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sustainability

Inside Greenhouse: Carmen Agouridis and Mary Arthur

Two of the faculty co-directors, Carmen Agouridis and Mary Arthur, share some of their thoughts about the exciting new opportunity that Greenhouse can provide for students living on campus.

UK’s Greenhouse is designed for students interested in learning different aspects of their local environment, all in the context of sustainability. Greenhouse students will extend their classroom learning through community engagement with organizations and like-minded students committed to developing a sustainable Lexington.

2016 Sustainability Forum

We are very excited to announce the 2016 Sustainability Fourm here on UK's Campus!  This event is brought to you by the Tracy Farmer Institute on Sustainability and the Environment and the UK Appalachian Center. Students may submit their posters/presentations online here: http://tfise.uky.edu/showcase by Sunday, November 20, 2016. Students will present their work on Thursday, December 1, 2016 at the Hillary J. Boone Center at 4:30 p.m.  Awards for the best posters/presentations will be announced at 6:30 p.m. Please, see the showcase's webpage for more information, and join us at the event!  Please, encourage other students with sustainability-focused work and research to submit and attend.

Date:
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Location:
Boone Center
Type of Event (for grouping events):

Soil Erosion: Counting the Costs

Submitted by jdp on Fri, 03/18/2016 - 04:37 pm

In my previous post (Soil Erosion Rises Again!) I noted a recent spike in interest in erosion and soil conservation, following previous ones in the 1930s and 1980s. One manifestation is the work of Frans Kwaad, a Dutch physical geographer, who has reinvigorated discussion of the relative onsite and offsite costs of erosion.

Onsite (economic) costs are generally related to declines in crop or grazing productivity, or the loss or degradation of economically productive land. Offsite costs are associated with pollution and infrastructure damage associated with the deposition or delivery of eroded sediment, habitat damage or destruction, nuisance costs of removal of deposited sediment, etc. Kwaad’s work-in-progress synthesizes a number of studies and data sources, and on-balance indicates that off-site costs are greater.

Cleaning up eroded soil after a storm in the Netherlands (F. Kwaad photo).

Soil Erosion Rises Again!

Submitted by jdp on Fri, 03/18/2016 - 08:13 am

In the 1930s, the Dust Bowl and the legacy of massive post-Civil War cut-out-and-get-out logging and, particularly in the south, of what amounts to shifting cultivation brought a soil erosion crisis to the attention of the USA and the world. In the 1980s, a realization that problematic erosion persists despite great improvements in soil conservation and a heightened concerned with nonpoint source pollution from agriculture brought renewed attention to erosion, this time focused particularly on off-site impacts. On-site impacts of soil erosion are the environmental degradation and lost productivity due to soil loss, while off-site impacts are related to pollution and costs associated with where the soil ends up. Now, we are at it again, with another wave of attention to soil erosion.  

Eroded farmland in Alabama, 1930s (WPA photo by Arthur Rothstein).

Sustainability Forum

Please join us for the 2015 Sustainability Forum on Tuesday, December 1, 2015 from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. at the Hilary J. Boone Center on UK's Campus! This event is sponsored by the Tracy Farmer Institute for Sustainability and the Environment and the UK Appalachian Center.  Students are encouraged to submit their posters for consideration, and the top posters will be given prizes.  The deadline for submissions is Friday, November 20, 2015. Please contact Suzette Walling for submission instructions and more information: tfise@uky.edu.  Also see the Call for posters below our flyer and the Tracy Farmer Institute's website: http://www.tfise.uky.edu/showcase.

 

Date:
-
Location:
Hilary J. Boone Center
Type of Event (for grouping events):
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