Evaluation of Water Resistance and Diffusion Properties of Paint Materials

A simple method is presented for evaluating the water-proofness quality of paints on lining materials. The method is based on measuring the integral capillarity in dependence on time, and then comparing this value to the value determined for the basic lining material. Measurements of the effective water vapor permeability then provide information on the risk of condensation which may increase after applying the paint. A practical application of the method is performed with four Karlocolor paints on glass concrete substrates. All the Karlocolor paints are found to be very effective materials for driven rain protection. The diffusion properties of all the paints are found to be excellent

The patchwork governance of ecologically available water: A case study in the Upper Missouri Headwaters, Montana, United States

Institutional authority and responsibility for allocating water to ecosystems (“ecologically available water” [EAW]) is spread across local, state, and federal agencies, which operate under a range of statutes, mandates, and planning processes. We use a case study of the Upper Missouri Headwaters Basin in southwestern Montana, United States, to illustrate this fragmented institutional landscape. Our goals are to (a) describe the patchwork of agencies and institutional actors whose intersecting authorities and actions influence the EAW in the study basin; (b) describe the range of governance mechanisms these agencies use, including laws, policies, administrative programs, and planning processes; and (c) assess the extent to which the collective governance regime creates gaps in responsibility. We find the water governance regime includes a range of nested mechanisms that in various ways facilitate or hinder the governance of EAW. We conclude the current multilevel governance regime leaves certain aspects of EAW unaddressed and does not adequately account for the interconnections between water in different parts of the ecosystem, creating integrative gaps. We suggest that more intentional and robust coordination could provide a means to address these gaps

Monitoring Drought Impact on Annual Forage Production in Semi-Arid Grasslands: A Case Study of Nebraska Sandhills

Land management practices and disturbances (e.g. overgrazing, fire) have substantial effects on grassland forage production. When using satellite remote sensing to monitor climate impacts, such as drought stress on annual forage production, minimizing land management practices and disturbance effects sends a clear climate signal to the productivity data. This study investigates the effect of this climate signal by: (1) providing spatial estimates of expected biomass under specific climate conditions, (2) determining which drought indices explain the majority of interannual variability in this biomass, and (3) developing a predictive model that estimates the annual biomass early in the growing season. To address objective 1, this study uses an established methodology to determine Expected Ecosystem Performance (EEP) in the Nebraska Sandhills, US, representing annual forage levels after accounting for non-climatic influences. Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS)-based Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) data were used to approximate actual ecosystem performance. Seventeen years (2000–2016) of annual EEP was calculated using piecewise regression tree models of site potential and climate data. Expected biomass (EB), EEP converted to biomass in kg*ha−1*yr−1, was then used to examine the predictive capacity of several drought indices and the onset date of the growing season. Subsets of these indices were used to monitor and predict annual expected grassland biomass. Independent field-based biomass production data available from two Sandhills locations were used for validation of the EEP model. The EB was related to field-based biomass production (R2 = 0.66 and 0.57) and regional rangeland productivity statistics of the Soil Survey Geographic Database (SSURGO) dataset. The Evaporative Stress Index (ESI), the 3- and 6-month Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI), and the U.S. Drought Monitor (USDM), which represented moisture conditions during May, June and July, explained the majority of the interannual biomass variability in this grassland system (three-month ESI explained roughly 72% of the interannual biomass variability). A new model was developed to use drought indices from early in the growing season to predict the total EB for the whole growing season. This unique approach considers only climate-related drought signal on productivity. The capability to estimate annual EB by the end of May will potentially enable land managers to make informed decisions about stocking rates, hay purchase needs, and other management issues early in the season, minimizing their potential drought losses

Using seasonal climate scenarios in the ForageAhead annual forage production model for early drought impact assessment

Abstract High interannual variability of forage production in semiarid grasslands leads to uncertainties when livestock producers make decisions, such as buying additional feed, relocating animals, or using flexible stocking. Within‐season predictions of annual forage production (i.e., yearly production) can provide specific boundaries for producers to make these decisions with more information and possibly with higher confidence. In this study, we use a recently developed forage production model, ForageAhead, that uses environmental and seasonal climate variables to estimate the annual forage production as approximated by remotely sensed vegetation data. Because, among other variables, this model uses observed summer climate data, the model output cannot be produced early enough in the year (e.g., spring months) to inform within‐season management decisions. To address this issue, we developed summer climate scenarios (e.g., extremely warm and dry and moderately cool and wet) that serve as an input in the model in combination with observed winter and spring climate data from a particular year. The summer climate scenarios used historical summer precipitation and temperature data (1950–2018) categorized into three, five, and seven percentile categories. These percentile values were then combined to represent summer climate scenarios, which were further used as the ForageAhead model input. We tested the optimal number of percentile categories to be used as the model input to obtain accurate prediction of forage production while also minimizing the number of possible temperature and precipitation combinations, which increases with the number of percentile categories. For the 19‐year period analysis (2000–2018), we also determined the most and least common scenarios that occurred in the western United States. When using five percentile categories for summer precipitation and temperature, we were able to capture the interannual variability in the spatial extent of abnormally low and high biomass production. The ForageAhead predictions captured similar spatial patterns of forage anomalies as another similar model (Grass‐Cast). This method can be made available in a user‐friendly automated system that can be used by livestock producers and rangeland managers to inform within‐season management decisions. This method can be especially valuable for flexible stocking as it provides a range of possible annual forage production scenarios by the end of May

Ecological Drought: Accounting for the Non-Human Impacts of Water Shortage in the Upper Missouri Headwaters Basin, Montana, USA

Water laws and drought plans are used to prioritize and allocate scarce water resources. Both have historically been human-centric, failing to account for non-human water needs. In this paper, we examine the development of instream flow legislation and the evolution of drought planning to highlight the growing concern for the non-human impacts of water scarcity. Utilizing a new framework for ecological drought, we analyzed five watershed-scale drought plans in southwestern Montana, USA to understand if, and how, the ecological impacts of drought are currently being assessed. We found that while these plans do account for some ecological impacts, it is primarily through the narrow lens of impacts to fish as measured by water temperature and streamflow. The latter is typically based on the same ecological principles used to determine instream flow requirements. We also found that other resource plans in the same watersheds (e.g., Watershed Restoration Plans, Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Watershed Assessments or United States Forest Service (USFS) Forest Plans) identify a broader range of ecological drought risks. Given limited resources and the potential for mutual benefits and synergies, we suggest greater integration between various planning processes could result in a more holistic consideration of water needs and uses across the landscape