Engineering Commons^™

Upper Spokane River Model In Idaho: Boundary Conditions And Model Setup And Calibration For 2001 And 2004, Robert Leslie Annear, Scott A. Wells, Chris Berger

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

As a result of a Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) study of the Spokane River in Washington, a hydrodynamic and water quality model for the Spokane River was developed by Portland State University (PSU) for the Corps of Engineers and the Washington Department of Ecology from the Washington-Idaho state line to the outlet of Long Lake.

An earlier study of the Spokane River was undertaken by Limno-Tech (2001a, 2001b) for the domain shown in Figure 3. Limno-Tech used an earlier version of CE-QUAL-W2, Version 2, for the Reservoir portion of the Spokane River from Post Falls Dam to Coeur d’Alene …

Enhancing The Oregon Crash Reporting Process: A Feasibility Study, Christopher M. Monsere, Erin E. Wilson, Amber Springberg

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

In most states, police officers and trained investigators complete crash reports for nearly all reportable crashes that occur on public roads. Many states have made significant improvements in the quality and timeliness of their crash data systems by implementing, in addition to other improvements, electronic filing of these reports by police officers. Oregon relies on citizen reports for a majority of their crash data and paper forms must be submitted to the responsible state agency and are then manually coded into the crash data system. Police reports are also paper based. This process limits the improvements that can be made …

Lake Whatcom Water Quality Model, Chris Berger

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

A water quality model of Lake Whatcom, Washington was developed as part of a Total Maximum Daily Load Study for the Washington Department of Ecology. Lake Whatcom is a large natural lake which is listed on the 1998 Washington State 303(d) list of waterbodies which do not meet the criterion for dissolved oxygen. Located next to the city of Bellingham, it is approximately 10 miles long and has a surface area of approximately 5000 acres and a maximum depth of over 100 meters. Eutrophication processes in the lake have been accelerated in recent years perhaps by the availability of nutrients …

Waldo Lake Research In 2004, Mark D. Sytsma, John Rueter, Richard Petersen, Roy Koch, Scott A. Wells, Michelle Wood, Yangdong Pan, Robert Leslie Annear, Aaron Hook, Laura Johnson, Rich Miller, Amanda Murphy, Terry Stoltz

Center for Lakes and Reservoirs Publications and Presentations

The Willamette National Forest has worked with Portland State University, Center for Lakes and Reservoirs (PSU) and the University of Oregon (UO) to investigate ecosystem changes, provide guidance on long-term monitoring methods, assess monitoring data, develop predictive water quality models, and conduct research that will lead to better protection and understanding of the Waldo Lake ecosystem. This report summarizes the second year of collaborative PSU-UO research at Waldo Lake. Research has focused on understanding physical, chemical and biological characteristics of Waldo Lake across a range of spatial and temporal scales. Research tasks that continued from 2003 into 2004 included temperature …

Observations At The Tidal Plume Front Of A High-Volume River Outflow, Philip M. Orton, David A. Jay

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

We present shipboard observations of very strong convergence, vertical velocities and mixing, and near-bed impacts associated with the leading-edge front of the tidally-pulsed Columbia River plume. With upwelling-favorable winds and riverflow of 4900 m³s⁻¹, the plume propagates as a buoyant gravity current with a rotary, bore-like vertical frontal circulation and downwelling as strong as 0.35 m s⁻¹. In waters as deep as 65 m, near-bed currents intensify to as much as 1.0 m s⁻¹ after frontal passage, and are often associated with elevated acoustic backscatter. Mixing is locally strong, with an eddy diffusivity …

Laurance Lake Temperature Model, Chris Berger, Scott A. Wells, Robert Leslie Annear

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Laurance Lake is a reservoir located in Hood River County, Oregon (Figure 1). It is located at the base on Mt. Hood in Oregon (see Figure 2 and Figure 3), discharges into the Middle Fork of the Hood River. The reservoir was constructed in 1968 for irrigation storage and has a capacity 3564 acre- feet at full pool. Since the river vio lates temperature standards, this study has been designed to construct a hydrodynamic and temperature model of Laurance reservoir in order to assess strategies for improving temperatures in the Middle Fork River.

The objectives of the study are then …

Uncertainty Assessment Of Hydrologic Model States And Parameters: Sequential Data Assimilation Using The Particle Filter, Hamid Moradkhani, Kuo-Lin Hsu, Hoshin V. Gupta, Soroosh Sorooshian

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Two elementary issues in contemporary Earth system science and engineering are (1) the specification of model parameter values which characterize a system and (2) the estimation of state variables which express the system dynamic. This paper explores a novel sequential hydrologic data assimilation approach for estimating model parameters and state variables using particle filters (PFs). PFs have their origin in Bayesian estimation. Methods for batch calibration, despite major recent advances, appear to lack the flexibility required to treat uncertainties in the current system as new information is received. Methods based on sequential Bayesian estimation seem better able to take advantage …

Using Custom Transportation Data Collection Software With Handheld Computers For Education, Research, And Practice, Robert Bertini, Christopher Monsere, Andrew Byrd, Michael Rose, Tarek El-Seoud

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

In an effort to facilitate data collection for research, give students first-hand experience collecting data for course projects, and generate interest in the transportation field through outreach, the Intelligent Transportation Systems Laboratory of Portland State University, Oregon, has developed custom data collection software for handheld computers using the Palm OS platform. The software is designed to export the collected data to desktop computers in common file formats suitable for analysis in spreadsheet and geographic information systems applications. Data collection problems addressed include recording position over time, recording geographic location of features, and performing cumulative vehicle or pedestrian counts.

Estimation Of Columbia River Virgin Flow: 1879 To 1928, Pradeep K. Naik, David A. Jay

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The Columbia River has historically been a major source of economic activity for the Pacific Northwest, and is one of the more heavily modified rivers in the United States today. Understanding human and climate-induced changes in its hydrologic properties is, therefore, a topic of considerable interest. Long streamflow records are essential to determining how runoff has changed over time. Daily streamflow records of the Columbia River at The Dalles dates back to June 1978. However, the observed daily flow does not alone provide enough information to understand or separate anthropogenic and climate effects. It is necessary also to have an …

Measuring The Impacts Of Speed Reduction Technologies: Evaluation Of Dynamic Advanced Curve Warning System, Christopher Monsere, Casey Nolan, Robert Bertini, Edward Anderson, Tarek El-Seoud

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper presents the results of a quantitative and qualitative evaluation of a dynamic curve warning System deployed at one site on Interstate 5 in Oregon. On a dynamic message sign, the System displays messages directed to drivers on the basis of the observed speed of approaching vehicles. For the evaluation, three measures of effectiveness were selected: (a) the change in mean speed for passenger cars and commercial vehicles, (b) the change in the speed distribution for both passenger cars and trucks, and (c) public response to the sign. Speed samples were taken of vehicles with a laser ranging and …

Salmon At River's End: The Role Of The Estuary In The Decline And Recovery Of Columbia River Salmon, Daniel L. Bottom, Charles A. Simenstad, Jennifer Burke, Antonio M. Baptista, David A. Jay, Kim K. Jone, Edmundo Casillas, Michael H. Schiewe

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The continued decline of Columbia River salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.) populations has long focused concerns on habitat changes upriver, particularly the effects of large hydroelectric dams. Increasing evidence that ocean conditions strongly influence salmon production, however, has raised questions about the importance of the estuarine environment to salmon and whether the hydropower system has affected estuarine-rearing habitats. In response to Northwest Power Planning Council recommendations, we initiated a review of what is known about the effects of the hydroelectric system on the hydrology, habitats, and ecology of the Columbia River estuary. Our goal was to develop recommendations for improving estuarine conditions …