Environmental Engineering Commons^™

Exploring Factors Contributing To Injury Severity At Freeway Merging And Diverging Locations In Ohio, Worku Y. Mergia, Deogratias Eustace, Deo Chimba, Maher Butros Qumsiyeh

Maher Qumsiyeh

Identifying factors that affect crash injury severity and understanding how these factors affect injury severity is critical in planning and implementing highway safety improvement programs. Factors such as driver-related, traffic-related, environment-related and geometric design-related were considered when developing statistical models to predict the effects of these factors on the severity of injuries sustained from motor vehicle crashes at merging and diverging locations. Police-reported crash data at selected freeway merging and diverging areas in the state of Ohio were used for the development of the models. A generalized ordinal logit model also known as partial proportional odds model was applied to ...

Removal Of Target Ppcps From Secondary Effluent Using Aops And Novel Adsorbents, Venkateswara Reddy Kandlakuti

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Atenolol (β-blocker), Clofibric Acid (Lipid regulators) and Diclofenac (Anti-inflammatory) are the drugs widely used and reported to have adverse effects on fish and other organisms. These drugs are found at trace levels in lakes, rivers and sewage treatment plants and conventional treatment plants are ineffective to eliminate these at those levels. A high resolution LC-MS/MS was used to quantify these drugs at low levels. Various advanced oxidation methods were used for the present research to eliminate these drugs from secondary effluent. Complete removal of PPCPs was achieved by synthesizing immobilized TiO2 on a stainless steel mesh and using a ...

Soil Aquifer Treatment For Wastewater Reclamation In A High Water Demand Society, Diego J. Velasquez

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Water resources around the world are under increasing pressure from the rapidly growing demands of rising population and industrialization. Furthermore, changes in global weather patterns are expected to intensify its current and future stresses. In the present study, knowledge and perceptions towards wastewater reclamation for potable and non-potable uses were investigated by the used of an on-line survey distributed amongst the university community at Western university. Subsequent statistical analysis of the results was performed using IBM-SPSS software. Survey results show that member of the university community are more likely to accept reclaimed wastewater for applications that do not involve drinking ...

Evaluation Of Voc Degradation In Photo-Catalytic Air Reactors: Tio2 Immobilization, Energy Efficiency And Kinetic Modeling, Cristina S. Lugo Vega

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The high VOC emissions from anthropogenic sources are detrimental to both the environment and humans, contributing with ground-level ozone and particle matter formation. Heterogeneous photocatalysis provides significant potential for VOC degradation. However, the approaches to be used for photocatalyst immobilization in scaled and highly efficient photoreactors are still not well established. Furthermore, there is a lack of reported photonic efficiencies and a shortage of required methods to establish these efficiencies.

To address these issues, this PhD Dissertation reports the study of photonic efficiencies, TiO₂ immobilization on a stainless steel mesh and kinetic models in a scaled-up Photo-CREC-Air Reactor. Acetone ...

Automated Control Flaw Generation Procedure: Cheakamus Dam Case Study, Bogdan Pavlovic

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis deals with the problem of aging hydropower infrastructure systems and system components, a problem that is very common across Canada. Flaws of common risk analysis methods are noted, and the need for new risk analysis approaches is identified. System dynamics simulation method is introduced as an implementation mechanism for the System Theoretic Process Analysis (STPA). STPA and its adaptation to complex hydropower systems are explained thoroughly. Fuzzy logic is used to model operator’s decision making. The main objectives of the research include the development of an automated generic approach that implements STPA and fuzzy logic for the ...

Nanostructured Thin Film Synthesis By Aerosol Chemical Vapor Deposition For Energy Storage Applications, Tandeep Singh Chadha

Engineering and Applied Science Theses & Dissertations

Renewable energy sources offer a viable solution to the growing energy demand while mitigating concerns for greenhouse gas emissions and climate change. This has led to a tremendous momentum towards solar and wind-based energy harvesting technologies driving efficiencies higher and costs lower. However, the intermittent nature of these energy sources necessitates energy storage technologies, which remain the Achilles heel in meeting the renewable energy goals. This dissertation focusses on two approaches for addressing the needs of energy storage: first, targeting direct solar to fuel conversion via photoelectrochemical water-splitting and second, improving the performance of current rechargeable batteries by developing new ...

Developing Methods To Characterize Cured-In-Place Pipe (Cipp), Emily N. Conkling, Mahboobeh Teimouri, Andrew Whelton

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Cured-in-place pipe (CIPP) is quickly growing as a method to repair aging water pipes. It’s an attractive option for states’ Departments of Transportation, as CIPP doesn’t require any long term or invasive construction. The exact composition of CIPP is poorly understood, even though CIPP leaching is assumed to be the cause of algal blooms, fish kills, and some human illnesses. The goal of this study was to develop methods to characterize what chemicals are present in uncured and cured CIPP resin and at what magnitude. An exhaust capture system was designed, and the condensate collected from this was ...

Comparative Life Cycle Assessment Of Direct And Indirect Solar Water Disinfection Processes In Developing Countries, Jason K. Hawes, Margaret M. Busse, Ernest R. Blatchley Iii

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

In July 2010, the UN General Assembly recognized the universal human right to sufficient water for health and sanitation (UN…, 2010). The reliable disinfection of this water plays a critical role in public health (Carter and Miller, 2005), and this study investigates the use of four ultraviolet (UV) disinfection methods for use in international development and disaster relief. The study focuses on the life cycle impacts of four direct and indirect solar ultraviolet disinfection systems. Direct solar disinfection refers to exposure of water to solar radiation, while indirect solar disinfection collects solar energy and uses this to power a UV ...

Exploring Regional And Telecoupled Land Use Change Impacts From Environmental Shocks, Kevin Hill, Liz Wachs, Brady Hardiman, David Yu, Shweta Singh

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Natural disasters or environmental shocks have the potential to disrupt local agricultural systems as well as distant agricultural systems through cascading effects. In this work we selected two distinct environmental shocks and traced their cascading effects on land use change. Quantifying cascading effects is a salient issue because climate change forecasts indicate an increase in frequency and intensity of global environmental shocks. This study incorporated the concept of telecoupled systems involving interrelating ecological, economic and political/social components. A telecoupled framework involving cascading effects was implemented using three approaches. The first approach involved using bilateral agricultural trade matrix data to ...

Pore Scale Transport Of Miscible And Immiscible Fluids In Porous Media, Tolulope O. Odimayomi, Arezoo M. Ardekani

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

The separation of harmful or valuable substances entrapped in porous media has applications in processes such as enhanced oil recovery, diffusion in tissue, and aquifer remediation. In this study the motion and removal rate of immiscible and miscible solutions have been analyzed to gain understanding of solvent effectiveness as it is diluted due to diffusion or mixing within porous materials. The extraction of oil using water, a surfactant solution of 4% CTAB in water, and a foam produced form the surfactant solution is observed using two dimensional flows between parallel slides containing cylindrical obstacles. The fluid motion is visualized. The ...

Long-Term Health Risk Of Climate Change Associated Surface Pm2.5 Concentration Variation: Multiple Accmip Model Data Under Different Emission Scenarios (Rcp26, 45, 60, 85) And Population Scenarios (Ssp1, Ssp2, Ssp3), Xiufen Zhu

Masters Theses

In this study, multiple models from Atmospheric Chemistry and Climate Model Intercomparison Project (ACCMIP) are utilized to derive the global burden of disease of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), lung cancer (LNC), and lower respiratory infection (LRI) derived from surface PM_2.5 elevation. Various Representative Concentration Pathways and Shared Socio-economic Pathways scenarios are compared as well as various models to deduct the impact from various scenarios. The time series variation and seasonal variation are also illustrated in this study. Multi-model ensemble was conducted to reduce the deviation in model projection output.

Projection shows increase in the population normalized relative ...

Metadata For Describing Water Models, Mohamed M. Morsy, Jonathan L. Goodall, Christina Bandaragoda, Anthony M. Castronova, Jane Greenberg

Anthony Castronova

Computer models are widely used in hydrology and water resources management. A large variety of models exist, each tailored to address specific challenges related to hydrologic science and water resources management. When scientists and engineers apply one of these models to address a specific question, they must devote significant effort to set up, calibrate, and evaluate that model instance built for some place and time. In many cases, there is a benefit to sharing these computer models and associated datasets with the broader scientific community. Core to model reuse in any context is metadata describing the model. A standardized metadata ...

Hindcasting The Dynamics Of An Eastern Mediterranean Marine Ecosystem Under The Impacts Of Multiple And Cumulative Stressors, X. Corrales, M. Coll, E. Ofir, M. Goren, D. Edelist, J. J. Heymans, G. Gal

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

An important challenge for conserving and managing marine ecosystems is to advance our understanding of how multiple human stressors, environmental factors and marine resources interact and influence each other. The ecosystems of the Israeli Mediterranean coast have undergone significant ecological changes in recent decades caused primarily by the introduction of invasive species through the Suez Canal, intense fishing activities and the effects of climate change. An Ecopath model representing the continental shelf of the Israeli Mediterranean coast was calibrated and fitted to the available time series from early 1990’s to 2010 using the Ecosim temporal dynamic modeling approach. The ...

Identification Of Critical Source Areas Of Nutrient Loads Using Swat Model: Case Study, Zrebar Lake Watershed, Iran, S. Imani, M. Delavar, M. H. Niksokhan

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Entrance of nutrients and sediments to water bodies (i.e. Lakes) originating from watersheds is a serious problem in the Iran and other countries. So, the identification of critical source areas (CSAs) of pollutants in terms of watershed hydrologic units is extremely important for effective management of pollutant sources and implementation of best management practices for better protection of water quality. The main objective of this study was to identify and evaluate critical source areas (CSAs) of Nutrient loads using an integrated modeling approach. For this, Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) was used to identify CSAs of nutrients in ...

Scaling Watershed Models: Modern Approaches To Science Computation With Mapreduce, Parallelization, And Cloud Optimization, Jonathan Flaishans, Meridith Fry, Trip Hook, Nelson Thurman, Jim Carleton, Shelly Thawley, Kurt Wolfe, Dirk Young, Tom Purucker

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Environmental models are products of the computer architecture and software tools available at the time of development. Scientifically sound algorithms may persist in their original state even as system architectures and software development approaches evolve and progress. Dating back to the 1980s, the EPA has developed algorithms to estimate the flux of pesticides from treated fields to neighboring water bodies. Recent development of the EPA’s Spatial Aquatic Model (SAM) has provided an opportunity to redevelop, optimize and modernize this code used for regulatory decisions. Use of profiling has indicated a number of efficiencies that could be gained by updating ...

Ogc Sensor Observation Service: Past, Present, Internet Of The Things, Argyris Samourkasidis, Ioannis N. Athanasiadis

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Every-day devices are being miniaturized, equipped with transducers and transformed into internet-connected sensor nodes. Above smart-devices, not only can sense their surroundings, but could also store and disseminate their observations. While Internet of the Things (IoT) introduces a new, dynamic, participatory ecosystem of decentralized and collaborative devices, intrinsic heterogeneity hinders its full realization. Diversity of smart-devices and their resulting data formats, demands for interoperable data curation solutions. Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) has put significant work towards interoperable data interchange. Through Sensor Web Enablement (SWE) and its related service interfaces, and information models, OGC offers syntactic and semantic interoperability. Sensor Observation ...

Chemical Transformation System: Cloud Based Cheminformatic Services To Support Integrated Environmental Modeling, Kurt Wolfe, Nicholas Pope, Rajbir Parmar, Mike Galvin, Caroline Stevens, Eric Weber, Jonathan Flaishans, Tom Purucker

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Integrated Environmental Modeling (IEM) systems that account for the fate/transport of organics frequently require physicochemical properties as well as transformation products. A myriad of chemical property databases exist but these can be difficult to access and often do not contain the proprietary chemicals that environmental regulators must consider. We are building the Chemical Transformation System (CTS) to facilitate model parameterization and analysis. CTS integrates a number of physicochemical property calculators into the system including EPI Suite, SPARC, TEST and ChemAxon. The calculators are heterogeneous in their scientific methodologies, technology implementations and deployment stacks. CTS also includes a chemical transformation ...

The Validation Of Algal Growth Processes In A Water Quality Model Using Remote Sensing Data, A. R. Slaughter, S. K. Mantel

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The Water Quality Systems Assessment Model (WQSAM) uses the concept of requisite simplicity within the context of modelling water quality of data scarce South African surface waters. Although WQSAM has successfully simulated the frequency distribution of observed historical nutrient data for various catchments in South Africa, the validation of algal and macrophyte growth processes in the model is a challenge because of a lack of observed data. Remote sensing data can provide an estimate of algal growth within reservoirs. Therefore, this study aimed to validate the WQSAM simulations of algal growth using remote sensing estimations of primary production in reservoirs ...

Reduction Of Pharmaceutical Loads In Rivers: An Integrated Model That Facilitates Decision-Making Processes, Pau Gimeno, Rafael Marcé, Lluís Bosch, Joaquim Comas, Lluís Corominas

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

River Basin Authorities require models and decision support tools to predict loads of Pharmaceutical Active Compounds (PhACs) in surface water and facilitate the evaluation of reduction strategies through urban wastewater system upgrades. We propose a water management support tool which describes the fate and removal of PhACs along the entire catchment and can be used to simulate investments to minimize PhACs loads in the environment. The tool integrates a substance- human consumption and excretion model, a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) model, and a river model. Uncertainty associated to three model parameters (PhAC human consumption and excretion, PhAC degradation constant in ...

Environmental Models As A Service: Enabling Interoperability Through Restful Endpoints And Api Documentation, Jonathan Flaishans, Mike Galvin, Amber Ignatius, Carmen Kuan, Gerard F. Laniak, Kurt Wolfe, Tom Purucker

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Achieving interoperability in environmental modeling has evolved as software technology has progressed. The recent rise of cloud computing and proliferation of web services initiated a new stage for creating interoperable systems. Scientific programmers increasingly take advantage of streamlined deployment processes and affordable cloud access to move algorithms and data to the web for discoverability and consumption. In these deployments, environmental models can become available to end users through RESTful web services and consistent application program interfaces (APIs) that consume, manipulate, and store modeling data. RESTful modeling APIs also promote discoverability and guide usability through self-documentation. Embracing the RESTful paradigm allows ...