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Geosciences

Report

Developing the Great Lakes National Center of Expertise for Oil Spill Preparedness and Response: An Opportunity to Reduce Risk and Impacts of Future Spills in Freshwater

In 2016, Congress directed the U.S. Coast Guard to establish the Great Lakes National Center of Expertise for Oil Spill Preparedness and Response. This report makes recommendations for the center, its staffing, potential partnerships, and location.

Aug 31, 2021
Journal Article

Arctic Shipping Guidance from the CMIP6 Ensemble on Operational and Infrastructural Timescales

The expectation of a seasonally ice-free Arctic by mid-century has sparked interest in Arctic opportunities and risks. This paper presents a framework for obtaining more timely and salient information to guide decisions relevant to operational and infrastructural horizons.

Jul 30, 2021
Journal Article

Gaps in Toxic Industrial Chemical Model Systems: Improvements and Changes Over Past 10 Years

To assess the hazards of the releases of toxic chemicals to the atmosphere, comprehensive model systems are often used. This paper reviews knowledge gaps that were resolved in the past ten years by new theoretical and experimental research.

Jul 21, 2021
Report

Factors influencing domestic tourism in the UK and abroad and the role of publicly funded domestic tourism marketing: A rapid evidence assessment

This research, commissioned by the UK Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS), was undertaken to identify factors that influence people's decisions to take domestic holidays and the impact of publicly funded domestic tourism marketing.

Jul 15, 2021
Tool

Developing Future Projected Intensity-Duration-Frequency (IDF) Curves: A Technical Report on Data, Methods, and IDF Curves for the Chesapeake Bay Watershed and Virginia

To support entities in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed and Virginia in adapting to climate change, this study updated intensity-duration-frequency (IDF) curves, a common tool used for stormwater infrastructure design, to reflect future climate changes.

Jul 9, 2021
Commentary

Arming the Department of Defense's Environmental Liabilities Program

A new U.S. emphasis on sustainable environmental conditions is emerging just as budget pressures are increasing. The DoD could use this as an opportunity to develop a systematic approach to addressing its environmental liabilities.

Jun 23, 2021
Tool

Mid-Atlantic Regional Climate Impacts Summary and Outlook: Spring 2021

This climate summary aims to inform Mid-Atlantic policymakers and practitioners about spring 2021, regional climate trends, and the upcoming summer season. A tool shows flooding in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania under historic and future climate.

Jun 21, 2021
Blog

Reopening the U.S. Economy, Geoengineering, 5G: RAND Weekly Recap

This weekly recap focuses on the potential effects of reopening the economy before the White House's vaccination goal is met, students' learning experiences during the pandemic, competition in the 5G era, and more.

May 28, 2021
Journal Article

The Impact of Black Carbon Emissions from Projected Arctic Shipping on Regional Ice Transport

Diverting shipping emissions from the Suez Canal to the Arctic will influence regional evolution of sea ice cover with regional differences in future sea ice retreat. These results are likely to have policy implications with expansion of industrial activities into the Arctic.

May 26, 2021
Report

What Are the Geopolitical Risks of Geoengineering?

Geoengineering is the intentional manipulation of an environmental process on Earth to counteract the effects of climate change. Geoengineering implementation could introduce geopolitical risks. This raises the question of whether existing international governance mechanisms can manage these risks.

May 25, 2021
Tool

Mid-Atlantic Regional Climate Impacts Summary and Outlook: Winter 2020–2021

This climate summary aims to inform Mid-Atlantic policymakers and practitioners about winter 2020–2021 weather, regional climate trends, and the upcoming spring season. A tool shows historic snowfall in the Mid-Atlantic from 1981 to 2019.

Mar 17, 2021
Tool

Water Planning for the Uncertain Future

Recent climatic shifts likely will continue to affect water resources management in significant but uncertain ways. This tool provides information about decisionmaking under deep uncertainty methods—specifically, Robust Decision Making—through five case studies.

Mar 8, 2021
Commentary

California Needs a More Flexible Approach to Sea Level Rise Planning

Rising seas create significant risk to the health, safety, and economic vitality of California's coast communities, and we must prepare. A contingency-planning approach would provide flexible action over time and would build capacity that California and the nation need to respond to the many other serious and growing climate-related risks.

Feb 18, 2021
Journal Article

Development of a Quality-Controlled Chlorine Gas Concentration Data Base for the Jack Rabbit II Field Experiments

This paper describes the network of chlorine point sensors used during JR II, corrections to the measurements taken by MiniRAE sensors, and analyses using the concentrations measured along the concentric arcs 0.2–11 km away from the source.

Jan 26, 2021
Journal Article

Achievements and Needs for the Climate Change Scenario Framework

Over the past ten years, the climate change research community has developed a scenario framework combining alternative futures of climate and society to facilitate integrated research and consistent assessment to inform policy. Here we assess how well this framework is working and what challenges it faces.

Jan 6, 2021
Tool

Mid-Atlantic Regional Climate Impacts Summary and Outlook: Fall 2020

This climate summary aims to inform Mid-Atlantic policymakers and practitioners about fall 2020 weather, regional climate trends, and the upcoming winter season. A tool shows historic tropical cyclone tracks in the Mid-Atlantic from 1980 to 2020.

Dec 16, 2020
Journal Article

Health Effects of Heat Vulnerability in Rio De Janeiro: A Validation Model for Policy Applications

Here we investigate how to construct and validate a heat vulnerability index given uncertainty ranges in data for the city of Rio de Janeiro. We find that we can validate the heat vulnerability index against excess deaths during heat waves.

Nov 10, 2020
Tool

Mid-Atlantic Regional Climate Impacts Summary and Outlook: Summer 2020

This climate summary aims to inform Mid-Atlantic policymakers and practitioners about summer 2020 weather, regional climate trends, and the upcoming fall season. A tool shows historic and projected changes in warm daily minimum temperatures.

Sep 17, 2020
Tool

Mid-Atlantic Regional Climate Impacts Summary and Outlook: Spring 2020

This climate summary aims to inform Mid-Atlantic policymakers and practitioners about spring 2020 weather, regional climate trends, and the upcoming summer season. A tool shows historic and projected changes in the timing of spring temperatures.

Jun 19, 2020
Commentary

What Can the Coronavirus Teach Us About Preparing for a Heat Wave?

The occurrence of a heat wave during the pandemic may be the clearest example of an overlapping disaster in the near term, but we'll likely see more and more overlapping disasters brought about by a changing climate.

Jun 8, 2020

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RAND Topic:
Earth Sciences

Topic Synonyms:
Geochemistry;
Geosciences

Research conducted by

RAND Social and Economic Well-Being