It is ever more important for us to understand our environment,
how human activities may affect it, and how we can reduce the damage.
Environmental problems are often complex, having many interacting
parts - human activities that release pollutants, transport via
air, water or land; chemical transformation; physical and biological
effects on ecosystems and human health; and the economy that drives
the activities and pays for clean up.
To gain a clear understanding and effective policies for improving
the environment, we need careful quantitative analysis. Usually,
multidisciplinary teams are involved in building models, and many
stakeholders and the general public care about the results. Models
need to be transparent to help modelers, decision makers, and stakeholders
understand the assumptions and results. A grounding in science is
essential. But, uncertainties are inevitable, and should be included
in our models.
Because of these needs — to create quantitative models
of complex systems, that are transparent, and represent uncertainty
— many experienced environmental modelers have chosen to use
Analytica. Below are a few of the interesting and important models
they have created to help illuminate important issues.
Saving
energy and cost in datacenters The cost of energy for power and cooling at many datacenters and
server farms now exceeds the cost of the servers themselves. There
are many new products and services designed to reduce datacenter energy
use. But, it's challenging for managers to figure out what combination
will reduce total cost of ownership, while providing sufficient capacity
and reliability. Lumina has created a prototype tool to help them,
the Analytica Datacenter Energy Planning Tool or ADEPT. More..
Estimating
methane from Canadian livestock It turns out that methane from cows, pigs, and sheep contributes
more to greenhouse effects than cars, trains, and planes. Canada fulfills
its Kyoto Protocol duty to estimate greenhouse gas emissions from
livestock using an Analytica model to assess the uncertainties. More..
Importance
Analysis helps green building design Stanford University's Center for Integrated Facility Engineering
(CIFE) is a leading research center for virtual design for architecture,
engineering, and construction. Caroline Clevenger, a Research Assistant
and LEED-accredited architect and John Haymaker, Assistant Professor
at CIFE, are investigating how multidisciplinary design and analysis
processes can lead to improved building performance and reduced environmental
footprint. More..
Consequences
of River Rehabilitation Projects In Switzerland, only about 10% of all rivers
remain in a natural or near-natural state,
creating a a high need for ecosystem rehabilitation. In 2000, the
interdisciplinary "Rhone-Thur River Rehabilitation Project"
was initiated to help understand the ecological and socio-economic
effects of river rehabilitation. One subproject of this program was
the development of an Integrative River Rehabilitation Model (IRRM)
to predict the hydraulic, morphological, ecological and economic consequences
of river rehabilitation projects, including river widening. More..
Improving
water quality in the Neuse Estuary Excess nutrients, such as nitrogen, in the Neuse Estuary in North
Carolina have caused algal blooms, shellfish die-off, and large fish
kills. Researchers at Duke University created a model to help policy
makers set the Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) of nitrogen. The model
predicts effects of TMDL not just on scientific measures, like dissolved
oxygen, but also the outcomes that the public cares about -- fewer
shellfish, toxic micro-organisms, and fish kills. More..
Is farmed salmon safe to eat?
Recent studies suggest that farmed salmon contains more toxic chemicals
than wild-caught salmon. A recent article in Science by researches
at the National Public Health Institute of Finland (KTL)
finds that, even if this is true, the well-established health benefits
of eating farmed salmon instead of beef or other animal meats substantially
outweigh the possible risks of farmed salmon. More..
US electricity markets and emissions trading Electricity generation emits the largest share of air pollutants
in the US, resulting in acid precipitation, poor visibility, acid
rain, human health, as well as greenhouse gases. Resources for
the Future developed Haiku as a model the US electrical
power market to evaluate the economic and environmental effects of
environmental regulations including the current SOx and NOx emissions
permit trading and proposed carbon dioxide emissions trading and a
carbon tax. More..
Integrated
assessment of the Clean Air Act 1990 The groundbreaking Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 was the first
environment legislation in the US to use market incentives - tradeable
permits to emit sulfur dioxide. How effective was this legislation
at improve air quality and reduce acid rain? A team of over 30 scientists
at 11 organizations developed TAF as an integrated environmental assessment
to help answer this question for the National Acid Precipitation Assessment
Program (NAPAP). More..
The human effects of global climate
change
ICAM (the Integrated Climate Assessment Model) is a long-term systems
dynamics model of the interactions between greenhouse gases, global
climate change, and human activities, including the energy use,
economics, technicology innovation, health, and populations at regional
and global levels. It compares a wide range of policies, including
avoiding, mitigating, and adapting to climate change. ICAM is possibly
the most sophisticated environmental model created with Analytica.
Experiments with ICAM have generated a wide range of valuable insights
and numerous publications. More..
Valuing
cleaner air in the developing world Poor air quality is common in cities of the developing world,
just as it used to be in the developed world. APHEBA has been used
to evaluate the benefits of cleaner air in large cities in China,
India, the Phillipines, and 40 cities in Latin America. APHEBA was
developed by Professor Luis Cifuentes at the Catholic University of
Chile in Santiago with support from the US Environmental Protection
Agency. More..
How can a buyer know what products
are really green? Green purchasing offers a way for organizations to reduce
their environmental footprint — by considering the environmental
impact of products and services in their buying decisions. For this
to be practical, they need a convenient way to assess these environmental
impacts. To meet this need, Sylvatica used Analytica to develop
the Environmentally Preferable Purchasing tool for the Texas
Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ). More..
Environmental
modeling with Analytica
