ODU RESEARCHers Help Develop Software that Will 援助 in Wetland Creation
2019年3月21日
贝琪·纳特著
The Wetland Hydrogeology group at 最靠谱的网赌软件, 由里奇·怀特卡领导, joined with researchers at Virginia Tech and the University of Kentucky to develop a revolutionary 太l for creating freshwater wetlands.
Wetbud, 免费软件程序, calculates everything from water flows; side-slopes; how much water evaporates, seeps and flows from a site; and typical weather patterns for dry, 正常和潮湿 years in any given location. It can even pull data about soil and topographic information.
Wetlands have been protected under the Clean Water Act since 1977 and are found throughout the United States. Once thought of as useless swamps, scientists now know they hold significant value.
"Wetlands are the 'kidneys of the landscape,'惠特卡说. "They provide habitat for critters and store flood waters during storms. 当它们被摧毁时, the landscape loses the ability to take care of those things and we're all the worse off."
According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the U.S. 每年损失大约60个,000英亩湿地, which can lead to increased flooding, extinction of species and decline in water quality.
Permission to destroy wetlands must come from the Army Corps of Engineers, which requires replacements to be built nearby.
"Often you have to build two acres for every one that you destroy惠特卡说. "So, many people end up with the need to build a new wetland that mitigates the effect of the old one they've destroyed for building purposes."
这就是Wetbud的用武之地. After determining a location for the proposed wetland, the program helps determine if the ground will stay wet enough throughout the year by pulling weather data sets compiled from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric 政府 (NOAA). Before Wetbud, it could take months to tabulate information that can now be compiled within seconds.
"Wetbud calculates all of the factors to determine whether the 'water budget' maintains a soggy wetland during three types of years: dry, 正常和潮湿惠特卡说.
“它就像一个支票簿. Water is going to run in and run out and you have to determine if the balance month to month is going to keep the ground soggy enough. Wetbud does all the calculations to determine that."
The 太l is so effective that the Army Corps of Engineers has approved it for use by its staff.
"We've been working on this project for eight years after a generous $1.5 million grant from Mike Rolband of Wetland Studies and Solutions, Inc.惠特卡说. "We are very grateful to him for his vision to create this. The 太l is free for all to use. Mike wants to have a level playing field for everyone to do good, state-of-the-art calculations."
至于wewebud的未来, Whittecar said he'd like to see the 太l used up and down the East Coast and beyond.
"It works for the state of Virginia very well because we have weather sets that are all ready to go, 分为几个部分. I'd like to see it used all across the eastern half of the country. It's designed for a humid area," he said. "If folks wanted to go ahead and make these preloaded weather sets for other areas of the country, 那太好了, 太."
