Stormwater runoff is a major environmental concern, particularly in urban environments. Trends in managing stormwater have evolved (and continue to evolve) from a quantity only approach into a sustainable approach, which integrates quantity, quality, the environment, and aesthetics. Best management practices (BMPs) and Low Impact Development (LID) are two well-documented techniques capable of managing to sustainable standards. There are a number of stormwater models available to design professionals today. However, there are few which integrate site-scale BMP/LID analysis in a simplified fashion. The purpose of this study is to determine if there is a demand in the design profession for simplified stormwater modeling tools to help designers make informed decisions about integrating BMP/LID strategies into site plans. A Web-based questionnaire was administered to a group of design professionals to determine their knowledge of BMPs and their technological needs and preferences in meeting stormwater goals and requirements.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T18:57:21Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2184.pdf: 10891858 bytes, checksum: 73f6b1a39daf89a3da77ee3132be166f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-12-05 / Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais / Fish culture is na aquaculture field which has been growing a lot in the last few years, specially by fish capture stagnation and for the growing high nutritional quality animal protein demand. A market field that has been greatly developed since 1990 s and which holds huge transactions of buying and selling alive cultures fish is the fee fishing activity, moving not only São Paulo fish cultures but from other states too, like Paraná, Mato Grosso do Sul and Minas Gerais. However, as in any human activity, it has negative and positive impacts. On this perspective, this study has objected, through an environment assessment evaluation in five fee-fishing units located in Araras region, manage the proposition Best Management Practices (BMP s) use and making a cost/benefit analysis to prove the viability of those practices use. Data were collected through a previous prepared questions and fishing pounds water and sediment samples analysis and water quality parameters measures in three different moments: before, during and after the rainy period. The analysis showed there are lead and iron elements excess in water, the former is due to previous lead contamination in Mogi-Guaçu hydrographical basin, and the last one because of the region soil type. Several Best Management Practices (BMP s) were proposed and the cost/benefit analysis identified only one economic viable establishment, whereas under a 9.5% a year discount rate in a 15-year analysis, it s proved to be profitable. The studied fee-fishing units presented serious problems on economic sector, and should in an urgent way improve their administrative and management strategies in order to better explore the property potentialities and the activity the execute in a sustainable manner. / A piscicultura é um ramo da aqüicultura que vem crescendo muito nos últimos anos, impulsionada pela estagnação na pesca extrativa e pela crescente demanda por proteína animal de alta qualidade nutricional. Um dos mercados que se desenvolveu copiosamente no início da década de noventa e que comporta grande movimentação de compra e venda de pescados cultivados é o mercado de pesque-pague, movimentando não só a piscicultura do estado de São Paulo, como também de estados vizinhos como Paraná, Mato Grosso do Sul e Minas Gerais. No entanto, assim como qualquer outra atividade humana, provoca impactos positivos e negativos. Sob esta perspectiva, este trabalho objetivou, através de uma avaliação de impactos ambientais em cinco pesque-pague da região de Araras, propor a adoção de boas práticas de manejo (BPM s) e realizar uma análise de custo/benefício para verificar a viabilidade da adoção de tais práticas. As informações foram coletadas através de questionários pré-elaborados, análises de amostras de água e sedimento e a medição dos parâmetros de qualidade de água dos tanques de pesca em três momentos diferentes: antes durante e após o período chuvoso. As análises de água revelaram existência de excesso dos elementos chumbo e ferro, o primeiro devido à contaminação pré-existente na bacia do Mogi-Guaçu, e o último em decorrência do tipo de solo da região latossolo. Várias Boas Práticas de Manejo foram propostas e a análise de custo/benefício identificou apenas um estabelecimento considerado economicamente viável, pois a uma taxa de desconto de 9,5% ao ano e sob um horizonte temporal de 15 anos, mostrou-se rentável. Os estabelecimentos estudados apresentam sérios problemas no setor econômico, devendo com urgência melhorar suas estratégias administrativas e gerenciais a fim de melhor explorar as potencialidades da propriedade e das atividades que desenvolvem de forma sustentável.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T18:57:26Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2184.pdf: 10891858 bytes, checksum: 73f6b1a39daf89a3da77ee3132be166f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-12-05 / Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais / Fish culture is na aquaculture field which has been growing a lot in the last few years, specially by fish capture stagnation and for the growing high nutritional quality animal protein demand. A market field that has been greatly developed since 1990 s and which holds huge transactions of buying and selling alive cultures fish is the fee fishing activity, moving not only São Paulo fish cultures but from other states too, like Paraná, Mato Grosso do Sul and Minas Gerais. However, as in any human activity, it has negative and positive impacts. On this perspective, this study has objected, through an environment assessment evaluation in five fee-fishing units located in Araras region, manage the proposition Best Management Practices (BMP s) use and making a cost/benefit analysis to prove the viability of those practices use. Data were collected through a previous prepared questions and fishing pounds water and sediment samples analysis and water quality parameters measures in three different moments: before, during and after the rainy period. The analysis showed there are lead and iron elements excess in water, the former is due to previous lead contamination in Mogi-Guaçu hydrographical basin, and the last one because of the region soil type. Several Best Management Practices (BMP s) were proposed and the cost/benefit analysis identified only one economic viable establishment, whereas under a 9.5% a year discount rate in a 15-year analysis, it s proved to be profitable. The studied fee-fishing units presented serious problems on economic sector, and should in an urgent way improve their administrative and management strategies in order to better explore the property potentialities and the activity the execute in a sustainable manner. / A piscicultura é um ramo da aqüicultura que vem crescendo muito nos últimos anos, impulsionada pela estagnação na pesca extrativa e pela crescente demanda por proteína animal de alta qualidade nutricional. Um dos mercados que se desenvolveu copiosamente no início da década de noventa e que comporta grande movimentação de compra e venda de pescados cultivados é o mercado de pesque-pague, movimentando não só a piscicultura do estado de São Paulo, como também de estados vizinhos como Paraná, Mato Grosso do Sul e Minas Gerais. No entanto, assim como qualquer outra atividade humana, provoca impactos positivos e negativos. Sob esta perspectiva, este trabalho objetivou, através de uma avaliação de impactos ambientais em cinco pesque-pague da região de Araras, propor a adoção de boas práticas de manejo (BPM s) e realizar uma análise de custo/benefício para verificar a viabilidade da adoção de tais práticas. As informações foram coletadas através de questionários pré-elaborados, análises de amostras de água e sedimento e a medição dos parâmetros de qualidade de água dos tanques de pesca em três momentos diferentes: antes durante e após o período chuvoso. As análises de água revelaram existência de excesso dos elementos chumbo e ferro, o primeiro devido à contaminação pré-existente na bacia do Mogi-Guaçu, e o último em decorrência do tipo de solo da região latossolo. Várias Boas Práticas de Manejo foram propostas e a análise de custo/benefício identificou apenas um estabelecimento considerado economicamente viável, pois a uma taxa de desconto de 9,5% ao ano e sob um horizonte temporal de 15 anos, mostrou-se rentável. Os estabelecimentos estudados apresentam sérios problemas no setor econômico, devendo com urgência melhorar suas estratégias administrativas e gerenciais a fim de melhor explorar as potencialidades da propriedade e das atividades que desenvolvem de forma sustentável.

No description available.

Thesis (M. En.)--Miami University, Institute of Environmental Sciences, 2005. / Title from first page of PDF document. Document formatted into pages; contains [1], v, 101 p. : ill. Includes bibliographical references (p. 63-64).

Lake Okeechobee is the largest lake in the southeastern United States and is a central component of the hydrology and environment of the Everglades ecosystem in South Florida. The natural state of the lake has been degraded as wetlands and natural habitats in the Lake Okeechobee watershed have been replaced with farms, urban areas, and dairy operations. Excessive phosphorus loadings from these diverse sources have been identified as the leading causes of the lake’s impairment. For more than four decades, many resources have been allocated to regional and local restoration efforts to reduce phosphorus loadings into the lake. However, phosphorus loadings have not decreased and the recovery of the lake could take more time, particularly with today’s limited local budgets. Market-based instruments, such as water quality trading programs, have emerged over the past decades to cost-effectively achieve water quality objectives in impaired watersheds. The main objective of this dissertation was to assess the environmental and economic benefits of implementing a phosphorus trading program in Lake Okeechobee watershed, compared to a conventional command-and-control approach. A comprehensive literature overview of nationally and internationally implemented trading programs was conducted to highlight advantages and challenges of these programs towards achieving water quality goals, and to outline the essential elements of a successful program. Furthermore, a modeling framework, integrating a hydrologic-water quality model with an economic model, was developed to assess the potential cost savings that trading might offer over a command-and-control approach. The modeling framework was applied in three priority basins of the Lake Okeechobee watershed. In each case, while developing trading scenarios to achieve phosphorus load reduction targets, the trading program was less expensive than the conventional command-and-control approach. This research provided the foundation for stakeholders to better understand whether water quality trading has the potential to work in the Lake Okeechobee watershed and to facilitate the development of a pilot program. In addition, it offered some insights on the potential economic opportunities that pollution sources would have by participating in the trading program. The modeling framework developed in this dissertation could facilitate the assessment of future water quality trading programs in other watersheds.

<p>Current watershed-scale, nonpoint source (NPS) pollution models do not represent the processes and impacts of agricultural best management practices (BMP) on water quality with sufficient detail. To begin addressing this gap, a novel process-based, watershed-scale, water quality model (WEPP-WQ) was developed based on the Water Erosion Prediction Project (WEPP) and the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) models. The proposed model was validated at both hillslope and watershed scales for runoff, sediment, and both soluble and particulate forms of nitrogen and phosphorus. WEPP-WQ is now one of only two models which simulates BMP impacts on water quality in ‘high’ detail, and it is the only one not based on USLE sediment predictions. Model validations indicated that particulate nutrient predictions were better than soluble nutrient predictions for both nitrogen and phosphorus. Predictions of uniform conditions outperformed nonuniform conditions, and calibrated model simulations performed better than uncalibrated model simulations. Applications of these kinds of models in real-world, historical simulations are often limited by a lack of field-scale agricultural management inputs. Therefore, a prototype tool was developed to derive management inputs for hydrologic models from remotely sensed imagery at field-scale resolution. At present, only predictions of crop, cover crop, and tillage practice inference are supported and were validated at annual and average annual time intervals based on data availability for the various management endpoints. Extraction model training and validation were substantially limited by relatively small field areas in the observed management dataset. Both of these efforts contribute to computational modeling research and applications pertaining to agricultural systems and their impacts on the environment.</p>