UNC Asheville's National Environmental Modeling and Analysis Center (NEMAC)

07/12/2019

Sesquicentennial Colorado River Exploring Expedition

"In May of 1896, the ten men of the Colorado River Exploring Expedition stood at the banks of the Green River in Wyoming prepared to enter into a region of the United States known only as 'unexplored territory.'" Just over 150 years ago, John Wesley Powell made this historic expedition. This anniversary offers an opportunity to once again begin a systematic and deliberate expedition into the unexplored territory of Western economics, politics, and ideologies as they related to the water resources of the Colorado River Basin. Check out how this group recently tried to recreate this expedition, LINK IN BIO! #featurefriday

SCREE The Sesquicentennial Colorado River Exploring Expedition Learn More

07/10/2019

Price doesn’t mean value - UNC Asheville’s NEMAC blog - Medium

What is the difference between price and value? And, why does it matter? Find the answers in our latest medium post:

Conflating the two terms can be misleading-and result in the undervaluation of both tangible and intangible assets

07/10/2019

When in San Diego at the #esriuc you run the 5k! #NotGIS #GIS @ San Diego Convention Center

07/09/2019

A Town with a Plan: Community, Climate, and Conversations | U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit

Homer was the first Alaskan community to draft a mitigation-focused action plan, which established the town as a climate-conscious community and laid the groundwork for future #adaptation efforts. As Homer's historic #climate patterns change, the community will face a number of economic and cutlrual challenges. Changes may bring unforseen opportunities as well. This #toolkittuesday describes steps the city has taken how they made decisions.

South of Anchorage, Alaska, at the end of Seward Highway 1, the coastal city of Homer looks out across the blue-green waters of Kachemak Bay to the glacier-dotted Kenai Mountains. Among the city’s 13,000 residents, many arrived as travelers, fell victim to the enchanting view, and stayed. Locals o...

07/08/2019

A couple of NEMACians are out at the #esriuc conference representing our public-private partnership with FernLeaf Interactive. Stay tuned in our stories and feed for more! #nemacatlarge #GIS #AccelerateAdaptation @ San Diego, California

07/05/2019

Green in brief: Asheville releases guide to climate resilience, RiverLink plans sale of French Broad land for restaurant

Did you see this recent article in the Mountain Xpress that mentioned the Climate Resilience Plan we partnered with the Asheville City Government on?

"Matt Hutchins, a researcher for UNC Asheville’s National Environmental Modeling and Analysis Center — which partnered with the city in developing both the guide and a broader-scale Climate Resilience Assessment — said that changes in weather patterns associated with climate disruption will lead to an increased frequency of extreme events. Flooding, landslides, wildfires and extreme heat, he said, are among the greatest climate risks the city will face in the coming years."

Check out the article for more details! #resilience #climatechange #avlnews

“Building a Climate-Resilient Asheville,” debuted during a June 19 meeting of the city’s Sustainability Advisory Committee on Energy and the Environment at The Collider, focuses on practical steps individuals can take to reduce their vulnerability to extreme weather.

07/05/2019

E.O. Wilson at 90: The conservation legend shares dreams for the future

"When you leave intact as many species as possible, in a major habitat, whether it's a pond or a bay or a forest somewhere," he said, "the better it functions. And the better it functions, the better it serves." - E.O. Wilson.

The NEMAC+FernLeaf Interactive crew is headed to the Esri User Conference next week where E.O. Wilson is a keynote speaker. If you are student of Ecology, you know his ecological theories well. We are excited for the conference, but to also to hear from this inspirational figure of #conservation. Check out the full #featurefriday article below!

Wilson’s message is as strong as ever: Saving space for non-human life will save humanity.

07/02/2019

Where Do We Need Shade? Mapping Urban Heat Islands in Richmond, Virginia | U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit

Highly developed areas experience warmer temperatures than surrounding areas. Heat intensity can also vary from neighborhood to neighborhood within a city. For example, dark surfaces such as asphalt absorb more heat than lighter surfaces, and built materials such as bricks and concrete absorb more heat than grass and vegetation. Excessive heat is recognized as the greatest weather-related cause of death in the U.S. Head over to this #toolkittuesday case study to see how groups collaborated to map Richmond's heat island effect!

Richmond—the capital of Virginia—is situated on the James River amidst the low, rolling hills of the Virginia Piedmont. One of the nation’s oldest cities, Richmond boasts a population of almost 225,000. Walking through this dynamic city yields a wide range of culture, landscape...and temperatu...

06/28/2019

Are you looking for an awesome internship or know someone that is? Are you currently a student at UNCA that is interested in marketing and design? This might be for you (or a friend)!!

06/28/2019

This week's #featurefriday is the #showyourstripes visualizations! Head over to this interactive map to view temperature and precipitation departure visualizations by county.

Inspired by Ed Hawkins' #ShowYourStripes initiative, Jared Rennie created an Esri ArcGIS Online tool to generate warming (and precipitation!) stripes for every county in the contiguous US. The tool uses nClimGrid data from NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information - Climate. Read more at https://ncics.org/cics-news/climate-stripes-for-us-temperature-and-precipitation-by-county/

06/25/2019

Building Smart in the Floodplain | U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit

"One of the biggest challenges of this site is that we were planning to develop and build in a floodplain," said Angie Milewski, the landscape architect working with Woodward on the project. By understanding their new location's vulnerability, Woodward devised a management strategy that allowed the river to move more freely during natural flooding events without damaging important infrastructure on the site. In this week's #toolkittuesday, instead of fighting water, they figured out a way to live with it.

Abandoned, unkempt properties can become a problem for cities. For Fort Collins, Colorado, the derelict former golf course near the Cache la Poudre River was more than just an eyesore. When it was originally built in the 1970s, the course was artificially raised in order to keep it from being submer...

06/20/2019

This album is a catchall of a variety of events that NEMACians participate in.

06/19/2019

In defense of the desk job

Did you know we have a student internship program here at NEMAC? Our interns get to work on real-life problem solving, develop critical thinking and workplace communication skills, and gain experience in a job where they get the satisfaction of knowing they contributed to a real project.

This week's Medium post from our GIS Intern, Lindsey, is the kind of thing that makes us proud of our interns. It is awesome to see them grow and learn throughout their time with us!

I still don’t know what I’ll be doing when I grow up, but I’ll probably be sitting at a desk while I’m doing it. That’s awesome.

06/18/2019

Using a Sea Level Rise Model to Identify and Prioritize Wetlands for Conservation Acquisition | U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit

#DYK: coastal wetland habitats are vital national resources, sustaining fish, wildlife, and plant populations that in turn support fishing economies, improve water quality, provide floodwater storage, and buffer communities from storm impacts. Check out this week's #toolkittuesday case study to read about how the Maryland Department of Natural Resources identified and prioritized potential future #wetlands in the state.

Coastal wetland habitats are vital national resources, sustaining fish, wildlife, and plant populations that in turn support fishing economies, improve water quality, provide floodwater storage, and buffer communities from storm impacts. With a projected relative sea level rise of twice the global a...

06/14/2019

To Map a Coral Reef, Peel Back the Seawater

This #featurefriday article from The New York Times really got us excited... If you've been following us for a little while, you probably have picked up on the importance of coral reefs to both human and wildlife communities. A group from Arizona State University has developed technologies to overcome obstacles to map coral reefs to a depth of 50 feet IN 3D! We could go on and on about how exciting this is for implementing #conservation and #restoration projects that would protect the reefs and improve the #resilience of coastal communities.

This scientist couple created an airborne observatory to map tropical forests. Now they’re using it to identify threatened reefs.

06/11/2019

Health Care Facilities Maintain Indoor Air Quality Through Smoke and Wildfires | U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit

Last year's wildfire season was devastating and experts project that wildfires will become more frequent as climate change continues. To deal with smoke risks, hospitals in fire-prone areas can isolate emergency department ventilation systems and enable recirculated air during emergency conditions. This is an important #toolkittuesday case study that helps us see the impacts of #climatechange from a perspective that is possibly often overlooked.

Climate change is exacerbating the major factors that lead to wildfire: heat, drought, and dead trees. The West is particularly vulnerable to such fires. Between 1970 and 2003, warmer and drier conditions increased burned area in western U.S. mid-elevation conifer forests by 650 percent.1 As noted i...

06/07/2019

Chronicles of the Rings: What Trees Tell Us

#DYK: Trees hold valuable information about oxygen, temperature, precipitation, and more? Tree rings offer a far more complete picture of climate variations.

The Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research at the University of Arizona houses the world's largest collection of tree ring samples. Head over to the article to read all about what researchers there are up to...

#featurefriday #ecology #trees #science

Studying the historical data stored in centuries-old trees is a burgeoning field, with labs around the world learning more about historical patterns of weather and climate and the effects on humans.

06/06/2019

UNC Asheville’s NEMAC Partner in Creating New Coastal Resilience Evaluation and Siting Tool | UNC System Office

#tbt to last month when the release of CREST was announced! Check out the press release and then head over to the tool!! http://bit.ly/CRESTunc

Prospective Students  |  Current Students  |  UNC Online  |  Military  |  Jobs  |  Give | Accessibility  |  Search

06/05/2019

This week marks the start of the official hurricane season so we thought we would help you out with this handy CATegory graphic.

But, seriously, everyone stay safe, remember to check your emergency supplies, and never drive through a flooded road no matter how shallow it looks!

06/04/2019

Luck Is Not a Policy We Can Count On: Boston Takes a Proactive Approach to Climate Adaptation | U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit

Climate Ready Boston was launched after the realization that Boston could have suffered similar losses when Hurricane Sandy battered New York City in 2012. Understanding how projected changes will affect people, buildings, and infrastructure is a main focus of the effort. This is great #resilience planning case study and worth a few minutes to read! #toolkittuesday

When Hurricane Sandy battered New York City and New Jersey in 2012, the devastation was widespread: 73 people died, thousands of homes and businesses were destroyed, and the region experienced $68 billion in damages.

06/04/2019

American Society of Adaptation Professionals

"And so adaptation, once referred to as the 'poor cousin' of climate efforts, starts to look real, and hopeful, and feasible, and even logical. Not science fiction, just science."

This article about #climate #adaptation is a great read! Did you think #adaptation is surrendering? Do you still think that? 👇

"Climate Adaptation Isn’t Surrender.
It’s Survival: But venture capital firms and private investors are starting to notice that climate adaptation is both an opportunity and an imperative. Although only about 5 to 6 percent of total climate-related investment is in adaptation, that number must grow. One investor called climate adaptation “the greatest entrepreneurial challenge of our time.” Other money is coming. In October, a Global Commission on Adaptation was formed, led by Bill Gates, former UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, and World Bank CEO Kristalina Georgieva; the World Bank pledged $200 billion to support it. Like climate change, adaptation is here."

05/31/2019

Lindsey the GIS Specialist

You've probably heard us talk about GIS at some point and maybe you aren't 100% sure what that is. Check out this awesome online kids book we found for a #featurefriday that explains a couple of GIS terms and ideas. We thoroughly enjoyed this product and think it's an incredible resource, not just for kids! What other questions about #GIS do you have?

Lindsey the GIS Specialist

05/30/2019

Tool Shows Best Sites For Resilience Projects | Coastal Review Online

The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) earlier this month released its Regional Coastal Resilience Assessment along with a new Coastal Resilience Evaluation and Siting Tool, or CREST, that identify and rank potential project sites along the Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico and Pacific coastlines in the lower 48 states.

NEMAC is a proud partner of NFWF on this project. Read the full article below from Coastal Review Online and then head to resilientcoasts.org to check out the interactive tool!

A new online tool can help identify sites where natural resiliency projects, including living shorelines and wetlands restoration, can most benefit people, fish and wildlife.

05/29/2019

American Society of Adaptation Professionals

American Society of Adaptation Professionals

Whatever your politics, attempts to discredit, rollback, and change the methodology of the National Climate Assessment is troubling for the reliability of government climate science and information needed to make sound adaptation decisions.

"U.S. Geological Survey Director James Reilly will require that USGS assessments use models projecting climate change impacts only through 2040 instead of through the end of the century as previously performed, a change that scientists warn will give a misleading view of current emissions, whose greatest impact will occur after 2040. Separately, President Donald Trump is said to have pushed for a set of "red team, blue team" climate debates previously espoused by former Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt. (The New York Times )" From Morning Consult - Energy Daily

05/28/2019

Increasing Transportation Resilience in the Gulf Coast | U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit

A collaborative study team consulted multiple assessments to document vulnerabilities of Mobile, AL, transportation #infrastructure. The study pointed to storm surge and sea level rise as the greatest potential threats to infrastructure across Mobile's transportation system. The study landed the Planning Commission at Step 2 of the Steps to Resilience. Check out the full #toolkittuesday case study for details on the report!

As transportation director of the South Alabama Regional Planning Commission, Kevin Harrison’s main concern is keeping the region’s roads, bridges, rails, and ports safe and functional for all the forms of traffic that pass through the region. In 2009, even after the disastrous impacts of Hurric...

05/24/2019

The Elwha’s Living Laboratory: Lessons From the World’s Largest Dam-removal Project • The Revelator

For this week's #featurefriday, if you've never seen a video of the Elwha Dam removal, you're in luck because there is a time lapse video in this article. The two Elwha River dams prevented salmon from migrating, which devastated their populations and the human and ecological communities that depended on them. This is an excellent comeback story that is worth your time! #conservation

Two dams removed from Washington’s Elwha River were branded as salmon-restoration projects, but their watershed and scientific impacts are just as significant.

05/22/2019

Land of Sky Regional Council

Have you heard of the Land of Sky Regional Council? They do a lot of amazing things for our #WNC region and are looking for some input for upcoming projects. Let your voice be heard, please take this quick survey! Unfortunately, you don't get anything special for doing it other than the warm fuzzy feeling of being an engaged citizen. (do you really need anything else??)

Help set our priorities! What should we work on in the Region? Take our CEDS survey. https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/W37L57B