Groundwater management zones for conjunctive water conservation in Hays County and the Hill Country region of Central Texas

This report examines a provision of Texas groundwater law granting authority to Groundwater Conservation Districts (GCDs) to create Groundwater Management Zones (GMZs) to address significant differences in hydrogeological conditions or groundwater use in specific areas of an aquifer. The report considers whether these management zones are effective tools for conserving groundwater in order to preserve surface water flows particularly in the Hays Trinity Groundwater Conservation District and, more generally, in the Hill Country region of Central Texas. It presents two case studies of existing GMZs in Barton Springs Edwards Aquifer Conservation District and Hill Country Underground Water Conservation District and insights from interviews with GCD staff involved in establishing and refining these zones. The report then evaluates how effective the zones would be for protecting the Middle Trinity Aquifer in the area around Jacob’s Well Spring and the Cypress Creek Watershed. It concludes by providing a road map and recommendations based on best practices drawn from the findings described above.Community and Regional Plannin

Enhancing a Building Information Model for an Existing Building with Data from a Sustainable Facility Management Database

This study investigates the feasibility and benefits of transferring data between Autodesk Revit (used for building information modeling (BIM)) and BUILDER SMS (used for sustainable facility management (SFM)). Two data transfer methods were evaluated using a case study; one involved entirely manual data transfer, the other a combination of manual and automatic. Of the data transfer methods evaluated, the manual/automated hybrid was determined to be the best option, especially when regular updates are envisioned. The case study produced an enhanced BIM model that can be used to support sustainable facility management, called here an SFM-enhanced BIM model. An integration workflow is proposed for efficiently creating future SFM-enhanced BIM models. A focus group of facilities management professionals evaluated the case study BIM model. The focus group was most interested in the visualization capabilities—e.g., filtered views for condition assessments—and the ability to view the BIM model on a tablet/mobile device during on-site operation and maintenance activities

Fertilizing Woody Ornamentals.

4 p

Fertilizing Woody Ornamentals.

4 p

Pumps and water lifters for rural development

CER76-77ADW-JFR-EVR61.Includes bibliographical references (pages 167-178).June 1977

Why are Background Telephone Conversations Distracting?

Telephone conversation is ubiquitous within the office setting. Overhearing a telephone conversation—whereby only one of the two speakers is heard—is subjectively more annoying and objectively more distracting than overhearing a full conversation. The present study sought to determine whether this "halfalogue" effect is attributable to unexpected offsets and onsets within the background speech (acoustic unexpectedness) or to the tendency to predict the unheard part of the conversation (semantic [un]predictability), and whether these effects can be shielded against through top-down cognitive control. In Experiment 1, participants performed an office-related task in quiet or in the presence of halfalogue and dialogue background speech. Irrelevant speech was either meaningful or meaningless speech. The halfalogue effect was only present for the meaningful speech condition. Experiment 2 addressed whether higher task-engagement could shield against the halfalogue effect by manipulating the font of the to-be-read material. While the halfalogue effect was found with an easy-to-read font (fluent text), the use of a difficult-to-read font (disfluent text) eliminated the effect. The halfalogue effect is thus attributable to the semantic (un)predictability, not the acoustic unexpectedness, of background telephone conversation and can be prevented by simple means such as increasing the level of engagement required by the focal task