Real-time water quality data

The U.S. Geological Survey now offers real-time maps and data on surface water quality across the U.S. We had a heavy downpour this morning, which is visible on one of the many graphs offered by the service:

 

The USGS explains:

Real-time water quality is in-stream water-quality measurements made available on the web in real-time. Water-quality measurements are recorded in time intervals as small as 5 minutes to hourly and often are referred to as continuous. These time-dense (continuous) stream data are made available on the Web in near real-time (updated 4-hour intervals or less) (available at http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis). Providing these data in real-time informs the user of stream conditions for various uses and public safety.

Real-time water quality is made possible because of improvements in sensor and data recording technology since the first in-stream sensors were developed in the 1950-60s to directly measure or compute concentrations of many water-quality constituents. Sensors that measure water-quality properties or constituent concentrations are available for specific conductance, pH, water temperature, turbidity, and dissolved oxygen, and ion-specific electrodes (for chloride or nitrate). Sensors also are available that measure portions of the electromagnetic spectrum (light) that indicate adsorption or scatter (turbidity, chlorophyll, and fluorescence) or sound (acoustic Dopler technology,). In-stream chemical analyzers and portable field laboratories for nitrate and phosphorus also are available. Many additional new sensors are being developed as the need for these data increase.

[via ResourceShelf]

Planetizen: The Planning & Development Network

Planetizen "is a one-stop source for urban planning news, commentary, interviews, event coverage, book reviews, announcements, jobs, consultant listings, training, and more."

Planetizen is read by a diverse array of people interested in the built and natural environments, and their interaction. Planetizen's audience includes professional urban planners, developers, architects, policy makers, educators, economists, civic enthusiasts and others from across the United States and around the world.

Planetizen prides itself on covering a wide number of planning, design, and development issues, from transportation to global warming, architecture to infrastructure, housing and community development to historic preservation. We provide a forum for people across the political and ideological spectrum, ensuring a healthy debate on these and other important issues.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. writes for the official Google Blog on mountaintop removal

Kentucky is ground zero for this issue. Kennedy's post highlights a Web site that uses Google Maps and Google Earth to bring the issue home:

If the American people could see what I have seen from the air and ground during my many trips to the coalfields of Kentucky and West Virginia: leveled mountains, devastated communities, wrecked economies and ruined lives, there would be a revolution in this country. Thanks to Google Earth, you can now visit coal country without ever having to leave your home.

Every presidential candidate – and every American – ought to take a few seconds to visit an ingenious new website created by nonprofit organizations in Appalachia that lets you tour the obliterated landscapes of Appalachia. By entering your zip code into this amazing new website, you learn how you're personally connected to mountaintop removal. Americans from Maine to California can see these mountains and the communities that were sacrificed to power their home. This puts a human face on the issue by highlighting the stories of families living in the shadows of these mines.

IncidentNews reports on oil spills

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's IncidentNews offers news, photos and other information about oil spills where it's Office of Response and Restoration got involved. You can also search an archive of incidents for the last 30 years and view recent incidents on a map. Search results link to documents about each incident. It's not just oceans: A search on the Ohio River, for example, turned up four incidents (albeit one was only a drill).

The Yale Forum on Climate Change & The Media

I'm still woefully ignorant about the nitty gritty of global warming, although I did exchange my gas-powered mower for a push one this summer (OK, I did it mostly because I was ticked that my old mower kept stalling, but never mind, let's move on). This site could help me catch up:

The Yale Forum on Climate Change & The Media is an online publication and forum to foster dialogue on climate change among scientists, journalists, policymakers, and the public. The Yale Forum is an initiative of the Yale Project on Climate Change, directed by Dr. Anthony Leiserowitz of the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.

Edited by veteran environmental journalist and journalism educator Bud Ward, The Yale Forum seeks to provide print, broadcasting, and online reporters and editors timely and credible information on one of the most important and complicated issues of our time. The Yale Forum will include useful media resources on climate change causes, consequences, and solutions. It will also analyze and discuss the process by which climate change is communicated through traditional and new media.

Let us hear from you. We can be reached at info@yaleclimatemediaforum.org.

EPA Personal Emissions Calculator

"This calculator provides an estimate of household greenhouse gas emissions resulting from household energy use and waste disposal, and it gives you information you can use to identify ways to reduce your personal greenhouse gases." There's also a spreadsheet version for download.

Earthguide

... is an "interactive and easy-to-use educational resource about Earth, oceans and the environment." It also offers a good collection of links to online books and data. From the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

Guide to covering climate change

Thanks to the CJ's Jim Bruggers for telling me about the Society of Environmental Journalists' guide to reporting on climate change. Lots of good material here, including introductory overviews of the issues, primers on the basic science, relevant federal programs, research institutions and environmental groups, a Rolodex of experts to call and a section devoted to "Deniers, Dissenters, and 'Skeptics'".

EPA's Window to My Environment

The Environmental Protection Agency's Window to My Environment maps federal, state and local environmental features, including the "location of regulated facilities, monitoring sites, water bodies, population density, perspective topographic views," "geographic statistics about your area of interest, including estimated population, county/urban area designations, local watersheds/waterbodies," and "links to information from federal, state, and local partners on environmental issues like air and water quality, watershed health, Superfund sites, fish advisories, impaired waters, as well as local services working to protect the environment in your area." Search by ZIP code or town and state.