The Center on Food Security and the Environment is a joint effort of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment.
FSE Publications
Publications
Filter:
Filter results CloseSimulated hydroclimatic impacts of projected Brazilian sugarcane expansion
Sugarcane area is currently expanding in Brazil, largely in response to domestic and international demand for sugar-based ethanol. To investigate the potential hydroclimatic impacts of future expansion, a regional climate model is used to simulate 5 years of a scenario in which cerrado and cropland areas (~1.1E6 km2) within south-central Brazil are converted to sugarcane. Results indicate a cooling of up to ~1.0°C during the peak of the growing season, mainly as a result of increased albedo of sugarcane relative to the previous landscape.
Direct Climate Effects of Perennial Bioenergy Crops in the United States
Biomass-derived energy offers the potential to increase energy security while mitigating anthropogenic climate change, but a successful path toward increased production requires a thorough accounting of costs and benefits. Until recently, the efficacy of biomass-derived energy has focused primarily on biogeochemical consequences.
Potential Impact of U.S. Biofuels on Regional Climate
Recent work has shown that current bio-energy policy directives may have harmful, indirect consequences, affecting both food security and the global climate system. An additional unintended but direct effect of large-scale biofuel production is the impact on local and regional climate resulting from changes in the energy and moisture balance of the surface upon conversion to biofuel crops.
Climatic Effects of 30 Years of Landscape Change over the Greater Phoenix, Arizona Region: 2. Dynamical and Thermodynamical Response
This paper is part 2 of a two-part study evaluating the climatic effect of one of the nation's most rapidly expanding metropolitan complexes, the Greater Phoenix, Arizona, region.
Climate Effects of 30 Years of Landscape Change over the Greater Phoenix, Arizona Region: 1. Surface Energy Budget Changes
This paper is part 1 of a two-part study that evaluates the climatic effects of recent landscape change for one of the nation's most rapidly expanding metropolitan complexes, the Greater Phoenix, Arizona, region. The region's landscape evolution over an approximate 30-year period since the early 1970s is documented on the basis of analyses of Landsat images and land use/land cover (LULC) data sets derived from aerial photography (1973) and Landsat (1992 and 2001).