Link to the website with documentation and download instructions for the PNNL Global Change Assessment Model (GCAM), a community model or long-term, global energy, agriculture, land use, and emissions. BioEnergy production, transformation, and use is an integral part of GCAM modeling and scenarios.
For analyzing sustainability of algal biofuels, we identify 16 environmental indicators that fall into six categories: soil quality, water quality and quantity, air quality, greenhouse gas emissions, biodiversity, and productivity. Indicators are selected to be practical, widely applicable, predictable in response, anticipatory of future changes, independent of scale, and responsive to management.
National interests in greater energy independence, concurrent with favorable market forces, have driven increased production of corn-based ethanol in the United States and research into the next generation of biofuels. The trend is changing the national agricultural landscape and has raised concerns about potential impacts on the nation?s water resources. This report examines some of the key issues and identifies opportunities for shaping policies that help to protect water resources.
We present a system dynamics global LUC model intended to examine LUC attributed to biofuel production. The model has major global land system stocks and flows and can be exercised under different food and biofuel demand assumptions. This model provides insights into the drivers and dynamic interactions of LUC, population, dietary choices, and biofuel policy rather than a precise number generator.
The IPCC SRREN report addresses information needs of policymakers, the private sector and civil society on the potential of renewable energy sources for the mitigation of climate change, providing a comprehensive assessment of renewable energy technologies and related policy and financial instruments. The IPCC report was a multinational collaboration and synthesis of peer reviewed information: Reviewed, analyzed, coordinated, and integrated current high quality information.
Gridded Population of the World, Version 3 (GPWv3) consists of estimates of human population for the years 1990, 1995, and 2000 by 2.5 arc-minute grid cells and associated datasets dated circa 2000. The data products include population count grids (raw counts), population density grids (per square km), land area grids (actual area net of ice and water), mean administrative unit area grids, centroids, a national identifier grid, national boundaries, and coastlines.
The Global Rural-Urban Mapping Project (GRUMP), Alpha Version consists of estimates of human population for the years 1990, 1995, and 2000 by 30 arc-second (1km) grid cells and associated datasets dated circa 2000. The data products include population count grids (raw counts), population density grids (per square km), land area grids (actual area net of ice and water), mean geographic unit area grids, urban extents grids, centroids, a national identifier grid, national boundaries, coastlines, and settlement points.
The Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) of 2007 established specific targets for the production of biofuel in the United States. Until advanced technologies become commercially viable, meeting these targets will increase demand for traditional agricultural commodities used to produce ethanol, resulting in land-use, production, and price changes throughout the farm sector. This report summarizes the estimated effects of meeting the EISA targets for 2015 on regional agricultural production and the environment. Meeting EISA targets for ethanol production is estimated to expand U.S.
We assessed current water consumption during liquid fuel production, evaluating major steps of fuel lifecycle for five fuel pathways: bioethanol from corn, bioethanol from cellulosic feedstocks, gasoline from U.S. conventional crude obtained from onshore wells, gasoline from Saudi Arabian crude, and gasoline from Canadian oil sands.
The National Hydrography Dataset (NHD) and Watershed Boundary Dataset (WBD) are used to portray surface water on The National Map. The NHD represents the drainage network with features such as rivers, streams, canals, lakes, ponds, coastline, dams, and streamgages. The WBD represents drainage basins as enclosed areas in eight different size categories. The NHD is portrayed on the US Topo map product produced by the USGS and the NHD and WBD can be viewed on the Hydrography Viewer or the general mapping oriented The National Map Viewer.
Prior studies have estimated that a liter of bioethanol requires 263−784 L of water from corn farm to fuel pump, but these estimates have failed to account for the widely varied regional irrigation practices. By using regional time-series agricultural and ethanol production data in the U.S., this paper estimates the state-level field-to-pump water requirement of bioethanol across the nation. The results indicate that bioethanol’s water requirements can range from 5 to 2138 L per liter of ethanol depending on regional irrigation practices.
The water consumption and agrochemical use during biofuel production could adversely impact both availability and quality of a precious resource.
Ethanol production using corn grain has exploded in the Upper Midwest. This new demand for corn, and the new opportunities
for value-added processing and cattle production in rural communities, has created the best economic development
opportunity in the Corn Belt states in a generation or more. Ethanol demand has increased rapidly recently because of favorable
economics of ethanol vs. gasoline, and the need for a performance enhancer to replace MTBE (methyl tertiary-butyl ether)
The most frequently used climate classification map is that ofWladimir Köppen, presented in its latest version
1961 by Rudolf Geiger. A huge number of climate studies and subsequent publications adopted this or a
former release of the Köppen-Geiger map. While the climate classification concept has been widely applied
to a broad range of topics in climate and climate change research as well as in physical geography, hydrology,
agriculture, biology and educational aspects, a well-documented update of the world climate classification
In a previous paper we presented an update of the highly referenced climate classification map, that of Wladimir Koppen, which was published for the first time in 1900 and updated in its latest version by Rudolf Geiger in 1961. This updated world map of Koppen-Geiger climate classification was based on temperature and precipitation observations for the period 1951–2000.