Piscataqua Region Environmental Planning Assessment

The Piscataqua Region Environmental Planning Assessment (PREPA) was conducted to document the current status of environmental planning efforts and land use regulations for each of the 42 New Hampshire municipalities and 10 Maine municipalities (city and town governments) in the Piscataqua Region. The assessment involved analysis of over 80 questions associated with municipal regulatory and non-regulatory approaches to resource management. The assessment theme areas include land protection, wildlife habitat, stormwater management, erosion/sediment control, wetland and shoreland protections, floodplain management, and drinking water source protection, among others. Piscataqua Region Estuaries Partnership (PREP) staff and Land Use Team worked closely with a variety of stakeholders and the four regional planning commissions that service the Piscataqua Region on the development of the PREPA assessment form. For each of the 52 towns in the region, staff from the regional planning commissions reviewed municipal planning documents and interviewed key municipal representatives to complete an assessment form for each municipality. Data were collected in early 2009. This data was compiled by PREP into a database and analyzed for regional trends. Results for individual towns as well as regional trends are presented in this final project report. Differences between New Hampshire and Maine environmental policies are also evaluated for select issues pertaining to water quality and habitat protection

Jeannie Sowers, Assistant Professor of Political Science, travels to Italy

Professor Jeannie Sowers traveled to Italy this spring to present a paper at the European Union Institute workshop on Transnationalism in the Middle East

PREP Coastal Watershed Land Protection Transaction Grants 2008 Funding Round

In 2008, fourteen projects received PREP funds to support transaction costs associated with permanent land conservation projects in the New Hampshire coastal watershed. A maximum of $3,000 was granted to each project, with a single organization eligible to receive up to three separate awards. Funds were granted to eight different organizations, all of which were land trusts or town Conservation Commissions. Projects were completed in nine different towns, with the total acreage of land permanently protected reported at 984 acres. Nine of the fourteen projects were located in priority Conservation Focus Areas identified in The Land Conservation Plan for New Hampshire\u27s Coastal Watersheds (Zankel et al., 2006). Twelve of the fourteen projects protected stream or river shoreland habitat, with a total estimated distance of 23,510’ (4.45 miles) of shoreland receiving permanent protection. The majority of projects utilized conservation easements as the primary land protection mechanism and involved significant financial compensation to the landowner. PREP invested a total of$40,880 towards the transaction costs associated with the 14 projects, which was matched by $94,789 worth of cash and in-kind contributions by grant recipients. The total real market value of the land permanently protected through the work of project partners is estimated to be$6.56 million. This grant program provides important financial support that helps build and maintain the capacity of local governments and non-profits to complete land protection projects in the PREP watershed. The program also helps achieve PREP’s goal of permanently protecting 15 percent of the watershed by 2010. The program will continue with a new funding round and some minor administrative changes in 2009

Jeannie Sowers Associate Professor of Political Science travels to Egypt

Professor Sowers travelled to Egypt in February 2013 to continue her research on environmental issues and politics and to learn more about the ongoing political revolution that began in January 2011.With the assistance of a CIE travel grant funded by the Yale-Maria bequest for Middle East Studies, I was able to spend twelve days in Cairo during February 2013. I returned to Egypt, where I have been conducting research on environmental issues and politics for some time, to learn more about the ongoing political revolution that began in January 2011. Specifically, I was interested in debates over the controversial constitution that had just been passed through a referendum, which many people boycotted in protest. I talked with a people from a variety of political perspectives and parties about what the new constitution and ongoing revolution means to Egyptian

A rudimentary database for three-dimensional objects using structural representation

A database which enables users to store and share the description of three-dimensional objects in a research environment is presented. The main objective of the design is to make it a compact structure that holds sufficient information to reconstruct the object. The database design is based on an object representation scheme which is information preserving, reasonably efficient, and yet economical in terms of the storage requirement. The determination of the needed data for the reconstruction process is guided by the belief that it is faster to do simple computations to generate needed data/information for construction than to retrieve everything from memory. Some recent techniques of three-dimensional representation that influenced the design of the database are discussed. The schema for the database and the structural definition used to define an object are given. The user manual for the software developed to create and maintain the contents of the database is included

Computer program performs aerothermodynamic flight test data correlation

Computer program plots flight test data /stored on magnetic tape during the flight/ with comparative data from other tapes /design and post-flight predictions/. Information as to which measurements are on each tape, the order in which they appear, and the exact time span is supplied by the source of the data