Description and status of NASA-LeRC/DOE photovoltaic applications systems

Designed, fabricated and installed were 16 geographically dispersed photovoltaic systems. These systems are powering a refrigerator, highway warning sign, forest lookout towers, remote weather stations, a water chiller at a visitor center, and insect survey traps. Each of these systems is described in terms of load requirements, solar array and battery size, and instrumentation and controls. Operational experience is described and present status is given for each system. The P/V power systems have proven to be highly reliable with almost no problems with modules and very few problems overall

Performance-Based Codes: Economics, Documentation, and Design

The advent of performance-based codes in the United States underscores the need for a thorough, systematic approach to the documentation and accomplishment of a performance-based design. This project has three objectives: economic analysis of performance-based codes from a social view point, documentation of a performance-based design, and an example application of the ICC Performance-Based Code to high-rise office building. Economic issues explored include the externalities, insurance, and liabilities associated with performance-based codes. Documentation of a performance-based design includes delineation of the scope and goals with agreement between the designer, architect, building owner, and authority having jurisdiction, examination of the relevant code statutes, development of appropriate fire scenarios which meet the requirements of the performance matrices, thorough documentation of all design tool and calculation assumptions and limitations, and a clear demonstration of satisfactory accomplishment of stated goals and objectives. Finally, performance-based design alternatives to a prescriptively-designed 40 story office building were developed. There were three major design alternatives. The first design feature was the evacuation of occupants using elevators. The second alternative was the use of the assured fire safety system, which combined emerging technologies in fire detection, alarm, and suppression. The final design alternative was the routing of the domestic water supply through the sprinkler riser in order increase the reliability of the sprinkler system and save design, material, and installation costs associated with the domestic water supply risers. Finally, this project analyzed the specific life-cycle economic impact of the design alternatives when compared to the prescriptive design

Modeling Initial Response: Firefighter High-Rise Access Time Simulation

Historically, a high-rise building has been described as one which (1) was taller than the reach of fireservice apparatus and, therefore, required interior firefighting, (2) posed the potential for significantstack effect (vertical interior smoke movement), and (3) required unreasonable time for occupantevacuation. High-rise buildings require firefighters to access the building and travel to an upper firefloor by using either stairs or elevators. The fire continues to grow during the time needed to applywater on the fire. This paper demonstrates ways for using Discrete Event Simulation (DES) to estimatethe time for firefighters to access a fire floor using stairs. The results are compared to those produced byusing DES to model the travel time to the same floor using elevators. One can develop a sense ofproportion for comparisons of fire sizes at “first water” applications for the two different accessmethods. The method used in this paper can be extended to analyze time duration to stretch hose lines for interiorfire attack routes in any building layout. This type of analysis will give insight into the ways in which abuilding design can help or hinder interior fire suppression activities

Sequencing Lifeline Repairs After an Earthquake: An Economic Approach

Recoveries after recent earthquakes in the U.S. and Japan have shown that large welfare gains can be achieved by reshaping current emergency plans as incentive-compatible contracts. We apply tools from the mechanisms design literature to show ways to integrate economic incentives into the management of natural disasters and discuss issues related to the application to seismic event recovery. The focus is on restoring lifeline services such as the water, gas, transportation, and electric power networks. We put forward decisional procedures that an uninformed planner could employ to set repair priorities and help to coordinate lifeline firms in the post-earthquake reconstruction.utilities, inter-temporal decisions, natural disasters, mechanism design, network externalities

Calculated Combustion: An Investigation of Electronic Equipment Tenability in Data Center Fires

Fire presents a clear and present danger to computer equipment and generally results in tremendous expense or irreplaceable loss. This study serves as a proof of concept for using computer-based fire modeling to investigate the resilience of typical data center equipment to fire. In this analysis, the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Fire Dynamics Simulator computer-based fire modeling tool is utilized to simulate fire scenarios within a rack-mount-style computer enclosure containing six circuit boards. Outcomes including effects of combustion (heat, mixture fraction, and species generation) and water-based sprinkler suppression are explored. Although the presence of standard water-based sprinkler suppression proves advantageous, it is not consistently effective in terminating this class of combustion. Results indicate that fire’s thermal effects constitute the largest impact and ultimately determine component survivability. The use of computer-based simulation proves to be a valuable tool in the ultimate enhancement of electronic equipment tenability

Linking forests to faucets: Investigating alternative approaches for securing long-term funding for watershed restoration in New Mexico.

Due to a mix of inter-related human and natural factors, such as climate change, drought, beetle damage, 20th century fire suppression policy and associated hazardous fuels build-up, and the expansive growth of the Wildland-Urban Interface, many montane forests in New Mexico and elsewhere in the western United States have become increasingly susceptible to high-severity wildfires. Critical sources for public drinking water systems often originate in montane forests, where wildland fires can alter hydrologic systems and degrade watersheds, while creating significant runoff, debris, and water quality impacts downstream. As the impact of high severity wildfires expands significantly beyond the proximal burn area, the scale of institutional arrangements does not match, and old rules for forest management and wildfire risk mitigation often fail. Recent efforts in New Mexico have sought to bring together stakeholders to address forest management and watershed restoration at new regional scales. A critical issue is the creation of sustainable, long-term funding mechanisms to support expanded restoration efforts to mitigate wildfire risk. Borrowing from the work of institutional scholar and Nobel laureate Elinor Ostrom, I apply a theoretical framework for looking at interconnected social-ecological systems, the development of these policy problems, and the efforts to address them, in order to highlight institutional variables that are important for connecting forest health and downstream water uses. I observe that using payment for ecosystem services models as a guide, rather than a panacea, has developed arrangements that are tailored to their purpose and deviate from the traditional payment for ecosystem services arrangements

Topics on urban planning annotated bibliography

Urban planning and development - bibliography and abstract

A Program for the Collection, Storage, and Analysis of Baseline Environmental Data for Cook Inlet, Alaska

The scope of this report is to provide a general, yet comprehensive, description of the Cook Inlet System which will serve as a basis for understanding the interrelated natural and man-made factors governing its future; to present a program of field research studies for the estuarine environment that will describe the existing state of the Inlet with respect to the water quality and biota; to provide a framework whereby the program of studies can be evaluated and redirected in light of the preliminary results; and, to provide a method of storing and analyzing the data from the investigations so that it can be made available to interested parties in the most efficient manner possible.This report was prepared by the Institute of Water Resources of the University of Alaska for the Alaska Water Laboratory, Federal Water Pollution Control Administration under Contract No. 14-12-449