Applications of Expanded WRAP Modeling Capabilities to the Brazos WAM

The Water Rights Analysis Package (WRAP) is routinely applied in the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) Water Availability Modeling (WAM) System. However, the Brazos River Basin studies documented by this report represent inaugural applications of the following new WRAP modeling capabilities: (1) conditional reliability modeling to determine short-term storage and flow frequencies and supply reliabilities conditioned on preceding reservoir storage contents; (2) capabilities added to allow simulations to be performed with daily time steps; and (3) simulation of reservoir operations for flood control. The Brazos WAM studies presented in this report provide a data and experience base for evaluating, demonstrating, and developing guidance for applying the new WRAP modeling capabilities. The studies also provide a better understanding of water management in the Brazos River Basin

Environmental Flows in Water Availability Modeling

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) Water Availability Modeling (WAM) System created pursuant to the 1997 Senate Bill 1 consists of the Water Rights Analysis Package (WRAP) and WRAP datasets for all of the river basins of Texas. The Texas Instream Flow Program was created by the Texas Legislature with its 2001 Senate Bill 2. The 2007 Senate Bill 3 established a new regulatory approach to provide for environmental flow needs of the river systems of Texas with flow standards developed through a stakeholder process culminating in TCEQ rulemaking. TR-440 explores recently expanded WRAP/WAM modeling capabilities for modeling environmental flow requirements established through the Senate Bill 3 process and evaluating their impacts on other water rights. The Brazos WAM is used as a case study to illustrate both daily and monthly modeling capabilities. The datasets developed for the case study are not designed for direct application in the water rights permitting process but rather to develop, test, and demonstrate recently expanded capabilities for modeling environmental flows

Geographic Analysis of Current and Historical Vegetation of East Texas

This study uses two sources of secondary data to compare vegetation communities in East Texas and analyze how they have changed in the past eight decades. The first data source is a hand-drawn timber survey map generated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture circa 1935. The second data source is the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s Ecological Mapping Systems of Texas (EMS-T) finished in 2014. A third data source is used to crosswalk between the two principal sources. Using digital mapping techniques, classification boundaries of the historic map were digitized creating an overall area of interest. This was used to extract attribute data from the second data source creating a data extent defined by the digitized boundaries of the 1935 map. Although identical, their resulting attribute data contained no mechanism for a data join. The third data source, McMahon’s The Vegetation Types of Texas, Including Cropland provided this attribute bridge. This study found that 2.49% of the overall area has been converted to urban use. This shift in land use underscores an overall rise in population, which, in turn, drives the need for natural resources and conversion of ecosystems to other land uses. For example, 34% of the ’Shortleaf, Loblolly, Hardwood’ classification is now exclusively devoted to timber production. In the ‘Bottomland Hardwood’ classification, reservoirs now account for 13% of its total area. Today only 0.07% of the 1935 longleaf pine extent is exclusively longleaf pine and 56% of areas that once were longleaf pine are now pine plantation. Areas of urban growth have had the greatest impact on the ‘Loblolly, Hardwood’ classification where 10.3% has been converted to urban cover. Invasive species are evident as well. For example, of the ‘Loblolly, Hardwood’ classification, 3.7% is now invasive Chinese Tallow (Triadica sebifera). The resulting analysis allows for comparisons based on “Common Name” attributes, LU/LC value, and associated area values. Beneficially, such comparison allows for general assumptions about environmental impact and provides an analytical mechanism by which to mitigate future loss due to human or natural influences

Water Rights Analysis Package (WRAP) Daily Modeling System

WRAP simulates development, management, control, allocation, and use of the water resources of river basins. The WRAP modeling system documented by the basic Reference and Users Manuals (TR-255 and TR-256) is based on a monthly computational time step. TR-430 documents an expanded version of WRAP that allows use of sub-monthly time steps and provides additional features for simulating flood control reservoir operations and environmental instream flow requirements. The daily WRAP includes all of the capabilities of the monthly modeling system plus an array of additional major new features. Each of the 12 months of the year can be subdivided into multiple time intervals with the default being daily. Options are provided for disaggregating monthly stream flows and water demands to daily. Future time steps extending over a forecast period are considered in the simulation model in determining both water availability from a supply perspective and remaining flood control channel capacity. Routing methods reflect flow attenuation. Calibration methods for determining routing parameters are provided. The daily WRAP modeling system incorporates pulse flow environment instream flow requirements and reservoir operations for flood control

Serial Section Scanning Electron Microscopy (S(3)EM) on Silicon Wafers for Ultra-Structural Volume Imaging of Cells and Tissues.

High resolution, three-dimensional (3D) representations of cellular ultrastructure are essential for structure function studies in all areas of cell biology. While limited subcellular volumes have been routinely examined using serial section transmission electron microscopy (ssTEM), complete ultrastructural reconstructions of large volumes, entire cells or even tissue are difficult to achieve using ssTEM. Here, we introduce a novel approach combining serial sectioning of tissue with scanning electron microscopy (SEM) using a conductive silicon wafer as a support. Ribbons containing hundreds of 35 nm thick sections can be generated and imaged on the wafer at a lateral pixel resolution of 3.7 nm by recording the backscattered electrons with the in-lens detector of the SEM. The resulting electron micrographs are qualitatively comparable to those obtained by conventional TEM. S 3 EM images of the same region of interest in consecutive sections can be used for 3D reconstructions of large structures. We demonstrate the potential of this approach by reconstructing a 31.7 mm 3 volume of a calyx of Held presynaptic terminal. The approach introduced here, Serial Section SEM (S 3 EM), for the first time provides the possibility to obtain 3D ultrastructure of large volumes with high resolution and to selectively and repetitively home in on structures of interest. S 3 EM accelerates process duration, is amenable to full automation and can be implemented wit

Preliminary spatiotemporal analysis of the association between socio-environmental factors and suicide

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The seasonality of suicide has long been recognised. However, little is known about the relative importance of socio-environmental factors in the occurrence of suicide in different geographical areas. This study examined the association of climate, socioeconomic and demographic factors with suicide in Queensland, Australia, using a spatiotemporal approach.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Seasonal data on suicide, demographic variables and socioeconomic indexes for areas in each Local Government Area (LGA) between 1999 and 2003 were acquired from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Climate data were supplied by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology. A multivariable generalized estimating equation model was used to examine the impact of socio-environmental factors on suicide.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The preliminary data analyses show that far north Queensland had the highest suicide incidence (e.g., Cook and Mornington Shires), while the south-western areas had the lowest incidence (e.g., Barcoo and Bauhinia Shires) in all the seasons. Maximum temperature, unemployment rate, the proportion of Indigenous population and the proportion of population with low individual income were statistically significantly and positively associated with suicide. There were weaker but not significant associations for other variables.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Maximum temperature, the proportion of Indigenous population and unemployment rate appeared to be major determinants of suicide at a LGA level in Queensland.</p

Introduction: Human ecology in the Himalaya

Knowledge of human adaptation in the Himalayas has developed more slowly than that for other world mountain systems. At the same time, the opening of the region to research has focused attention toward description in a “natural history” mode until quite recently. Where these studies have addressed issues of adaptation they have tended to do so more as a heuristic tool rather than in terms of contributing to the development of adaptive perspectives from a uniquely Himalayan vantage point. The contributions to this special issue suggest some of Himalayan cultural ecology's new themes as it more directly assumes a truly processual approach that incorporates the individual and domestic dimensions of adaptation within historical and social contexts .Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/44482/1/10745_2004_Article_BF00889710.pd

Water Rights Analysis Package (WRAP) Modeling System Programming Manual

The WRAP modeling system is documented by Reference and Users Manuals (TR-255 and TR-256) and other auxiliary manuals (TR-317 and TR-430) required to apply particular features. The WRAP executable programs are applied by model users without being concerned with the Fortran code. However, TR-388 provides a general discussion of the Fortran language and program compilation followed by information regarding each of the Fortran programs. The information provided here is essential for programmers working on improving and expanding the WRAP programs and can also be useful to model users as an aid in better understanding the modeling system