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    Predicting river crests about more than rainfall - July 3, 2014 by Mr HomeBuilder

    By Erin Jordan, The Gazette

    Predicting floods is a complicated business involving not just rainfall, but also geometry of river channels, character of hill slopes and mathematical formulas.

    Boiled down, the data can help Iowans know when to start sandbagging or evacuate before high water.

    For the general public, what really matters is just how high the river can get, said Witold Krajewski, director of the Iowa Flood Center at the University of Iowa.

    The Army Corps of Engineers predicted Wednesday morning the Coralville Lake would top the spillway next week, but later in the day scaled back the numbers slightly. Small revisions like this are constant because rain upstream can affect the whole system.

    The predictions start with knowing the landscape in and around waterways.

    Digital topographic maps from the U.S. Geological Survey show elevation points for every 100 yards across the country, Krajewski said. Scientists in Iowa also have access to LiDAR, or Light Detection and Ranging technology, that involves laser readings from planes that fly over the landscape.

    Elevation maps allow scientists to figure out the locations of river channels and basin boundaries.

    Also important to flood predictions is the character of the hill slopes that run into waterways, Krajewski said. A grassy field will absorb more water than a paved parking lot.

    These base numbers go into computer models that help scientists understand how different rainfall amounts will affect the region.

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    Predicting river crests about more than rainfall

    ESB offers free tours of Turlough Hill hydro station - July 1, 2014 by Mr HomeBuilder

    Turlough Hill power plant will celebrate it's 40th birthday this year and is inviting guests to come and take a look. Video: Darragh Bambrick

    The ESB has opened its Turlough Hill generating station to mark the 40th anniversary of its opening

    The ESB has opened its Turlough Hill generating station to the public and is offering free tours throughout the summer to mark the 40th anniversary of the States first and only hydro- electric storage station.

    Set high in the Wicklow mountains and almost invisible to prying eyes the station which can generate up to 292 MW of electricity in 70 seconds is located 500 metres inside the hill itself.

    Some 300 metres above the turbines is the upper reservoir on the top of Turlough Hill, its flat top the only sign from the nearest public road of man made intrusion in the landscape. It is approached by a small winding road over rocky outcrops known as the Wicklow Gap, seeming populated only by sheep.

    However, 300 metres off the road, like a scene from a James Bond film, the tunnel appears with workers going in and out of the mountain in small golf buggy-like vehicles.

    The station operates all year round but comes into its own typically at about 5pm on a wet February evening when household cookers across the country are switched on, lights come on and home heating fires up. Turlough Hill can deliver its 292 MW of electricity to the national grid, ramping up to full power in just 70 seconds ensuring the States lights dont even flicker.

    Turlough Hill can stay at full power for about five hours. It does this by opening sluice gates allowing up to 2.3 billion litres of water drop through the pipework inside the mountain hitting the turbines at a depth of 300 metres. The water then exits into a lower lake, originally a corrie, a geographical feature which ensures the facility remains almost invisible in the landscape.

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    ESB offers free tours of Turlough Hill hydro station

    Pendle Hill to benefit from 3m lottery funding - July 1, 2014 by Mr HomeBuilder

    Pendle Hill to benefit from 3m lottery funding

    3:00pm Tuesday 1st July 2014 in News By Tyrone Marshall, Reporter

    PENDLE Hill will benefit from 3million in lottery funding to attract more tourists if a bid for cash is successful.

    The area was chosen by the committee for the Forest of Bowland AONB (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty) to be the subject of the bid for the lotterys Landscape Partnership Scheme.

    Pendle Hill was chosen because it requires special attention to ensure conservation of the landscape character.

    Mike Williams, tourism manager at Pendle Council, said: The Landscape Partnership outcomes seek to benefit people, heritage and communities.

    One of the key drivers is to attract and involve new audiences to connect with special landscape, for example people from local towns and neighbouring urban areas who dont normally access the countryside.

    Two key potential benefits of the bid are that local people in Pendles towns that do not currently benefit from their local countryside will be more attracted to do so, and the project would raise the profile of the area as a visitor destination. helping to support local businesses.

    The committee will find out if stage one of the funding bid has been successful in October. If it is, they will have to submit a second bid in spring next year.

    If the bid is successful, projects could include recruiting more volunteer rangers to patrol the area, improving access to the hill and surrounding areas, refurbishing Barley and Spring Wood cabins and educating visitors to respect the landscape.

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    Pendle Hill to benefit from 3m lottery funding

    CIO Interview: Simon Hill, Caravan Club - July 1, 2014 by Mr HomeBuilder

    What do the corporate giants of Shell, BP and Guinness Brewing Worldwide have in common with the Caravan Club? Simon Hill has worked in the IT department of all four.

    The Caravan Club's IT chief has also worked in IT for large UK public sector organisations such as Surrey Council and the Metropolitan Police, where he directed its Solution Centre for seven years, providing all back-office systems to 30,000 employees.

    Hill joined Guinness on a graduate programme after gaining a degree in procurement and logistics. It was here he got his first hands-on experience of implementing the SAP enterprise resource suite, something that has recurred throughout his career. He spent six years at Accenture working on SAP projects and was subsequently SAP programme manager at Surrey Council.

    Today the London School of Economics graduate heads up IT at the Caravan Club as it embarks on ambitious plans to expand into new areas of the travel and leisure industry. The club, which has 360,000 members and, with their families, reaches about one million people runs leisure sites across the UK and offers insurance and other travel services. Its IT operation currently works out of a single room in the club's office and a small space in a warehouse. But it is moving to dedicated servers in third-party datacentres.

    Hill has responsibility for all technology at the club, including head office and over 160 sites across the UK. When he joined a couple of years ago he inherited 14 direct reports and a department focused on supply.

    Recognising the need for change, I secured board-level support for my vision for the department and set up demand management, service delivery and project management teams, he says.

    This has meant that we are now more closely involved in value creation for the business, and I have been given the opportunity to help shape the Caravan Clubs exciting growth strategy.

    He says the IT department is now more consultative. Rather than just building what the business asks for, it gets managers to explain the business goals and then recommends the IT systems that can support that outcome.

    We help senior management clarify how they intend to achieve delivery of the clubs strategy through iterative conversations about what it will take, both technically and in terms of business change, to help to achieve their goals.

    The IT operation is split in three. One team manages the pipeline of demand for change, developing all pre-project documentation such as business cases. Another team is responsible for developing and delivering all non-property related change, from small change requests through to multimillion-pound projects. And the third team ensures the ongoing provision of IT service while looking to reduce cost and improve quality.

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    CIO Interview: Simon Hill, Caravan Club

    Reviving a blackened landscape - June 27, 2014 by Mr HomeBuilder

    Published on June 26, 2014

    It wont be long before the trees are taller than she is, but Molly Head, daughter of Gord and Allison Head, is eager to get started on tree planting. Check out the June 30 edition of The Aurora for more photos.

    Photos by Ty Dunham/The Aurora

    Published on June 26, 2014

    They may be small now, but Thomas Dawe, Darren Dawe and Sherry Dawe knows each tree makes a difference to the scorched land.

    Photo by Ty Dunham/The Aurora

    Off the Trans-Labrador Highway, about 15 minutes outside of Labrador West, is a long stretch of dirt road entering Blueberry Hill, which begins with bright green trees and gradually turns into black ground with the charred remains of last years devastating forest fire.

    A car that looks like it aged 1,000 years sits on a lot, the interior burnt and tires disintegrated. Rubble is all that is left of some cabin sites, while newly constructed dwellings stand out against the dark landscape.

    Standing in the forest, its easy to see far down where greenery used to block vision in just a few feet. Walking over soot and scraping across the branches leaves black marks against clothing.

    But the Labrador West Boy Scouts, Beavers, Girl Guides and Blueberry Hill cabin owners didnt seem to mind. Spreading out through the trees, their coloured jackets and shirts brightly contrasted against the landscape as they dug holes and filled them with infant black spruce trees.

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    City awarded grant to spruce up southern historic district - June 26, 2014 by Mr HomeBuilder

    MILLEDGEVILLE The City of Milledgeville earned a $39,000 GATEway grant toward landscape improvements along Franklin Street between Wilkinson and Clarke streets.

    Memory Hill Cemetery frontage improvements are the main focus of the monies. The grant doesn't require local match.

    Public Works Director Frank Baugh said the Friends of the Baldwin County Cemeteries approached the department last fall hoping to improve the cemetery entrance.

    At about the same time, we saw this GATEway grant opportunity. It occurred to us that we could work all this together, Baugh said.

    The Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) recently awarded more than $1.3 million for the 2014 GATEway grants to 43 local government entities around the state.

    The GATEway grant program uses revenue collected from permit fees for vegetation removal in front of outdoor advertising signs.

    Funds from the grants are used to reimburse local government when purchasing and installing plant material for landscape projects on state routes.

    Any organization, local government or state agency can apply for a grant up to $50,000 contingent upon authorization by a local government and an agreement to perpetually maintain the project.

    A primary goal of the program is to fund enduring enhancements to roadsides utilized by the traveling public. Project proposals ranged from interstate interchange panoramas to landscape embellishment of city entrance signs.

    The funds may be used only for landscape plant material and its installation for the furtherance of roadside enhancement and beautification projects.

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    City awarded grant to spruce up southern historic district

    Waters carve local landscape - June 26, 2014 by Mr HomeBuilder

    Waters carve local landscape

    By Mary Hill mhill@titusvilleherald.com Thursday, June 26, 2014 4:06 AM EDT

    Titusville residents coped with flooded property and washed out roads and bridges Tuesday night into Wednesday after a series of thunderstorms rumbled through the Oil Region, dumping between 2 1/2 to 5 inches of rain in some areas.

    And, Titusville made national TV news Wednesday morning when the region's storm damage was featured on ABC's "Good Morning, America."

    Many city roads were closed late Tuesday and early Wednesday, but became passable later in the day Wednesday.

    Titusville Police Chief Gary Thomas said about 2 1/2 inches of rain fell Tuesday night.

    "We kept updating our Facebook page with [street] closings," he said.

    Due to the amount of rain that fell in a short period of time, some Titusville residents and business experienced flooding in their basements.

    Kirby Macquarrie, a bartender and maintenance employee at Boonie's Sports Bar, on Diamond Street, said the establishment's basement was flooded.

    Macquarrie said that, at one point, there were 8 to 10 inches of water in the basement.

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    White Mountain art exhibit turns gaze to art that shaped NH tourism - June 24, 2014 by Mr HomeBuilder

    It was an earlier eras version of going viral.

    Soon after John Frederick Kensett created a dramatic painting of the White Mountains, the image swept the country, not only putting New Hampshire on the map but also preserving a poignant rural view of life in a swiftly industrializing nation.

    Mount Washington from the Valley of Conway is considered the most famous New England landscape of the 19th century, and its associated school of art and expression have become an enduring advertisement for the Granite State, whose tourism industry today still celebrates the balance of natural and cultural resources.

    Canvassing the White Mountains: Icons of Place, on view from Saturday through Sept. 12 at the Historical Society of Cheshire County in Keene, traces that pivotal journey with more than 40 historic paintings by landscape artists including Benjamin Champney, Alfred Bricher, Asher Durand, John Enneking, Alvan Fisher, John Ross Key, Willard Metcalf and William Paskell.

    The exhibit will share how the painting styles of these artists illustrate not only the evolution of American art, but also how they helped to shape the American view of and reaction to wilderness and nature, said Alan Rumrill, the historical societys executive director, of pieces from the 1800s through the early 1900s. (The exhibition conveys) how the work of the artists impacted the growth and development of the White Mountain region.

    Evolution of Art

    In the summer of 1850 three young American artists discovered North Conway Village in New Hampshires White Mountains. Kensett, Champney and John Casilear were drawn there by the work of earlier landscape artists who strove to capture the grandeur of the mountains and countryside.

    Champney, a native of New Ipswich who had previously painted a View of Keene, N.H. in his home region, described the village and surrounding landscape as the most beautiful place on Earth, said Rick Swanson, development director at the historical society.

    Drawing a Response

    These White Mountain Art painters, many in residence at hotels such as the Profile House in Franconia Notch, Crawford House in Crawford Notch and Mount Washington Hotel in Bretton Woods, were among the first marketers of New Hampshire in an age of railroads and resort hotels.

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    White Mountain art exhibit turns gaze to art that shaped NH tourism

    The 'stunner' in Virginia changes political landscape - June 24, 2014 by Mr HomeBuilder

    WASHINGTON The morning after, at breakfast at the Republicans' Capitol Hill Club, Virginia Rep. Robert Goodlatte was, as befits one of Washington's grown-ups, measured in his reaction to what 36,120 Virginia voters did the day before. It would, he says, be wise "to take a step back and a deep breath until we find out how everyone" meaning, especially, House Republicans "reacts to this." By "this" he indicates, with a wave of a hand, the one-word headline on Roll Call, a newspaper that covers Congress: "Stunner."

    Roll Call's online article added these four words: "Cantor Upset Changes Everything." Of course, nothing changes everything, but the resounding and unprecedented defeat in a Republican primary of the soon-to-be former House majority leader will send ripples radiating through the House and into the Republicans' 2016 presidential nomination contest.

    It is often folly to try to tickle national portents from local events. But there are fewer purely local political events now that elections have become increasingly nationalized in this era of inter-party and intra-party ideological combat. So, consider how the unhorsing of Cantor may strike some other Republicans.

    Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who embraces a more welcoming immigration policy than does much of the Republican nominating electorate, may construe Cantor's defeat as a discouraging augury concerning any presidential aspirations Bush might have. Cantor was damaged by the accusation that he favors "amnesty" for the more than 11 million illegal immigrants. Actually, he may have done more damage to himself by seeming to take multiple and contradictory positions on immigration.

    Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan may be weighing a probable ascent in the House leadership against the uncertainties of seeking the Republican presidential nomination. The removal of Cantor, a formidable rival for the office of speaker once John Boehner relinquishes it, may give Ryan reason to remain in Congress.

    Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who hardly has an insufficiency of audacity, will be further emboldened in his presidential ambitions because tea-party support helped to propel David Brat, a 49-year-old college professor, to victory over Cantor. Never mind that Brat, who speaks equably about making Washington work, seems to eschew Cruz's confrontational style.

    Although the "amnesty" accusation hurt Cantor, so did his membership in Congress' leadership, and the perception that he had neglected his district. Also, he foolishly used his campaign millions to barrage Brat with absurd ads implying that because Brat is a professor, he must be a liberal.

    Campaign reformers who believe money is the sovereign determinative in elections should consider the contrary evidence of Brat's $231,000 war chest. Big ideas can have bigger consequences than cash does, and Brat resonated with tea-party types primarily because his campaign vocabulary was that of constitutionally limited government 10th Amendment conservatism.

    Goodlatte, who chairs the Judiciary Committee, which processes immigration legislation, may have set a 2014 record for understatement when he said Cantor's defeat will not improve the chances of immigration reform this year.

    But the chances were, he says, slim anyway.

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    The 'stunner' in Virginia changes political landscape

    Eco-friendly graveyard a growing preference at West Laurel Hill Cemetery - June 22, 2014 by Mr HomeBuilder

    By Robert Hagstrom For Main Line Times

    The Natures Sanctuary section of this cemetery in Bala Cynwyd is kept completely natural and aims to be highly sustainable to minimize detrimental environmental effects.

    VIEW MORE PHOTOS

    In keeping with eco-friendly practices, we chose our furry friends to eliminate invasives, which can cause the natural site to be unsustainable, said Director of Sales, Marketing, and Family Services Deborah Cassidy in a press release.

    Cassidy said that the idea of the Natures Sanctuary section of the cemetery started back in 2008 to offer a newer burial experience that will help preserve the environment.

    Beginning June 9 and lasting for about a week there were between 30 to 40 goats eating away at intrusive plant species in this section to keep up the grounds without using any machinery. Any uneaten grass and shrubbery will be cut by hand, Cassidy added.

    The Natures Sanctuary section of West Laurel Hill has turned into a weedy mess of invasive species, said landscape architect Adam Supplee of the KMS Design Group, which partnered with the cemetery last year to help finalize the green section.

    When a person decides to be buried in the Natures Sanctuary, Supplee said, they are placed in the next available plot. The reason for this, he said, is because meadows, flowers, and grasses grow in the section first. Then shrubs and larger trees start to come in and make way for even bigger trees to grow throughout the area.

    Supplee referred to this process as assisted ecological restoration or helping the green section of the graveyard sustain itself independently.

    People in this section are either placed in a wooden box-like casket without any fabric or metal hinges or are wrapped in a biodegradable shroud material at least two feet underground. Continued...

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