With water resource planning assuming greater importance in environmental protection efforts, analyzing the health of agricultural watersheds using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) becomes essential for decision-makers in Southern Texas. Within the area, there exist numerous threats from conflicting land uses. These include the conversion of land formerly designated for agricultural purposes to other uses. Despite current efforts, anthropogenic factors are greatly contributing to the degradation of watersheds. Additionally, the activities of waste water facilities located in some of the counties, rising populations, and other socioeconomic variables are negatively impacting the quality of water in the agricultural watersheds. To map the location of these stressors spatially and the extent of their impacts across time, the paper adopts a mix scale method of temporal spatial analysis consisting of simple descriptive statistics. In terms of objectives, this research provides geo-spatial analysis of the effects of human activities on agricultural watersheds in Southern Texas and the factors fuelling the concerns under the purview of watershed management. The results point to growing ecosystem decline across time and a geographic cluster of counties experiencing environmental stress. Accordingly, the emergence of stressors such as rising population, increased use of fertilizer treatments on farm land, discharges of atmospheric pollutants and the large presence of municipal and industrial waste treatment facilities emitting pathogens and pesticides directly into the agricultural watersheds pose a growing threat to the quality of the watershed ecosystem.
and frequently observed six chemicals which are carbon monoxide, lead, nitrogen dioxide, ozone, particulate matter, and sulfur dioxide and hazardous pollutants are toxic pollutants which cause cancer and other serious health problems or lead to adverse environmental effects. Anthropogenic primary pollutants such as carbon monoxide, particulate matter, nitrogen oxides and lead are detrimental to health as well as environment. Sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides get transformed as sulfuric acid and nitric acid in the atmosphere due to chemical reactions and may fall as acid rain. Some details of these pollutants are briefly described as follows: Carbon monoxide is a colorless, odorless, poisonous gas produced from burning of fuels with carbon and so the major source is road transport vehicles. Due to oxidation process, CO will be transformed as carbon dioxide. The background levels of carbon monoxide are in the range of 10-200 parts per billion (ppb) and urban concentrations generally vary between 10 to 500 parts per million (ppm). Continuous exposure to higher levels (>500 ppm) for longer time periods (> 30 minutes) may lead to headache, dizziness and nausea and also death. Nitric oxide (NO) is a colorless, odorless gas produced during burning of fuel at high temperatures in cars and other road vehicles, heaters and cookers. Mostly, nitrogen dioxide in the atmosphere is formed from the oxidation of nitric oxide (NO). Nitrogen dioxide reacts to form nitric acid and organic nitrates and plays an important role in the production of surface ozone. Mean concentrations in urban areas are in the range of 10-45 ppb reaching as high as 200 ppb. Continuous exposure to NO 2 leads to respiratory problems and lung damage. Particulate matter comprises of both organic and inorganic substances, mainly from dust, fly ash, soot, smoke, aerosols, fumes, mists and condensing vapors and is regarded as coarse particulates with a diameter greater than 2.5 micrometers (µm) and fine particles less than 2.5 micrometers. The acid component of particulate matter (PM) generally occurs as fine particles. Primary sources of the particulate matter are from road transport (25%), noncombustion processes (24%), industrial combustion plants and processes (17%), commercial and residential combustion (16%) and public power generation (15%). In urban areas, secondary particulate matter occurs as sulfates and nitrates with mean values in the range 10-40 µg/m3 and may rise up to higher than 100 µg/m 3. Primary PM sources are derived from both human and natural activities which include agricultural operations, industrial processes, fossil fuel burning etc and secondary pollutants such as SO 2 , NOx, and VOCs are considered as precursors as they help form PM. Measures to reduce these precursor emissions will have a controlling impact on PM concentrations. Fine PM will cause asthma, lung cancer, cardiovascular issues, and premature death and estimated to cause 20,000-50,000 deaths per year in US. Sulfur dioxide (SO 2) is a colorless, nonflammable gas with an...
Geo-information technologies are valuable tools for ecological assessment in stressed environments. Visualizing natural features prone to disasters from the oil sector spatially not only helps in focusing the scope of environmental management with records of changes in affected areas, but it also furnishes information on the pace at which resource extraction affects nature. Notwithstanding the recourse to ecosystem protection, geo-spatial analysis of the impacts remains sketchy. This paper uses GIS and descriptive statistics to assess the ecological impacts of petroleum extraction activities in Texas. While the focus ranges from issues to mitigation strategies, the results point to growth in indicators of ecosystem decline.
In this study, an attempt was made to simulate the air quality with reference to ozone over the Jackson (Mississippi) region using an online WRF/Chem (Weather Research and Forecasting–Chemistry) model. The WRF/Chem model has the advantages of the integration of the meteorological and chemistry modules with the same computational grid and same physical parameterizations and includes the feedback between the atmospheric chemistry and physical processes. The model was designed to have three nested domains with the inner-most domain covering the study region with a resolution of 1 km. The model was integrated for 48 hours continuously starting from 0000 UTC of 6 June 2006 and the evolution of surface ozone and other precursor pollutants were analyzed. The model simulated atmospheric flow fields and distributions of NO2 and O3 were evaluated for each of the three different time periods. The GIS based spatial distribution maps for ozone, its precursors NO, NO2, CO and HONO and the back trajectories indicate that all the mobile sources in Jackson, Ridgeland and Madison contributing significantly for their formation. The present study demonstrates the applicability of WRF/Chem model to generate quantitative information at high spatial and temporal resolution for the development of decision support systems for air quality regulatory agencies and health administrators.
Abstract:The overall objective of the study is to generate information for an enhanced land use planning with respect to flood hazards. The study assesses the potential impact of climate change by simulating a dam break scenario in a high intensity rainfall event and evaluates the vulnerability risk in the downstream region by integrating ArcGIS and Hydrologic Engineering Centers River Analysis System (HEC-RAS) technologies. In the past century, the evidence of climate changes are observed in terms of increase in high intensity rainfall events. These events are of high concern, as increased inflow rates may increase the probability of a dam failure, leading to higher magnitude flooding events involving multiple consequences. The 100 year historical rainfall data for the central Mississippi region reveals an increased trend in the intensity of rainfall rates after the 1970s. With more than 10% of high hazard dams in the central region, the damage can be far accumulative. The study determines occurrence of the high intensity rainfall event in the past 100 years for central Mississippi and simulates a Ross Barnett Reservoir dam break scenario and evaluates the vulnerability risks due to inundation in the immediate downstream region, which happens to be the State Capital. The results indicate that the inundation due to a Ross Barnett Reservoir failure under high intensity rainfall event is comparable to a catastrophic flood event experienced by the region in 1979, which almost equals a 200-year flood magnitude. The results indicate that the extent and depth of flood waters poses a significant destructive threat to the state capital, inundating various infrastructural and transportation networks.
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