Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Geology, Geomorphology, Natural Resources and Conservation, Natural Resources Management and Policy, Sustainability, Water Resource Management
The Indian River Lagoon is a 250-km-long Estuary of National Significance located along the east-central Florida coast of the USA. NOAA tidal data generated at a station located in the central reaches of the estuary indicate sea level rise has accelerated over the duration of record to an average of 9.6 ± 1.6 mm year−1 (2003–2022). It is expected to continue accelerating over the duration of this [...]
Beyond land surface temperature: identifying areas of daytime thermal discomfort in cities by combining remote sensing and field measurements.
Published: 2024-12-20
Subjects: Environmental Health and Protection, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Public Health, Other Environmental Sciences, Sustainability
Satellite images of land surface temperatures (LST) are commonly used to identify areas within cities most prone to diurnal thermal discomfort, but they may not reflect the experiences of pedestrians. Here, we developed predictive statistical models for Physiological Equivalent Temperature (PET), an indicator of thermal discomfort, with easily accessible spatial predictors. For this, we measured [...]
Impact of farm size on the function of landscape-level payments for ecosystem services: An agent-based model study
Published: 2024-12-18
Subjects: Environmental Health and Protection, Environmental Sciences, Sustainability
Reducing pesticide use and restoring biodiversity are among the most pressing environmental challenges. Enhancing natural pest control ecosystem services through the integration of non-crop habitats (NCH) offers promising potential, creating a positive feedback loop by harnessing insect biodiversity to reduce pesticide reliance. Policy support is needed at the landscape level to encourage [...]
A Millimeter-Scale Change in Leaf Litter Placement Within Soil-Water Interfaces Alters Carbon Dioxide and Methane Emission
Published: 2024-12-04
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Geochemistry, Soil Science, Sustainability
Flooded soils play a critical role in global carbon cycling, serving as significant reservoirs of soil organic carbon and sources of carbon emissions. Leaf litter, particularly from local vegetation, is a major contributor to soil organic carbon formation in these ecosystems, with its decomposition driving the production of carbon dioxide and methane. While numerous studies have investigated the [...]
Multiregional accounting of corporate carbon emissions
Published: 2024-11-26
Subjects: Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Natural Resources and Conservation, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Sustainability
Corporations routinely use environmentally-extended input-output models to estimate and report greenhouse gas emissions upstream in their supply chain. However, the most widely used of such models assume that the structure of supply chains and the emissions intensity of industries match those of a single region—usually the U.S. or the U.K. Here, we use a high-resolution multiregional input-output [...]
Harnessing nature-based solutions for economic recovery: a systematic review
Published: 2024-10-25
Subjects: Biodiversity, Environmental Sciences, Natural Resources and Conservation, Sustainability
Nature-based solutions (NbS) involve working with nature to address societal challenges in ways that benefit communities and biodiversity locally. However, their role supporting economic recovery from crises, such as those arising from conflicts or pandemics remains underexplored. To address this knowledge gap, we conducted a systematic review of 66 reviews on the economic impact of nature-based [...]
A Novel Methodology to Map Hydrogen Storage Potential in Salt Caverns: A Case Study of the Midwestern and Appalachian Regions of the United States
Published: 2024-10-24
Subjects: Chemical Engineering, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Geophysics and Seismology, Sustainability
Hydrogen is widely understood to be critical for decarbonizing hard-to-abate sectors like heavy industry, and long-distance transportation as well as balancing a variable renewable energy dominated power grid. Here, we propose a methodology for evaluating the potential for hydrogen storage in geological salt resources. This methodology starts with a characterization of salt resources by [...]
Rising Temperatures Increase Risk of Soil Salinity and Land Degradation in Water-Scarce Regions
Published: 2024-10-17
Subjects: Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment, Soil Science, Sustainability, Water Resource Management
Climate change introduces significant uncertainty when assessing the risk of soil salinity in water-scarce regions. We combine a soil-water-salinity-sodicity model (SOTE) and a weather generator model (AWE-GEN) to develop a framework for studying salinity and sodicity dynamics under changing climate definitions. Using California’s San Joaquin Valley as a case study, we perform first-order [...]