Computer Engineering Commons^™

Using Bayesian Networks To Link Environmental Flows To Ecosystem Services In The Murray-Darling Basin, Australia, Sina K. Frank, Carmel A. Pollino, Petra Döll

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

In water resources management and planning, it is important to understand both (1.) the linkages between environmental flows and ecosystem condition as well as (2.) the linkages between ecosystem condition and ecosystem services. Bayesian Networks (BNs) are an integration-based modeling tool that could be suitable for representing and quantifying these linkages. To evaluate this, we developed a BN, using the Murray-Darling Basin (Australia) as a case study. The Murray-Darling Basin has both agricultural and ecological values, and has more than a century of water resource development and planning. Recently, ecosystem services have been proposed as a means to progressing water …

Swanp: Software For Automatic Smart Water Network Partitioning, Armando Di Nardo, Michele Di Natale, Giovanni Francesco Santonastaso, Francesco Paolo Tuccinardi, Giancarlo Zaccone

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The application of Information and Communication Technology in different assets of urban life has contributed to generating the notion of Smart City in which Smart WAter Network (SWAN) can be assumed as subsystems. The possibility of inserting remote control valves and flow meters in a WDS allows the implementation of the paradigm of "divide and conquer", that consists into divide a large water network into k smaller subsystems, in order to simplify and improve the management and protection of SWAN. Traditional approaches for water network partitioning, based on empirical guiding principles (such as the maximum number of properties or total …

Multi-Level Automated Sub-Zoning Of Water Distribution Systems, Lina Sela Perelman, Micheal Allen, Ami Preis, Mudasser Iqbal, Andrew J. Whittle

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Water distribution systems (WDS) are complex pipe networks with looped and branching topologies that often comprise of thousands of links and nodes. This work presents a generic framework for improved analysis and management of WDS by partitioning the system into smaller (almost) independent sub-systems with balanced loads and minimal number of interconnections. This paper compares the performance of three classes of unsupervised learning algorithms from graph theory for practical sub-zoning of WDS: (1) Graph clustering – a bottom-up algorithm for clustering n objects with respect to a similarity function, (2) Community structure – a bottom-up algorithm based on network modularity …

Use Of The Warmf Model To Identify Sources Of Oxygen Impairment And Potential Management Strategies For The San Joaquin River Watershed, William T. Stringfellow, Joel Herr, Scott Sheeder, Shelly Gulati, Gregory Weissmann, Mary Kay Camarillo, Micheal Jue

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Eutrophication of the San Joaquin River (SJR) has resulted in low dissolved oxygen (DO) conditions, which has led to a regulatory response and development of total maximum daily load (TMDL) allocations. Due to the dynamic nature of processes governing oxygen depletion in the SJR, a model was needed to help stakeholders understand the fate and transport of nutrients and oxygen-demanding substances that cause the low DO conditions. Here, the Watershed Analysis Risk Management Framework (WARMF) model was used to simulate nutrient removal and control strategies, accounting for the secondary effects of growth and transformation between sources and discharge. Using the …

Developing An Aquasim Biofilm Model To Simulate A Novel Batch Biofilm Passive Aeration Technology, Noelle Jones, Maebh Grace, Eoghan Clifford

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Mathematical modelling of biofilm reactors can be complicated and time-consuming due to the complexity of the biofilms and a wide range of models have been developed to simulate biofilm reactors.

The Pumped Flow Biofilm Reactor (PFBR) is a new biofilm-based passive aeration system (PAS) that is an example of a complex biofilm system. The PFBR is a two reactor technology that employs a unique hydraulic regime and enables aerobic, anoxic and anaerobic conditions to be sequenced . Biofilm, growing on plastic media modules within the two reactors, is aerated passively as wastewater is moved alternately between the reactors during an …

Use Of A One-Dimensional Link-Node Model To Develop Total Maximum Daily Load Strategies For The San Joaquin River Estuary, Mary Kay Camarillo, William Stringfellow, Joel Herr, Scott Sheeder, Gregory Weissmann, Shelly Gulati, Ashley Stubblefield

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

A one-dimensional link-node model was used to simulate water quality conditions in the tidally­-influenced, deep water ship channel (DWSC) of the San Joaquin River located in Central California. The DWSC has been plagued with low dissolved oxygen (DO) conditions for decades and is currently a focus of restoration efforts. The model was calibrated using a six-year flow and water quality data set. Model simulations were run by removing the mass loads of each of the following major sources of oxygen depletion to determine the effects: elimination of the deepened ship channel (i.e., restore to its pre­ existing depth), elimination of …

Performance And Power Optimization Of Gpu Architectures For General-Purpose Computing, Yue Wang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Power-performance efficiency has become a central focus that is challenging in heterogeneous processing platforms as the power constraints have to be established without hindering the high performance. In this dissertation, a framework for optimizing the power and performance of GPUs in the context of general-purpose computing in GPUs (GPGPU) is proposed. To optimize the leakage power of caches in GPUs, we dynamically switch the L1 and L2 caches into low power modes during periods of inactivity to reduce leakage power. The L1 cache can be put into a low-leakage (sleep) state when a processing unit is stalled due to no …

Towards A Low-Cost, Full-Service Air Quality Data Archival System, Argyris Samourkasidis, Ioannis N. Athanasiadis

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

We present our explorations towards a low-cost solution for creating an autonomous environmental data archival system. AiRCHIVE is a software platform for providing open access to sensor data with different ways, that account for machine interoperability. It is built with Raspberry Pi, a low-cost, pocket-size computer, and Air Pi a low-cost amateur sensory kit for air quality monitoring. Raspberry Pi with AirPi allowed us to easily capture raw sensor data and store them in a local database, and with AiRCHIVE we deployed “on sensor” a web server that provides with a set of services for data preprocessing and dissemination, including …

Modeling And Implementation Of A Geospatial Database For Environmental Niches And Potential Geographic Distributions, Gerardo José Zárate, Jugurta Lisboa-Filho, Carlos Frankl Sperber, Flavia Maria Da Silva Carmo

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The ecological niche of a species is defined by an array of biotic and abiotic requirements that allow organisms to live and reproduce in a geographic region. Abiotic data from the ecological niche in combination with occurrence data can be used to predict the potential geographic distribution of a species in different regions. Potential geographic distributions are useful in predicting the extent of invasive species, predict distributions as preparation for climate change and find appropriate regions for endangered species, among others. Geographic entities and environmental variables can be represented with a high-level abstraction in diagrams using formalism dedicated to model …

Towards An Ontology For Situation Assessment In Environmental Monitoring, Markus Stocker, Mauno Rönkkö, Mikko Kolehmainen

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Situation assessment, i.e. the process of achieving situation awareness, is common in environmental monitoring, where assessment occurs predominantly on sensor data and awareness is for the state of environmental phenomena. For a particular location, an environmental monitoring system may measure and compute mean hourly PM2.5 concentration to acquire knowledge for situations of unhealthy exposure by humans to ambient air; it may measure aerosol particle size distribution to acquire knowledge for situations of atmospheric new particle formation; it may measure road-pavement vibration to acquire knowledge for traffic. The process can be divided in four generic sub processes, namely data acquisition, data …

Business Intelligence In Environmental Reporting Powered By Xbrl, Jiří Hřebíček, Michal Hodinka, Michael Ŝtencl, Oldřich Trenz

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The paper discusses several critical points of the whole concept of Business lntelligence (Bl) approach to environmental reporting powered by XBRL. First, and most important, is the usage of structured data delivered via XBRL. The main profit on usage of XBRL is the optimization of the Extract, Transform and Load (ETL) process and its combination commonly used best practices on data warehouse models. The whole Bl workflow could be moved further by additional data quality health checks, extended mathematical and logical data test, basics of data discovery and drill-down techniques. The state of the art on the XBRL level and …

3d Model Construction Of Water Supply System Pipes Based On Gpr Images, David Ayala-Cabrera, Joaquín Izquierdo, Silvia J. Ocaña-Levario, Rafael Pérez-García

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

In this work, a GPR (ground penetrating radar) development is presented as a non-destructive technique. It allows the visualization of water supply system (WSS) pipelines buried into the ground. The main scope is in image (radargram) processing obtained from GPR, to ob tain improved data visualization. For the application of the technique, laboratory essays have been conducted. These essays were performed by burying a commonly used pipe in a tank that emu­ lates a small ground parcel. The images obtained were analysed and particular differences between them were observed. From this ensemble of images, a 3D model was generated to …

A Virtual Reality System To Monitor And Control Diseases In Strawberry With Drones: A Project, Rafael Rieder, Willingthon Pavan, José Maurício Carré Maciel, José Maurício Cunha Fernandes, Márcio Sarroglia Pinho

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa Duchesne) is an important fruit crop in Brazil. Strawberry cultivation interest occurs because of high profitability, consumer acceptance and crop production diversity. Notwithstanding, diseases caused by fungi are a major problem in strawberry fields. For this reason, growers adopt rigid phytosanitary management practices in order to prevent losses. In this context, growers rely on the use of pesticides for controlling diseases. However, pesticide usage increases the product costs, reduces fruit quality and increases rejection by consumers. This paper presents a Virtual Reality system project to assist integrated disease management in strawberry using image processing. High quality …

Essential Elements For Participatory Modelling: Using Deliberative Engagement And Gesture-Enabled Interfaces To Implement Energy-Mineral-Water Solutions In The Atacama Desert, Chile, Suzanne A. Pierce, Eugenio Figueroa B.

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Sound science and adequate models of systems are necessary for environmental decisions, yet frequently it is insufficient. The ENCOMPASS and ECOGES projects aim to create science-based deliberation among diverse stakeholders about water-energy-mineral use and choices in the Atacama Desert region of Chile. The projects seek to improve levels of understanding and open possibilities for collaborative problem solving by engaging industry, academics, and indigenous communities in a long- term participatory modeling process.

Since 2009 the initiative has brought people into collaborative discussions, building technical knowledge and bridging across sectors that are often at odds over management of earth resources. Today, participants …

Proposing A Framework For Crowd-Sourced Green Infrastructure Design, Samuel Rivera, Lawrence E. Band, Jong S. Lee, Kenton Mchenry, Arthur R. Schmidt, Jack Snoeyink, William C. Sullivan, Mary C. Whitton, Barbara Minsker

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Green stormwater infrastructure (GI) (e.g., rain gardens, bioswales, green roofs, etc.) are decentralized systems that have gained recent attention for their ability to reduce stormwater management problems while significantly benefiting human and ecosystem well-being. Available GI design methodologies lack a participatory framework that considers community-specific social, cultural, economic, and political constraints, critical components for widespread acceptance and effective implementation and maintenance of such systems. A project funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation seeks to develop a novel, computational, GI design framework that integrates interactive, neighborhood-scale, collaborative design by multiple stakeholders ("crowd-sourced" design) with multi- scale models of ecosystem and …

Eliciting Stakeholder Preferences Through Nonmarket Valuation Techniques, Marit E. Kragt

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

To successfully predict the impacts of environmental change, modellers need to incorporate analyses of human behaviour into their predictions. The engagement of stakeholders, including participatory model development, is now widely advocated as an approach to account for stakeholder preferences. While participatory approaches are suitable to involve targeted stakeholder groups and technical experts, it is typically prohibitively expensive to engage a wide range of communities in the model development process. Many environmental modellers may be aware of social science research methods to participatory research. Socio-economic approaches to elicit stakeholder preferences are, however, less commonly used. This paper presents three stated preference …

A Social Metamodel To Control The Participatory Process In Complex System Modelling, Michel Lample, Denis Bailly, Johanna Ballé-Béganton

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The metamodel framework is a new tool for co-construction of models involving societal or political participation. Rather than an attempt to model the social factor by numerical techniques which amounts to project the social paradigm in the model paradigm, the metamodel framework provides a way to overcome the difficulties of social behaviour by an inverse projection of the model paradigm into the social one. The framework asks for a strict methodology based on a suitable agenda, a quality process and the management by an Architect team. Furthermore, this framework accommodates lean modelling techniques that system platforms are able to provide.

Interoperable Intelligent Environmental Decision Support Systems: A Framework Proposal, Miquel Sànchez-Marrè

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

In this paper, an approach for the development of Interoperable Intelligent Environmental Decision Support Systems (IEDSS) is proposed. The framework is based upon the cognitive-oriented approach for the development of IEDSS proposed in (Sànchez-Marrè et al., 2008), where three kinds of tasks must be built: analysis tasks, synthesis tasks and prognosis tasks. Now, a fourth level will be proposed: the model construction layer, which is normally an off-line task. At each level, interoperability should be possible and inter-level interoperability must also be achieved. This interoperability is proposed to be obtained using data interchange protocols like Predictive Model Markup Language (PMML), …

Evolutionary Computation And Case-Based Reasoning Interoperation In Iedss Through Gesconda, Miquel Sànchez-Marrè, Gibert Karina, Radha K. Vinayagam, Beatriz Sevilla-Villanueva

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Interoperability of Intelligent Environmental Decision Support Systems (IEDSS) is one open challenge in the IEDSS field. This paper shows the interoperability of Evolutionary Computation, concretely Genetic Algorithms (GA), and Case-Based Reasoning (CBR) in IEDSS through the GESCONDA tool. GESCONDA is a tool for the deployment of Intelligent Decision Support Systems. This interoperability has been tested with several domains with different purposes like classification tasks, predictive tasks, etc. In the paper, the application in one environmental domain is described and analysed. The experimentation results indicate that this interoperation of both methods can improve the results of the application of one single …

A Hybrid, Integrated Iedds For The Management Of Sequencing Batch Reactors, Davide Sottara, Stefano Bragaglia, Dalila Pulcini, Paola Mello, Luca Luccarini

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

A Sequencing Batch Reactor (SBR) is a particular kind of wastewater treatment plant (WWTP), where all treatment processes take place in a single reactor tank, according to a fixed temporal sequence. SBR offers several advantages in terms of reduced costs, minor impact and greater flexibility with respect to traditional WWTPs. However, an optimal cost/performance ratio can only be achieved if the treatment processes are continuously monitored and controlled. In this paper, we present a hybrid, distributed, knowledge-based (Intelligent) Environmental Decision Support System (IEDSS) specifically dedicated to the management of SBRs. The IEDSS is responsible for verifying, ensuring and enforcing the …