Kentucky Terrain

The terrain of Kentucky has been shaped by geologic forces and the underlying rocks.Tectonic forces lifted, bent, and buckled the rocks–originally formed from sediments on shallow sea floors or swampy lowlands. Weathering and erosion shaved the hills and dissected the plains, exposing at the surface a cross section of rocks 250 to 500 million years old. The sands, gravels, silts, and clays of the Jackson Purchase Region are younger, remnants of a time when the sea lapped at the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers. The landforms in Kentucky are the result of the differential weathering of interbedded sandstones, siltstones, shales, and limestones. Sandstones and siltstones resist erosion, limestones dissolve along cracks and crevices, and shales break down quickly when exposed to air and water. Areas dominated by sandstones and siltstones tend to have hills with steep sides. As the shale content increases, the landscape becomes more rounded, with wide stream valleys. Areas underlain by limestone may have few surface streams (karst topography) and gently rolling land. As the shale content in the rocks increases relative to limestone, the land becomes hillier. Natural resources–coal, oil, natural gas, soils–are the products of geologic history and vary from region to region. In turn, the ecology and economy of the different regions of Kentucky are distinctive. To learn more about the rocks and terrain typical of your area, find the region you live in on the map and then go to the associated text and picture group for that region (color-coded frame and header block matches the map region color)

Supply and Demand in Water Planning: Streamflow Estimation and Conservational Water Pricing

Recent studies indicated the need for development of surface water supplies in Kentucky. Rising resource costs make economically efficient reservoir designs increasingly important. This study was undertaken to provide methods in water supply reservoir design that increase system benefits. Two major factors influencing reservoir design were studied: estimated future streamflow into the reservoir and demands placed on the reservoir. Standard reservoir sizing methods rely on historical streamflow data. This data is frequently limited and uncertainty in required storage estimates may result. To assess the reliability of a design, the use of mathematical models in simulation studies was proposed. Existing stochastic and parametric models of streamflow were reviewed and their limitations discussed. Parameters for the stochastic models must be estimated from historical streamflow data, and limited data produces unreliable estimates of the true values for these parameters. A streamflow record extended by a parametric model through simulation may provide more reliable estimates of the parameters in the stochastic streamflow model than the short historical record. A methodology was presented to evaluate the ability of a parametric model to improve the stochastic model parameter estimates in this manner. It was found that the parameter estimates of a stochastic model might be significantly improved by this process. A long historical record of rainfall may not be available to provide the necessary inputs to a parametric model. One method for providing these inputs is to model the daily rainfall process at the potential site. A modified Markov Chain model was proposed which used continuous distributions, rather than discrete transition probabilities, to represent the process when rainfall actually occurred. A two-parameter gamma distribution fit the Kentucky data. The model provided a good representation of the daily point rainfall process. 15-20 years of historical daily rainfall data were required to produce stable estimates of model parameters. The role of the demand function in reservoir design was examined. Projected demand is commonly assumed not to depend on the concurrent water rates. Data on rural residential water demand in Kentucky has indicated that a price-demand relationship does exist for this sector. The second part of the study was undertaken to see if benefits to a hypothetical community from water supply could be increased by utilizing price-demand information in reservoir design studies. Three pricing policies were examined and their effect on reservoir design determined. The first policy assumed no price-demand relationship, and demand was based on existing community usage with a low water rate. A price-demand relationship was assumed in the second policy, and the water rate was constant. The third policy assumed the price-demand relationship, and the price charged for water during each billing period was a non-linear function which increased as the amount of water in storage at the beginning of the period decreased. It was found that the use of the conservation pricing policies substantially reduced storage requirements while providing increased, demonstrable net benefits to the community. The conservation pricing policies substantially lowered the average price paid for water. The effect of uncertainty in consumer response to changes in price was studied by using a probabilitistic price-demand relationship. This uncertainty did not significantly reduce the effectiveness of the conservation policy. It was concluded that demand management by the use of a proper pricing policy could significantly increase water supply benefits to a community

Impact of neonatal intensive care bed configuration on rates of late-onset bacterial sepsis and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus colonization

OBJECTIVES: Infections cause significant morbidity and mortality in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs). The association between nursery design and nosocomial infections has not been delineated. We hypothesized that rates of colonization by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), late-onset sepsis, and mortality are reduced in single-patient rooms. DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study. SETTING: NICU in a tertiary referral center. METHODS: Our NICU is organized into single-patient and open-unit rooms. Clinical datasets including bed location and microbiology results were examined over a 29-month period. Differences in outcomes between bed configurations were determined by Chi-square and Cox regression. PATIENTS: All NICU patients. RESULTS: Among 1823 patients representing 55,166 patient-days, single-patient and open-unit models had similar incidences of MRSA colonization and MRSA colonization-free survival times. Average daily census was associated with MRSA colonization rates only in single-patient rooms (hazard ratio 1.31, p=0.039), while hand hygiene compliance on room entry and exit was associated with lower colonization rates independent of bed configuration (hazard ratios 0.834 and 0.719 per 1% higher compliance, respectively). Late-onset sepsis rates were similar in single-patient and open-unit models as were sepsis-free survival and the combined outcome of sepsis or death. After controlling for demographic, clinical and unit-based variables, multivariate Cox regression demonstrated that bed configuration had no effect on MRSA colonization, late-onset sepsis, or mortality. CONCLUSIONS: MRSA colonization rate was impacted by hand hygiene compliance, regardless of room configuration, while average daily census only affected infants in single-patient rooms. Single-patient rooms did not reduce the rates of MRSA colonization, late-onset sepsis or death

Geologic Hazards in Kentucky

Geologic data were derived from the Kentucky Geological Survey-U.S. Geological Survey areal geologic mapping project. Nearly 190 geologists mapped the geology of Kentucky from 1960 to 1978. KGS geologists converted the resulting 707 geologic quadrangle maps into digital format at part of the STATEMAP component of the National Cooperative Geologic Mapping Program of the United States Geological Survey

Task ll Report, Part 2: Evaluation of Water Supplies in the Red River, Dix River, and Mainstem Watersheds of the Kentucky River

This study was part of a larger study of water supplies throughout the Kentucky River Basin conducted by the Kentucky Water Resources Research Institute for the Kentucky River Authority. This report examines municipal and private water supplies in the Red River, Dix River, and mainstem Kentucky River watersheds. Municipal supplies which depend on the mainstem Kentucky River, and municipal and private supplies in the North, South, and Middle Fork watersheds of the Kentucky River basin are examined in separate reports