In the United States, the Army requires various training programs. These military activities inevitably disturb ground cover, damage plants, increase soil erosion, degrade habitats, fragment landscapes, and lead to natural resources and land condition degradation. The degraded land condition in turn limits military land carrying capacity. Thus, the land managers need information on land conditions and their history for both sustainable military land carrying capacity and environment and there is a strong need for methodology development to model, assess, and predict the land conditions and cumulative military training impacts.

The objective of this project is to develop a set of new methodologies that are designed to mitigate environmental effects of military training on landscapes and at the same time to sustain military land carrying capacity. These methodologies include a method to select and integrate spatial metrics so that to derive an integrated indicator that can be used to comprehensively assess environmental quality; a method for determining the threshold values for critical environmental factors; a method to reproduce spatial patterns and dynamics of cumulative vehicle use impacts; and a prediction model of land condition based on the relationship of land condition dynamics with military training strength. These methods will be developed by combining GIS, remote sensing, and spatial simulation algorithms. This project is funded by the U.S. Army Construction Engineering Research Laboratory (CERL).

There is currently great interest in modeling the evolution of the climate system for approaching decades.  In this study, the focus is on precipitation, and specifically, on development of novel techniques for extraction of local-scale, probabilistic information from coarse resolution climate models.  The model archive assembled for the 2007 reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change provides access to a unprecedented array of climate model simulations for the 21st Century.  The primary objective of the research is to develop future precipitation scenarios for point locations throughout the contiguous USA.  The scenarios will focus on probability distribution parameters so that end users can use the projections for a range of impact related studies.  This project is funded by the Geography and Regional Sciences Program of the National Science Foundation. 

For additional information contact Dr. Justin Schoof.

Preparation of future water-demand scenarios for geographical service areas that account for withdrawal points and water sources in the 11-county regional planning area of Northeastern Illinois as part of the regional water-supply planning which was initiated by Governor Blagojevich's Executive Order 2006-1 which will lead to the creation of a Regional Water Supply Planning Group (RWSPG), a representative body for policy and plan recommendations.  The water demand scenarios are an extension of County-Level Forecasts of Water Use in Illinois:  2005-2025. 

For additional information contact Dr. Ben Dziegielewski.

Daily Egyptian article:  "Mapping Southern Illinois"

The overall objective, in our GIS mapping component of this very big research project, is to support Connect SI in their 20-county effort, which aims at collaboratively enhancing the economic and community development efforts throughout Southern Illinois using greater Internet access and bandwidth to communicate regionally and globally. We are specifically tasked with building a very large GIS database for Connect SI that contains both baseline and thematic maps; and developing an Internet Map Service based on this GIS database which will serve as an interactive web application showing important baseline or thematic layers in the study region.

Connect SI project isn’t just about broadband internet access. It is about improving the quality of the lives of Southern Illinoisans by changing the way we work, live, and communicate with the world. This project will affect many sectors of life in the region. Healthcare delivery, business and industry, education and training, government, agriculture, – even our own homes – can benefit from greater accessibility and visibility through a successful Connect SI project. Greater efficiency and access to broadband Internet services can mean more profitability for those who wisely use the increased availability of greater bandwidth. For additional information contact Dr. Tonny J. Oyana or Mr. Rex Duncan, Executive Director, SIUC President’s Office.

In the year 2000, the Midwest Technology Assistance Center (MTAC) funded the Benchmark Investigation of Small Public Water System Economics (pdf). One finding of this study was that while small drinking water managers are very interested in improving the financial performance of their systems, they lack access to information about effective business techniques such as benchmarking, can be used to assess and improve the performance of their systems. MTAC subsequently funded the development of this self-instruction training module.

The training module provides an outline of the what, why, and how of financial benchmarking for small systems, and takes less than one hour to complete. It also includes links to other benchmarking resources.

The Self-Instruction Training Module is available in both Microsoft PowerPoint and Adobe Portable Document Format and can be downloaded or viewed online. The module works best if downloaded to your computer. Simply right click on the hypertext of the format of your choice and download the document to your computer using the “Save Target As …” option.

This research was funded as part of the 2004 USGS National Competitive Grants Program and completed in August of 2006.  The purpose of this study was to examine water use at electric power generation facilities in the United States and determine both the average rates of water withdrawals and consumptive use and to identify the most water-efficient plants and cooling systems. The analysis employed the data from the U.S. Department of Energy, Energy Information Administration’s Form EIA-767 (1985-2003) and a national survey of generating facilities managers.

Over the past decade, organic products have become the fastest growing sector of agriculture, with an annual increase of at least 20 percent. This book explains why organic production and consumption have seen such phenomenal growth in recent years­and, even more important, why they should. A clear-eyed, close-up look at the compelling reasons for organic farming and the methods that make it work, Good Growing begins with a frank account of the problems with conventional industrial agriculture­the pesticide use, pollution, and corporate control that have undermined public health and devastated rural towns and family farms

In-depth interviews with working organic farmers from across the country bring to life the facts and figures that Leslie Duram sets out in her extensive overview of the realities of organic farming today. Farmers with very different operations in California, Colorado, Illinois, Florida, and upstate New York give us an intimate understanding of the ecological, social, economic, and personal factors that shape their farming experiences. With its comprehensive view of the status of farming and its compelling portraits of organic farmers, Good Growing is, finally, a work of scientific advocacy describing a course of action, based on the best research available, to improve the health of agriculture in our day.

Tonny J. Oyana and Jamson S. Lwebuga-Mukasa, Spatial Relationships Among Asthma Prevalence, Health Care Utilization, and Pollution Sources in Neighborhoods of Buffalo, New York, The Journal of Environmental Health 66(8) April 2004.

This research project was sponsored by the Illinois State Water Survey and prepared by: Ben Dziegielewski, Professor; Xiaoying Yang, Graduate Research Assistant; Tom Bik, Researcher; Heru Margono, Graduate Research Assistant; and Matthew Richey, Undergraduate Research Assistant; January, 2005.

The purpose of this study was to develop water use forecasts for the 102 counties in Illinois. The analysis in the study was based upon county-level water withdrawal estimates prepared by the USGS for 1985, 1990, 1995, and 2000. Projections were prepared for seven, non-overlapping, water use sectors: thermoelectric, public water supply, self-supplied commercial and industrial, self-supplied domestic, irrigation, mining, and livestock. The study demonstrates several different forecasting approaches, as well as the application of a wide variety state and federal data in the development of water use forecasts. (revised 30 March 2005)

Download "Project Completion Report" (pdf)

This Project Completion Report contains a complete documentation of the research activities and outcomes for the Illinois pricing study. Chapter II describes the sampling procedures as well as survey design and its implementation. The response rate and some general characteristics of survey responses are also included. Chapter III presents the results of the Phase 1 Survey of nearly 500 community water systems in Illinois. It also presents data and analyses of the water rates that were obtained for 426 systems. Chapter IV presents the results of Phase 2 Survey of 180 water systems, which previously replied to Phase 1 Survey and provided contact information for in-depth evaluation of their current water rate structure. This chapter is focused on the ratemaking process. Conclusions and recommendations are presented in Chapter V. The main body of the report is followed by References Cited and several appendices.

Download article (pdf)

A research project sponsored by the Midwest Technology Assistance Center and prepared by: Ben Dziegielewski, Professor; Tom Bik, Researcher; Xiaoying Yang, Graduate Research Assistant; Heru Margono, Graduate Research Assistant; Matthew Richey, Undergraduate Research Assistant; and Daniel Sherman, Undergraduate Research Assistant; February, 2004.

The purpose of this research project was to develop water use forecasts for the counties in the six states served by USEPA Region 5. These projections are intended to support the infrastructure planning efforts of small community drinking water systems. The methodology presented in the report is intended to serve as a model for the development of locally generated water use projections.

Analysis of Water Use Trends in the United States: 1950 – 1995 Website

Improved information about water withdrawals and uses in specific geographical regions and a basic understanding of the factors that influence water use are a necessary requirement for sound water resources management. The USGS National Water-Use Information Program (NWUIP) has collected and published an extensive inventory of water use information since 1950. This information has provided a basis for the development and evaluation of national water policies as well as regional and local plans for the development and use of water resources. It also offers an excellent opportunity for examining and explaining historical trends in water use.