Good Internet Would be Pretty Cool: A Policy Proposal to Expand Internet Access

Fast, reliable internet access is shown to have numerous economic benefits, including contributing to growth, increasing GDP, decreasing unemployment and depopulation of rural areas, and encouraging competition. However, in the United States, there are large sections of the population that are left severely underserved – mostly rural, low-income, and minority communities. This paper outlines the benefits of the expansion of internet coverage, the current state of coverage in the U.S., and proposes a potential solution to the distributive issues currently present.Key Words: Internet, Internet Access, Digital Redlining, Digital Divid

Colorado water, September/October 2010

The newsletter is devoted to enhancing communication between Colorado water users and managers and faculty at the state's research universities.Newsletter of the Water Center of Colorado State University. Theme: Economics of water

Broadband at the Speed of Light: How Three Communities Built Next-Generation Networks

The United States has made progress in recognizing that high-capacity broadband infrastructure is a critical and necessary component of a community's economic well-being and quality of life. Much still remains to be done, however, to turn this recognition into the reality of smart and connected communities across the nation.Local governments everywhere want their communities to have affordable access to robust broadband infrastructure, just as local governments a century ago wanted their communities to have affordable access to reliable electric power. Then, with the private sector unable to electrify America everywhere at the same time, more than 3300 communities stepped forward to develop their own public power systems. Those that did generally survived and thrived, while many that waited for the private sector to get around to them did not. Now, a growing number of communities believe that history is repeating itself in the broadband area, that if their businesses and residents are to succeed in an increasingly competitive information-based global economy, they must again take their futures into their own hands. Not surprisingly, as the private power companies did a century ago, several communications companies have sought to erect a wide range of legal, political, financial, and other barriers to the ability of communities to serve their own needs. This is true even in some rural areas that do not offer enough economic incentives for private investment. So, what should guide local governments as they navigate these highly complicated waters of high-capacity broadband?This report details the experiences of three municipalities that have gained attention around the world for successfully designing and implementing public broadband networks -- Bristol, Virginia; Lafayette, Louisiana; and Chattanooga, Tennessee. Each has faced significant challenges in its quests to bring 21st century communications technology and its benefits to its community. Each has met these challenges and is now providing its community multiple benefits that would not have been achievable any other way

Scaling Smart Cities: An Analysis of how Small Cities Implement Smart Technologies

Smart cities have become an incredibly pertinent and intriguing topic across the United States over the last decade. While there is a lot of excitement, many of the testing and research of this new trend has occurred in large cities. This study aims to examine how small cities implement these smart technologies. Furthermore, this study aims to figure out the common obstacles, technologies, and strategies small cities use to incorporate these projects. These research questions are explored through the lenses of the Top-down/Bottom-up model of project implementation and the Quadruple Helix Model of innovation creation. The findings of this study suggest that small cities have similar problems finding funding, obtaining skilled labor, and identifying proven smart city implementation strategies. This study also found that small cities generally implement city management, utility, and transportation technologies when working on smart city projects. Small cities were also found to use similar strategies when implementing smart city technologies. These strategies were; acquiring state and federal funding, collaborating with private industry, and interacting closely with their constituents. This study also found that small cities feel as if there are some big benefits that come with being their size. These benefits are; better interaction with citizens, less bureaucratic inflexibility, and a more controlled testing environment for piloting projects. This study recommends that small cities take a more proactive strategy by approaching government, industry, and university entities for help in implementing smart city projects. This study also recommends that government, industry, and university entities leverage small cities more and take advantage of their beneficial attributes.Bachelor of Scienc

Beyond the Urban Fabric: Weaving Fiber into America's Rural Communities

Unfortunately, there is still a lack of research on the impacts of targeted municipal broadband investments. Because municipal fiber investments are expensive and take time to implement, it is important to understand how these investments translate to economic outcomes in the local labor force. Having a strong local labor force is crucial to economic development in small, rural towns to ensure these areas are not left behind in the digital divide. With a better understanding of how fiber investments translate to benefits for local workers, communities can make informed decisions about whether this type of infrastructure investment is worthwhile as a means to prevent the digital divide. In order to analyze whether municipal fiber investments are related to positive economic and labor force outcomes, this paper will focus on 73 municipalities in the US that have implemented municipal fiber optic networks. The analysis will focus on municipalities that invested in fiber networks between 2000-2011, in areas where networks are available to at least 80% of homes, businesses and institutions within their municipal boundaries. Specifically, I will examine select economic indicators that pertain to the labor force, such as median income, unemployment, percentage of people who work in business/professional services and the percentage of people who work from home, to assess whether positive economic outcomes accrue to local workers in towns that have made these municipal investments, relative to the larger geography of their respective counties. Additionally, given that some municipalities with these networks perform better than others in terms of the select indicators, I will attempt to unpack the performance of a few of the best-performing rural towns. This will bring more insight into whether external factors, such as incentivizing policies and institutional supports, are important to leveraging municipal fiber optic investments to build a robust economy and local workforce.Master of City and Regional Plannin

Utah State Engineer, Fall 2021

Annual magazine for the College of Engineering at Utah State University.https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/engineering_magazines/1013/thumbnail.jp

A Light in Digital Darkness: Public Broadband after Tennessee v. FCC

Ten years ago, the city of Chattanooga, Tennessee built its own high-speed Internet network, and today Chattanooga\u27s publicly owned Internet infrastructure (\u27\u27public broadband or municipal broadband\u27? is faster and more affordable than almost anywhere else in the world. In this Article, I make the case for why other communities currently underserved by private broadband providers should consider building their own high-speed broadband networks and treating Internet as an essential public service akin to water or electricity, and I explore means by which these communities can overcome the legal and political hurdles they may face along the way

Screening of energy efficient technologies for industrial buildings' retrofit

This chapter discusses screening of energy efficient technologies for industrial buildings' retrofit

SCADA and related technologies

Presented at SCADA and related technologies for irrigation district modernization, II: a USCID water management conference held on June 6-9, 2007 in Denver, Colorado.SCADA systems in irrigation districts have focused on remote monitoring and remote control. In many districts, the remote control is manual, but in others the automation of structures is enabled through the usage of distributed control for the automation of individual structures. This paper presents the concept of an expanded, "umbrella" SCADA system that will perform the standard functions of remote control and remote monitoring, and will also incorporate information flow in the field for operators. The umbrella SCADA system will mesh the equipment-equipment information into an equipment-program-personnel network

Environmental impacts of oil and gas activities in northern Colorado

2018 Fall.Includes bibliographical references.The surge of shale oil and gas exploration and production in the United States is driven by the application of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing which require and generate massive amount of water during the production of crude oil and natural gas. Since 2010, shale oil and gas production from northern Colorado (Wattenberg field) has increased rapidly due to the rich deposit of oil and natural gas in the shale formation, which also raises a lot of concerns over its potential environmental impacts on groundwater and air. To understand the contaminant transport mechanisms, identify the sources of contamination caused by oil and gas operations, and detect the contamination associated with drilling and fracturing activities will help improve the environmental and economic sustainability of shale-gas extraction. Therefore, our research focuses on the following topics: 1, determine the contaminants due to horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing; 2, study on the subsurface transport and distribution of contaminants related to oil and gas activities in groundwater; 3, design and evaluate a regional groundwater monitoring network to detect the contamination events