Preprints
There are 4717 Preprints listed.
ChatGPT as a mapping assistant: A novel method to enrich maps with generative AI and content derived from street-level photographs
Published: 2023-06-06
Subjects: Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Computer Sciences, Geographic Information Sciences, Geography, Other Computer Sciences, Other Geography, Spatial Science
This paper explores the concept of leveraging generative AI as a mapping assistant for enhancing the efficiency of collaborative mapping. We present results of an experiment that combines multiple sources of volunteered geographic information (VGI) and large language models (LLMs). Three analysts described the content of crowdsourced Mapillary street-level photographs taken along roads in a small [...]
Ensemble modeling of the two-dimensional stochastic confined groundwater flow through the evolution of the hydraulic head's probability density function
Published: 2023-06-06
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering
Groundwater storage in aquifers has become a vital water source due to water scarcity in recent years. However, aquifer systems are full of uncertainties, which inevitably propagate throughout the modeling computations, mainly reducing the reliability of the model output. This study develops a novel two-dimensional stochastic confined groundwater flow model. The proposed model is developed by [...]
Is Snow Drought a Messenger for the Upcoming Severe Drought Period? A Case Study in the Upper Mississippi River Basin
Published: 2023-06-03
Subjects: Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Water Resource Management
The exacerbation of floods and the extension of droughts, attributed to climate change and other human-induced factors, are posing a substantial risk to communities by causing water scarcity and insecurity. The significance of safeguarding water resources and managing them is increasingly gaining prominence. Snow is an efficient source of water for recharging groundwater compared to rainfall. [...]
Crowded and warmer: unequal dengue risk at high spatial resolution across a megacity of India
Published: 2023-06-03
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
The role of climate factors on transmission of mosquito-borne infections within urban landscapes must be considered in the context of the pronounced spatial heterogeneity of such environments. Socio-demographic and environmental variation challenge control efforts for emergent arboviruses, a major class of pathogens responsible for dengue, Zika and chikungunya, transmitted via the urban mosquito [...]
Learning generative models for geostatistical facies simulation based on a single training image
Published: 2023-06-03
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Characterization of subsurface reservoirs often requires geological facies models to identify areas with favorable rock properties. With the development of computing powers, deep learning approaches, such as the generative adversarial networks (GANs), became widely used for simulating complex geological models. However, training of the GANs typically requires a large quantity of training data for [...]
A city-wide emissions inventory of plastic pollution
Published: 2023-06-03
Subjects: Environmental Sciences
A global agreement on plastic should have quantitative reduction targets for emissions of plastic pollution and regular measurements to track success. Here, we present a framework for measuring plastic emissions, akin to greenhouse gas emissions, and demonstrate its utility by calculating a baseline measurement for the city of Toronto in Ontario, Canada. We identify relevant sources of plastic [...]
Using Detrending to Assess SARS-CoV-2 Wastewater Loads as a Leading Indicator of Fluctuations in COVID-19 Cases at Fine Temporal Scales: Correlations Across Twenty Sewersheds in North Carolina
Published: 2023-06-03
Subjects: Public Health
Wastewater surveillance emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic as a novel strategy for tracking the burden of illness in communities. Previous work has shown that trends in wastewater SARS-CoV-2 viral loads correlate well with reported COVID-19 case trends over longer time periods (i.e., months). We used detrending time series to reveal shorter sub-trend patterns (i.e., weeks) to identify leads or [...]
How high is high enough? A multi-million-member ensemble analysis of future climate scenarios and their relevance
Published: 2023-06-03
Subjects: Climate
Assessments of high-forcing climate scenarios provide unique insight into possible high-risk climate change impacts in the 21st century and beyond. Given rapid and ongoing societal changes (e.g., population growth, energy demand, technology, etc.), debates are increasing on the continued relevance of these 'high-forcing' scenarios, such as those designed to reach 8.5 W/m2 by the end of the [...]
Despite a century of warming, increased snowfall has buffered the ice phenology of North America’s largest high-elevation lake against climate change
Published: 2023-06-03
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Lakes are sentinels of environmental change. In cold climates, lake ice phenology—the timing and duration of ice cover during winter—is a key control on ecosystem function. Ice phenology is likely driven by a complex interplay between physical characteristics and climatic conditions. Under climate change, lakes are generally freezing later, melting out earlier, and experiencing a shorter duration [...]
Local social-ecological context explains seasonal rural-rural migration of the poorest in a rural community in southwestern Bangladesh.
Published: 2023-06-02
Subjects: Environmental Studies
Bangladesh is one of the countries most affected by climate change. Internal migration is often presented as a response to environmental degradation in rural areas. Here, we hypothesise that climate-induced changes and adaptations impact local production and the local labour market, seasonally pushing out unskilled landless workers. We focus on different categories of livelihoods and their [...]
Enhancing Flood Risk Assessment Through Machine Learning and Open Data
Published: 2023-06-02
Subjects: Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment, Environmental Monitoring
Urban flooding causes billions of dollars in damages annually, with severe flood events becoming more frequent and destructive as our climate changes. While extreme weather is a primary driver of flooding, its consequences depend on the interconnectedness of urban systems - referred to as the Urban Multiplex, which includes the power grid, transportation network, natural surface water and [...]
Large-scale Climate Modes Drive Low-frequency Regional Arctic Sea Ice Variability
Published: 2023-06-01
Subjects: Climate
Summer Arctic sea ice is declining rapidly but with superimposed variability on multiple timescales that introduces large uncertainties into projections of future sea ice loss. To better understand what drives at least part of this variability, we show how a simple linear model can link dominant modes of climate variability to low-frequency regional Arctic sea ice concentration (SIC) anomalies. [...]
Considerations for Regional Simulations of Seaweed Carbon Dioxide Removal
Published: 2023-06-01
Subjects: Engineering, Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
There is a growing interest in sequestering carbon dioxide via cultivation and sinking of seaweed in the ocean. Robust quantification of the viability of this marine carbon dioxide removal (mCDR) strategy requires deployment and interrogation of computer simulations that resolve coupling between turbulent oceanic circulation, biogeochemical fluxes, and cultivated seaweed with regional [...]
California margin temperatures modulate regional circulation and extreme summer precipitation in the desert Southwest
Published: 2023-06-01
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology
In August 2022, Death Valley, the driest place in North America, experienced record flooding from summertime rainfall associated with the North American monsoon (NAM). Given the socioeconomic cost of these type of events, there is a dire need to understand their drivers and future statistics. Existing theory predicts that increases in the intensity of precipitation is a robust response to [...]
Artificial Energy General Intelligence AEGI
Published: 2023-06-01
Subjects: Engineering, Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Artificial Energy General Intelligence (AEGI) is a natural progression of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) that caters to the energy industry. It is crucial to optimize the entire value chain involved in generating, transporting, and storing energy for the betterment of humanity, the environment, industry, and the scientific community. Most research efforts focus on a specific area of the [...]