the Yuba City flood: a case study of weather modification litigation*

In December 1955 a severe tropical storm caused severe flooding throughout Northern California with damage exceeding $200,000,000. One area suffering large-scale flooding was at Yuba City, at the confluence of the Feather and Yuba Rivers. The levees broke and consequent damage was in the magnitude of $65 million. Property-owners sought recompense through suits brought in the Superior Court of Sutter County against the State of California, Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), and North American Weather Consultants (NAWC). PG&E, through its contracting agent, NAWC, had undertaken cloud seeding operations in three places in the high Sierras, one of which was in the Lake Almanor water-shed in the Feather River system. NAWC had interrupted seeding activities in that area three days before the levees broke at Yuba City. Plaintiffs charged that PG&E and NAWC were negligent in the operation of their generators, had contributed to the total quantity of water produced by the watershed and therefore were legally liable, and that cloud seeding was ultra-hazardous activity so that those engaged in such activities were strictly liable for damages. The suit was begun in 1958 and concluded in 1964. Trial before a judge only began in October 1963 and a decision was rendered in April 1964. The judge ruled that neither PG&E nor NAWC was liable. In accordance with an agreement among the parties no appeal was taken. Plaintiffs were successful, however, against the State, basing their claim for damages on the doctrine of inverse condemnation which holds that the State must recompense for damages incurred in the lawful exercise of its powers—in this case, the construction of levees. The litigation raises important questions of public policy with regard to weather modification and these are considered in the light of this case.

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Charged Particle (Negative Ion)-Based Cloud Seeding and Rain Enhancement Trial Design and Implementation

Water ◽

10.3390/w12061644 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (6) ◽

pp. 1644

Author(s):

Wei Zheng ◽

Fengming Xue ◽

Ming Zhang ◽

Qiqi Wu ◽

Zhou Yang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Large Scale ◽

Evaluation Method ◽

Water Shortage ◽

Northwest China ◽

Negative Ion ◽

Cloud Seeding ◽

Weather Modification ◽

Solid Carbon Dioxide ◽

Design And Implementation ◽

Hygroscopic Salts

China has been suffering from water shortage for a long time. Weather modification and rainfall enhancement via cloud seeding has been proved to be effective to alleviate the problem. Current cloud seeding methods mostly rely on solid carbon dioxide and chemicals such as silver iodide and hygroscopic salts, which may have negative impacts on the environment and are expensive to operate. Lab experiments have proved the efficiency of ion-based cloud seeding compared with traditional methods. Moreover, it is also more environmentally friendly and more economical to operate at a large scale. Thus, it is necessary to carry out a field experiment to further investigate the characteristics and feasibility of the method. This paper provides the design and implementation of the ion-based cloud seeding and rain enhancement trial currently running in Northwest China. It introduces the basic principle of the trial and the devices developed for it, as well as the installation of the bases and the evaluation method design for the trial.

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Using an “isotopic spike” from a tropical storm to understand water exchange on a large scale: case study of Hurricane Rafael in the Lesser Antilles archipelago, October 2012

Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry ◽

10.1002/rcm.8055 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 32 (6) ◽

pp. 457-468 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Luc Lambs ◽

Félix Bompy ◽

Maguy Dulormne

Keyword(s):

Large Scale ◽

Water Exchange ◽

Tropical Storm ◽

Lesser Antilles

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Evaluating the impact of the land acquisition phase on property owners in megaprojects

International Journal of Managing Projects in Business ◽

10.1108/ijmpb-08-2017-0090 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

pp. 158-173

Author(s):

Vince Mangioni

Keyword(s):

Public Perception ◽

Large Scale ◽

Acquisition Phase ◽

Adverse Impact ◽

Land Acquisition ◽

Content Type ◽

Property Owners ◽

Road Projects ◽

The Impact

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of the land acquisition phase and site assembly of land for large scale infrastructure road projects and its impact on property owners. A review of one of the largest roadwork projects currently underway in Sydney Australia demonstrates the adverse impact that has resulted in property owners challenging the approach used by government to acquire land for this project. Similar case studies are used to set out the key measures that should apply internationally in mitigating challenges from property owners in the land acquisition phase. It further shows that while adequate statutory provisions are important, it is the practices of acquiring authorities that ultimately determine the success and expedition of this initial important phase of these projects. Design/methodology/approach In measuring the factors that impact the acquisition of land by negotiation in contrast to acquisition by compulsory taking, a case study methodology is used. In this approach, the author reviews two completed projects and the factors that contributed to their success. These are contrasted with the primary case study currently underway in Sydney, the WestConnex project in which a number of adverse factors have emerged that have impacted this project. The review of these cases examined provides options for reforms that should be adopted both in the WestConnex case and across projects internationally. Findings It is demonstrated that the impact of the land acquisition phase on property owners with limited ability to rehouse within the same or surrounding locations, results in increases to challenges. This factor has prompted increases in the number of cases that have proceeded to court and potentially impacts the public perception and site assembly phase of large scale road projects. The inability for impacted property owners to relocate themselves has resulted in a breakdown in the ability for acquiring authorities to achieve acquisition by agreement. This is evidenced by significant increases in the number of properties that have been acquired by compulsion since 2016. It is found that the operational provisions of the land acquisition processes were obsolete in NSW, particularly those leading up to acquisition that was originally designed to assist owners. The paper finds that the most important phase of a megaproject is the planning and consultation phase, which includes most importantly the way in which impacted owners are informed, assisted and compensated. It is concluded that the processes engaged in by acquiring authorities rather than the statutory provisions available, will determine the success of the land acquisition phase and perceptions of the project. Originality/value The primary contribution of this paper is defining the changing landscape that has led to the adverse impact on property owners in the site assembly process for large scale projects. It identifies the reforms that will enhance opportunity for owners to relocate and rehouse which will expedite the acquisition phase of megaprojects and restore acquisition by agreement rather than by compulsion. This in turn will contribute to improve public perception of large scale projects in urbanised locations.

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The transformation of a steepland river valley following an earthquake-triggered landslide near Kaikōura, NZ

10.5194/egusphere-egu21-10867 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Jon Tunnicliffe ◽

Jamie Howarth ◽

Chris Massey

Keyword(s):

Large Scale ◽

River System ◽

Large Earthquake ◽

Airborne Lidar ◽

Coarse Grained ◽

Front Range ◽

Storm Events ◽

Relative Rarity ◽

Process Domains

In the relatively short and steep catchments of New Zealand&#8217;s Alps and Front Range, river systems traverse several process domains, from steep boulder-bed cascades to shallower braided range-front streams. Headwater streams (slope gradient >0.1 m&#183;m-1) typically operate in a state of &#8216;supply limited&#8217; conditions, where the river&#8217;s ability to carry sediment far exceeds the supply of material from upstream. With the catastrophic delivery of 13M m3 of landslide detritus following the 2016 7.8 Mw Kaik&#333;ura Earthquake, a tributary of the upper Hapuku River was filled to depths of up to 30 m, as debris spilled 1 km downstream from the delivery point. Nine airborne LiDAR surveys along the 12 km corridor have captured the transformation of the system from step-pool cascade to an unstable aggrading braidplain deposit to a vigorously incising channel, within four years of the event. With this rare window into disequilibrium conditions, we document the dramatic shifts in channel behaviour and dramatic reworking of the debris train following the landslide. There are two distinct phases: (1) a highly dynamic and unstable aggradation phase, with supply from upstream greatly exceeding river transport capacity and (2) exhaustion of supply from upstream and downcutting, maintaining high sediment transport rates through recruitment of material in the valley deposit. With a catchment area of only 3 km2, the upper river has transferred more than 4.2&#215;106 m3 of coarse-grained material in 9 storm events of relatively modest intensity. This sequence of surveys provides an unprecedented picture of dramatic changes to a steepland river system in the aggradation/degradation cycle, which are very seldom captured owing to both the remoteness of such sites and the relative rarity of such events. A temporal picture of the valley sediment budget demonstrates the remarkable capacity of alpine systems to absorb disturbance through storage in the upper reaches, modulating the timing and the sedimentary character of materials being transferred to the reaches downstream. The case study highlights the utility of repeat LiDAR surveys for large-scale process studies and provides insights for assessing residence times of major landslide deliveries following large earthquake events.

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Deliberate enhancement of rainfall using desert plantations

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ◽

10.1073/pnas.1904754116 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 116 (38) ◽

pp. 18841-18847 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Oliver Branch ◽

Volker Wulfmeyer

Keyword(s):

Climate Change Mitigation ◽

Arid Regions ◽

Large Scale ◽

Regional Climate ◽

Regional Scale ◽

Climate Impacts ◽

Decision Makers ◽

Cloud Seeding ◽

Weather Modification ◽

Change Mitigation

Large-scale afforestation is increasingly being considered as a negative emissions method for sequestering large quantities of atmospheric CO2. At the same time, regional weather modification methods, like cloud seeding, are being used to counteract increasing water scarcity in arid regions. Large-scale sustainable desert agroforestry plantations can contribute to climate change mitigation and can also be used to modify regional climate, particularly rainfall. Climate impacts from plantations need to be well understood before considering implementation. Typically, impact studies are attempted at continental or global scales and use coarse-resolution models, which suffer from severe systematic errors. This is highly problematic because decision makers should only countenance geoengineering schemes like global afforestation if impacts are understood on the regional scale. We posit the necessity of using high-resolution regional models with sophisticated representations of land–atmosphere feedback and vegetation. This approach allows for studying desert plantations and the process chain leading to climate modification. We demonstrate that large-scale plantations enhance regional clouds and rainfall and derive an index for predicting plantation impacts. Thus, desert plantations represent a unique environmental solution via predictable regional weather modification and carbon storage.

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A Family With Autosomal-Dominant Progressive Sensorineural Hearing Loss

American Journal of Audiology ◽

10.1044/1059-0889.0501.23 ◽

1996 ◽

Vol 5 (1) ◽

pp. 23-32 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Chris Halpin ◽

Barbara Herrmann ◽

Margaret Whearty

Keyword(s):

Speech Production ◽

Hearing Aids ◽

Role Models ◽

Speech Intelligibility ◽

Large Scale ◽

Speech Language Pathology ◽

The Family ◽

Patient Will ◽

Language Pathology

The family described in this article provides an unusual opportunity to relate findings from genetic, histological, electrophysiological, psychophysical, and rehabilitative investigation. Although the total number evaluated is large (49), the known, living affected population is smaller (14), and these are spread from age 20 to age 59. As a result, the findings described above are those of a large-scale case study. Clearly, more data will be available through longitudinal study of the individuals documented in the course of this investigation but, given the slow nature of the progression in this disease, such studies will be undertaken after an interval of several years. The general picture presented to the audiologist who must rehabilitate these cases is that of a progressive cochlear degeneration that affects only thresholds at first, and then rapidly diminishes speech intelligibility. The expected result is that, after normal language development, the patient may accept hearing aids well, encouraged by the support of the family. Performance and satisfaction with the hearing aids is good, until the onset of the speech intelligibility loss, at which time the patient will encounter serious difficulties and may reject hearing aids as unhelpful. As the histological and electrophysiological results indicate, however, the eighth nerve remains viable, especially in the younger affected members, and success with cochlear implantation may be expected. Audiologic counseling efforts are aided by the presence of role models and support from the other affected members of the family. Speech-language pathology services were not considered important by the members of this family since their speech production developed normally and has remained very good. Self-correction of speech was supported by hearing aids and cochlear implants (Case 5’s speech production was documented in Perkell, Lane, Svirsky, & Webster, 1992). These patients received genetic counseling and, due to the high penetrance of the disease, exhibited serious concerns regarding future generations and the hope of a cure.

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