Search

Recent studies relating to the human use of the atmosphere have emphasized the need for investigations into the economics of weather and climate. They reveal that little attention has been given by meteorologists to the non-scientific gains of their profession. Of the many gains, those affecting the agricultural community are of primary importance. The technique of assessing the gains associated with monetary variations in agricultural production is examined through the use of an “agroclimatological model” for several agricultural products in New Zealand. The most significant partial correlations were examined, the subsequent analysis indicating the importance of climatic variations on various aspects of agricultural production, and their effects on agricultural incomes. The major finding of the analysis is the significance of climatic factors in their influence on butterfat production, a “significant” climatic variation such as a “wet” January, for example, being “worth” about $N.Z. 2 million to...

Daily engineering records from two road construction projects near Jefferson City, Mo., for the years 1965-68 were combined with soil moisture and precipitation measurements from nearby meteorological stations to develop a model capable of producing an experimental series describing conditions suitable for road building activities. This model was then applied to a long-term series of daily precipitation records for Jefferson City (1918-65) to calculate road construction conditions over this period. Monthly and seasonal statistics describing the feasibility of various levels of road building activity are presented for the 48-yr period. These statistics include second-order Markov chain probability estimates of working and nonworking days. Aside from the inferences which can be directly drawn from the seasonal and monthly descriptive data, the statistics may have value in developing further simulation models for estimating the effects of various management strategies. Effects of weather conditions on particular components of the economy have been considered by a number of investigators. Studies assessing the association between weather and agricultural production (Maunder 1968), housing starts (Musgrave 1968), retail trade (Linden 1961), electrical power production (Johnson et al. 1969), natural gas consumption (McQuigg and Thompson 1966) , and agricultural land prices (Johnson and Haigh 1970) are among those of more recent vintage. The weather sensitivity of the construction industry in the United States has also been considered (Russo 1966, Theil 1966, US. Department of Commerce 1966), but little attention has been devoted to the road building sector. Expenditures for road construction are, however, an important part of the total expenditure on construction and of the budgets of Federal, State, and local governments from which they are financed. In this study, effects of climatic variables on the highway construction industry are estimated through their influence on working conditions during the main construction months. Data from two construction projects are combined with a soil moisture index to obtain conditions under which construction activities can proceed. This relationship is used to generate an experimental series of working conditions based on available weather data. The resulting series of simulated working conditions are then assessed regarding their potential as aids to planning and scheduling highway construction projects.

A simulation model is applied to a long series (1918–65) of daily rainfall observations to produce an experimental series of operational records on the weather-sensitive portion of a road building project. These records are analyzed statistically for various periods of time within the normal construction season and the resulting statistics are examined for their potential usefulness in the management of road construction.