Engineering Commons^™

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …