Publications by authors named "Ryan T Searcy"
Article Synopsis
- Fecal indicator bacteria (FIB) are important for assessing water quality at beaches, but current monitoring methods are often infrequent, which can lead to inaccurate evaluations for recreational users.
- This study conducted high-frequency sampling (every 30 minutes) of FIB in a Central California harbor, revealing greater variability in bacteria concentrations compared to traditional open beach studies.
- The findings emphasize the need for more frequent monitoring and show that FIB levels are closely linked to environmental factors like chlorophyll a, turbidity, wind speed, and tide levels.
Forecasting environmental hazards is critical in preventing or building resilience to their impacts on human communities and ecosystems. Environmental data science is an emerging field that can be harnessed for forecasting, yet more work is needed to develop methodologies that can leverage increasingly large and complex data sets for decision support. Here, we design a data-driven framework that can, for the first time, forecast bacterial standard exceedances at marine beaches with 3 days lead time.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTo reduce the incidence of recreational waterborne illness, fecal indicator bacteria (FIB) are measured to assess water quality and inform beach management. Recently, predictive FIB models have been used to aid managers in making beach posting and closure decisions. However, those predictive models must be trained using rich historical data sets consisting of FIB and environmental data that span years, and many beaches lack such data sets.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArticle Synopsis
- Fecal indicator bacteria like E. coli are monitored at beaches to reduce recreational waterborne illnesses, but traditional measurement methods may lag behind actual water quality changes.
- A new automated system, called the nowcast system, predicts daily water quality at beaches using environmental data, significantly improving predictions over the typical weekly assessments.
- When tested at 10 California beaches during the 2017 swim season, the nowcast models offered more accurate and timely information, providing an average of 140 extra days of water quality updates compared to previous methods, highlighting the need for tailored approaches in modeling for each beach.