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10/6/2009
Smallwood Distinguished Scholar Seminar Series
The UF Water Institute is pleased to announce that Dan Kahan, Elizabeth K. Dollard Professor of Law at Yale Law School, will be the next speaker in the Smallwood Distinguished Scholar Seminar Series. Mr. Kahan is a member of the Cultural Cognition Project, a group of scholars interested in studying how cultural values shape public risk perceptions and related policy beliefs regarding environmental and climate change issues, among others. Project members are using the methods of various disciplines -- including social psychology, anthropology, communications, and political science -- to chart the impact of this phenomenon and to identify the mechanisms through which it operates. The Project also has an explicit objective to identify processes of democratic decision-making by which society can resolve culturally grounded differences in belief in a manner that is both congenial to persons of diverse cultural outlooks and consistent with sound public policymaking.
Thursday October 8, 2009
Speaker: Dan M. Kahan, Elizabeth K. Dollard Professor of Law, Yale Law School
Seminar Title: The Cultural Cognition of Risk: Theory, Evidence, and Implications
Time: 3 pm - 5 pm Thursday, October 8, 2009
Location: 209 Emerson Alumni Hall
Seminar Description: The cultural cognition of risk refers to the tendency of persons to conform their beliefs about putatively dangerous activities to their cultural evaluations of those activities. This lecture will examine the basic theory behind cultural cognition, experimental and other empirical evidence of its influence on perceptions of environmental and technological risks, and the implications of it for risk communication and policymaking.
The seminar will be videostreamed for off-campus viewers: http://at.ufl.edu/~video/main/index.php
Mr. Kahan is available to meet with interested faculty and students while he is here. Please contact Wendy Graham (wgraham@ufl.edu) if you are interested in scheduling a meeting with your group or department.
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10/2/2009
Congratulations to Dr. Treavor Boyer, AWWA Award Winner
 Congratulations to Dr. Treavor Boyer, Assistant Professor in EES for being awarded second place for his doctoral dissertation in the American Water Works Association Academic Achievement Award competition. Dr. Boyer received his Ph.D. in environmental engineering at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill under the guidance of Professor Philip Singer. His dissertation was titled “Removal of Natural Organic Matter by Anion Exchange: Multiscale Experimentation and Mathematical Modeling”.
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9/27/2009
Facets of Sustainability lecture series
Friday October 2nd at 3:00 pm in room 110 Rinker Hall
"Sustainable Production Systems: Integrating Energy, Ecology and Economics"
Mark T. Brown, Professor
Department of Environmental Engineering Sciences
University of Florida
Abstract:
Considering the future…one must pause to reflect on where we are heading and what things affect how we will get there and for that matter where “there” is. The title of a John McHale’s 1969 book the Future of the Future actually had as its subtitle…” Where the New Technology Is Taking Us and What We Can Do About It.” Now, some 40 years of the future later, the answers to these un-asked questions have been largely forgotten in our haste to profit from our continuing good fortune. In this lecture we take a systems approach to studying the next 40 years and use the records of our recent past as our experimental database for charting the future. We will explore Leslie White’s Law “Other factors remaining constant, culture evolves as the amount of energy harnessed per capita per year is increased…” We will look at the current fascination with PEAK OIL and most importantly, we will peer into the future to suggest how to prepare for it. We will not predict it so much as we hope to influence it and shape it. In the words of H.T. Odum “The summit of our civilization is just ahead, so we all need to consider how our lives will change and the plans we should make accordingly”
*The same lecture will also be given as part of the SNRE lecture series on Tuesday October 6th at 1:55 pm in 112 Newins-Ziegler Hall.
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9/20/2009
Fall 2009 Graduate Seminar Series
FWEA Capstone Design Teams: Carpe Unda and Pluvia Munda
Graduate Seminar: 386 NEB, 25 September 2009 at 2:50 PM
A Reclaimed Water Design for Combined Rainfall-Runoff and Wastewater Loadings
Carpe Unda: T. Bhamburkar, H. Cho, V.de Jesus, M. Joiner, E. Meneses, V. Pineda, K. Roark
At the University of Florida (UF), reclaimed water is produced from wastewater at the water reclamation facility (WRF) and utilized for irrigation. Reclaimed excess is also utilized by the campus cogeneration plant and hospital. The WRF average daily flow (ADF) is 1.9 MGD with a design flow of 3.0 MGD. During academic breaks and summers, there are significant shortages of wastewater. This wastewater shortage translates to less reclaimed water for irrigation and cogeneration, forcing the cogeneration plant to use expensive potable water. Stormwater from impervious parking surfaces on campus is a potential alternative for reclaimed water augmentation during these seasonal water shortages. The design proposes to convey stormwater using gravity flow; with design of a water quality equalization and storage basin; before conveyance to the WRF for combined flow treatment. A tertiary unit operation, an amphoteric oxide adsorptive-filtration system, is integrated with the WRF process design immediately after an existing sand filter to improve WRF effluent and reuse chemistry. The reuse and advanced treatment of combined flows will address local reclaimed water demands and reduce stormwater loads to receiving waters. The anticipated cost reduction to the cogeneration plant after the implementation of this plan is estimated at $76,000 per year.
Green Infrastructure and LID Design for a Florida Constructed Environs Subject to Rainfall-Runoff Loadings
Pluvia Munda: R. Kertesz, K. Maccarone, S. Raje, K. Seltzer, M. Siminari, P. Simms, B. Wood
Impervious surfaces alter hydrology while impacting chemical balances of water resources. While historical issues of flooding are still a concern, chemistry, loads and aesthetics are companion concerns. More recently, promulgation of Total Maximum Daily Loads has occurred. Additionally, Florida has promulgated no net load increases for runoff and pollutants. With recent trends towards low impact development (LID) and green infrastructure, hydrologic restoration, reuse and source control are part of urban retrofit design. To demonstrate this potential the project demonstrates that hydrologic and pollutant load can be managed with site re-design to provide no net load increases for long-term loadings. Specifically, the proposed design retrofits an existing surface parking facility with a series of design elements. A biofiltration area reactor (BAR) is lined with a clay liner for water table and denitrification management. A linear infiltration reactor (LIR) provides infiltration/evaporation, filtration and adsorption. Pavement sweeping is included for source control. Continuous simulations with climate and site data indicate that re-design can achieve a no net load increase. Cost estimates demonstrate that re-design is comparable to conventional construction costs while incorporating Florida-friendly landscape. Additionally, design options yield a lower cost per nutrient load treated, as compared to conventional Florida BMPs.
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9/18/2009
EPA Fellowships in Health Physics
Dear Students,
The US EPA has two new fellowship announcements for those interested in environmental health physics, among other disciplines of interest to EPA. The deadlines are soon – mid-October. One is for graduate students and one is for undergraduate students. If you are applying to graduate school for Fall 2010, and are interested in the environmental aspects of nuclear power, please come see me to discuss this opportunities.
See PDF announcements:
Fall 2009 EPA STAR Graduate Fellowships
Fall 2009 EPA GRO Undergraduate Fellowships
--Wes
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