July 23, 2014 Presented by Mark Rudnicki, UConn Associate Professor, Forest Ecology, Department of Natural Resources and the Environment Connecticut is a state with magnificent and plentiful forest cover, but we have a continuing problem with trees causing power outages. The STORMWISE initiative, developed at the University of Connecticut, seeks to integrate outreach, education, research […]
It is sunny!
And there are 24 solar panels on my house soaking it all up! Yesterday the panels collected 37 kWh and the day before was 37.9 kWh. To give you some perspective, the average household in Connecticut uses 731 kWh a month or about 24.4 kWh a day. Of course this varies by season and so does […]
Climate Change—Public vs. Private Goods
– Article by Linda Powers Tomasso, Project Associate, Center for Health and the Global Environment, Harvard University School of Public Health Climate change is in the news almost daily, and while many of us didn’t grow up with the phrase, our attentiveness to the causes of a warming planet gives us no cause for comfort. Our own […]
Green Infrastructure on the UConn Campus
May 13, 2014 Presented by Michael Dietz & Chet Arnold, UConn CLEAR The main campus of the University of Connecticut is rapidly becoming a showcase for the innovative stormwater practices known as green infrastructure (GI), or low impact development (LID). Green roofs, rain gardens, pervious parking lots and walkways, bioretention cells, and other GI features […]
The Power of Water
I have been known to occasionally get a bit sappy about water…and with good reason. I feel that I owe my passion for the environment, and for water specifically, to experiences and people that were part of my life as a young boy. My father, uncles and grandfather all took the time to take me […]
Hurricane Season is Almost Here
The official start of hurricane season is just a few weeks away. In March, The Weather Channel predicted a below-average hurricane season for the Atlantic, including 11 named storms, including five hurricanes, two of which are predicted to be Category 3 or stronger. It is important to note, however that there is no correlation between […]
Sewage Overflows Help Make Case for Greener Infrastructure
The historic rainfall that hit the east coast this week had some pretty nasty impacts. From flooding in Florida to a stunning street collapse in Baltimore, the images were remarkable. Here in CT we experienced a month’s worth of rain in 24 hours leading to sewage overflows into Connecticut’s rivers and Long Island Sound. In addition […]
Great Gull Island Airlift
If you are anywhere near the Groton shoreline on Friday April 25, 2014, you may see an unusual site. The Connecticut Army National Guard will airlift 28,000 pounds of lumber and equipment out to Great Gull Island (GGI) in Long Island Sound. Great Gull Island, owned by the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH), provides […]
A Congressman Supports Infiltration: of Stormwater, that is…
On Tuesday April 14th, Representative Joe Courtney of Connecticut’s Second District stopped by UConn for a brief tour of low impact development (LID), or green infrastructure (GI), stormwater practices on campus. The Congressman and his aide Cutter Oliver were doing some fact finding related to a bill introduced to the House last year, the […]
CLEARscapes – Spring 2014 Edition
In This Issue Rain Garden National App Climate Change and CIRCA LID on UConn Storrs Campus CT ECO Lidar Maps Tree Warden School Geospatial Training (View Newsletter as pdf)
Shoreline Change in CT – 100 Years of Erosion & Accretion
April 1, 2014 Presented by Joel Stocker, UConn CLEAR & Sea Grant and Kevin O’Brien, CT DEEP Recent storms have focused interest on the dynamics of the shoreline. Receiving attention is the question, “What has it done in the past?” In 2010 the USGS released a report on historical shoreline change along the New England and Mid-Atlantic […]
TAX ON THE RICH TO PAY FOR CLEAN ENERGY RESEARCH
April 1, 2014 WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a stunning display of bipartisanship, an overwhelming majority of House Republicans voted with their Democratic counterparts to pass a bill taxing the wealthiest Americans to fund clean energy research. Speaker of the House John Boehner explained this seismic shift in policy saying, “So we take a little money […]
Connecticut Tree Wardens’ Association
– Article by Bob Ricard Approximately 85 tree wardens, deputy tree wardens, urban forestry volunteers, and others gathered in Glastonbury, March 20th, for the Tree Wardens’ Association of Connecticut, Inc., 22nd Annual Dinner Meeting. The primary purpose of the meeting was to conduct the business of the state-wide organization, founded in 1992 by UConn Extension […]
Time-Lapse Nature Photography
The UConn Stormwise program recently tweeted a link to a very cool time lapse video of a forest created by filmmaker Samuel Orr. Samuel took 40,000 still images from his front window over a 15-month time period and created a short film that shows how a forest changes throughout the seasons. The video is called […]
This winter will end…right?
“Hope and the future for me are not in lawns and cultivated fields, not in towns and cities, but in the impervious and quaking swamps. When, formerly, I have analyzed my partiality for some farm which I had contemplated purchasing, I have frequently found that I was attracted solely by a few square rods of […]
Data for All: Connecticut’s Push Toward Open Information
Connecticut is getting on board with the open data movement that’s sweeping federal, state and municipal governments across the nation. Thanks to Governor Dannel Malloy’s recent announcement of Executive Order 39, the state of Connecticut will soon be launching the new Connecticut Open Data Portal which will serve as an online repository for data collected […]
Touring UConn’s Green Infrastructure – from your Desk!
Anyone who has been to the UConn campus in the last few years has likely noticed a lot of changes. Beautiful new and renovated buildings are remaking the campus. Along with those changes are a lot of more subtle changes that you might not notice – namely the integration of green infrastructure. As discussed in […]
A Climate Adaptation Academy for Connecticut
Modeled after CLEAR’s highly successful Land Use Academy, we are embarking on a new forum for land use officials and other interested professionals, a Climate Adaptation Academy (CAA). The CAA, sponsored by Connecticut Sea Grant and CLEAR, with funding from NOAA/National Sea Grant is envisioned to be an exchange of information, issues, experiences and solutions. […]
Climate Change: Beyond Dispute or an Attempt to Redistribute Wealth?
On Friday Governor Dannel Malloy and UConn President Susan Herbst, along with a host of federal and state officials, announced the creation of the Institute for Community Resiliency and Climate Adaptation. Located at UConn’s Avery Point Campus, the Institute is a collaboration between UConn and CTDEEP and its mission, in broad terms, is to coordinate […]
CT ECO: Shedding Some Light on Connecticut’s Lidar
Light Detection and Ranging – sounds fancy and highly technical, right? That’s because it is! In a nutshell, Lidar data shows the elevation of the earth’s surface. But the cool parts are what Lidar looks like, shows, and how people are using it. Why am I blogging about Lidar now? Two reasons – the […]