Natural Resources
Natural Resources
Filter Total Items: 8
Renewable Resilience: City-Scale Geothermal Energy Everywhere
Despite the proven efficacy of geothermal energy as a city-scale heating and cooling resource, the relative newness of most city-scale applications using diverse technologies has resulted in limited widespread adoption. We aim to develop authoritative information suitable for city-managers and other decision-makers. Geothermal resources are ubiquitous and diverse, with technologies available bot
Standardizing, aggregating, analyzing and disseminating global wildlife genetic and genomic data for improved management and advancement of community best practices
Global biodiversity is rapidly declining, threatening humans, ecosystems, and the services that society relies upon. Monitoring and understanding the extent of biodiversity declines can support policy decisions. Genetic diversity is the foundation of biodiversity, determining the capacity of populations to adapt to environmental changes and to sustain function and structure in all ecosystems. Whil
Markov decision processes in non-autonomous socio-ecological systems
Our ability to effectively manage natural resources is founded in an understanding of how our actions and the environment influence populations, communities, and ecosystems. Current practices use monitoring data from the past to determine key ecological relationships and make predictions about the future with the assumption that those relationships will remain constant. However, many natural syste
Exploiting high-resolution topography for advancing the understanding of mass and energy transfer across landscapes: Opportunities, challenges, and needs
One of the grand challenges of Earth Surface Science and Natural Resource Management lies in the prediction of mass and energy transfer for large watersheds and landscapes. High resolution topography (lidar) datasets show potential to significantly advance our understanding of hydrologic and geomorphic processes controlling mass and energy transfer because they represent features at the appropriat
Developing the next generation of USGS resource assessments
Resource assessments constitute a key part of the USGS mission, and represent a crucial contribution toward Department of the Interior (DOI) and broader Federal objectives. Current USGS energy and mineral assessment methods evaluate total technically recoverable resources (energy) or economically exploitable materials (minerals); the fiscal year 2010 budget for this work is $82M. To help stakehol
Understanding Fluid Injection Induced Seismicity
Fluid injection induced seismicity has been reported since the 1960s. There are currently more than 150,000 injection wells associated with oil and gas production in 34 states in the conterminous US. Pore pressure disturbance caused by injection is generally considered the culprit for injection induced seismicity, but, not all injection causes seismicity. It is not well understood what mechanical
Distribution of Fibrous Erionite in the United States and Implications For Human Health
Fibrous erionite, a zeolite mineral, has been designated as a human carcinogen by the World Health Organization and is believed to be the cause of extraordinarily high rates of malignant mesothelioma and other asbestos - related diseases in several villages in Central Turkey. A recent study by the University of Hawaii in collaboration with the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency in Dunn County,
System analysis of land use and climate effects on ecosystem services affecting C and N exchanges with the atmosphere and water cycles
Current land use practices have affected ecosystem structure and processes in ways that have degraded delivery of key ecosystem services controlling exchanges of carbon and nitrogen with the atmosphere and surface and groundwater systems. These impacts are observed in the emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) and N pollution in our nation’s water systems and coastal areas. Improvements in databases