Download Software - Colorado State University

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Quantifying the influence of anthropogenic activity on greenhouse gas emissions and removals at a
national scale is a challenge for countries engaged in development of climate change policy.
Quantification is important for informing policy decisions and also required for signatory countries to
the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
The goal of this project is to provide software that guides an inventory compiler through the process of
estimating emissions and removals related to agricultural and forestry activities.
Countries with the goal of mitigating emissions from agriculture and forestry need a reasonably accurate
understanding of current emission trends and the influence of land use and management alternatives
on future emissions. Our inventory software program is intended to support this need.
The program has been developed through GHG inventory capacity-building projects for countries in
Central America and Southeast Asia, which were funded by US Environmental Protection Agency, US
Agency for International Development and US Forest Service. Developers at Colorado State University
have designed the software to make the inventory process easier to implement and consistent with
guidelines provided by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Please contact us if you would
like additional information.
Software Description <software.php>
The program can be used to estimate emissions and removals associated with biomass C stocks, soil C
stocks, soil nitrous oxide emissions, rice methane emissions, enteric methane emissions, manure
methane and nitrous oxide emissions, as well as non-CO 2 GHG emissions from biomass burning.
Methods are based on guidelines provided by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), as
documented in the Revised 1996 IPCC National Greenhouse Gas Inventory Guidelines as further refined
in the 2000 IPCC Good Practice Guidance on Uncertainty Management in National Greenhouse Gas
Inventories and 2003 IPCC Good Practice Guidance for Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry.
The software has several innovative features:
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Accommodates Tier 1 and 2 methods as defined by the IPCC
Allows compilers to integrate GIS spatial data along with national statistics on agriculture and
forestry
Designed to produce a consistent and complete representation of land use for inventory
assessment
Can develop an enhanced characterization for livestock
Has explicit quality control and quality assurance steps
Provides a long-term archive of data and results in digital format
Generates emission reports that can be included in communications with interested parties.
Project Coordinator <coordinator.php>
Dr. Stephen M. Ogle is a Research Scientist and Associate Professor at Colorado State University. He has
become an expert on research and application of greenhouse gas inventory methods. He serves as lead
compiler for the US national inventory for soil C and N 2O emissions from agricultural lands, in addition
to the US national representation of land. These inventory products are used for reporting by the US
government to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). He has been a
lead author on syntheses and reports prepared by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(2006 National Greenhouse Gas Inventory Guidelines and Fourth Assessment Report on Climate
Change), and a past member of the scientific steering group for the North American Carbon Program. He
also conducts research collaboratively with economists and sociologists to better understand the drivers
of land use and management decisions, and predict the likelihood of greenhouse gas mitigation in the
future through adoption of conservation practices and bioenergy production in agricultural lands.
Dr. Ogle has participated in international capacity-building projects to improve greenhouse gas
inventory compilation in Central America, Southeast Asia, and East and South African Countries,
providing training and tools on greenhouse gas inventory methods for the AFOLU sector. He has given
numerous invited and keynote presentations at meetings for a variety of societies and organizations,
such as American Geophysical Union, China Association for Science and Technology, CarboEurope-GHG
Program, European Geosciences Union, Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA)
to the UNFCCC, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, and US Forest Service.
Frequently Asked Questions <faqs.php>
Software Use
How do I get the ALU software?
ALU software is free and available to anyone, however you will need to email a request for access.
After your email request is received, you will be assigned a user account and will be able to access the
software by logging in at this website at any time. Go to "Download Software" on the menu for more
details.
Is there are charge to download and use ALU software?
No, ALU software is free of charge and is available to the public.
Is ALU designed to work in any country?
Yes, ALU is designed to work in any country and accommodates a wide range of agricultural and land
use practices.
Does ALU support languages other than English?
Currently, ALU software is only available in English, however the ALU Help Manual is available in both
English and Chinese.
How will I know if a new version of ALU is available?
All registered users will be notified via email when a new version of ALU is released, along with a few
short notes that describe the primary improvements in the software.
Installation
What are the basic computer requirements to install and run ALU?
The ALU program is compatible with Microsoft XP™, Vista™ Microsoft Windows 7.0™ operating
systems. ALU software works with both 32-bit and 64-bit operating systems.
Are there any software requirements to install and run ALU?
ALU software requires Adobe Acrobat Reader® Version 7 or later, in order to view the ALU Help
Manual. You may also create reports in ALU, which requires Microsoft® Excel 2003 or later.
Do I need to manually uninstall a previous version of ALU before I attempt to install the latest version of
ALU?
Previous versions of ALU usually do not need to be removed before installing a new version. However,
a significant software change was made with Version 2.2.1.0 that requires ALU Versions less than 2.2.1.0
to first be manually removed.
If I've created databases using previous versions of ALU, will I be able to access them after I install the
latest version of ALU?
Yes, you will be able to use databases that you've already created and no data will be lost when
transitioning to a newer ALU version.
Download Software <forms.pinc>
Download ALU Software
The new version of ALU accommodates both 32-bit and 64-bit Windows operating systems. The
previous version of ALU (2.2.1.0) required a separate download for each operating system. In the
updated version of ALU, only one file is needed and will run on either 32-bit or 64-bit operating systems.
Please see ALU Installation Instructions for more details.
Important! Before attempting to install ALU software, make sure that you have Administrative privileges
on your computer, as it will install ALU in the Programs folder. Please see your technical support staff to
help you with this if needed. Also, while you generally will not need to manually uninstall a previous
version of ALU before updating the software, you WILL need to manually uninstall versions older than
version 2.2.1.0. Please download and read the ALU Installation Instructions for more detailed
instructions.
Download: ALU Installation Instructions
Download: ALU Software
Version 2.2.1.2 Release Notes:
This release of the Agriculture & Land Use National Greenhouse Gas Inventory Software (ALU) provides
several small bug fixes found by users in Version 2.2.0.0 to Version 2.2.1.1:
1) ALU Database files were not being recognized by Version 2.2.0.0 when the Database was created
with an ALU Version older than 2.1.0.3. This problem has been fixed and all user databases created with
older versions of ALU should now be recognized and upgraded to include modifications needed by the
current ALU Version (versions 2.2.1.0 and greater).
2) We have recently switched our development version of software used to create the ALU software,
this change will require users to first manually uninstall any ALU Version older than version 2.2.1.0
before installing version 2.2.1.2. You may first try installing ALU without removing the old version, but if
you receive an installation error, then please remove the old version manually. Please see the ALU
Installation Instructions for more details.
3) This new version also requires an updated Microsoft .Net Framework, Version 4.0, to be installed on
your computer in order for ALU to work. If your computer does not have Microsoft .Net Framework 4.0
it will automatically be installed before ALU is installed. Please note that this could take several minutes
to install. Subsequent versions of ALU will not need to reinstall the .Net Framework. You will need
administrative privileges to install both the .Net Framework and ALU. You may need to contact your
computer technical support staff to assist with installation if you do not have administrative privileges to
install software on your computer or laptop. Also, ALU must have read/write privileges to the
installation folder in order to write & read data from a configuration file.
4) Modifications were made to the way Dates are stored in the database in order to fix a bug found by a
small group of users. Please let us know if you receive any error messages related to a date format
syntax error.
5) The Session Copying function has been modified to properly copy all records and update IDs.
We encourage users to continue reporting to us any errors encountered while using the software. This
feedback is very much appreciated, and can be provided to us through email at any time
([email protected]).
Version 2.2.1.0 Release Notes:
This release of the Agriculture and Land Use National Greenhouse Gas Inventory Software provided a
bug fix found by users in Version 2.2.0.0:
1) ALU Database files were not being recognized by Version 2.2.0.0 when the Database was created
with an ALU Version older than 2.1.0.3. This problem has been fixed and all user databases created with
older versions of ALU should now be recognized and upgraded to include modifications needed by the
current ALU Version (version 2.2.1.0).
2) We have recently switched our development version of software used to create the ALU software,
this change may require users to first manually uninstall an older version of ALU (older than version
2.2.1.0) before installing version 2.2.1.0. You may first try installing ALU without removing the old
version, but if you receive an installation error, then please remove the old version manually. Please see
the ALU Installation Instructions for more details (ALU_Install_Instructions_Version_2.2.1.0.doc).
3) This new version also requires an updated Microsoft .Net Framework, Version 4.0, to be installed on
your computer in order for ALU to work. If your computer does not have Microsoft .Net Framework 4.0
it will automatically be installed before ALU is installed. Please note that this could take several minutes
to install. Subsequent versions of ALU will not need to reinstall the .Net Framework. You will need
administrative privileges to install both the .Net Framework and ALU. You may need to contact your
computer technical support staff to assist with installation if you do not have administrative privileges to
install software on your computer or laptop.
Version 2.2.0.0 Release Notes:
The second release of the second generation of the Agriculture and Land Use National Greenhouse Gas
Inventory Software, version 2.2, provided several upgrades from the previous version, including
1) Generates Modules 4 and 5 of the UNFCCC software in excel format for reporting to the UNFCCC
secretariat,
2) Copy session function has been added that allows users to make an exact copy of an existing session,
which can then be modified for another year in the inventory or other purpose,
3) Can estimate total biomass and soil C stock changes in module III of ALU (previous version only
computed the change in stocks in the reporting forms),
4) Improved data management routines that will allow the export and import of climate, soil and land
use subcategory files, as well as editing of these files as needed,
5) More cropping intensities such as handling of 4 and 5 crops grown in a rotation for a single year,
6) Users can now delete crop, grass and tree types, in addition to climate, soil, land use subcategory and
emission factor files, with the exception of IPCC default files, and
7) QA/QC report has been included in the standard ALU reporting forms created by the software in this
latest version.
We have also corrected issues raised largely by users in regards to the validation functions, which were
not functioning properly on some forms and in a few cases, were doing an incorrect validation.
Download ALU Activity Data Workbook
Release Notes:
A new release of the ALU workbook is now available (version 2.0). Version 2.0 of the ALU Activity Data
Workbook has more automation than the earlier versions. The major reasons for developing the
automation was to prevent errors and work towards a version that can be automatically imported into
the ALU software (Note that this version cannot be automatically imported but is a step closer to this
functionality). Please review the Readme warnings before using the workbook (You will find the
warnings in a pdf document in the zip file). You must follow these warnings or the workbook will not be
functional! For example, the users must enable the macros and should not change the file names or file
structure after extracting the content of the zip file.