Lakes Environmental Newsletter
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NEWS & EVENTS

Monthly Newsletter - March 2020 Edition

Special Notice Regarding COVID-19

In this time of uncertainty regarding COVID-19, our clients and projects continue to remain our top priority. During this period, to maintain social distance, we set up our staff to work off-site. All functions and services are fully operational, with the exception of the phone lines.


Technical support will be available via e-mail only at support@webLakes.com.


For questions related to the purchase of software, maintenance, training, or met data, please send emails to sales@webLakes.com.

Exclusive Pricing Extended! Upgrade Promotion for CALPUFF View

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Lakes Environmental has released promotional pricing for upgrading your CALPUFF View license.


If your license has been out of maintenance for more than six months, you are missing out on some important new updates! Check out the release notes from the latest version of CALPUFF View.


Contact us today if you did not receive our campaign e-mail and your maintenance has been expired for over six months.


Exclusive pricing is now available until April 6, 2020.

Lakes to make ZEBU 50% OFF and Free for 1 Month

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As COVID-19 continues to have an impact around the globe, organizations are beginning to adapt the way they work.


As more companies transition to a remote work environment to slow the spread, Lakes is discounting its secure collaboration platform Zebu and making it completely free for 1 month to help teams transition to remote work without compromising their security.


Remote workers are at a higher risk of having their data and information exposed to cyber threats. Lakes built Zebu to help teams collaborate, send messages, share schedules and share files securely as they adjust to life working remotely.


Learn more about Zebu. Sign up for your free account today!

Lakes Environmental Closed for Good Friday Holiday

Lakes Environmental will be closed on Friday, April 10, 2020 to observe the Good Friday holiday. If you have any needs during that time, please e-mail us at support@webLakes.com and we will contact you on Monday, April 13, 2020 when we reopen.

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MODELING TIP

Customizing Land Use Properties in CALPUFF View

A major step in any CALPUFF modeling study is to calculate geophysical properties of the modeling domain. The CALPUFF modeling system contains several preprocessors to perform these calculations including:

  • TERREL for processing terrain elevations from digital terrain files
  • CTGCOMP & CTGPROC which compress and process digital land use data to determine the dominant land use type within each domain grid cell
  • MAKEGEO reads the output from TERREL & CTGPROC to create a geophysical data file – GEO.DAT – to supply the calculated geophysical parameters to CALMET

CALPUFF View's Geophysical Processor handles processing of the geophysical data files through these programs.

One important feature within the Geo Processor is the ability to customize the land use property values MAKEGEO uses in its calculations. Follow the steps below to customize land use for your project:

Step 1:Open the Geophysical Processor and select the Advanced tab. Look for the MAKEGEO Land Use Properties group settings at the bottom of this tab.

Step 2: Select the browse icon to open the Land Use Properties dialog.

Modeling Tip picture
Geo Processor Advanced Settings

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Land Use Properties Dialog with Default Seasonal Parameters

Step 3: From the Options menu, you can select season-specific parameters to be used for a given MAKEGEO run. For example, the Winter conditions (GEO_WI.DAT) assume continuous snow cover on the ground and increase the seasonal albedo for each land use category.

Modeling Tip picture
Seasonal Options for Land Use Properties

Step 4: Define custom parameters by selecting the User Defined (GEO_UD.DAT) option. Selecting this option will make all table values open for editing. A custom name can be defined for the data set in the GEO.DAT File Name field.

Modeling Tip picture

Step 5: Type in numeric values for each of the geophysical parameters in each of the 38 land use categories of the USGS system.

Parameters can be imported from an Excel spreadsheet using the Import icon at the bottom of the dialog. Alternatively, a template can be exported to an Excel template using the Export icon.

Modeling Tip picture

Step 6: If your categorization does not match the existing USGS 38-category system, the Land Use Parameters tab can be used to specify additional category information. In this tab, you can:

  • Match up the input and output categories for the land use categories associated with water;
  • Define the minimum fraction of each cell covered by water necessary for the average land use to be water-based;
  • Set the number of input categories that are split by apportioning area among the other land use categories; and
  • Specify what land use code to assign to a cell when no land use data are found.

Modeling Tip picture
Land Use Parameters Tab

Step 7: When finished, click Modeling Tip picture to exit the dialog. The MAKEGEO Land Use Properties group now indicates the custom file.

Modeling Tip picture

With the custom land use properties specified, you can now input the digital terrain and land use files to the Geo Processor and process the data to create the GEO.DAT file for input to CALMET.

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ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS ARTICLES

‘Biggest Shift Yet’ in British Public’s Attitude to Risks of Climate Change

March 3, 2020- Britons believe climate change is one of the most important issues facing the country in the next 20 years, according to research led by Cardiff University.



Read more →

Focus on Food Would Help Solve Climate Change, Says Study

February 20, 2020 - A paper released today by the journal Nature Food presents a new global food system approach to climate-change research that brings together agricultural production, supply chains and consumption.



Read more →

Additional Environmental News

Visit the Environmental News Network (ENN), the most dependable online environmental news source!


ENN

UPCOMING CONFERENCES & TRADE SHOWS

2020 Conference Schedule

Air & Waste Management Association’s 113th Annual Conference & Exhibition
(Booth # 304)

June 29 - July 2, 2020 | San Francisco, California

Learn more →

LAKES SOFTWARE GROUP OF COMPANIES

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This newsletter contains information gleaned from various sources on the web, with complete links
to the sources cited. Organizations cited are in no way affiliated with Lakes Environmental Software.

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