ALBERT

Description: We use multiple synthetic mitigation sea-level scenarios, together with a non-mitigation sea-level scenario from the Warming Acidification and Sea-level Projector model. We find sea-level rise continues to accelerate post 2100 for all but the most aggressive mitigation scenarios indicative of 1.5°C and 2.0°C. Using the Dynamic Interactive Vulnerability Assessment modelling framework, we project land and population exposed in the 1 in 100 year coastal flood plain under sea-level rise and population change. In 2000, the flood plain is estimated at 540 x10 3 km 2 . By 2100, under the mitigation scenarios, it ranges between 610 x10 3 km 2 and 640 x10 3 km 2 [580 x10 3 km 2 and 700 x10 3 km 2 for the 5 th and 95 th percentiles]. Thus differences between the mitigation scenarios are small in 2100. However, in 2300, flood plains are projected to increase to between 700 x10 3 km 2 and 960 x10 3 km 2 in 2300 [610 x10 3 km 2 and 1,290 x10 3 km 2 ] for the mitigation scenarios, but 1,630 x10 3 km 2 [1,190 x10 3 km 2 and 2,220 x10 3 km 2 ] for the non-mitigation scenario. The proportion of global population exposed to sea-level rise in 2300 is projected to be between 1.5% and 5.4% [1.2% to 7.6%] (assuming no population growth after 2100) for the aggressive mitigation and the non-mitigation scenario, respectively. Hence over centennial timescales there are significant benefits to climate change mitigation and temperature stabilization. However, sea-levels will continue to rise albeit at lower rates. Thus potential impacts will keep increasing necessitating adaptation to existing coastal infrastructure and the careful planning of new coastal developments.

Description: This paper demonstrates a relatively new method of analysis for stage dependent patterns in meter-scale resolution river DEMs, termed geomorphic covariance structures (GCSs). A GCS is a univariate and/or bivariate spatial relationship amongst or between variables along a pathway in a river corridor. Variables assessed can be flow independent measures of topography (e.g., bed elevation, centerline curvature, and cross section asymmetry) and sediment size as well as flow dependent hydraulics (e.g., top width, depth, velocity, and shear stress; Brown, 2014), topographic change, and biotic variables (e.g., biomass and habitat utilization). The GCS analysis is used to understand if and how the covariance of bed elevation and flow-dependent channel top width are organized in a partially confined, incising gravel-cobbled bed river with multiple spatial scales of anthropogenic and natural landform heterogeneity across a range of discharges through a suite of spatial series analyses on 6.4 km of the lower Yuba River in California, USA. A key conclusion is that the test river exhibited positively covarying and quasi-periodic oscillations of bed elevation and channel width that had a unique response to discharge as supported by several tests. As discharge increased, the amount of positively covarying values of bed elevation and flow-dependent channel top width increased up until the 1.5 and 2.5 year annual recurrence flow and then decreased at the 5 year flow before stabilizing for higher flows. These covarying oscillations are quasi-periodic scaling with the length scales of pools, bars, and valley oscillations. Thus, it is thought that partially confined gravel-cobble bedded alluvial rivers organize their adjustable topography with a preference for covarying and quasi-periodic bed and width undulations at channel forming flows due to both local bar-pool mechanisms and non alluvial topographic controls.

Description: In the prospect of limited energy resources and climate change, effects of alternative biofuels on primary emissions are being extensively studied. Our two recent studies have shown that biodiesel fuel composition has a~significant impact on primary particulate matter emissions. It was also shown that particulate matter caused by biodiesels was substantially different from the emissions due to petroleum diesel. Emissions appeared to have higher oxidative potential with the increase in oxygen content and decrease of carbon chain length and unsaturation levels of fuel molecules. Overall, both studies concluded that chemical composition of biodiesel is more important than its physical properties in controlling exhaust particle emissions. This suggests that the atmospheric ageing processes, including secondary organic aerosol formation, of emissions from different fuels will be different as well. In this study, measurements were conducted on a modern common-rail diesel engine. To get more information on realistic properties of tested biodiesel particulate matter once they are released into the atmosphere, particulate matter was exposed to atmospheric oxidants, ozone and ultra-violet light; and the change in their properties was monitored for different biodiesel blends. Upon the exposure to oxidative agents, the chemical composition of the exhaust changes. It triggers the cascade of photochemical reactions resulting in the partitioning of semi-volatile compounds between the gas and particulate phase. In most of the cases, aging lead to the increase in volatility and oxidative potential, and the increment of change was mainly dependent on the chemical composition of fuels as the leading cause for the amount and the type of semi-volatile compounds present in the exhaust.

Description: In the prospect of limited energy resources and climate change, effects of alternative biofuels on primary emissions are being extensively studied. Our two recent studies have shown that biodiesel fuel composition has a significant impact on primary particulate matter emissions. It was also shown that particulate matter caused by biodiesels was substantially different from the emissions due to petroleum diesel. Emissions appeared to have higher oxidative potential with the increase in oxygen content and decrease of carbon chain length and unsaturation levels of fuel molecules. Overall, both studies concluded that chemical composition of biodiesel is more important than its physical properties in controlling exhaust particle emissions. This suggests that the atmospheric aging processes, including secondary organic aerosol formation, of emissions from different fuels will be different as well. In this study, measurements were conducted on a modern common-rail diesel engine. To get more information on realistic properties of tested biodiesel particulate matter once they are released into the atmosphere, particulate matter was exposed to atmospheric oxidants, ozone and ultra-violet light; and the change in their properties was monitored for different biodiesel blends. Upon the exposure to oxidative agents, the chemical composition of the exhaust changes. It triggers the cascade of photochemical reactions resulting in the partitioning of semi-volatile compounds between the gas and particulate phase. In most of the cases, aging lead to the increase in volatility and oxidative potential, and the increment of change was mainly dependent on the chemical composition of fuels as the leading cause for the amount and the type of semi-volatile compounds present in the exhaust.