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Considerations For And Development Of Sound Level Maps For The M16a4 Rifle, Reese D. Rasband

Theses and Dissertations

Small firearms can create sound levels exceeding the safe threshold of human hearing with even one shot. Understanding how the sound propagates will lead to better range and military drill design. This thesis describes errors associated with different predictive interpolation models for the M16A4. Before directly discussing potential sources of error, the thesis first seeks to validate the data acquired. This is done through waveform inspection with a focus on shot-to-shot consistency. Finding the standard deviation in level between a 10-shot volley provides a good baseline with which other sources of error can be compared to. For both peak and …

Coupling In-Situ, Remote Sensing And Modelling Tools To Enhance Water Resources Assessment Over Large-Scale Watersheds: The Case Of The Madeira Basin (Brazil), Jérémy Guilhen

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Process based hydrological models have being widely used to simulate hydrology over large-scale basins, which are usually under gauged in terms of input data. The Madeira Basin is one of the major tributaries of the Amazon River, forms the south-western boundaries of the Amazon watershed and possesses a large alluvial floodplain throughout the stream continuum. The aim of the study is to propose a transposable methodology that couples in-situ, remote sensing and modelling tools to better assess the hydrological functioning of large-scale watershed; more particularly over their alluvial floodplains. We use the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT), which is …

Modelling Landcover Change With A Ca-Markov Model For The Siliana Hydrological Catchment (Northwestern Tunisia), Imen El Ghoul

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Simulating future land cover change is one of the major challenges for scientists, decision makers, and local authorities in terms of data, methods, and models that should be used to create a sustainable land cover planning process. The study aims to evaluate the past land cover changes from 1990 to 2019 in Siliana catchment in Northwest Tunisia and predict the situation to 2030 and 2050. Satellite images of Landsat 5-thematic mapper for the years 1990, 2000, 2010 and 2019 were used for analyzing and predicting the spatio-temporal distributions of land cover for this study. Based on these past analyses, future …

Uncertainty And Sensitivity Analysis For Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions From Wastewater Treatment Plant, Giorgio Mannina, Alida Cosenza, Taise Ferreira Rebouças

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

This paper presents the sensitivity and uncertainty analysis of a plat-wide mathematical model for wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). The mathematical model assesses direct and indirect (due to the energy consumption) greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions from a WWTP employing a whole-plant approach. The model includes: i. the kinetic/mass-balance based model regarding nitrogen; ii. two-step nitrification process; iii. N₂O formation both during nitrification and denitrification (as dissolved and off-gas concentration). Important model factors have been selected by using the Extended - Fourier Amplitude Sensitivity Testing (FAST) global sensitivity analysis method. A scenario analysis has been performed in order to evaluate …

A Modeling Approach For Making Conjunctive Water Management Decisions In The Lower Republican River Basin, Usa., Andrea E. Brookfield, Blake B. Wilson

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Effective water management requires knowledge of both natural and engineered hydrologic systems. With a changing climate and strained water resources, it is increasingly important to assess and adapt current water management strategies to more efficiently use the available water supplies to meet demands. Traditional approaches to water management have treated natural and engineered hydrologic systems as separate entities, making simplistic assumptions about each component. To properly assess water management strategies, these approaches should be integrated to account for the interactions between the two systems. In addition, the uncertainties associated with each modeling approach and the parameterization of the models need …

How Does Uncertainty Framing Affect Whether A Question Is Answerable?, Joseph Guillaume, Raimo Hämäläinen, Casey Helgeson, Matti Kummu

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Environmental modelling exercises often aim to answer specific question(s) that arise from particular environmental management problems. But these questions are not always answerable given current knowledge, and where they are considered unanswerable, this perceived knowledge gap can be used to justify action or inaction, as invoked respectively by the precautionary principle and climate change denialists. Whether a question is judged answerable can turn on how the role of uncertainty is communicated when providing scientific information, that is, on how uncertainties are framed. Uncertainty framing can hence be manipulated to influence how information is used in decision making, for example through …

A Hybrid Modelling Approach For Assessing The Water Footprint Of The German Bio-Economy, Rüdiger Schaldach, Martina Floerke, Christopher Jung, Anna Schomberg, Florian Wimmer

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The national research strategy “BioEconomy 2030” of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) portrays the vision of a sustainable, bio-based economy. This bio-economy (BE) is oriented towards nature-like material cycles, supplies sufficient and healthy food and delivers high value products and energy from renewable raw materials while preserving natural resources. Management and controlling of the societal and economic transition towards such a BE requires appropriate monitoring and assessment tools.

We present the concept and prototypic application of a new method for the accounting and modelling of water use in global agricultural production related to the German BE. …

Easy To Use Workflows For Catchment Modelling: Towards Reproducible Model Studies, Celray James Chawanda, Ann Van Griensven, Wim Thiery, Chris George

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Catchment scale hydrological models have a variety of users with different technical backgrounds. These users often need to adapt their model before it can be applied to their case study. To this end, most catchment models use a Graphical User Interface (GUI) to allow direct manipulation of the models. While a GUI is generally easy to use for novice users, it opens many sources of irreproducible research in the scientific community. Here we present a workflow for the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) that promotes reproducible model studies while remaining user-friendly for both novice and expert users. The python-based …

A Software System Proposing The Processing Of Crowdsourced Data To Monitor A Flood Event: An A.I. Approach, Arya Tanmay Gupta

Open Water Journal

We present Fics (Fetch information through crowdsourcing), a platform that is ready-to-take posts from social media platforms and infers the water heights referred in them. These posts are expected to come from the citizens who are witnessing a flood event in real time. Fics corrects the spacing in the string, translates the string into corresponding mathematical notations and then finally compute the water heights from the posts.

The objective of Fics is to provide such a platform that can be used for the citizens from the data received from them only, without making them use a software which is to …

Up In The Air: Understanding Vulnerability When Toilets Fly, Amy Krakowka Richmond, Suzanne Pierce, Sethi Gautam

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Across sub-Saharan Africa, both natural and social factors contribute to household level vulnerability. This case study focuses specifically on Uganda, which has made progress towards meeting the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals, most notably halving the proportion of the population that is below the poverty line. Despite these impressive achievements, many households remain vulnerable to multiple social and environmental stressors. A better understanding of the drivers of household level vulnerability will assist stakeholders and policy-makers in determining what drives vulnerability at a household level, where vulnerable populations are, and suggest what type of aid to target specific locations to be …

Using An Object And Pattern Oriented Approach To Hydrological Modelling Teaching And Research, R.W. Vervoort, J.H.A. Guillaume, T.F.A Bishop, D. Kundu, F.F. Van Ogtrop

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Introducing hydrological modelling in undergraduate teaching is challenging, and some of this is related to the decline in STEM knowledge in students. Enabling students to confidently work with a range of hydrological models remains difficult, particularly if the goal is to make students understand the modelling process and model structures. The limited literature points to a number of educational tools that have been developed, falling into three classes: magical box fully developed GUIs with little insight into model operation; highly theoretical command line linear reservoir and unit hydrograph tools; and model tools focusing on one single model structure. Given the …

Sea Level Rise Effects On Acidic Pollution In A Coastal Acid Sulphate Soil Area, Ngo Dang Phong, Chu Thai Hoanh, To Phuc Tuong, Reiner Wassmann

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Bac Lieu is a coastal province in the Mekong River Delta (MRD), Vietnam. Aside from salinity intrusion from the sea, the province is strongly affected by acidic pollution as 58% of the area (250,000 ha) is overlaid with acid sulphate soil (ASS). Previous studies showed that the eminent sea level rise (SLR) would influence the hydrology and salinity of the canal networks in the province. This study, using the previously validated hydraulic and water quality model CRSAP-ACIDITY (Vietnam River Systems And Plains, coupled with ACIDITY Module), aimed at quantifying impacts of different SLR scenarios (SLR=17, 30, 50, or 75 cm) …

Global Sensitivity Analysis In Environmental Water Quality Modelling: Where Do We Stand?, Giorgio Mannina, Alida Cosenza, Manandraitsiory Randrianantoandro, Franҫois Anctil, Marc B. Neumann, Peter A. Vanrolleghem

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Global sensitivity analysis (GSA) is a valuable tool to support the use of mathematical models for environmental systems. During the last years the water quality modelling field has embraced the use of GSA. Environmental water quality modellers have tried to transfer the knowledge and experience acquired in other disciplines. The main objective of this paper is to provide an informed problem statement of the issues surrounding GSA applications in the environmental water quality modelling field. Specifically, this paper aims at identifying, for each GSA method, the potential use, the critical issues to be solved and the limits identified in a …

Sensitivity And Uncertainty Analysis Of A Plant-Wide Model For Carbon And Energy Footprint Of Wastewater Treatment Plants, Giorgio Mannina, Alida Cosenza, Riccardo Gori, Reza Sobhani, Manel Garrido, Diego Rosso

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

This paper presents the sensitivity and uncertainty analysis of a mathematical model for Greenhouse gas (GHG) and energy consumption assessment from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). The model is able to simultaneously describe the main biological and physical-chemical processes in WWTP. Specifically, the mathematical model includes the main processes of the water and sludge lines influencing the methane (CH₄), nitrous oxide (N₂O), and carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions. Further, the process energy demand and the energy recovery are also taken into account. The main objective of this paper is to analyze the key factors and sources …

Social Structure-Land Use-Water Flows: Modelling Relationships Using Discrete Bayesian Networks, Rosa Fernández, Bárbara A. Willaarts, Antonio Fernández, Rafael Rumí, Pedro A. Aguilera

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Bayesian networks are one of the most powerful tools for the design ofexpert systems located in an uncertainty framework (probabilistic expert system).We have studied the relationships between social structure, land use and waterflows in two Spanish catchments using discrete Bayesian networks. The aim wasto predict how social changes influence both land use and green and blue waterflows. Land use in the Nacimiento catchment is related to woodland and traditionalagriculture, while land use in the Adra catchment comprises traditional andgreenhouse agriculture. The socioeconomic variables selected were emigrationrate, immigration rate, and the proportion of people older than 65 (p65). Green andblue water …

Modelling Water Use Intensity At Farm Scale – An Interdisciplinary Study Of Agriculture And Hydrology (Agrohyd), Simone Kraatz, Uwe Hunstock, Judy A. Libra, Katrin Drastig

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Efficient water management strategies based on knowledge about how agricultural and hydrological processes affect local and regional water flows are needed to deal with changes in water availability due to global change. Transparent and flexible tools that can predict the effect of farm systems on these water flows are required. Such a new modelling tool is being built based on the database platform MongoDB. It will be able to calculate the influence of natural processes and of management decisions on the water use intensity in a variety of farm systems for the production of food and biomass for energy. Instead …

Adaptation Strategies For New Zealand Dairy Farms Under Climate Change Scenarios, Electra Kalaugher, Pierre Beukes, Anthony Clark, Janet F. Bornman

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Assessments of climate change for New Zealand indicate not only increasing average temperatures but also more climatic variability with moderate to high likelihood of increases in the frequency of extreme events such as droughts and floods. Detailed Whole Farm Model simulations of climate change impacts and potential adaptation options were undertaken for five representative, pasture based dairy farms located in the major dairying regions of New Zealand. First, tactical changes to current management practices were considered, followed by three strategic adaptations that introduced larger changes into the farming system: a reduction in intensity, the introduction of irrigation and an alternative …

Classification-Driven Air Pollution Mapping As For Environment And Health Analysis, S. Wiemann, S. Richter, P. Karrasch, J. Brauner, K. Pech, L. Bernard

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

This article presents an air pollution modelling approach and its use in healthapplications within the EO2HEAVEN project. The model is based on a multidimensionalInverse DistanceWeighting and makes use of artificial distances between area attributes.The number and type of attributes used is fully customizable and can be adapted accordingto specific application fields and data preconditions. It is kept flexible and simple andthus, suitable to be used within a Spatial Data Infrastructure to provide access to realtimeair pollution information via the internet. In a prototypical implementation the modelis applied to estimate the concentration of particular matter and ozone in the FederalState of …

Landscape Management Framework (Lmf) - Development And Application Of A New Concept For A Dynamic Landscape Management Model, David Windhorst, Philipp Kraft, Hans Georg Frede, Lutz Breuer

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The evaluation of current and future land use and management impacts on ecosystem processes often requires the application of a wide range of specialized models covering different environmental research disciplines. We promote the newly developed Landscape Management Framework (LMF) as a way to facilitate and ease the consideration of land use and management actions within such integrated modeling approaches. LMF takes advantage of existing modeling approaches, provides easy to handle interfaces to external models, and mediates between them. Virtual model stakeholders (agents) within LMF follow a set of user defined decision rules according to binary and fuzzy logics to allow …

Designing A Measurement Network In A Meso-Scale Catchment To Provide Data For Modelling, Manfred Fink, Marcel Wetzel, Holm Kipka, Daniel Varga, Sven Kralisch, Wolfgang-Albert Flügel

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

In many cases, water-quality models have a poor basis of calibration and validation due to inadequate or sparse input data. Water-quality monitoring is often limited to a few sites within the stream network where samples are collected and analyzed at some intermittent frequency (e. g. monthly). In particular, this limited temporal sample coverage causes problems in modelling water-quality variables such as phosphorous that are mainly transported during short-term events.In order to address this problem, a meso-scale catchment was equipped with a measurement network for obtaining spatially and temporally higher-resolution data of water quality, meteorological data, and soil moisture data. The …

Hydrotam: 3d Model For Hydrodynamic And Transport Processes In Coastal Waters, Lale Balas, Aslı Numanoğlu Genç, Asu Inan

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

HYDROTAM is a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) integrated three-dimensional baroclinic numerical model that has been developed to simulate the hydrodynamic and transport processes in coastal waters. The infrastructure of the program is based on cloud computing technology. GIS platform of HYDROTAM facilitates the time consuming task of preparation of data input and output. On the model interface, all functions of the MS Silverlight framework are available to the user with a menu driven graphical user interface (GUI). The numerical model consists of hydrodynamic, transport, turbulence and wave propagation model components. In the hydrodynamic model component, the 3D Navier–Stokes equations are …

Water Quality Assessment In The Venice Lagoon Watershed With Multiple Modelling Approaches, Carlo Giupponi, Arianna Azzellino, Roberta Salvetti, Paolo Parati, Marta Carpani

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Over the last 20 years a series of research projects analysed water quality issuesof the Venice Lagoon and its watershed (VLW). The policy framework was relatedto the implementation of the Italian special law for the safeguarding of Venice anda series of European regulations, including the Nitrate and the Water Frameworkdirectives and the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). The main focus was ondiffuse pollution from agricultural sources - nitrogen and phosphorous in particular -with the aim of assessing the impacts of current and alternative cultivation andlivestock practices. Many different modelling approaches were adopted, rangingfrom cognitive mapping for expert knowledge elicitation, to deterministicmechanistic …

User Guided Generation Of Hydrological Models: Interface Design, Workflows And Concepts For An Extensible Software Framework, Karsten Rink, Lars Bilke, Benny Selle, Olaf Kolditz

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

We present a combined framework for the exploration and assessment of geoscientific data, preparation of hydrological models, simulation and visualisation of the results. A user interface is provided for 3D visualisation of data sets and construction of hydrological models. The structure is modular and functionality is accessed via interfaces, allowing to switch or replace the implementation of parts of the framework (e.g. numerical solver for simulation or filters for visualisation) without any impact on the overall programme. Functionality is accessed via a graphical user interface that guides the user through the modelling process. We present an example workflow for the …

Relative Importance Of Secondary Settling Tank Models In Wwtp Simulations – A Global Sensitivity Analysis Using Bsm2, Elham Ramin, Xavier Flores-Alsina, Gürkan Sin, Krist V. Gernaey, Ulf Jeppsson, Peter Steen Mikkelsen, Benedek Gy Plósz

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Results obtained in a study using the Benchmark Simulation Model No. 1 (BSM1) show that a one-dimensional secondary settling tank (1-D SST) model structure and its parameters are among the most significant sources of uncertainty in wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) simulations [Ramin et al., 2011]. The sensitivity results consistently indicate that the prediction of sludge production is most sensitive to the variation of the settling parameters. In the present study, we use the Benchmark Simulation Model No. 2 (BSM2), a plant-wide benchmark, that combines the Activated Sludge Model No. 1 (ASM1) with the Anaerobic Digestion Model No. 1 (ADM1). We …

Modelling Farmers’ Choice Of Miscanthus Allocation In Farmland: A Case-Based Reasoning Model, Laura Martin, Florence Le Ber, Julie Wohlfahrt, Géraldine Bocquého, Marc Benoît

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The spatial extension of perennial biomass crop, like miscanthus, seems to be unavoidable to face the decrease of fossil fuel. However, the risk of a food / non food competition due to land use change has to be anticipated. Several models of biomass crops allocation have been already performed. Most of these models simulate large-scale allocation processes, taking into account numerous biophysical variables but only few true-to-life human variables. In this paper, we present a modelling framework of miscanthus allocation in farmland. We use a case based reasoning model in order to compute both biophysical and human variables. An ad …

Simulation Of Resilience Of An Insurance System To Flood Risk, F. Grelot, Olivier Barreteau

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The aim of this communication is to discuss the benefit of agent-based modelling to characterize the resilience of French insurance system to flood risk to extreme events. We first characterize the ”Cat Nat” system, the French system to manage recovery costs after major natural disasters. We then described the CatNatABM model. The main purpose of this model is to explore feedbacks between the dynamics of households settlement and the viability of ”Cat Nat” system. This behavior based model is meant “as simple as suitable” to capture main feedbacks of the system, with the purpose of enriching it gradually. Outputs of …

Taking Into Account Recovery To Assess Vulnerability: Application To Farms Exposed To Flooding, P. Bremond, F. Grelot

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

In this paper, we discuss the necessity to take into account recovery processes in the field of vulnerability assessment, which is more and more widely used tohelp decision-making. Considering farm vulnerability to flooding, according to the literature, there is a need to better understand recovery after flooding to evaluate vulnerability.Nevertheless, quantitative methods, mainly developed to appraise damage completelyneglect this. We present, in this paper, a modelling approach to assess vulnerabilityto flooding at farm level with quantitative indicators. The model takes into account processes which occur at farm scale until the farm recover to a state considered similarto its initial one. …

Shocks In Coupled Socio-Ecological Systems: What Are They And How Can We Model Them?, Tatiana Filatova, Gary Polhill

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Coupled socio-ecological systems (SES) are complex systems characterized by self-organization, non-linearities, interactions among heterogeneous elements within each subsystem, and feedbacks across scales and among subsystems. When such a system experiences a shock or a crisis, the consequences are difficult to predict. In this paper we first define what a shock or a crisis means for SES. Depending on where the system boundary is drawn, shocks can be seen as exogenous or endogenous. For example, human intervention in environmental systems could be seen as exogenous, but endogenous in a socio-environmental system. This difference in the origin and nature of shocks has …

Modelling Multi-Pollutant Fate In A Large River: Role Of Hydro-Morphological And Physicochemical Parameters, Cyril Garneau, Sabine Sauvage, José-Miguel Sanchez-Perez, Yi Hong, Dominique Aubert, Anne Probst

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

European rivers are facing multiple sources of pollution, including metals, pesticides and nutrients. To understand the factors controlling their transport, modelling can be used to predict their fate. Usually, however, only one class of components is considered, often neglecting inner interactions. This paper proposes a methodological approach towards understanding the main processes describing the fate of trace pollutants interacting with hydrological processes and suspended solids. The model is evaluated in the middle course of the Garonne River in France and developed in three stages, each integrating a new type of process. The first describes the hydromorphology of the sector studied …

Designing A Measurement Network In A Meso-Scale Catchment To Provide Data For Modelling, Manfred Fink, Marcel Wetzel, Holm Kipka, Daniel Varga, Sven Kralisch, Wolfgang-Albert Flügel

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

In many cases, water-quality models have a poor basis of calibration and validation due to inadequate or sparse input data. Water-quality monitoring is often limited to a few sites within the stream network where samples are collected and analyzed at some intermittent frequency (e. g. monthly). In particular, this limited temporal sample coverage causes problems in modelling water-quality variables such as phosphorous that are mainly transported during short-term events.In order to address this problem, a meso-scale catchment was equipped with a measurement network for obtaining spatially and temporally higher-resolution data of water quality, meteorological data, and soil moisture data. The …