Microalgae are considered one of the most promising feedstocks for biofuel production for the future. The most efficient way to produce vast amounts of algal biomass is the use of closed tubular photobioreactors (PBR). The heat requirement for a given system is a major concern since the best algae growth rates are obtained between 25-30 °C, depending on the specific strain. A procedure to determine temperature influence on algal growth rates was developed for a lab-scale PBR system using the species Chlorella. A maximum growth rate of 1.44 doublings per day at 29 °C (optimal temperature) was determined. In addition, a dynamic mathematical model was developed to simulate heating and cooling energy requirements of tubular PBRs for any desired location. Operating the model with hourly weather data as input, heating and cooling loads can be calculated early in the planning stage of a project. Furthermore, the model makes it possible to compare the operation inside a greenhouse to the outdoor operations, and consequently provides fundamental information for an economic feasibility study. The best configuration for a specific location can be evaluated easily. The model was exemplary tested for a hypothetical 100,000 l photobioreactor located in San Luis Obispo, California, U.S.A. Average algae productivity rates of 23% and 67% for outdoor and indoor PBR operations, respectively, were obtained. Actual energy loads (heating and cooling) needed to maintain the PBR at optimal temperature were determined and compared. Sensitivity analyses had been performed for abrupt temperature and solar radiation steps, PBR row distances, ground reflectivities, and ventilation rates of the greenhouse. An optimal row distance of 0.75 m was determined for the specific PBR. The least amount of energy was needed for a ground reflectivity of 20%. The ventilation rate had no major influence on the productivity rate of the system. Results demonstrated the importance of a simulation model as well as the economic impact of a sophisticated heat management system. Energy savings due to an optimized heat management system will eventually increase proficiency of the systems, which will support a new sustainable industry and future developmental potential.

Bicycling is a method of tourism transportation that is healthy, non-invasive, environmentally responsible, and economically sustainable. It allows freedom, mobility, and sightseeing potential that is not made possible by other modes of transit. Thousands of bicycle tourists travel from all over the globe annually to explore California on touring bikes via established cycling routes and robust determination. Thousands of additional domestic and international visitors take weekend trips, plan family vacations, travel for business, or tour California from abroad, many of whom are excellent candidates for local and regional bicycle touring at a more gentle intensity level. The increasing popularity and prominence of bicycle tourism, among both domestic and international travelers, carries great potential for economic benefit to local communities. Rural and agricultural communities can particularly benefit from bicycle tourism, as these communities do not normally experience the benefits of tourism as significantly as their urban, coastal or mountainous neighbors. Tourism that is developed in accordance with the size, scale, constraints and character of a particular community can have a beneficial effect on the economics and industry of the area. Infrastructure projects to this effect, such as development of a town or regional trail system, wayfinding features, or other resources come with benefits for visitors and locals in the form of recreation, public health, mobility, and access to food, drink, amenities, scenic areas, jobs and commerce. Trails may further improve the economy of the local housing market, as proximity to trails has a positive effect on housing values. Incorporation of agricultural destinations into local tourism planning creates a draw for visitors and can become a mutually beneficial relationship – contributing to the economic stability of the agriculture industry, preserving local farm lands, increasing tourism revenue and educating the public on the importance of local farming. Through careful planning of the touristic components of the destination, rural communities can achieve multifaceted economic benefits of diverse and versatile tourism amenities.

<h2><br></h2> <p>This dissertation consists of distinct but related essays that delve into the impacts of changing economic conditions and climate mitigation policies on household consumption, health, and welfare outcomes. The first essay examines the effect of variations in economic factors, such as home values, on unhealthy consumption behaviors in the U.S. The second essay examines the distributional effects and possible health advantages of climate mitigation policies in India. The findings in this dissertation have significant implications for preventive health and environmental justice policies, particularly concerning vulnerable populations. </p> <p>The first essay of this dissertation investigates the impact of home value fluctuations on household tobacco and alcohol consumption in the U.S., specifically focusing on consumption based on homeownership status. First, we utilize high-frequency household transaction panel data and ZIP code-level home values to estimate the causal effect of home value fluctuations (or the housing wealth effect) on household tobacco and alcohol consumption for all U.S. households. Second, we predict household homeownership status by supplementing our primary household panel transaction data with a secondary household survey dataset; this allowed us to estimate the housing wealth effect separately for homeowners and renters. Home values are a leading economic indicator and effectively represent variation in housing wealth, whereas prior literature mainly focuses on lagging economic indicators, such as the unemployment rate. Housing wealth is a significant component of household net worth in the U.S. We leverage temporal and geographic fluctuations in household transactions and local home values to show that changes in housing wealth have a causal effect on household tobacco and alcohol consumption. Our findings show that declining home values increase tobacco and alcohol consumption among homeowners, with no effect on renters. Beer and cigarettes mainly drive this effect. Declining home values substantially increase annual consumption of nicotine, tar, carbon monoxide, and alcohol by volume, exacerbating public health concerns. In contrast, unemployment shocks increase tobacco and alcohol consumption among homeowners and decrease it among renters. The housing wealth effect is most pronounced among bubble states households, heavy-use consumers, low-income, and white households. The study emphasizes the importance of targeted policy interventions to mitigate the negative effects of fluctuations in housing wealth on unhealthy consumption, especially amid the current unpredictable economic environment and volatile real estate market. </p> <p>The second essay of this dissertation analyzes the distributional impacts of climate mitigation policies consistent with India’s 2030 Nationally Determined Contribution and 2070 net-zero target, using a dynamic global computable general equilibrium (CGE) model with heterogeneous Indian households. Specifically, we expand the CGE model to incorporate ten rural and ten urban household income deciles. Additionally, we link the CGE model with a global atmospheric source-receptor model to derive health co-benefits from reduced premature mortality due to lower air pollution. Several policy levers are considered in this study, including carbon pricing, enhanced coal consumption tax (or coal cess), and fossil subsidies phaseout. These are further combined with five alternative revenue recycling options. Our results suggest the potential welfare costs of such mitigation policies are rather moderate and do not exceed 0.5% over 2023-2050, not accounting for health and environmental co-benefits and damages avoided by successfully limiting global temperature rise to well below 2°C. However, health co-benefits from lower air pollution can potentially outweigh the mitigation costs. Combining carbon pricing and fossil subsidy removal is more efficient than carbon pricing alone, generating progressive medium-term welfare gains due to reduced market distortions. Raising coal cess rates is the least efficient policy. Inequality and distributional impacts vary significantly based on the chosen revenue recycling approach. Equal transfer of tax revenue across households proves to be the most efficient and equitable, followed by labor tax subsidies, leading to a Gini index and S20/S80 ratio reduction of 0.01%-1.7% and 0.1%-7%, respectively. Recycling revenues to stimulate green energy investments yields the least favorable distributional impacts and worsens inequality. Trade-offs exist between reducing inequality and fostering investment-driven economic growth when choosing revenue recycling options. Policymakers should prioritize policy mixes and revenue-recycling methods based on their objectives to effectively combat climate change while promoting sustainable growth and reducing income inequality in India. </p>

<p dir="ltr">An inquiry into the additionality of the income tax credit program for solar purchasing in Ohio, where aggregation electric purchasing programs exist.</p><p dir="ltr">In the State of Ohio, a unique feature of the electric market regulatory landscape permits local governments to become energy suppliers to their residents and small businesses through programs known as community choice aggregation (CCA). Some of these programs guarantee 100% renewable electricity to all enrollees. Concurrently, the federal government offers an income tax credit (ITC) for the purchase of a solar array. When policy incentives are offered, it is important to ensure they impact their target audience to act in ways that would not be observed in the scenario without the tax incentive. This is known as “additionality.” In the context of carbon emissions reduction goals, individuals who claim the ITC while already having 100% renewable electricity would violate additionality. In other words, these renewable aggregation programs may crowd out the benefits of the ITC. This paper seeks to assess the additionality of the ITC in the context of Ohio’s CCA program. The actual additionality can depend on whether renewable energy is already being supplied to the site that constructs a solar array. Hence, we study the relationship between CCA and solar adoption probability to determine whether tax incentives are additional. Using non-parametric survival analysis, panel data methods, and post-estimation simulations, this paper seeks to discern if additionality is violated using the ITC in areas where a supply of renewable energy is already guaranteed. We find that aggregation programs increase the probability of solar adoption and that on average, in Ohio, roughly $0.44 of every dollar spent on the income tax credit is non-additional. This will help policymakers determine the efficacy of funds allocated to their respective programs.</p>

This thesis presents the results of research in a small village located in the mountains of Sichuan Province in southwestern China. The thesis argues that traditional irrigation practices vital to paddy-rice production in the village have been stressed by local weather events. It also argues that local villagers have not responded effectively to such changes, and that failure to adjust has contributed to social stress observed at the site. During the earlier years of the study period (1945 to 2012), improvements were made in local irrigation, which seem to have helped farmers continue with traditional subsistence wet-rice farming in a fragile mountain environment. However, in later years of the period village social order showed two significant signs of collapse: first, because of emigration, fewer people were left to farm higher mountain levels so farm land was being abandoned; second, social crowding in lower level riverside farming areas, partly the result of highland emigration, began reducing the amount of land being farmed there. While reducing intensive cropping of highland farming areas can result in spontaneous recovery of natural resources such as soil and water, crowding in lower areas can contribute to deterioration of natural resources in the lower village farmland. Crowding can, in addition, have a bearing on community health problems. The thesis results are of value to researchers concerned with the adaptive behavior of local farming communities trying to maintain their traditional irrigation-dependent way of life in a fragile mountain environment while experiencing the effects of changeable weather. Thesis results are of additional value to those who study the impact on society of earth-warming, especially if variable local weather in the Dabashan is shown to be related to global climate change.

Die Doktorarbeit untersucht institutionelle Aspekte von staatlichen Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES, positive Anreizinstrumente i.F.v. Zahlungen für Ökosystemleistungen) in der EU und den USA. Die Untersuchung ist zweiteilig: Zunächst werden Design und Performance von bestehenden agrarumweltpolitischen Anreizinstrumenten analysiert, welche vermehrt als PES verstanden werden. Dann wird die Relevanz des Ecosystem Services (ES) Konzeptes für die Ausgestaltung der bestehenden Instrumente identifiziert. Die generellen Forschungsfragen werden hinsichtlich institutionellem Design, institutioneller Performance und institutionellem Interplay konkretisiert und im Rahmen von fünf individuellen Veröffentlichungen beantwortet. Hinsichtlich der Anreizinstrumente werden Regeln für eine effektive Gestaltung hervorgehoben. Ferner wird herausgearbeitet, wie Anreizinstrumente mit bestehenden institutionellen Strukturen interagieren. Hinsichtlich der Politikrelevanz des ES Konzeptes wird dargelegt, dass es bisher nicht in die Umweltgesetzgebung integriert wurde, eine Integration aber fortschreitet. Der größte zukünftige Einfluss des Konzeptes wird für die Klima- und Agrarpolitik vorausgesagt, insbesondere für bestehende Zahlungsinstrumente. Generell wird aufgezeigt, dass Zielgerichtetheit und Integration von staatlichen PES wichtig sind. Für einen funktionierenden Instrumentenmix von PES und Regularien muss die jeweilige Eigentumsrechtsituation transparent gemacht werden und verschiedene Akteure müssen auf einer gemeinsamen Basis zusammenarbeiten. Demgemäß wird diskutiert, welches Potential das ES Konzept dafür bietet, die Kommunikation zwischen den Akteuren zu verbessern und neue Impulse für eine Kooperation zu geben. Schließlich wird argumentiert, dass eine systematische ES Untersuchung und Quantifizierung bessere Möglichkeiten für Zieldefinition und Monitoring bieten könnte, der Nutzen einer ökonomische Bewertung von ES aber immer sehr sorgfältig geprüft werden sollte. / The doctoral thesis identifies and analyses institutional aspects of governmental Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) in the EU and US. The analysis is twofold: First, the design and performance of existing governmental agri-environmental payment schemes that are increasingly labelled as PES have been investigated. Second, the influence of the ecosystem services (ES) concept on such payments has been identified. The general research objectives are structured in terms of institutional design, performance, and interplay. Five individual research papers shed light on the raised issues. Regarding payment schemes, findings indicate certain design rule sets that can be crucial for environmentally effective governmental payments. Furthermore, scheme interactions with other institutional arrangements have been shown. In terms of ES concept driven policies, the identified design principles have hardly been included but their integration is proceeding. The greatest future ES impact on policy design is predicted regarding climate and agricultural policies, especially on existing payment schemes. In summary, effective targeting and integration of governmental PES have been outlined as important. To create and achieve a sound mix of PES with regulations and policies, the property rights situation, the reference point for application of the ‘provider-gets’ and ‘beneficiary-pays’ principles, and any deviations therefrom should be made transparent. Furthermore, different actors must collaborate on basis of common denominators. The potential of ES to enhance communication among actors and provide new impulses for cross-sectoral and cross-level cooperation in existing governmental payments schemes implementation has been discussed. Moreover, it has been argued that regarding governmental payments, systematic ES definition and quantification may offer the opportunity to enhance targeting, and economic valuation and monetarization of ES should be very carefully considered.

Increased demands on water supplies caused by population expansion, saltwater intrusion, and drought have led to water shortages which may be addressed by use of recycled water as recycled water products. Study I investigated recycled water production in Florida and California during 2009 to detect gaps in distribution and identify areas for expansion. Gaps were detected along the panhandle and Miami, Florida, as well as the northern and southwestern regions in California. Study II examined gaps in distribution, identified temporal change, and located areas for expansion for Florida in 2009 and 2015. Production increased in the northern and southern regions of Florida but decreased in Southwest Florida. Recycled water is an essential component water management a broader adoption of recycled water will increase water conservation in water-stressed coastal communities by allocating recycled water for purposes that once used potable freshwater.

Light Detection and Ranging (Lidar) data are used to report the temporal and spatial patterns of subsidence as well as the potential contributors to subsidence within the Barataria and Terrebonne Bays. In recent decades, subsidence in southeast Louisiana has become a topic of substantial and growing concern to the scientific community, the local residents, and all those invested in the region. Lidar data were acquired from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and the LSU Center for Geoinformatics. The data has been manipulated to map the differenced Lidar, complete an instantaneous slope analysis, and determine the thickness of the Holocene sediments. The goal was to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the subsidence patterns and the dynamic processes driving subsidence within the study area. These efforts provide a better ability to plan for the future of the Louisiana working coast and mitigate against relative sea level rise and coastal land loss.

Funded by Nellis Air Force Base (NAFB), my thesis research and analysis examined Native American knowledge of heritage foods and how diminished access to food resources has affected Native American identity and health. NAFB manages the Nevada Test and Training Range (NTTR), land and air space in southern Nevada, which includes Native American ancestral lands. During a research period of 3 months in the spring/summer of 2012, I interviewed members of Native American nations culturally affiliated with ancestral lands on the NTTR, the Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah (PITU) and the Bishop Paiute Tribe. My research included participant observation and 31 interviews with tribal members considered knowledge holders by tribal leaders. In dialogue with the literature of the anthropology of food, political economy, and Critical Medical Anthropology, my analysis focused on the role of heritage foods in everyday consumption, taking into account the economic, social, environmental, and political factors influencing heritage foods access and diet. My work explored the effects of structural forces and rapid changes in diet and social conditions on Native American health. I found shifts in concepts of food-related identity across ethnic groups, tribes, ages, and genders. I also found evidence of collective efforts to improve diet-related health at tribal and community levels. Through the applied aspects of my research, participants and their families had the opportunity to share recipes and food dishes containing heritage foods as a way to promote human health and knowledge transmission.

The Western and Central Pacific Ocean (WCPO) is home to the largest tuna fishery stock in the world. However, Pacific Island members of the Western and Central Pacific Tuna Commission (WCPTC) argue that their share of the economic rent from the tuna catches taken out of the Pacific region is very small, being on average only about 6% of the total net benefit, when compared to the share earned by Distant Water Fishing Nations (DWFNs). Kiribati is one of the Pacific Island Countries (PICs), which relies heavily on its fishery for its economic development and sustainability. Kiribati earns 40% - 50 % of its government revenue from fisheries access fees paid by DWFNs for tuna caught in the the Kiribati EEZ. The Government of Kiribati (GoK) believes that Kiribati could get greater benefit if they develop their own domestic tuna fishery. This study uses Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) and SWOT Analysis to investigate whether domestication of the tuna fishery is the right move for Kiribati or not. The CBA reported in this thesis adapted a model developed by Campbell (2004) to investigate and evaluate fisheries policy in Papua New Guinea (PNG). However the model in this thesis is reflective of the situation and case of Kiribati. In analyzing the different options identified in this study, the CBA indicated negative (-) NPV(s) for the medium-sized vessel option and positive (+) NPV(s) for the large-sized vessel option. The SWOT analysis however, complemented the CBA by further investigating the tuna domestication options in the economic, social and business and business environment of Kiribati. The SWOT analysis indicated that the existing situation and business conditions in Kiribati appears to favor the small to medium sized vessel options which are less risky than the large purse seine vessel option.