Grand Prairie Research Articles

Lone Star Suburbs: Life on the Texas Metropolitan Frontier

Pushing back against the “Texas Myth,” memory, and history that focus on the frontier, cowboys, and rural life, contributors to Lone Star Suburbs present the reality that most of the state's residents lived in suburbs by the turn of the twenty-first century. According to the 2010 Census, 85 percent of Texans lived in cities and 90 percent in metropolitan areas. Because Texas cities had liberal annexation powers, they expanded to include the boom of mid and late twentieth-century suburban growth.The most interesting essays in the collection consider how Texans’ “rural values” are intertwined with suburban culture and politics. Other contributions do the necessary work of documenting the history of suburbanization in Texas and add to recent scholarship on the suburban experience of African Americans and immigrants. Paul J. P. Sandul provides a historiographic overview and discusses how the Texan embrace of “rugged individualism” and use of “the rural image as a way to mark themselves as different and as better than people from other states”—as “real Americans”—leaves them “hesitant to identify the suburban in their state” and instead “minimizing the suburban side of their history” (11, 13).The planning and boosterism that accompanied the expansion of Texas's metropolitan areas are addressed in several chapters. Tom McKinney tells the story of the Texas Highway Department's engineer-managers who oversaw the urban highway planning that facilitated and encouraged suburban growth. Looking at midcentury planning in Arlington, Irving, Garland, and Grand Prairie, Robert B. Fairbanks demonstrates that suburban growth was not accidental. In fact, well-planned “suburban cities” were envisioned and encouraged by local boosters. For example, Philip G. Pope explains how Irving's chamber of commerce leveraged the identity the city gained as home to the Dallas Cowboys’ Texas Stadium, thus transforming it from a bedroom community into an important center within the greater metropolis. Andrew Baker provides a through discussion of how new suburban areas were governed—expansion of county powers, special tax districts, annexation, or incorporation—and their relative merits.Holding rural identities and valuing rural spaces influenced politics and policy at the metropolitan fringe. Baker's case study of the local debate around disincorporation in Chateau Woods includes an official who self-identified as a “country boy,” reluctantly entering politics to address government abuses. Andrew Busch writes about the grassroots origins of environmental protection in Austin, which included limiting the loss of rural spaces to suburban sprawl. He also notes its problematic aspects: when environmentalists managed to overcome their paradoxical opposition to both sprawl and increased density, additional development was directed toward minority and low-income spaces, leading to displacement.The racial and ethnic diversity of Texas's late twentieth-century suburbs is addressed by several essays. Two chapters use oral histories to document the motivations for African Americans’ moves to Texas suburbs: Theodore M. Lawe and Gwendolyn M. Lawe look at Dallas and Herbert G. Ruffin II studies San Antonio. As they note, more work is needed to understand the relationship between the African American suburban middle-class and economically distressed Black working-class urban neighborhoods. Son Mai adds to the growing literature on “ethnoburbs” with his excellent work on Houston's “Little Saigon,” which demonstrates how these suburban ethnic communities differed from older, urban Chinatowns.The most novel essay of the collection is Jake McAdams's history of the cowboy church movement, informed by oral histories gathered from church members. With its roots in come-as-you-are rodeo worship, cowboy church leaders and congregants embraced rurality, its trappings, and its attributed values—even though most of them lived and worked in the suburbs. He suggests that the cowboy church “appropriates tropes and ideals that have been at the heart of suburban rhetoric and growth” (162) and, like the suburbs, is “rural performance with the comforts of more ‘civilized’ areas” (161). McAdams argues that Cowboy Christians “blame city dwellers and other suburbanites for destroying the nation's morality and their beloved rural landscape,” yet they themselves—and almost all Texans—are also living in the suburbs (161).This anthology successfully achieves the goal its editors set for the volume—it is a “conversation starter” that should lead to additional research (ix). The population of Texas's late twentieth century was suburban; this recognition and accompanying paradox, that so many residents continue to embrace a “rural culture” and the “Texas Myth,” ought to inform a wide breadth of future historical scholarship.

Probabilistic assessment of induced seismicity at the Alberta No. 1 geothermal project site

Alberta No. 1 (ABNo1) is a geothermal project targeting deep carbonate, conglomerates, and sandstone formations in a potential production and injection zone for geothermal energy exploitation within the Municipal District of Greenview south of Grande Prairie, Alberta, Canada. In geothermal systems without a steam fraction (typically systems under 170 °C), rapid widespread pore pressure changes and slow temperature changes have led to increased deviatoric stresses, resulting in induced seismicity. A concern for the ABNo1 Geothermal Project is that anthropogenic seismicity from oil, gas, and well field fluid injection has created felt events in Alberta. Thus, at the beginning of this type of project, it is prudent to review the potential for induced seismicity. In this study, a geomechanical study of the Leduc and Granite Wash Formations, two potential geothermal fluid exploitation zones, has been undertaken based on borehole geophysics and regional injection-induced earthquake data. Determining subsurface properties such as state of stress, pore pressure, and fault properties, however, poses uncertainties in the absence of actual data from the target formations. Geomechanical analysis results (with associated uncertainties) are used to assess the potential for injection-induced earthquakes. A Monte Carlo probability analysis is employed to estimate the likelihood of slippage of the known faults close to the ABNo1 Geothermal Project. A cumulative distribution function of the critical pore pressure on each fault is derived from the local tectonic stress state and Mohr–Coulomb shear parameter analyses. The resultant probabilistic fault stability maps can serve as a baseline for future fluid injection projects in the region including wastewater disposal, hydraulic fracture stimulation, CO2 sequestration, as well as geothermal energy extraction.

Bringing Care Closer to Home: The Completion of Alberta's Radiation Therapy Corridor Project

Aim: In 2007 the Alberta government, with support from Health Canada, announced an initiative to improve access and decrease waiting times for health services in Alberta. This led to the initiation of a project termed the “Radiation Therapy Corridor (RTC)” with a goal to implement RT facilities in Lethbridge (JACC), Red Deer (CACC), and Grande Prairie (GPCC). The vision of the RTC is to “provide all Albertans requiring radiation therapy services for cancer and other diseases with integrated, high-quality, and safe care”.

A Backyard Prairie: The Hidden Beauty of Tallgrass and Wildflowers

In 2001, Fred and Nancy Delcomyn purchased a five-acre plot of land in central Illinois. With the help of Jamie Ellis, botanist at University of Illinois Prairie Research Institute, and the Grand Prairie friends, a local conservation group, Fred and Nancy now have a thriving two-and-a-half-acre grassland prairie. The Delcomyns wanted to convert the farmland back to its original state because “today, although Illinois still claims as its nickname the Prairie State, less than 0.01 percent of the original tallgrass prairie that once blanketed the state remains, tiny remnants almost lost amid agricultural fields, towns, and cities” (p. xiii).The book's chapters lead the reader through the history, development, maintenance, and finally to the diversity of life present in a prairie. The first chapter, entitled “Glimpses of the Past, Reality of the Present,” explains how the grass prairies developed through the passing of glaciers, climate influences, and fire both nature and human created. The authors then discuss the transformation of farmland to prairie in Chapter 2, “Farmland to Prairie”; this chapter also covers some of the challenges of trying to source native seeds and persistent weeds, such as ragweed and Canada thistle. Chapter 3, entitled “Fire,” describes how a prescribed burn works and the effect fire has on regenerating native plant life. (If readers want additional information on fire's ecological importance and the consequences of its suppression, and how it has shaped the history and culture of the American grassland, they should certainly consult Julie Courtwright's Prairie Fire: A Great Plains History [2011].) This chapter has excellent photos, which make the reader experience the power and force of fire. Whereas the first three chapters took the reader through the development of the prairie, the last four chapters explore the benefits of having a backyard prairie and the diverse wildlife the prairie supports. Chapter 4, “A Rainbow Landscape,” displays and describes the periodicity of flowers and the variety of prairie grasses present. In Chapter 5, “Insects,” the authors describe through both text and photos the numerous types of butterflies and seasonal variety of insects, such as the praying mantis, spiders, bees, and dragonflies. Larger fauna is covered in Chapter 6, “Feathers and Fur.” Bison, elk, prairie chickens, and grouse have long disappeared from the Illinois prairie, but the authors are still able to espy deer, raccoon, skunk, rabbit, coyote, song sparrow, red wing blackbird, cooper hawks, and red-tail hawks. Seasonal changes are covered in Chapter 7, “Seasons.” The authors point out interesting aspects of each season, not just the variety of colors of summer, spring, and fall, but also the contrast and shades of winter. The last chapter, “Open Sky,” explores the beauty and awe-inspiring, wide-open views of the sky. The photos of sunsets, storms, lightning, fog, and cloud formations are amazing.Fundamentally, the author's stated goal was “to show the beauty found in a small prairie. We meet this purpose through photographs and text” (p. 2). The authors far exceeded this goal. The photos are detailed, descriptive, and capture the diverse ecosystem that is the prairie. This is a quick read but provides an abundance of information and insights into the development and maintenance of a small prairie. An extensive “Further Reading” section is also provided to help the reader with locating prairies to visit or how to start building a prairie of one's own. After reading this book, I am inspired to build my own little backyard prairie or at least go visit some of the flourishing prairie lands situated throughout our prairie state to appreciate all they have to offer in any season of the year.

Ex]traction Earth: The New Frontier

New avenues of interconnectivity born from global crisis foster a return to the land and a decentralization of Earth’s population. Climate-induced northern migration sparks boundary expansion beyond our perceivable atmosphere, as human-made infrastructure grapples with the natural environment. Territories of [ex]traction fuel the lifeblood of the 21st century energy-scape.
 The site for this investigation is Canada’s carbon corridor, spanning from Calgary to Edmonton, Grand Prairie to the remote north. A land scarred by resource exploitation is re-envisioned in a time after oil, in the not so distant future. Territories of extraction are rejuvenated as a renewable energy corridor. A super energy grid is laid across the landscape, linking major urban nodes by coupling the natural environment with infrastructure. Field’s within the super grid are dedicated to agricultural production, pollination, and wildlife incubators. These feed natural ecosystems while simultaneously fueling a network of high-speed trains that extend to the arctic circle, where new trade routes open up due to receding ice and warming climates.
 A continuous mixed-use bridge structure links people to major hubs as a path for production. Human life is elevated so wildlife may roam freely on the land—reducing harmful impacts to natural ecosystems. Pipelines become long range carbon sequestering systems that distribute green energy to cities, landscapes, wildlife, and insects. Energy beacons are sprinkled across the land to assist birds with natural migration patterns while also acting as habitats for bees.
 This proposal supports humans, wildlife, and insects through closed-loop systems of energy production that equally prioritizes all living organisms through harvesting of natural resources with minimal environmental impacts and an appreciation for the land. Born from a deep respect for the Earth’s natural resources and the cyclical nature of the environment, this proposal sparks a return to the organic. All organisms of the earth are part of a necessary ecosystem that may be deemed one wholistic being. Designers have an obligation to consider systems for wildlife that empower us to reframe what it means to be a living organism. A colony collapse for the bees means a doomed future for humans. So please, save the bees.

Alika Lafontaine: Indigenous and Canadian change maker

Alika Lafontaine was running late for our Zoom call because he was seeing patients. An anaesthesiologist at Queen Elizabeth II Hospital in Grande Prairie, Alberta, Canada, he had already intubated two patients with COVID-19 that morning—both were young, unvaccinated adults. In a world of divided opinion about vaccines, health-care reform, and how to achieve equity, diversity, and inclusion in the medical professions, Lafontaine's ability to humanise and challenge health-care narratives and systems is fuelling change in Canada.

Building Bridges for Indigenous Children's Health: Community Needs Assessment Through Talking Circle Methodology.

ObjectiveThe Stollery Children’s Hospital in Edmonton, Alberta, introduced the Stollery Awasisak team to provide targeted support to Indigenous families and their children. Talking Circles were conducted across northern communities from 2017 to 2019 to better understand how Indigenous people perceive the current state of healthcare services delivered by the Stollery Hospital.MethodsThe 2019 Talking Circles were held in six cities: Grande Prairie, Slave Lake, High Level, Fort McMurray, Edmonton, and Cold Lake, which were the biggest circles held to date with an attendance of 160 participants. Participants included members of Treaties 6 and 8, and Metis Nations of Alberta, as well as healthcare professionals in those regions.ResultsTalking Circles identified challenges Indigenous (First Nation, Inuit and Metis) pediatric patients and their families experienced from accessing care to transitioning home to exploring their positive experiences with the Stollery Hospital and other frontline collaborates. Through these circles guided by Elders in ceremonies, priorities and recommendations were made to help support pediatric patients and their families.ConclusionMultiple perspectives provided rich data on how best to adhere to the Truth Reconciliation of Canada 19th mandate and ensure equitable healthcare access to all Indigenous children. Together, leaders, healthcare providers, service providers and community members reflected on the lessons of the Medicine Wheel quadrants and the Seven Sacred Teachings, and brought forward four priorities; capacity building, continuity of care, culturally responsive care and increased communication.

Screening Diverse Weedy Rice (Oryza sativa ssp.) Mini Germplasm for Tolerance to Heat and Complete Submergence Stress During Seedling Stage

Rice is a staple food for more than 3.5 billion people worldwide, with Asia producing almost 90% of the global rice yield. In the US, rice is primarily produced in four regions: Arkansas Grand Prairie, Mississippi Delta, Gulf Coast, and Sacramento Valley of California. Arkansas currently accounts for more than 50% of the rice produced in the US. As global temperatures continue to rise and fluctuate, crop-breeding programs must continue to evolve. Unfortunately, sudden submergence due to climate change and unpredictable flash flooding can cause yield reduction up to 100% and affect 20 million ha of agricultural farmlands. Similarly, it has been demonstrated that temperatures higher than 34°C can cause spikelet infertility resulting in up to 60% reduction in yield. One major drawback to developing abiotic stress-tolerant rice is the loss of critical traits such as vegetative vigor, spikelet fertility, and grain quality, which are essential in increasing economic return for farmers. To replace traits lost in past breeding endeavors, weedy rice (WR) has been proposed as a source for novel trait discovery to improve rice breeding programs. Therefore, the goal of this study was to screen and identify heat- and submergence-tolerant WR accessions. A WR mini germplasm consisting of seedlings at the 3–4 leaf stage was exposed to heat (38°C) and complete submergence for 21 days. After each treatment, height was recorded every 7 days for 28 days, and biomass was collected 28 days after treatment. The average height reduction across all accessions was 19 and 21% at 14 and 28 days after treatment (DAT) for the heat-stress treatment. The average height reduction across all accessions was 25 and 33% for the complete submergence stress. The average biomass reduction across all accessions was 18 and 21% for heat and complete submergence stress, respectively. Morphologically, at 28 DAT, 28% of the surviving WR accessions in the heat-stress treatment with <20% height reduction were straw-colored hull types without awns. Under complete submergence stress, 33% of the surviving WR accessions were blackhull types without awns. These specific biotypes may play a role in the increased resilience of WR populations to heat or submergence stress. The results presented in this paper will highlight elite WR accessions that can survive the effects of climate change.

Taphonomy and taxonomy of a juvenile lambeosaurine (Ornithischia: Hadrosauridae) bonebed from the late Campanian Wapiti Formation of northwestern Alberta, Canada.

Hadrosaurid (duck-billed) dinosaur bonebeds are exceedingly prevalent in upper Cretaceous (Campanian–Maastrichtian) strata from the Midwest of North America (especially Alberta, Canada, and Montana, U.S.A) but are less frequently documented from more northern regions. The Wapiti Formation (Campanian–Maastrichtian) of northwestern Alberta is a largely untapped resource of terrestrial palaeontological information missing from southern Alberta due to the deposition of the marine Bearpaw Formation. In 2018, the Boreal Alberta Dinosaur Project rediscovered the Spring Creek Bonebed, which had been lost since 2002, along the northern bank of the Wapiti River, southwest of Grande Prairie. Earlier excavations and observations of the Spring Creek Bonebed suggested that the site yielded young hadrosaurines. Continued work in 2018 and 2019 recovered ~300 specimens that included a minimum of eight individuals, based on the number of right humeri. The morphology of several recovered cranial elements unequivocally supports lambeosaurine affinities, making the Spring Creek sample the first documented occurrence of lambeosaurines in the Wapiti Formation. The overall size range and histology of the bones found at the site indicate that these animals were uniformly late juveniles, suggesting that age segregation was a life history strategy among hadrosaurids. Given the considerable size attained by the Spring Creek lambeosaurines, they were probably segregated from the breeding population during nesting or caring for young, rather than due to different diet and locomotory requirements. Dynamic aspects of life history, such as age segregation, may well have contributed to the highly diverse and cosmopolitan nature of Late Cretaceous hadrosaurids.

High-resolution modeling and prediction of urban floods using WRF-Hydro and data assimilation

We assess the impact of increasing the resolution of hydrologic modeling, calibration of selected model parameters and assimilation of streamflow observation toward event-based urban flood modeling and prediction using WRF-Hydro in the Dallas-Fort Worth area (DFW). We use quantitative precipitation estimates at 500-m 1-min resolution from the Collaborative Adaptive Sensing of the Atmosphere radar network for observed rainfall, Stepwise Line Search for calibration, and fixed-lag smoothing for data assimilation (DA). The model domain is a 144.6 km2 area comprising 3 urban catchments in Arlington and Grand Prairie in the middle of DFW. It is shown that event-specific calibration of 6 WRF-Hydro parameters is largely successful in simulating hydrographs at the catchment outlets particularly for the most important rising limbs, but less so for attenuated peaks or fast-receding falling limbs. A spatial resolution of at least 250 m was necessary for the land surface model (LSM) to delineate small catchments and hence to capture catchment-wide rainfall with acceptable accuracy. Simulations at selected combinations of resolutions, 250 and 125 m for the LSM and 250, 125, 50 m for the routing models, showed mixed results. The overall results indicate that, in the absence of resolution-specific prescription and calibration of channel routing parameters, a resolution of 250 m for both the LSM and routing models is a good choice in terms of performance and computational requirements, and that, in the absence of high-quality calibration and continuous simulation of streamflow, DA is necessary to initialize WRF-Hydro for event-based high-resolution urban flood prediction.

Source and spread dynamics of mountain pine beetle in central Alberta, Canada

AbstractThe mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae Hopkins) (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) is a significant destructive force in the pine forests of western Canada and has the capacity to spread east into a novel host tree species, jack pine (Pinaceae). New populations have been documented in central Alberta, Canada, but the source populations for these outbreaks have yet to be identified. In this study, we use genetic data to identify parent populations for recent outbreak sites near Slave Lake, Lac La Biche, and Hinton, Alberta. We found the northern population cluster that entered Alberta near Grande Prairie was the source of the most eastern established population near Lac La Biche, and the range expansion to this leading-edge population has been too rapid to establish evidence of population structure. However, some dispersal from a population in the Jasper and Hinton area has been detected as far north and east as Slave Lake, Alberta. We also identified two potential source populations for the current outbreak in Hinton: most beetles appear to be from Jasper National Park, Alberta, but some also originated from the northern population cluster. These findings demonstrate the dynamic dispersal capabilities of mountain pine beetle across the Alberta landscape and the potential hazard of increased dispersal to newly established leading-edge populations.

Geothermal Assessment of Target Formations Using Recorded Temperature Measurements for the Alberta No. 1 Geothermal Project

The Alberta No. 1 project is a planned power and heat (direct use) geothermal project located within the County of Grande Prairie and Municipal District of Greenview. For the project to successfully produce power and heat on a commercial scale, temperatures of 120 °C are desirable. The produced fluids must also be from highly permeable formations from depths of less than 4500 m. Bottomhole temperature measurements and wireline logs from Alberta’s extensive oil and gas database were used to determine the depths to target formations and temperatures within these formations in the project area. The target formations include the dolomitized carbonate units of Devonian age from the Beaverhill Lake Group to the top of the Precambrian Basement. Permeable Devonian-aged sandstone units such as the Granite Wash Formation are also targets. Results suggest that elevation to the top of the Beaverhill Lake Group range from 3104 m to 4094 m and temperatures at the top of the formation range from 87 °C to 123 °C in the study area. Elevation to the top of the Precambrian Basement ranges from 3205 m to 4223 m and temperatures at the formation top range from 74 °C to 124 °C. Within the area where Alberta No. 1 plans to drill, temperatures close to and exceeding 120 °C are expected within the target formations.

Probable deinonychosaur tracks from the Upper Cretaceous Wapiti Formation (upper Campanian) of Alberta, Canada

AbstractLate Cretaceous tracks attributable to deinonychosaurs in North America are rare, with only one occurrence ofMenglongipusfrom Alaska and two possible, but indeterminate, occurrences reported from Mexico. Here we describe the first probable deinonychosaur tracks from Canada: a possible trackway and one isolated track on a single horizon from the Upper Cretaceous Wapiti Formation (upper Campanian) near Grande Prairie in Alberta. The presence of a relatively short digit IV differentiates these from argued dromaeosaurid tracks, suggesting the trackmaker was more likely a troodontid. Other noted characteristics of the Wapiti specimens include a rounded heel margin, the absence of a digit II proximal pad impression, and a broad, elliptical digit III. Monodactyl tracks occur in association with the didactyl tracks, mirroring similar discoveries from the Early Cretaceous Epoch of China, providing additional support for their interpretation as deinonychosaurian traces. Although we refrain from assigning the new Wapiti specimens to any ichnotaxon because of their relatively poor undertrack preservation, this discovery is an important addition to the deinonychosaur track record; it helps to fill a poorly represented geographic and temporal window in their known distribution, and demonstrates the presence of a greater North American deinonychosaur ichnodiversity than has previously been recognized.

University of Alberta Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry.

University of Alberta Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry.

Federal Urban Renewal in Three Small Texas Cities: A Mixed Legacy

When it comes to the federal urban renewal program, Texas has often been dismissed as a conservative state since large cities like Dallas and Houston refused to participate. But a closer look at Texas shows that smaller cities such as Lubbock, Waco, and Grand Prairie did indeed embrace the program. Unlike northern cities which employed urban renewal to retard decline, these Texas cities embraced it to promote growth and to improve race relations. Because of segregation, blacks had few standard neighborhoods to reside in and civic leaders saw new opportunities to better black living conditions offered by urban renewal.

Soil C and N stocks of Alfisols under native tallgrass prairie in the mid-Southern, USA

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of soil moisture regime (i.e., aquic and udic) and physiographic region (i.e., Ozark Highlands of northwest Arkansas and Grand Prairie region of east-central Arkansas) on the change in soil carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) storage and other soil properties over a 15-year period. Soil samples were collected from the top 10 cm in 2001/2002 and again in 2016/2017 and the change over time was directly quantified for numerous soil properties. Averaged across soil moisture regime, TC content and concentration, C:N ratio, and TC fraction of soil organic matter all increased (P < 0.05) over time in the Ozark Highlands, as well as the Grand Prairie region, with the exception of total C (TC) content and concentration, which both decreased in the Grand Prairie. Despite the Grand Prairie region losing soil C at a rate of 0.23 Mg ha−1 yr−1 or 0.02% yr−1 over the 15-year duration of this study, soil C storage in 2016 did not differ between physiographic regions when averaged across soil moisture regime. The TC fraction of SOM changed more over time (P < 0.01) in the Ozark Highlands under aquic soil moisture conditions (1.3% yr−1) compared to the other three soil moisture regime/region combinations. This study demonstrates the value of direct measurements over time for assessing temporal changes in soil properties so that results can be used to guide expectations of the effects of physiographic region and soil moisture regime for future restoration activities to be as successful as possible.

Canadian Society of Vertebrate Palaeontology Abstracts 2019

7th Annual meeting, May 10-13, 2019, Grande Prairie, AB. Abstract volume.

Simple and modular integrated modeling of storm drain network with gridded distributed hydrologic model via grid-rendering of storm drains for large urban areas

For accurate flash flood forecasting and effective stormwater planning and management in urban areas, it is necessary to model not only the natural channel systems but also the large and complex networks of storm drains. In this work, we describe a modular storm drain model that can easily be coupled with existing gridded distributed hydrologic models for real-time flash flood forecasting, and stormwater planning and management for large urban areas (>100 km2). A salient feature of our approach is the use of the equivalent storm drain network (ESDN) which approximates the actual network on the same grid as that of the distributed hydrologic model, thereby rendering coupling simple and modular. In the integrated model, storm-drain flow occurs through the simplified network coarsened to the resolution of the distributed hydrologic model without full 1D-2D dynamics or very detailed man-made structures and features modeled. The integrated model is applied to a 144.6 km2 area of five urban catchments in the Cities of Arlington and Grand Prairie in Texas, US. Comparisons at selected locations using kinematic-wave flow simulations show that the ESDN approximates the flow through the original network very well with attendant savings in computational amount and reduction in modeling complexities. The impact of the storm drain network is assessed via a combination of simulation experiments, sensitivity analysis and limited comparison with observed flow. It is shown that the storm drain network in highly urbanized catchments in the study area is very effective in reducing surface flow at most locations for about 30 min following onset of significant rainfall, that the existing stormwater infrastructure would lose effectiveness for approximately 30% of the study area with a 15% increase in imperviousness relative to the current conditions, and that significant uncertainties exist in partitioning of surface flow into storm drain and natural channel flows due to sensitivity to inlet flow modeling. With greatly reduced computing cost and modeling complexity, the proposed approach offers a practical solution for integrated stormwater modeling for large urban areas for a wide range of applications. The proposed approach cannot, however, resolve flow at sub-grid scales and hence is not appropriate for very detailed modeling for small areas.

Trends in the construction of on-farm irrigation reservoirs in response to aquifer decline in eastern Arkansas: Implications for conjunctive water resource management

As part of conjunctive water resource management, on-farm reservoirs have been constructed to address declines in the Mississippi River Valley Alluvial aquifer, the primary source of irrigation for most of the row crops grown in eastern Arkansas. These reservoirs and their associated infrastructure represent significant investments in financial and natural resources, and may cause producers to incur costs associated with foregone crop production and long-term maintenance. A better understanding of past trends in reservoir construction can allow for more efficient resource allocation towards future adoption of this practice. Thus, an analysis of reservoir construction trends in the Grand Prairie (GP) Critical Groundwater Area and Cache River (CR) Critical Groundwater Area was conducted. Between 1996 and 2015, on average, 16 ± 5 and 4 ± 1 reservoirs were constructed per year, corresponding to cumulative new reservoir surface areas of 161 ± 49 and 60 ± 18 ha yr−1, for GP and CR, respectively. In terms of reservoir locations relative to aquifer status, after 1996, 84.5% of 309 reservoirs constructed in GP and 91.0% of 78 in CR were located in areas with remaining saturated aquifer thicknesses of 50% or less. The majority of new reservoirs (74% in GP and 63% in CR) were constructed on previously productive cropland. The next most common land use, representing 11% and 15% of new reservoirs constructed in GP and CR, respectively, was the combination of a field edge and a ditch, stream, or other low-lying area. Less than 10% of post-1996 reservoirs were constructed on predominately low-lying land, and the use of this land cover decreased in both critical groundwater areas during the past 20 years. A reservoir footprint analysis indicated that 85% of the typical reservoir system consists of the reservoir pond itself with the remaining 15% of land area consisting of tailwater recovery ditches, and other associated features. The disparities in reservoir construction rates, locations, and prior land uses between the two critical groundwater areas is likely due to groundwater declines being first observed in GP as well as the existence of two large-scale river diversion projects under construction in GP that feature on-farm storage as a means to offset groundwater use. Results of this analysis can be used in the development of targeted resource allocation initiatives and conservation efforts in critical groundwater areas and other similarly water-scarce regions.

Marie and Mr. Bee by M. Welwood

Welwood, Margaret. Marie and Mr. Bee. Illustrated by Coralie Rycroft. Bomars Ventures, 2016.Very few children in Canada’s towns and smaller cities can buy a “locally” published picture book of reasonable quality. Happily for them, young children living in tiny Beaverlodge, Alberta (population, 2,327 as of 2016) can do just that.Marie and Mr. Bee is locally produced. Its author, Margaret Welwood, has teamed with Beaverlodge artist, Coralie Rycroft, to produce an enjoyable work for young children. Its publisher, Bomars Ventures, (also known as “Grandma’s Bookshelf”) appears to operate from Welwood’s address. The book is printed in Canada. It is a paperback, its sturdy, glossy pages stapled to its soft cover along the central fold (technically, “saddle bound”).Because this appears to be a self-published book, Welwood’s professional credentials should be noted. She holds a BA in Psychology and a Diploma in Adult Education, both from the University of Alberta. She is a member of the Writer’s Guild of Alberta, and the Canadian Children’s Book Centre. For twenty years she has taught English as a second language at Grande Prairie Regional College. She edited Northwest Business Magazine; has contributed nonfiction articles to a variety of journals, e.g., The Alberta Report, New Trail, Christian Woman; and has reviewed books ranging from children’s picture books to Bible study materials. This experience culminates in a writing style well suited to engaging, entertaining, and instructing her intended audience.Her book is admittedly didactic in intent, but not in style. A “Note to Parents” [Inside front cover] identifies one of its themes, “…get your work done first, and then it’s time to play.” While this theme evokes the Protestant work ethic (and, indeed, the back cover of the book features an endorsement by the Christian Fellowship Assembly) Albertans of every faith would embrace it.Welwood’s storyline is simple but charming. Marie, like her small forest friends—the Squirrels, Little Bear, and Fox—is a model of industry until Mr. Bee corrupts her with his own carefree attitude to life: “I don’t have to make honey. The workers make the honey and I eat it!” [p.6] Ultimately, however, indolence proves painful for Mr. Bee, and tedious to Marie.A secondary theme is much more subtly explored. Marie is wheelchair-bound. No words allude to her situation; it is simply conveyed by the exquisite artwork of Coralie Rycroft. With ink and colour, Rycroft depicts Marie’s lifestyle in an idyllic log cabin surrounded by beautiful woodlands. Marie is independent, self-sustaining, and fully functioning; the concept is powerfully communicated.Beyond its intended messages, the book conveys a third by its very existence. Given a few individuals with gifts and initiative, a small community can develop its own “literary oeuvre”, enrich the lives of its citizens, and communicate its cultural norms in ways that the wider world can appreciate.Reviewer: Leslie AitkenRecommended: 3 stars out of 4Leslie Aitken’s long career in librarianship involved selection of children’s literature for school, public, special, and university collections. She is a former Curriculum Librarian at the University of Alberta.