Reasonable Use on the Russian River: A Brief History of the Frost Protection Rule

The Russian River Frost Protection Regulation (“Frost Protection Rule”) states that “any diversion of water from the Russian River stream system, including the pumping of hydraulically connected groundwater, for purposes of frost protection” must be diverted in accordance with an approved “water demand management program” (WDMP), or the diversion “is an unreasonable method of diversion and use and a violation of Water Code section 100.” The California State Water Resources Control Board (“State Water Board”) adopted the Frost Protection Rule on September 20, 2011. Litigation over the rule culminated in the decision in Light et al. v. State Water Res. Control Bd., 226 Cal. App. 4th 1463 (2014), which confirmed that the State Water Board has authority to adopt quasi-legislative rules for the reasonable use and reasonable manner of water diversion. The court also reiterated that the reasonable use doctrine applies to all water rights—including riparian and pre-1914 appropriators. Finally, the court approved the State Water Board’s reliance on industry-led consortiums of water right holders to assist in the management of the frost protection program through the adoption of the WDMPs. Readers of the Light decision could be forgiven for assuming that the case presented a classic conflict between heavy-handed regulators, environmental interests, and farmers. As the rule-making proceeded, there were moments of conflict and some grape growers eventually filed a lawsuit. However, there was also a great deal of common ground between others in the winegrape industry, State Water Board members, and the conservation community. One of the Frost Protection Rule’s untold stories is the tremendous amount of progress that was made “on the ground” while the rule was in development and delayed by litigation. The winegrape industry deserves credit for its actions, and the State Water Board and wildlife agencies deserve credit for bringing the issue forward. The progress that has happened on the ground augurs well for the future of the effort, and begs the question whether the Frost Protection Rule is already a success

Reasonable Use on the Russian River: A Brief History of the Frost Protection Rule

The Russian River Frost Protection Regulation (“Frost Protection Rule”) states that “any diversion of water from the Russian River stream system, including the pumping of hydraulically connected groundwater, for purposes of frost protection” must be diverted in accordance with an approved “water demand management program” (WDMP), or the diversion “is an unreasonable method of diversion and use and a violation of Water Code section 100.” The California State Water Resources Control Board (“State Water Board”) adopted the Frost Protection Rule on September 20, 2011. Litigation over the rule culminated in the decision in Light et al. v. State Water Res. Control Bd., 226 Cal. App. 4th 1463 (2014), which confirmed that the State Water Board has authority to adopt quasi-legislative rules for the reasonable use and reasonable manner of water diversion. The court also reiterated that the reasonable use doctrine applies to all water rights—including riparian and pre-1914 appropriators. Finally, the court approved the State Water Board’s reliance on industry-led consortiums of water right holders to assist in the management of the frost protection program through the adoption of the WDMPs. Readers of the Light decision could be forgiven for assuming that the case presented a classic conflict between heavy-handed regulators, environmental interests, and farmers. As the rule-making proceeded, there were moments of conflict and some grape growers eventually filed a lawsuit. However, there was also a great deal of common ground between others in the winegrape industry, State Water Board members, and the conservation community. One of the Frost Protection Rule’s untold stories is the tremendous amount of progress that was made “on the ground” while the rule was in development and delayed by litigation. The winegrape industry deserves credit for its actions, and the State Water Board and wildlife agencies deserve credit for bringing the issue forward. The progress that has happened on the ground augurs well for the future of the effort, and begs the question whether the Frost Protection Rule is already a success

Scientific instruments for climate change adaptation: estimating and optimizing the efficiency of ecosystem service provision

Adaptation to the consequences of climate change can depend on efficient use of ecosystem services (ES), i.e. a better use of natural services through management of the way in which they are delivered to society. While much discussion focuses on reducing consumption and increasing production of services, a lack of scientific instruments has so far prevented other mechanisms to improve ecosystem services efficiency from being addressed systematically as an adaptation strategy. This paper describes new methodologies for assessing ecosystem services and quantifying their values to humans, highlighting the role of ecosystem service flow analysis in optimizing the efficiency of ES provision.Ecosystem services, flow analysis, Bayesian modeling, spatial analysis, Environmental Economics and Policy, Q01, Q54, Q55, Q57,

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POLOCALC: a Novel Method to Measure the Absolute Polarization Orientation of the Cosmic Microwave Background

We describe a novel method to measure the absolute orientation of the polarization plane of the CMB with arcsecond accuracy, enabling unprecedented measurements for cosmology and fundamental physics. Existing and planned CMB polarization instruments looking for primordial B-mode signals need an independent, experimental method for systematics control on the absolute polarization orientation. The lack of such a method limits the accuracy of the detection of inflationary gravitational waves, the constraining power on the neutrino sector through measurements of gravitational lensing of the CMB, the possibility of detecting Cosmic Birefringence, and the ability to measure primordial magnetic fields. Sky signals used for calibration and direct measurements of the detector orientation cannot provide an accuracy better than 1 deg. Self-calibration methods provide better accuracy, but may be affected by foreground signals and rely heavily on model assumptions. The POLarization Orientation CALibrator for Cosmology, POLOCALC, will dramatically improve instrumental accuracy by means of an artificial calibration source flying on balloons and aerial drones. A balloon-borne calibrator will provide far-field source for larger telescopes, while a drone will be used for tests and smaller polarimeters. POLOCALC will also allow a unique method to measure the telescopes' polarized beam. It will use microwave emitters between 40 and 150 GHz coupled to precise polarizing filters. The orientation of the source polarization plane will be registered to sky coordinates by star cameras and gyroscopes with arcsecond accuracy. This project can become a rung in the calibration ladder for the field: any existing or future CMB polarization experiment observing our polarization calibrator will enable measurements of the polarization angle for each detector with respect to absolute sky coordinates.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figures, Accepted by Journal of Astronomical Instrumentatio

Symmetry Protected Topological phases and Generalized Cohomology

We discuss the classification of SPT phases in condensed matter systems. We review Kitaev's argument that SPT phases are classified by a generalized cohomology theory, valued in the spectrum of gapped physical systems. We propose a concrete description of that spectrum and of the corresponding cohomology theory. We compare our proposal to pre-existing constructions in the literature.Comment: 27 pages, 10 figures. v2: citation updat

NASA CPAS Drogue Textile Riser Feasibility Study

Steel cable was chosen for the lower end of the drogue and main parachute risers on NASA's Orion Multi Purpose Crew Vehicle Parachute Assembly System (CPAS) to protect the risers from extreme temperatures and abrasion should they contact the crew module during deployment, as was done for Apollo. Due to the weight and deployment complexity inherent in steel, there was significant interest in the possibility of substituting textile for steel for the drogue and main parachute risers. However, textile risers could be damaged when subjected to high temperature and abrasion. Investigations were consequently performed by a subset of the authors to determine whether sacrificial, non-load-bearing textile riser covers could be developed to mitigate the thermal and abrasion concerns. Multiple material combinations were tested, resulting in a cover design capable of protecting the riser against severe riser/crew module contact interactions. A feasibility study was then conducted to evaluate the performance of the textile drogue riser cover in relevant abrasive environments. This paper describes the testing performed and documents the results of this feasibility study

A CubeSat for Calibrating Ground-Based and Sub-Orbital Millimeter-Wave Polarimeters (CalSat)

We describe a low-cost, open-access, CubeSat-based calibration instrument that is designed to support ground-based and sub-orbital experiments searching for various polarization signals in the cosmic microwave background (CMB). All modern CMB polarization experiments require a robust calibration program that will allow the effects of instrument-induced signals to be mitigated during data analysis. A bright, compact, and linearly polarized astrophysical source with polarization properties known to adequate precision does not exist. Therefore, we designed a space-based millimeter-wave calibration instrument, called CalSat, to serve as an open-access calibrator, and this paper describes the results of our design study. The calibration source on board CalSat is composed of five "tones" with one each at 47.1, 80.0, 140, 249 and 309 GHz. The five tones we chose are well matched to (i) the observation windows in the atmospheric transmittance spectra, (ii) the spectral bands commonly used in polarimeters by the CMB community, and (iii) The Amateur Satellite Service bands in the Table of Frequency Allocations used by the Federal Communications Commission. CalSat would be placed in a polar orbit allowing visibility from observatories in the Northern Hemisphere, such as Mauna Kea in Hawaii and Summit Station in Greenland, and the Southern Hemisphere, such as the Atacama Desert in Chile and the South Pole. CalSat also would be observable by balloon-borne instruments launched from a range of locations around the world. This global visibility makes CalSat the only source that can be observed by all terrestrial and sub-orbital observatories, thereby providing a universal standard that permits comparison between experiments using appreciably different measurement approaches