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CCM exam Question 1. overview. A construction worker has building plans in the San Gabriel Mountains. Erosion is a big issue since access roads will not be paved and vegetation won’t be able to stabilize soils.
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overview • A construction worker has building plans in the San Gabriel Mountains. Erosion is a big issue since access roads will not be paved and vegetation won’t be able to stabilize soils. • A news report stated that west coast precipitation anomalies are directly significantly related to Pacific indices. • He is interested in the relation between PDO indices and Southern California rainfall because the news report stated that PDO was expected to be negative over the next 5 years, and therefore rainfall was expected to be minimal. • Hired a consulting meteorologist to determine if the news report was correct and to discuss their personal views on the issues with respect to his construction plans.
Part 1: news report • For PDO: for 56 years, the correlation coefficient of 0.104 gave a significance level of 0.4916. This is NOT statistically significant. • Does not necessarily mean that when PDO is negative, there will not be rainfall in Southern California. • Not a good predictor of precipitation.
Part 1 continued • For Nino3: for 56 years, the correlation coefficient of 0.55 gave a significance level of 0.01. This is statistically significant. • Nino3 is a much better predictor of precipitation in Southern California. • The news report, which downplays El Nino’s impact on precipitation is incorrect.
Part 2: my views • Disregard the news report. It is confusing to the reader. • There are wide variations in rainfall in Southern California. • Expect some erosion. Perhaps build a barrier around the site and access roads. • SOI is a good indicator of predicted rainfall. It has a correlation coefficient of -0.55 which gave a significance level of 0.01. • Work as much as possible during the summer drought.