Natural climate solutions for the United States

Limiting climate warming t

Surface Faulting Caused by the 2016 Central Italy Seismic Sequence: Field Mapping and LiDAR/UAV Imaging

The three mainshock events (M6.1 24 August, M5.9 26 October, and M6.5 30 October 2016) in the Central Italy earthquake sequence produced surface ruptures on known segments of the Mt. Vettore-Mt. Bove normal fault system. As a result, teams from Italian national research institutions and universities, working collaboratively with the U.S. Geothechnical Extreme Events Reconnaissance Association (GEER), were mobilized to collect perishable data. Our reconnaissance approach included field mapping and advanced imaging technique, both directed towards documenting the location and extent of surface rupture on the main fault exposure and secondary features. Mapping activity occurred after each mainshock (with different levels of detail at different times), which provides data on the progression of locations and amounts of slip between events. Along the full length of the Mt. Vettore-Mt. Bove fault system, vertical offsets ranged from 0-35 cm and 70-200 cm for the 24 August and 30 October events, respectively. Comparisons between observed surface rupture displacements and available empirical models show that the three events fit within expected ranges.Published1585-16104T. Sismicità dell'ItaliaJCR Journa

Natural climate solutions for the United States

© The Author(s), 2018. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Science Advances 4 (2018): eaat1869, doi:10.1126/sciadv.aat1869.Limiting climate warming to <2°C requires increased mitigation efforts, including land stewardship, whose potential in the United States is poorly understood. We quantified the potential of natural climate solutions (NCS)—21 conservation, restoration, and improved land management interventions on natural and agricultural lands—to increase carbon storage and avoid greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. We found a maximum potential of 1.2 (0.9 to 1.6) Pg CO2e year−1, the equivalent of 21% of current net annual emissions of the United States. At current carbon market prices (USD 10 per Mg CO2e), 299 Tg CO2e year−1 could be achieved. NCS would also provide air and water filtration, flood control, soil health, wildlife habitat, and climate resilience benefits.This study was made possible by funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. C.A.W. and H.G. acknowledge financial support from NASA’s Carbon Monitoring System program (NNH14ZDA001N-CMS) under award NNX14AR39G. S.D.B. acknowledges support from the DOE’s Office of Biological and Environmental Research Program under the award DE-SC0014416. J.W.F. acknowledges financial support from the Florida Coastal Everglades Long-Term Ecological Research program under National Science Foundation grant no. DEB-1237517

Engineering Reconnaissance Following the October 2016 Central Italy Earthquakes - Version 2

Between August and November 2016, three major earthquake events occurred in Central Italy. The first event, with M6.1, took place on 24 August 2016, the second (M5.9) on 26 October, and the third (M6.5) on 30 October 2016. Each event was followed by numerous aftershocks. As shown in Figure 1.1, this earthquake sequence occurred in a gap between two earlier damaging events, the 1997 M6.1 Umbria-Marche earthquake to the north-west and the 2009 M6.1 L’Aquila earthquake to the south-east. This gap had been previously recognized as a zone of elevated risk (GdL INGV sul terremoto di Amatrice, 2016). These events occurred along the spine of the Apennine Mountain range on normal faults and had rake angles ranging from -80 to -100 deg, which corresponds to normal faulting. Each of these events produced substantial damage to local towns and villages. The 24 August event caused massive damages to the following villages: Arquata del Tronto, Accumoli, Amatrice, and Pescara del Tronto. In total, there were 299 fatalities (www.ilgiornale.it), generally from collapses of unreinforced masonry dwellings. The October events caused significant new damage in the villages of Visso, Ussita, and Norcia, although they did not produce fatalities, since the area had largely been evacuated. The NSF-funded Geotechnical Extreme Events Reconnaissance (GEER) association, with co-funding from the B. John Garrick Institute for the Risk Sciences at UCLA and the NSF I/UCRC Center for Unmanned Aircraft Systems (C-UAS) at BYU, mobilized a US-based team to the area in two main phases: (1) following the 24 August event, from early September to early October 2016, and (2) following the October events, between the end of November and the beginning of December 2016. The US team worked in close collaboration with Italian researchers organized under the auspices of the Italian Geotechnical Society, the Italian Center for Seismic Microzonation and its Applications, the Consortium ReLUIS, Centre of Competence of Department of Civil Protection and the DIsaster RECovery Team of Politecnico di Torino. The objective of the Italy-US GEER team was to collect and document perishable data that is essential to advance knowledge of earthquake effects, which ultimately leads to improved procedures for characterization and mitigation of seismic risk. The Italy-US GEER team was multi-disciplinary, with expertise in geology, seismology, geomatics, geotechnical engineering, and structural engineering. The composition of the team was largely the same for the two mobilizations, particularly on the Italian side. Our approach was to combine traditional reconnaissance activities of on-ground recording and mapping of field conditions, with advanced imaging and damage detection routines enabled by state-of-the-art geomatics technology. GEER coordinated its reconnaissance activities with those of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI), although the EERI mobilization to the October events was delayed and remains pending as of this writing (April 2017). For the August event reconnaissance, EERI focused on emergency response and recovery, in combination with documenting the effectiveness of public policies related to seismic retrofit. As such, GEER had responsibility for documenting structural damage patterns in addition to geotechnical effects. This report is focused on the reconnaissance activities performed following the October 2016 events. More information about the GEER reconnaissance activities and main findings following the 24 August 2016 event, can be found in GEER (2016). The objective of this document is to provide a summary of our findings, with an emphasis of documentation of data. In general, we do not seek to interpret data, but rather to present it as thoroughly as practical. Moreover, we minimize the presentation of background information already given in GEER (2016), so that the focus is on the effects of the October events. As such, this report and GEER (2016) are inseparable companion documents. Similar to reconnaissance activities following the 24 August 2016 event, the GEER team investigated earthquake effects on slopes, villages, and major infrastructure. Figure 1.2 shows the most strongly affected region and locations described subsequently pertaining to: 1. Surface fault rupture; 2. Recorded ground motions; 3. Landslides and rockfalls; 4. Mud volcanoes; 5. Investigated bridge structures; 6. Villages and hamlets for which mapping of building performance was performed

Reconnaissance of 2016 Central Italy Earthquake Sequence

The Central Italy earthquake sequence nominally began on 24 August 2016 with a M6.1 event on a normal fault that produced devastating effects in the town of Amatrice and several nearby villages and hamlets. A major international response was undertaken to record the effects of this disaster, including surface faulting, ground motions, landslides, and damage patterns to structures. This work targeted the development of high-value case histories useful to future research. Subsequent events in October 2016 exacerbated the damage in previously affected areas and caused damage to new areas in the north, particularly the relatively large town of Norcia. Additional reconnaissance after a M6.5 event on 30 October 2016 documented and mapped several large landslide features and increased damage states for structures in villages and hamlets throughout the region. This paper provides an overview of the reconnaissance activities undertaken to document and map these and other effects, and highlights valuable lessons learned regarding faulting and ground motions, engineering effects, and emergency response to this disaster

Conservation of large carnivores in a human dominated landscape :habitat models and potential distribution /by Alessandra Falcucci.

Large carnivores are particularly sensitive to human-induced changes in their habitat, and this has been particularly evident in the Italian context. Historically, wolves, bears and lynx were widespread throughout the entire Italian peninsula but in the last century lynx went extinct and the other two species were limited to small mountainous areas.;However, the pattern of land use change currently occurring throughout the Mediterranean basin could favor the return of large carnivore populations. In this context there is a clear need for scientifically sound conservation tools that can be used to avoid conflicts between carnivore populations and human activities.;I measured land-use/land-cover change occurring in Italy during the last 40 years, finding that most of the mountainous regions are changing towards a more natural condition as rural populations move to urban areas, favoring the recovery of the populations of ungulates and carnivores. Thus I used a series of habitat suitability models to predict possible conservation scenarios for the wolf and the brown bears.;In particular, using deductive habitat suitability models and Markov-chain land-use change models, I simulated the future habitat suitability for the brown bear through 2020. Habitat availability is not going to be a problem for its conservation in the future.;However, there are clear indications that the bears are experiencing a population decline, mainly linked to human related mortality. Using ecological niche factor analyses, I produced a double-layer habitat suitability model that combines the probability of presence with the probability of human-related mortality. Using this approach produced a map that contrasts source-like habitat with mortality sinks that could be extremely useful for the management of the species and its environment.;The Italian wolf is naturally returning in the whole Italian peninsula, and is now spreading through the alpine range. This is creating problems with stockmen. To address this challenge I created a composite habitat suitability model, using deductive modeling techniques together with ecological niche factor analysis and partitioned Mahalanobis distance to predict the potential distribution of the wolf along the entire Italian peninsula and the Alpine range. This model provides a conservation tool that can be used for transboundary management plans.Thesis (Ph. D., Natural Resources)--University of Idaho, June 2007

The National Wildlife Refuge System

The National Wildlife Refuge System (NWRS) has played a key role in conserving at-risk species from its beginnings in 1903 when President Theodore Roosevelt established apreserve to protect Pelican Island, in Florida, as a breeding ground for an imperiled population of brown pelicans (Pelecanus occidentalis) (Fischman 2003). Today, the Atlantic coast population of the brown pelican is no longer in need of protection under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) , but Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge provides protection for nine threatened and endangered species. Management of the refuge system has changed significantly since the presidency of Teddy Roosevelt, evolving from the creation of inviolate sanctuar[ies] (Act ofFebruary 18, 1929, sec. 715d) through aperiod in which conservation of wildlife and natural communities was balanced with public uses, often to the detriment of conservation (Curtin 1993), to the current period in which the refuge system is to be managed to protect biological integrity, diversity, and environmental health, the management mandates enacted in the National Wildlife Refuge System Improvement Act of 1997 (Act ofOctober 9, 1997; Gergely et al. 2000). This chapter describes the role the National Wildlife Refuge System plays in conserving species listed under the ESA, identifies factors that limit the refuge system\u27s effectiveness in achieving that objective, and identifies opportunities to increase imperiled species conservation within the refuge system

Gap analysis of terrestrial vertebrates in Italy: Priorities for conservation planning in a human dominated landscape

In the last 40 years, Italy has seen important changes: human pressure is increasing in flat and coastal areas while internal mountainous areas are being abandoned and naturally reforested. These changes have substantial impacts on the biodiversity of the region but no conservation strategy has ever explicitly considered them, and no systematic assessment of the existing protected areas has been carried out. We used a combination of distribution models and extents of occurrence to perform a gap analysis and an irreplaceability analysis. We evaluated the effectiveness of the protected areas for the conservation of terrestrial vertebrates, and we identified regions, species, and strategies that appear to be priorities for expanding and consolidating the existing network. The existing protected areas cannot be considered fully representative, and this is especially true for Sardinia where many of the gap species are located. The Alps and the Apennines represent the strongholds of species diversity, but most of the species of conservation interest are concentrated in the Mediterranean part of the peninsula, as well as in small areas of the plains, where human pressure is higher. Biodiversity and human presence are functionally linked through traditional agriculture and pasture and the only option for conservation is that of considering human presence and activities as an integral part of the system. In a human dominated landscape, protected areas must be planned and managed in conjunction with the matrix in which they are embedded and in the context of the environmental history of the region. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved