Ecosystem services from partially harvested riparian buffers can offset biomass production costs.

There is a broad consensus that riparian buffers provide environmental benefits and increase resilience to climate change. In this study, we examined the potential benefits of multi-zone riparian buffers with outer layers planted in perennial crops (i.e.

Planning green infrastructure placement based on projected precipitation data.

Continued urbanization has led to tremendous changes on the landscape. These changes have exacerbated the effects of extreme climatic events such as flooding because of constrained water infiltration and increased surface flow. Typical runoff control measures involve sophisticated gray infrastructure that guide excess surface flow into storage and disposal sites.

A dataset of eco-evidence tools to inform early-stage environmental impact assessments of hydropower development.

The datasets described herein provide the foundation for a decision support prototype (DSP) toolkit aimed at assisting stakeholders in determining evidence of which aspects of river ecosystems have been impacted by hydropower. The DSP toolkit and its application are presented and described in the article "Evidence-based indicator approach to guide preliminary environmental impact assessments of hydropower development" [1]. Development of the DSP and the output for decision support centralize around 42 river function indicators describing the dimensionality of river ecosystems through six main categories: biota and biodiversity, water quality, hydrology, geomorphology, land cover, and river connectivity.

Evidence-based indicator approach to guide preliminary environmental impact assessments of hydropower development.

Global expansion of hydropower resources has increased in recent years to meet growing energy demands and fill worldwide gaps in electricity supply. However, hydropower induces significant environmental impacts on river ecosystems - impacts that are addressed through environmental impact assessment (EIA) processes. The need for effective EIA processes is increasing as environmental regulations are either stressed in developing countries undertaking rapid expansion of hydropower capacity or time- and resource-intensive in developed countries.

A Checklist of River Function Indicators for hydropower ecological assessment.

Hydropower generation has advantages for societies that seek low-carbon, renewable energy alternatives, but sustainable hydropower production will require an explicit consideration of potential tradeoffs between socioeconomic and environmental priorities. These tradeoffs are often explored during a formal environmental impact assessment process that can be complex and controversial. The steps taken to address stakeholder concerns through impact hypotheses and field studies are not always transparent.

Dataset of timberland variables used to assess forest conditions in two Southeastern United States׳ fuelsheds.

The data presented in this article are related to the research article entitled "How is wood-based pellet production affecting forest conditions in the southeastern United States?" (Dale et al., 2017) [1]. This article describes how United States Forest Service (USFS) Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) data from multiple state inventories were aggregated and used to extract ten annual timberland variables for trend analysis in two case study bioenergy fuelshed areas.

Comparing scales of environmental effects from gasoline and ethanol production.

Understanding the environmental effects of alternative fuel production is critical to characterizing the sustainability of energy resources to inform policy and regulatory decisions. The magnitudes of these environmental effects vary according to the intensity and scale of fuel production along each step of the supply chain. We compare the spatial extent and temporal duration of ethanol and gasoline production processes and environmental effects based on a literature review and then synthesize the scale differences on space-time diagrams.

Environmental indicators of biofuel sustainability: what about context?

Indicators of the environmental sustainability of biofuel production, distribution, and use should be selected, measured, and interpreted with respect to the context in which they are used. The context of a sustainability assessment includes the purpose, the particular biofuel production and distribution system, policy conditions, stakeholder values, location, temporal influences, spatial scale, baselines, and reference scenarios. We recommend that biofuel sustainability questions be formulated with respect to the context, that appropriate indicators of environmental sustainability be developed or selected from more generic suites, and that decision makers consider context in ascribing meaning to indicators.

Higher trends but larger uncertainty and geographic variability in 21st century temperature and heat waves.

Generating credible climate change and extremes projections remains a high-priority challenge, especially since recent observed emissions are above the worst-case scenario. Bias and uncertainty analyses of ensemble simulations from a global earth systems model show increased warming and more intense heat waves combined with greater uncertainty and large regional variability in the 21st century. Global warming trends are statistically validated across ensembles and investigated at regional scales.