Engineering Commons^™

Integrated Modeling And Monitoring For A Healthy And Sustainable Building Environment, Yifang Xu

Doctoral Dissertations

The transmission of airborne diseases indoors is a significant challenge to public health. Buildings are hotspots for viral transmission, which can result in adverse effects on human health and quality of life, especially considering that individuals spend approximately 87% of their time indoors. The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of considering health aspects during the development of sustainable built environments. Consequently, maintaining a healthy, sustainable, and comfortable built environment represents a major challenge for facilities management teams. However, research on the infection risks associated with emerging pandemics is still in its infancy, and the effectiveness of …

Os-Walk-Eu: An Open-Source Tool To Assess Health-Promoting Residential Walkability Of European City Structures, Stefan Fina, Christian Gerten, Brian Pondi, Lorraine D'Arcy, Niamh O' Reilly, David Sousa Vale, Mauro Pereira, Samuele Zilio

Articles

Introduction This paper introduces OS-WALK-EU, a new open-source walkability assessment tool developed specifically for urban neighbourhoods and using open-source spatial data. A free and open-source tool, OS-WALK-EU is accessible to the general public. It uses open data available worldwide and free online services to compute accessibility, while at the same time allowing users to integrate local datasets if available. Based on a review of existing measurement concepts, the paper adopts dimensions of walkability that were tested in European city environments and explains their conceptualization for software development. We invite the research community to collaboratively test, adopt and use the tool …

Assessing The Impact Of Health Benefits And Carbon Footprint In Student Parking Decisions At A University Campus, Emiliano Ruiz

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

In the student parking location problem, traditionally, the parking permit cost, the last-mile travel time, and the ease of finding an available parking stall are the only decision criteria driving permit purchases. However, a studentâ??s choice of parking location has associated walking health benefits and sustainability impacts. These impacts are related to the walking distance from the parked vehicle to the final destination on campus, in addition to the location effect on the carbon footprint of a vehicle-trip taken to campus. As such, this Thesis examined a multi-criteria decision approach to a university studentâ??s choice of parking location. This approach …

Analysis Of Covid-19 Concerns Raised By The Construction Workforce And Development Of Mitigation Practices, Makram Bou Hatoum, Ali Faisal, Hala Nassereddine, Hadi Sarvari

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications

The coronavirus outbreak has created a global health crisis that has disrupted all industries, including the construction industry. Following the onset of the pandemic, construction workers faced and continue to face unprecedented safety and health challenges. Therefore, construction employers established new safety precautions to protect the health and safety of the workforce and minimize the spread of the virus. The new precautions followed the advice and guidelines offered by different health and safety agencies like the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC). With construction projects …

The Geographic Disparities In Transportation-Related Physical Activity In The United States: An Analysis Of The 2017 Nhts Data, Hongwei Dong

Mineta Transportation Institute

Research on the relationship between urbanicity and physical activity yielded mixed results despite many studies consistently showing that residents tended to undertake more transportation-related physical activity in a more urban environment. This study analyzed the 2017 NHTS data to examine the geographic disparities in physical activity, particularly transportation-related physical activity in the United States. Our analysis suggests the relationship between urbanicity and physical activity demonstrates a flat U-shape in graphed data. Residents are more physically active when they live in the areas from the two ends of the urbanization spectrum: inner cities and inner suburbs of large metropolitan areas and …

Increasing Health And Safety Through The Utilization Of 4d Modeling, Rogan J. Wells

Construction Management

Health and safety is one of the most important aspects of the construction industry. Every year there are thousands of work-related injuries in the construction industry. Avoiding these injuries is of the utmost importance on a jobsite. This paper will analyze how building information modeling, specifically the use of 4D building information modeling, can be utilized to increase the overall health and safety of construction jobsite. An exploratory survey was conducted amongst architecture, engineering, and construction industry professionals who hold a wide range of experience. The aim of this survey was to analyze their knowledge and experiences using building information …

Insight To An Asbestos Laborer, Eduardo Delgadillo

Construction Management

Asbestos laborers are often overlooked and not cared for much in construction projects. While they are often forgotten in the construction industry, they play a big role in most remodels or demolition projects. Abatement workers are exposed to the dangers of asbestos on a daily basis. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are the federal agencies that regulate asbestos. The EPA regulates the use, transportation and disposal of asbestos, while OSHA sets the standards for work involving asbestos minerals. OSHA has regulations that demolition and/or abatement contractors must comply with since asbestos is considered …

Daylight: What Makes A Difference, M. Knoop, O. Stefani, B. Bueno, B. Matusiak, R. Hobday, A. Wirz-Justice, K. Martiny, T. Kantermann, M. Aarts, N. Zemmouri, S. Appelt, Brian Norton

Articles

Light is necessary for vision; it enables us to sense and perceive our surroundings and in many direct and indirect ways, via eye and skin, affects our physiological and psychological health. The use of light in built environments has comfort, behavioural, economic and environmental consequences. Daylight has many particular benefits including excellent visual performance, permitting good eyesight, effective entrainment of the circadian system as well as a number of acute non-image forming effects and the important role of vitamin D production. Some human responses to daylight seem to be well defined whilst others require more research to be adequately understood. …

Optimized Health Monitoring Plans For A Steel, Double-Track Railway Bridge, Ahmed Rageh

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Railway bridges are an essential component of any modern society and play a significant transportation role. During the 19^th and early 20^th centuries steel truss and plate girder bridges were commonly used railway designs, with most of the trusses constructed using pin and eyebar systems and most other load carrying members being riveted, built-up sections.

Many of these bridges are still in use and are subjected to increased railway traffic intensity, loads and speeds. The current practice for evaluating the integrity of bridges in the United States, irrespective of use, is primarily via visual inspection, with those inspections …

Students Perception Of Health And Safety Training Practices In The Construction Industry, Adam Will

Construction Management

Since its inception in 1970, the Occupational Safety and Health Act has steadily decreased the rate in which construction injuries, illnesses, and deaths occur in the industry. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) helps enforce these new standards yet some research suggests that safety performance appears to be a response to safety initiatives beyond compliance. Identifying workers’ perceptions of the training they receive is critical to the design and development of effective workplace safety programs. Utilizing a quantitative survey, data was collected from the Cal Poly Construction Management student body to find out how they were taught jobsite safety …

Using Nursing Theory To Improve The Teaching Of Engineering Practice, Daniel B. Oerther

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Engineering education includes both classroom training in sciences and professional skills as well as learning-through-doing to integrate practice and engineering design into the future licensed Professional Engineer (PE). In a similar manner, nursing education includes both classroom training in sciences and professional skills as well as learning through doing to integrate practice and caring into the future licensed Registered Nurse (RN). From the mid-19th century until modern day, the fields of environmental engineering and community health nursing have worked side-by-side to prevent disease while promoting health and wellness. This paper provides a synthesis of previously published case studies by the …

An Overview Of Dissolved Organic Carbon In Groundwater And Implications For Drinking Water Safety, S. Regan, Paul Hynds, R. Flynn

Articles

Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) is composed of a diverse array of compounds, predominantly humic substances, and is a near ubiquitous component of natural groundwater, notwithstanding climatic extremes such as arid and hyper-arid settings. Despite being a frequently measured parameter of groundwater quality, the complexity of DOC composition and reaction behaviour means that links between concentration and human health risk are difficult to quantify and few examples are reported in the literature. Measured concentrations from natural/unpolluted groundwater are typically below 4 mg C/l, whilst concentrations above these levels generally indicate anthropogenic influences and/or contamination issues and can potentially compromise water safety. …

Thermal Inactivation Analysis Of Water-Related Pathogens In Domestic Hot Water Systems, Liam Mccarton, Sean O'Hogain

Articles

This study aims to investigate whether hot water systems supplied with harvested rainwater present an increased risk to health over hot water systems supplied with potable mains water. It reviews previous studies investigating the health effects of utilising rainwater within domestic systems. The main risk to public health of mains-supplied hot water systems is the operation, maintenance, age, location and temperature of the system. Rainwater-harvesting systems contain an inherent water treatment train consisting of flocculation, settlement, sorption and bioreaction, and stored rainwater quality improves as metal and chemical contaminants settle to form sludge. Laboratory experiments were conducted using a variety …

Planning For Climate Change: The Need For Mechanistic Systems-Based Approaches To Study Climate Change Impacts On Diarrheal Diseases, Jonathan E. Mellor, Karen Levy, Julie Zimmerman, Mark Elliott, Jamie Bartram, Elizabeth Carlton, Thomas Clasen, Rebecca Dilingham, Joseph Eisenberg, Richard Guerrant, Daniele Lantagne, James Mihelcic, Kara Nelson

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Increased precipitation and temperature variability as well as extreme events related to climate change are predicted to affect the availability and quality of water globally. Already heavily burdened with diarrheal diseases due to poor access to water, sanitation and hygiene facilities, communities throughout the developing world lack the adaptive capacity to sufficiently respond to the additional adversity caused by climate change. Studies suggest that diarrhea rates are positively correlated with increased temperature, and show a complex relationship with precipitation. Although climate change will likely increase rates of diarrheal diseases on average, there is a poor mechanistic understanding of the underlying …

Estimation Of Pahs Concentration Fields In An Urban Area By Means Of Support Vector Machines, Armando Pelliccioni, Andrea Cristofari, Camillo Silibello, Monica Gherardi, Angelo Cecinato, Mafalda Lamberti

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Epidemiological studies about health effects of air quality are often based on data inferred by monitoring stations, and the issue of constructing pollutants exposure maps is crucial for improving such studies. The study about Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) exposure in urban areas is the aim of the EXPAH LIFE+ Project, so an integrated approach, based on measurements and modeling techniques, has been applied to simulate PAHs concentration in the urban area of Rome in one year period (June 2011 - May 2012). Support Vector Machines (SVMs) have been applied to forecast PAHs concentrations starting from actual measurements. After a feature …

Drinking Water In The Developing World: Sources Of Fecal Contamination In Pitcher Pump Systems And Measurement Alternatives, Meghan Wahlstrom

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

It has been reported that globally we have achieved Millennium Development Goal (MDG) Target 7C, to halve the proportion of the population without access to safe drinking water; however, there is a major flaw with this statement. While Target 7C calls for access to `safe' drinking water, what is actually being measured and reported is access to an `improved' water source. The World Health Organization (WHO) maintains that they must use this proxy measure because the methods for water quality testing are too expensive and logistically complicated, but by doing so, they may be over reporting safe water coverage.

This …

Slides: Best Management Practices For Oil And Gas Development And Comparative Water Quality Database Of Regulations Relating To Shale Oil And Gas, Matt Samelson, University Of Colorado Boulder. Getches-Wilkinson Center For Natural Resources, Energy, And The Environment. Intermountain Oil And Gas Bmp Project

Fracking, Water Quality and Public Health: Examining Current Laws and Regulations (March 20)

Presenter: Matt Samelson, J.D., Attorney, Consultant for Intermountain Oil and Gas Best Management Practices (BMP) Project, Getches-Wilkinson Center for Natural Resources, Energy and the Environment, University of Colorado Law School

34 slides

Assessment Of Contributing Factors To The Reduction Of Diarrhea In Rural Communities Of Para, Brazil, Lee Voth-Gaeddert

Masters Theses

"In developing communities the occurrence of diarrhea has been reported at elevated levels as compared to those communities in more developed regions. Diarrheal diseases were linked to over one million deaths in 2012 throughout the world. While multiple pathways are present for the transmission of diarrheal diseases, water has been the focus for many aid organizations. Point-of-use (POU) water treatment methods are a common tool used by aid organizations in efforts to provide potable water. The CAWST biosand filter is a POU tool that has shown removal effectiveness of pathogenic microorganisms ranging from 90-99%. However, minimal literature was found that …

Assessing Appropriate Technology Handwashing Stations In Mali, West Africa, Colleen Claire Naughton

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Proper hand hygiene is the most effective and efficient method to prevent over 1.3 million deaths annually from diarrheal disease and Acute Respiratory Infections (ARIs). Hand hygiene is also indispensable in achieving the fourth Millennium Development Goal (MDG) to reduce the childhood mortality rate by 2/3rds between 1990 and 2015. Handwashing has been found in a systematic review of studies to reduce diarrhea by 47%#37; and is, thus, capable of preventing a million deaths (Curtis et. al., 2003). Despite this evidence, hand washing rates remain seriously low in the developing world (Scott et al., 2008).

This study developed and implemented …

Slides: Impacts Of Energy Deficits In Cooking, Illumination, Water, Sanitation, And Motive Power, Paul S. Chinowsky

2012 Energy Justice Conference and Technology Exposition (September 17-18)

Presenter: Dr. Paul Chinowsky, Director, Mortenson Center in Engineering for Developing Communities; Professor, University of Colorado

25 slides

Slides: Intermountain Oil And Gas Bmp Project, Kathryn Mutz

Opportunities and Obstacles to Reducing the Environmental Footprint of Natural Gas Development in Uintah Basin (October 14)

Presenter: Kathryn Mutz, Natural Resources Law Center, University of Colorado at Boulder

21 slides

Water Resources, Health, And The Sustainability Of Interventions To Achieve Water And Sanitation Targets Of The Millennium Development Goals In A Changing World, Lauren M. Fry

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

This dissertation addresses sustainability of rapid provision of safe water and sanitation required to meet the Millennium Development Goals. Review of health-related literature and global statistics demonstrates engineers' role in achieving the MDGs. This review is followed by analyses relating to social, environmental, and health aspects of meeting MDG targets.

Analysis of national indicators showed that inadequate investment, poor or nonexistent policies and governance are challenges to global sanitation coverage in addition to lack of financial resources and gender disparity. Although water availability was not found to be a challenge globally, geospatial analysis demonstrated that water availability is a potentially …

Rainwater Harvesting Pilot Project Report, Liam Mccarton, Sean O'Hogain, Anna Reid, Niamh Mcintyre, Jenny Pender

Reports

The rainwater harvesting pilot project was commissioned by the National Rural Water Monitoring Committee in 2005 to assess the feasibility of supplementing treated mains water used for non-potable purposes. The project involved the design, installation, commissioning and monitoring of rainwater harvesting facilities in a rural housing development in County Carlow and in a 250-acre livestock farm in County Meath. Construction was carried out between 2005-2007.

Environmental Healthy Requirements In Residential Buildings: Amman As A Case Study, Philadelphia University

Philadelphia University, Jordan

No abstract provided.

Day 1: Wednesday, August 4, 2004: Calpine Rocky Mountain Energy Center, Calpine Rocky Mountain Energy Center

Energy Field Tour 2004 (August 4-6)

5 pages (includes illustrations).

Safety Behaviour In The Construction Industry, Nick Macdonald, Victor Hrymak

Reports

The influences on safety standards and employee safety behaviour was analysed on 18 large construction sites on the island of Ireland. The safety management and documentation of these sites was also analysed. The results are discussed at length together with comprehensive recommendations for the industry.