Engineering Commons^™

Improving Multi-Objective Management Of Water Quality Tipping Points: Revisiting The Classical Shallow Lake Problem, Julianne Quinn, Patrick Reed, Klaus Keller

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Recent multi-objective extensions of the classical shallow lake problem are useful for exploring the conceptual and computational challenges that emerge when managing irreversible water quality tipping points. Building on this work, we explore a four objective version of the lake problem where a hypothetical town derives economic benefits from polluting a nearby lake, but at the risk of irreversibly tipping the lake into a permanently polluted state. The trophic state of the lake exhibits non-linear threshold dynamics; below some critical phosphorus (P) threshold it is healthy and oligotrophic, but above this threshold it is irreversibly eutrophic. The town must decide …

Escapade To Quantify Nitrogen Losses In Territories And Assess Mitigation And Adaptation Strategies, Jean-Louis Drouet, François Laurent, Patrick Durand, Gilles Billen, Pierre Cellier, Olivier Maury, Stéphanie Potok, Philippe Faverdin, Christophe Fléchard, Josette Garnier, Armelle Guy, Catherine Hénault, Catherine Mignolet, Hervé Monod, Anne Probst, Stéphane Sorin, Gaëlle Tallec, Matthias Beekmann, Eric Ceschia, Cécile Le Gall, Thierry Morel, Gauthier Quesnel, Eric Ramat

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Agriculture is facing to the challenge of maintaining or even increasing production while limiting the use of nitrogen inputs. The introduction of mineral nitrogen in agroecosystems feeds a cascade of processes and losses to the environment at each stage of the cascade with many environmental and societal impacts (degradation of air, water and soil quality, impacts on greenhouse gas balance, biodiversity and human health…). Since classical approaches at plot or farm scale do not make possible to control all impacts, levers must also be sought at larger scales. The overall objective of the interdisciplinary project ESCAPADE (ANR-12-AGRO-0003, 2013-2017) is to …

A Numerical Study Of The Lateral Hyporheic Flow About A Channels Confluence, C. Gualtieri

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Stream and pore waters continuously interact and mix within streambeds due to spatial and temporal variations in channel characteristics. This mixing is termed as hyporheic exchange and the zone where groundwater and stream water are mixing is called hyporheic zone, which can greatly affect water quality is both surface and subsurface water systems. Typical examples of hyporheic fluxes are those under bedforms, intra-meander or across point bar deposits, while the lateral and vertical hyporheic exchanges about a riverine confluence was almost never investigated.

The paper presents some results of a numerical study carried out to investigate the basic features of …

Modelling Dynamic Social-Ecological Systems: Towards An Integrated, Multiscale Approach, Terence P. Dawson, Lorenzo Milazzo, Gary Polhill

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Social-ecological systems (SES) consist of open, coupled, complex, interactive and non-linear dynamic processes that are inherently unpredictable. SES are a form of Complex Adaptive System (CAS) in which a dynamic network of many agents (which may represent species, people, organisations, nations, etc.) are acting independently and in parallel, constantly responding to their environment and what the other agents are doing. Hence, the causal drivers of SES behaviour tend to be highly dispersed and decentralized. An important characteristic of a CAS is that they can exhibit emergent behaviour and self-organisation, phenomena that cannot be predicted directly from the properties of their …

Structural Equation Modelling For Individual-Based Simulation, Kai G. Mertens, Iris Lorscheid, Matthias Meyer

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Simulation modelling and individual-based modelling in particular is widely applied to analyse socio-ecological systems (SES). However, the degree of complexity of SES and the corresponding characteristics of individual-based models challenge their analysis. In particular, the analysis might be aggravated by characteristics such as a high number of entities and parameters, interdependent relations as well as several layers of effects. In addition, the analysis has to cover sometimes multivariate simulation model outputs. Further challenges concerning the analysis of these complex models and their results are their subsequent understanding and communication, which are crucial but often neglected tasks in simulation modelling. Overall, …

From Research Data To Web-Based Policy Tools: User-Centered Design Techniques In The Development Of The Agmip Impacts Explorer, Joske Houtkamp, Inge La Rivière, Hugo De Groot, Sander Janssen, Arjan De Jong

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

decision making through a web-based tool is a complex challenge. Research projects are generally not designed to meet the information needs of specific stakeholder groups. Furthermore, tools developed in these projects are usually intended to disseminate research data on a wide scale, not to provide answers to specific questions of these stakeholders. User-centered design techniques can guide the development process of such tools, to enhance their usefulness and thus the applicability of the research outcomes for the intended audience. We applied techniques for user requirements analysis of the Impacts Explorer tool in the AgMIP research project, which models the impacts …

Scaling Watershed Models: Modern Approaches To Science Computation With Mapreduce, Parallelization, And Cloud Optimization, Jonathan Flaishans, Meridith Fry, Trip Hook, Nelson Thurman, Jim Carleton, Shelly Thawley, Kurt Wolfe, Dirk Young, Tom Purucker

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Environmental models are products of the computer architecture and software tools available at the time of development. Scientifically sound algorithms may persist in their original state even as system architectures and software development approaches evolve and progress. Dating back to the 1980s, the EPA has developed algorithms to estimate the flux of pesticides from treated fields to neighboring water bodies. Recent development of the EPA’s Spatial Aquatic Model (SAM) has provided an opportunity to redevelop, optimize and modernize this code used for regulatory decisions. Use of profiling has indicated a number of efficiencies that could be gained by updating the …

Temporal Query Processing For Supporting Sustainable-Innovation-Policy Systems, Alfredo Cuzzocrea, Ilaria D’Elia, Antonio De Nicola, Hugo Maldini, Maria Luisa Villani

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

We propose an innovative method for temporal analysis of integrated environmental scenarios aimed at supporting policy making for sustainable innovation. This requires the study of possible effects of low-carbon policies on the society and, hence, copying with a multi-disciplinary domain. In fact scenarios represent possible future states of the world under plausible conditions and different assumptions, evaluated under various perspectives, such as: energy, environment, economy and societal system. Scenarios are usually produced by independent tools (e.g., TIMES, GAINS and the Social Accounting Matrix), and once they are integrated, there is a need for new analysis techniques to cope with the …

Modeling The Flash Flood Of Cannes (Fr) With Basilisk, G. Kirstetter, S. Popinet, P.-Y. Lagrée, J. M. Fullana, C. Josserand

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

We propose an open source solver to model flash floods, using the well-known shallowwater equations, in 2 dimensions. The full resolution of such equations have usually a high computational cost, so that majority of flood simulation softwares used for flood forecasting is using a simplification of this model, which is not relevant in the case of flash flood, where torrential flows are commons. To reduce drastically the cost of such 2D simulations, we propose a 2D shallow-water flow solver built with the open source code Basilisk (http://basilisk.fr/) which is using adaptive refinement on a quad-tree grid. We reproduce the flood …

Qualifying Agriculture In Areas Affected By Pesticide Water Pollution: An Information System To Help Water Managers In Designing And Monitoring Agro-Environmental Action Plans, F. Vernier, A. Miralles, J. P. Tonneau

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Water quality is still getting worse, despite decades of public policy attempting to reverse this decline. Agricultural activities have been identified as a main source of diffuse pollution by pesticide. Therefore, qualifying the current and future agriculture is a major concern for water managers and decision makers: pesticide products used with varying chemical contents generate transfers of pesticides to freshwaters and potentially hazardous residue. The aim of our study is to analyse key stakeholders involved in the decision process to implement environmental action plans, how they use (or not) thematic and spatial available information and to propose a helpful information …

Ogc Sensor Observation Service: Past, Present, Internet Of The Things, Argyris Samourkasidis, Ioannis N. Athanasiadis

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Every-day devices are being miniaturized, equipped with transducers and transformed into internet-connected sensor nodes. Above smart-devices, not only can sense their surroundings, but could also store and disseminate their observations. While Internet of the Things (IoT) introduces a new, dynamic, participatory ecosystem of decentralized and collaborative devices, intrinsic heterogeneity hinders its full realization. Diversity of smart-devices and their resulting data formats, demands for interoperable data curation solutions. Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) has put significant work towards interoperable data interchange. Through Sensor Web Enablement (SWE) and its related service interfaces, and information models, OGC offers syntactic and semantic interoperability. Sensor Observation …

Iterative Discovery: A Method For Discovering Feasible Interventions And Targets Conjointly Using Uncertainty Visualisations, Baihua Fu, Joseph Guillaume, Tony Jakeman

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Making environmental management and policy decisions is a complex and difficult task when the problem of interest encapsulates pervasive complexity, dynamism and uncertainty. One category of environmental decision making problems may be referred to as “Planning refinements with difficult-to-define objectives”. By our definition, such problems have the following characteristics:

• a current management intervention is already in place, which is known to have limitations, none of which are considered pressing;
• there are significant uncertainties in the systems and models;
• management targets are too complex to satisfactorily explore with optimization tools;
• management targets need to be set that are dependent on what …

Understanding The Long-Term Increase Of Flood Risk In Regulated Rivers Through Combined Use Of Cfd, Paleo-Hydrology And Hydrological Data, Patricio Bohorquez, Fernando García-García

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

This paper examines the increase of risk of flooding for a given size flood in urban areas upstream of dam as a consequence of in-channel sedimentation and silted-up reservoir over time. We selected one of the earliest gauged, dammed rivers in Spain: the Guadalquivir River. Our study combines high-resolution shallow water numerical simulations, characterization of paleoflood deposits as sedimentary sequences and botanical high-water marks, as well as hydrological instrumental data taken during large floods with return period of approximately 100 yrs. The co-existence of gauging records and in-situ imagery of water levels for more than one century allows us to …

Cmfs: A Methodology To Guide The Design Of Conceptual Model Of Farmers’ Decision-Making Processes, Marion Robert, Alban Thomas, Jacques-Eric Bergez

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The agricultural research community uses languages and approaches to model farmers’ decision-making processes but does not clearly detail the steps necessary to build a decision model. We propose an original and easily applicable methodology for modelers to guide data acquisition and analysis, incorporate expert knowledge, and conceptualize decision-making processes in farming systems. It combines decision-making analysis with a modeling approach inspired by cognitive sciences and software-development methods. It is organized into four steps:

1) Problem Definition

• Specify the context and the initial research question.
• Chose the type of data to collect.

2) Case Study Selection

• Select case studies based on …

Ilmsweb - A Modular, Web-Based Software Platform For Integrated Environmental Modelling, Data Management And Decision Support, S. Kralisch, A. Künne, J. M. Santos, P. Selsam, C. Schwartze

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Integrated water resources management in river basins and related impact assessment of changing climate and landuse typically demand for the integration of a variety of software tools and methods. These often include data management and information systems, classification tools for deriving spatial input data from satellite or airborne imagery, GIS tools for pre-processing and integration of spatial information, hydrological simulation models and multi-criteria comparison methods. While there is a plethora of individual solutions and tools available that address these requirements, their seamless and user-friendly integration in decision support tools remains challenging. We are presenting ILMSweb, a modular, web-based software platform …

Chemical Transformation System: Cloud Based Cheminformatic Services To Support Integrated Environmental Modeling, Kurt Wolfe, Nicholas Pope, Rajbir Parmar, Mike Galvin, Caroline Stevens, Eric Weber, Jonathan Flaishans, Tom Purucker

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Integrated Environmental Modeling (IEM) systems that account for the fate/transport of organics frequently require physicochemical properties as well as transformation products. A myriad of chemical property databases exist but these can be difficult to access and often do not contain the proprietary chemicals that environmental regulators must consider. We are building the Chemical Transformation System (CTS) to facilitate model parameterization and analysis. CTS integrates a number of physicochemical property calculators into the system including EPI Suite, SPARC, TEST and ChemAxon. The calculators are heterogeneous in their scientific methodologies, technology implementations and deployment stacks. CTS also includes a chemical transformation processing …

The Validation Of Algal Growth Processes In A Water Quality Model Using Remote Sensing Data, A. R. Slaughter, S. K. Mantel

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The Water Quality Systems Assessment Model (WQSAM) uses the concept of requisite simplicity within the context of modelling water quality of data scarce South African surface waters. Although WQSAM has successfully simulated the frequency distribution of observed historical nutrient data for various catchments in South Africa, the validation of algal and macrophyte growth processes in the model is a challenge because of a lack of observed data. Remote sensing data can provide an estimate of algal growth within reservoirs. Therefore, this study aimed to validate the WQSAM simulations of algal growth using remote sensing estimations of primary production in reservoirs. …

A Novel Sampling Approach For Efficient And Robust Uncertainty And Sensitivity Analysis Of Environmental Models, Razi Sheikholeslami, Saman Razavi

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Modern environmental models are typically characterized by a large parameter/problem space and high computational demand. These two attributes impede effective implementation of sampling-based analysis such as sensitivity and uncertainty analysis, which require running these computationally intensive models many times to adequately explore and characterize the parameter/problem space. Therefore, developing efficient sampling strategies that scale with the size of the problem, computational budget, and users’ needs is essential. In this study, we propose an efficient sequential sampling strategy, called Progressive Latin Hypercube Sampling (PLHS), which provides an increasingly improved coverage of the parameter space, while satisfying pre-specified requirements. As opposed to …

Hydrodynamics And Transverse Mixing In A Rectangular Channel With Bed Forms And Bank Vegetation, M. Ghasemi, M. Heidarpour, C. Gualtieri, S. H. Tabatabaei

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The analysis of contaminants mixing in natural channels is an important topic of Environmental Hydraulics. In the mid-field, the prediction of transverse mixing is complicated by other typical features of natural channels, such as bed forms and vegetation. The present experimental research investigated the effects of bedforms and banks vegetation on the structure of the turbulent flow field and on the transverse mixing process in a channel. A flume equipped with a set of ten 2D fixed dunes on the bed and rice stems at the banks was used. Detailed velocity measurements were performed using acoustic Doppler velocimetry. Mixing measurements …

A Survey On Data-Driven Decision Support Systems Using Effective Narrative Pattern, Martin Komenda, Matěj Karolyi

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Nowadays information technology assists with decision making in various fields of human activities. This paper focuses on a survey of decision support portals and systems that provide any data visualization form and reporting in the environmental research field. Generally, data outputs in environmental research are too large, and it might be difficult for the general public to be well oriented when exploring shown data sets. Therefore, it would be appropriate to guide readers, or to point out the fundamental features of the presentation. One of the effective techniques to lead the reader is data visualization storytelling. It expands exploratory data …

A Systemic-Driven Perspective Towards Port´S Informational Decisions Through Consideration Of Port Sustainability, Ana X. Halabi-Echeverry, Philippe Clermont, Nelson Obregon-Neira

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

This paper presents some of the challenges in the development of Decision Support Systems for ports. Specifically, it refers to port informational integration in a context of sustainable factors, practices and functions of the port. It discusses the systemic perspective of port informational integration containing the boundaries of the complex system named Port Decision System Approach (PDSA) and presents the recognition of a decision-making situation as the step one in a methodology that offers a high-level support enhanced through the application of techniques from Computational Intelligence. The PDSA provides the necessary theoretical elements to recognise and deal with the inherent …

Groundwater Quality Across Scales: Implications For Nutrient Transport To Large Water Bodies, Hans H. Dürr, Nils Moosdorf

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

High concentrations of dissolved nutrients such as nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) in groundwater are an increasing concern in many areas of the world. Especially regions with high agriculture impact see widespread declining groundwater quality. Implications reach from direct impacts on different water users to discharge of nutrient-rich groundwater to rivers, lakes and coastal areas, where it can contribute to eutrophication, hypoxia or harmful algal blooms. While local-scale studies are abundant and management options exist, quantitative approaches at regional to continental scales are scarce and frequently have to deal with data inconsistencies or are temporally sparse. Here, we present the …

Environmental Models As A Service: Enabling Interoperability Through Restful Endpoints And Api Documentation, Jonathan Flaishans, Mike Galvin, Amber Ignatius, Carmen Kuan, Gerard F. Laniak, Kurt Wolfe, Tom Purucker

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Achieving interoperability in environmental modeling has evolved as software technology has progressed. The recent rise of cloud computing and proliferation of web services initiated a new stage for creating interoperable systems. Scientific programmers increasingly take advantage of streamlined deployment processes and affordable cloud access to move algorithms and data to the web for discoverability and consumption. In these deployments, environmental models can become available to end users through RESTful web services and consistent application program interfaces (APIs) that consume, manipulate, and store modeling data. RESTful modeling APIs also promote discoverability and guide usability through self-documentation. Embracing the RESTful paradigm allows …

Reduction Of Pharmaceutical Loads In Rivers: An Integrated Model That Facilitates Decision-Making Processes, Pau Gimeno, Rafael Marcé, Lluís Bosch, Joaquim Comas, Lluís Corominas

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

River Basin Authorities require models and decision support tools to predict loads of Pharmaceutical Active Compounds (PhACs) in surface water and facilitate the evaluation of reduction strategies through urban wastewater system upgrades. We propose a water management support tool which describes the fate and removal of PhACs along the entire catchment and can be used to simulate investments to minimize PhACs loads in the environment. The tool integrates a substance- human consumption and excretion model, a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) model, and a river model. Uncertainty associated to three model parameters (PhAC human consumption and excretion, PhAC degradation constant in …

The Exploratory Modeling Workbench An Open Source Toolkit For Exploratory Modeling, Scenario Discovery, And (Multi-Objective) Robust Decision Making, Jan H. Kwakkel

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

There is a growing interest in model-based decision support under deep uncertainty, reflected in a variety of approaches and techniques being put forward in the literature. A key idea shared among these various approaches and techniques is the use of models for exploratory rather than predictive purposes. Exploratory modeling aims at exploring the implications for decision making of the various presently irresolvable uncertainties. This is achieved by conducting series of computational experiments that cover the various ways in which the various uncertainties might be resolved. This paper presents an open source library for performing exploratory modeling. This exploratory modeling workbench …

Evaluation Of The Sub-Grid Variability Of Models Simulating Atmospheric Nitrogen Fluxes At Regional Scale From Models Integrating Processes At Landscape Scale, Niramson Azouz, Jean-Louis Drouet, Matthias Beekmann, Pierre Cellier

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Agricultural activities are the main sources of ammonia emitted into the atmosphere. High concentrations and high rates of dry and wet deposition on soil and vegetation may have an impact on nearby sensitive ecosystems. The high spatial variability of atmospheric ammonia concentrations and deposition rates makes it difficult to produce accurate regional maps without using a large number of measurements or models performing at high spatial resolution. Models used at regional scale to quantify ammonia deposition perform at low spatial resolution and need to average the heterogeneous fluxes that occurred within large grids.

Using regional models may lead to under- …

Developing An Adaptive Science-Infused Governance Framework With Accountability: The Role Of Babel Fish, Pierre Glynn, Alexey Voinov, Carl Shapiro, Karen Jenni

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Science and policy governance, and the development of modeling and decision support tools, suffer from common problems that can affect the management of natural resources and environments. Focusing only on the expertise of scientists and policy makers is not sufficient when designing and implementing effective adaptive strategies to manage complex systems and issues with inherently high uncertainty. Public and stakeholder participation in both science and policy making is essential and can be fostered with greater accessibility, transparency, and accountability in the science and decision-making processes, or what we would call “Babel Fish” enabled responsive communication (cf. Douglas Adams, Hitchhiker’s Guide …

Strategies And Systems Architecture For Emergency Management Decision Support – A Northern Australia Case Study, Gaëlle Faivre, Dan Ware, Jon Shuker, Rodger Tomlinson

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Emergency managers are increasingly responsible for considering multiple and often disparate information in highly pressurised situations to make evacuation decisions. Under these circumstances there is significant potential for the application of high performance computing technology to provide decision support. An important characteristic of the development of decision support is engagement with end users. In the emergency management setting end users operate in a highly standardised and rule structured environment which has developed based on existing information sources and products. In this context it is very difficult to discuss innovations and new approaches or systems designs with end users.

This paper …

Numerical Modelling Of Wave-Induced Beach Profile Change With A Two-Phase Sph Scheme, Ming Xiao, Tianyu Long

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

This work shows an application of a two-phase SPH model for the details of the interaction between wave propagation and coastal structures. The numerical solution is based on SPH approximation of the mixture model of the Herschel-Bulkley-Papanastasiou viscoplastic model for calculating a variable yield stress. We have investigated the dynamics and characteristics of beach profile transport related to the wave breaking process. Further, the numerical model results were validated against the experimental and numerical data found in the literatures and some relatively good agreements were observed. Afterwards, variable characteristics of the waves propagated over different sloped beaches are carried out. …

Design And Implementation Of A Rest Api For The Human Well Being Index (Hwbi), Amber R. Ignatius, Kurt Wolfe, Rajbir Parmar, Jonathan Flaishans, Linda Harwell, Susan Yee, Tom Purucker, Mike Galvin

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Interoperable software development uses principles of component reuse, systems integration, flexible data transfer, and standardized ontological documentation to promote access, reuse, and integration of code. While interoperability principles are increasingly considered technology standards in software engineering, adoption by the environmental modeling community has been slow. We created an Application Programming Interface (API) for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Human Well-being Index (HWBI) model based on interoperability principles. The HWBI characterizes economic, social, and environmental services during years 2000-2010. For each county in the U.S., specific metrics (e.g., life expectancy, housing affordability, voter turnout) are used to calculate scores for eight …