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Civil and Environmental Engineering

Air Force Institute of Technology

Climate change

Articles 1 - 7 of 7

Full-Text Articles in Engineering

A Critical Review Of Climate Change On Coastal Infrastructure Systems, Gregory J. Howland Jr. Mar 2022

A Critical Review Of Climate Change On Coastal Infrastructure Systems, Gregory J. Howland Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is a response to climate threats identified by DoD report on Climate Change in 2019. A critical review of climate change literature related to coastal infrastructure was conducted to synthesize past research and to inform future research. This review intends to inform how climate change may impact infrastructure systems, how those impacts are evaluated, can the investigation be improved, and what can stakeholders learn from the outcomes. The end goal is to find climate change mitigation strategies and adaptation measures, or identify the easiest path to get to that end. The compiled information will inform civilian and military …


Hydrologic Profiles And Geospatial Trend Analysis Evaluating Recurrent Flooding At Coastal U.S. Air Force Installations, Dylan D. Bechen Mar 2022

Hydrologic Profiles And Geospatial Trend Analysis Evaluating Recurrent Flooding At Coastal U.S. Air Force Installations, Dylan D. Bechen

Theses and Dissertations

Military installations are exposed to numerous threats, including a changing climate and the risk of recurrent flooding. The four components of recurrent flooding are sea-level rise, tidal fluctuations, storm surges, and precipitation. This research analyzed 40 years of historical precipitation and tidal data at 17 coastal U.S. Air Force installations using indicators of both peak and threshold exceedances to identify long-term temporal trends in the hydrologic components that make up recurrent flood risk, establishing an installation’s “hydrologic profile” which can be used to better inform decision makers when evaluating portfolio-wide adaptation strategies and prioritization of long-term infrastructure investments.


Carbon Estimation And Decision Making In Usaf Acquisition, Robert F. Gray Mar 2022

Carbon Estimation And Decision Making In Usaf Acquisition, Robert F. Gray

Theses and Dissertations

Recent executive orders and international agreements require the United States to significantly reduce its carbon and greenhouse gas emissions. The DoD is a significant contributor to the carbon emissions of the USA and will be required to reduce the emissions. Therefore, in order to make appropriate programmatic decisions the DoD needs to develop an appropriate method for estimating carbon and making programmatic decisions; trading-off carbon emissions with the traditional cost-schedule-performance metrics. This thesis examines the possibility of developing a model that can be used to estimate the carbon footprint of producing a system before detailed engineering designed have been complete.


An Analysis Of The Air Force Installation Development Plan And Its Energy Benchmarking Effectiveness, Jacob P. Hyman Jun 2021

An Analysis Of The Air Force Installation Development Plan And Its Energy Benchmarking Effectiveness, Jacob P. Hyman

Theses and Dissertations

Installation Development Plan (IDP) is a comprehensive long-term base planning document, which includes an inventory of sustainable development goals including energy use and climate indicators. This study analyzed 32 different IDPs among the various installations in the continental United States, identifying regional trends and behaviors across their 16 Sustainability Development Indicators (SDI). To study the IDPs more in depth, specific focus was placed on SDI 1, which concerns energy consumption and generation. This study investigated the different variations in energy benchmarking across local climate conditions, SDI ratings, and units used. Major inconsistencies were found across these three domains. Subsequently, the …


Weather-Related Construction Delays In A Changing Climate: A Systematic State-Of-The-Art Review, Steven J. Schuldt, Matthew R. Nicholson, Yaquarri A. Adams Ii, Justin D. Delorit Mar 2021

Weather-Related Construction Delays In A Changing Climate: A Systematic State-Of-The-Art Review, Steven J. Schuldt, Matthew R. Nicholson, Yaquarri A. Adams Ii, Justin D. Delorit

Faculty Publications

Adverse weather delays forty-five percent of construction projects worldwide, costing project owners and contractors billions of dollars in additional expenses and lost revenue each year. Additionally, changes in climate are expected to increase the frequency and intensity of weather conditions that cause these construction delays. Researchers have investigated the effect of weather on several aspects of construction. Still, no previous study comprehensively (1) identifies and quantifies the risks weather imposes on construction projects, (2) categorizes modeling and simulation approaches developed, and (3) summarizes mitigation strategies and adaptation techniques to provide best management practices for the construction industry. This paper accomplishes …


Developing Infrastructure Adaptation Pathways To Combat Hurricane Intensification: A Coupled Storm Simulation And Economic Modeling Framework For Coastal Installations, Alexander J. Baldwin Mar 2021

Developing Infrastructure Adaptation Pathways To Combat Hurricane Intensification: A Coupled Storm Simulation And Economic Modeling Framework For Coastal Installations, Alexander J. Baldwin

Theses and Dissertations

Climate change projections suggest intensification of extreme weather events, including hurricanes, is expected throughout the 21st century. This will lead to increased destruction for coastal military bases unless infrastructure resiliency and adaptation measures are implemented. This research focuses on examining the simulation of probabilistic, climate-intensified hurricane events at Eglin Air Force Base. FEMA Hazus models are combined with climate projections for wind Intensity, tide, and sea-level rise to produce an assessment of losses to the installation. Damage estimates and hurricane intensity outputs are downscaled to the facility-level so that climate adaptation signals can be identified. The facility losses and climate …


Improving Airfield Pavement Degradation Prediction Skill With Local Climate And Traffic, Evan M. Fortney Mar 2021

Improving Airfield Pavement Degradation Prediction Skill With Local Climate And Traffic, Evan M. Fortney

Theses and Dissertations

Airfield pavements are a critical component of the global transportation network that provide a platform for national defense. Preventative and corrective maintenance activities are founded upon accurate expectations of degradation. The leading pavement management software creates degradation predictions from pavement groups using age as the IV and current state conditions as the DV. For this work, a framework is created and implemented that utilizes a PCR model to build upon accepted practices for degradation modeling to enhance and possibly augment future prediction capabilities. The model was applied to pairs of location and pavement family and reveals several findings: the selected …