Engineering Commons^™

Climate Change Impact On Bridge Scour Risk In Ny State: A Gis-Based Risk Analysis Model, Muhammad Hassan Butt

Publications and Research

Bridge scour, the primary cause of bridge failure in the United States, escalates post-severe storms, necessitating effective mitigation. This study employs a GIS-based risk analysis model to assess climate change's impact on bridge scour and associated risks in New York State. Data from the National Bridge Inventory, climate hazard maps, and geospatial data are integrated.

The Utilization Of Repurposed Whole Textiles To Modify The Mechanical And Hydrogeological Soil Properties: Green Media, Angelis Almanzar-Chevalie, Yehya Elfgeeh, Calvin O. Walters Jr.

Publications and Research

The utilization of repurposed whole textiles to modify the mechanical and hydrogeological soil properties investigates the impact of adding repurposed textiles to lightweight engineered soil, documenting changes in unit weight, water content, and hydraulic conductivity. This study builds upon prior findings, which demonstrated significant alterations in hydrogeological properties when incorporating textile fabric (3% by weight at an aspect ratio of 1:1). Functioning as reinforcement, these fibers enhance the soil's strength, stability, and structural integrity—especially advantageous in erosion-prone areas, regions susceptible to landslides, or locations requiring heightened load-bearing capacity. The outcomes of this parametric study lead to green roof farms playing …

Compound Flooding In A Non-Stationary World: A Primer For Practice, Gerarda M. Shields, J. Rolf Olsen, Miguel Medina Jr., Jayantha Obeysekera, Poulomi Ganguli, Carlo Demichele, Gianfausto Salvadori, Mohammad Reza Najafi, Hamed Moftakhari, Ferdinand Diermanse, Amir Aghakouchak

Publications and Research

Compound flooding conditions present a significant challenge for civil engineers in their pursuit to design for and maintain the integrity of a structure’s entire life cycle. Coupled with non-stationary processes due to a changing climate and land use change, risk is a moving target. Through the support of ASCE’s Task Committee on Compound Flooding, the Hydroclimatology Engineering Adaptation (HYDEA) sub-committee is developing a Manual of Practice (MOP) to provide a synthesis of available tools and methods of best practice for civil engineers designing for compound flooding conditions. This paper presents a primer for practicing civil engineers on this work. Hydrodynamic …

Devlopment Of A Practical Method To Quantify Infiltration Rate Through Building Entrance, Eric Reed, Ferasuddin Siddiqui, Louidelson Deguerre, Steve. Boodram

Publications and Research

Infiltration through entrance doors, vestibules, cracks and other areas have a large impact in building energy consumption. It also has a significant impact on indoor air quality. There are only a few studies about air infiltration and air tightness in the literature. The purpose of this study is to develop practical methods to measure air infiltration rates through entrance doors. We have read research articles and identify several methods in the literature. Further investigation is required to help more accurately find infraction rate, crack size and location of cracks to help reduce air infiltration, energy costs, maintain comfortable indoor conditions …

Design Aspects Of Deep Water Distribution Shafts, Navid Allahverdi, V. Nasr

Publications and Research

This paper covers aspects of planning and designing of deep shafts with reference to two water distribution shafts under construction in New York City. The new shafts will be sunk into soil and rock to a depth to connect to existing Queens-Brooklyn tunnel section of City Tunnel No. 3 (CT3). The inside diameter of the upper parts of both shafts is 14.9 meter. Artificial ground freezing is specified as preferred method of excavation support for the entire stretch in soil. Excavation in competent rock will be performed using drill and blast technique preceded by a pre-excavation grouting program. Membrane waterproofing …

Design, Concept, And Visualization Of Urban Multi-Level Growing Table Systems In Hyper Urban Areas, Aaryan Manoj Nair, Shaheed Mohammed, Omar Rahama

Publications and Research

As of a 2019 study conducted by the National Urban Gardening Program (National Urban Gardening Program), urban farming accounts for approximately 19% of the total national farming output and is expected to triple to almost 45% by 2025. There is intensive research being conducted on aspects of reduced recidivism, communal health benefits, natural carbon capture systems, improved urban ecology and the necessity for reducing the carbon footprint of food, (informally dubbed “food miles”) there is little substantive research on optimisation, and maximation of crop productivity in hyper-urban areas.

The purpose of this report is to understand the functionalities of urban …

The Living Breakwaters Pdr Efforts Econcrete Resource Analysis, Guianina Ferrari, Shervon Stephens, Calvin O. Walters Jr.

Publications and Research

On October 29, 2012, Superstorm Sandy impacted 443,000 people and caused nearly $19 billion (about $58 per person in the US) worth of damage within New York City. As part of the New York City infrastructure reparation plan, the Living Breakwaters project in Tottenville addressed coastal resilience, allocating $100M of public funds to a series of artificial breakwaters by the southwest coast of Staten Island. Each breakwater is constructed and designed to mitigate water flow in storm events. ECOncrete, a primary element of the breakwater, is a specialty cast cementitious product that is marine organism-friendly that encourages biocalcification and photosynthesis. …

The Living Breakwaters Pdr Efforts: Conceptual Scheduling, Calvin O. Walters Jr.

Publications and Research

On October 29, 2012, Superstorm Sandy caused nearly $19 billion in damages in New York City including 69,000 residential units across the five boroughs. This disaster precipitated a post-disaster-rebuilding (PDR) project including roughly $4.2 billion in a Community Development Block Grant allocated towards PDR projects. A portion of the grant was used to construct a living breakwater in Tottenville, Staten Island, consisting of a resiliency approach to risk reduction through erosion prevention, wave energy attenuation, and enhancement of ecosystems and social resiliency to improve resistance to storms for the community of Tottenville. The ridges of each breakwater are designed with …

Allocative Efficiency Of Grid Farming In Urban Green Built Environments, Aaryan Manoj Nair

Publications and Research

As of a 2019 study conducted by the National Urban Gardening Program (National Urban Gardening Program), urban farming accounts for approximately 19% of the total national farming output and is expected to triple to almost 45% by 2025. There is intensive research being conducted on aspects of reduced recidivism, communal health benefits, natural carbon capture systems, improved urban ecology and the necessity for reducing the carbon footprint of food, (informally dubbed “food miles”) there is little substantive research on optimization, and maximation of crop productivity in hyper-urban areas. The article attempts to study allocative efficiency in hyper urban built environments.

Quo Vadis Lakes Azuei And Enriquillo: A Future Outlook For Two Of The Caribbean Basin's Largest Lakes, Mahrokh Moknatian, Michael Piasecki

Publications and Research

Lakes Azuei (LA) and Enriquillo (LE) on Hispaniola Island started expanding in 2005 and continued to do so until 2016. After inundating large swaths of arable land, submerging a small community, and threatening to swallow a significant trade route between the Dominican Republic and Haiti; worries persisted at how far this seemingly unstoppable expansion would go. The paper outlines the approach to a look forward to answer this question vis-à-vis climate change scenarios developed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). It uses numerical representations of the two lakes, and it examines how the lakes might evolve, deploying three …

Preventing Transmission Of Covid 19 In Hvac Duct Systems: Implementations Of Hvac System Design Upgrade, Jacob S. Lopez, Adama Barro

Publications and Research

The recent pandemic outbreak has triggered a global alarm to increase efforts on finding the best methods to mitigate contagious viral pathogens. This project is a continuation of our mission to study engineering guidelines needed to implement upgrades to HVAC Systems in order to deter airborne pathogens such as the covid-19 virus. In our previous projects we researched how covid-19 can possibly flow through the ambient air inside of restaurants, office spaces, and locomotive train cabins. As we continued our research, we were able to find some solutions that will be best used to deactivate and prevent the virus from …

Slowing The Spread Of Covid-19: Review Of “Social Distancing” Interventions Deployed By Public Transit In The United States And Canada, Camille Kamga, Penny Eickemeyer

Publications and Research

This paper presents a review of social distancing measures deployed by transit agencies in the United States and Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic and discusses how specific operators across the two countries have implemented changes. Challenges and impacts on their operations are also provided.

Social distancing is one of the community mitigation measures traditionally implemented during influenza pandemics and the novel coronavirus pandemic. Research has shown that social distancing is effective in containing the spread of disease. This is applicable to the current situation with the novel coronavirus, given the lack of effective vaccines and treatments in the United States …

Benefits Of Pre-Construction Analysis: Cet Senior Capstone Expands Understanding Of An Urban Refuge At Gallopnyc Sunrise Stables, Aalaa Mohammed

Publications and Research

For any construction project, there exists a phase of planning known as “pre-construction.” This initial phase of the project provides a definition of the project, identification of potential issues, planning and scheduling, scope, cost estimation, and analysis of needs for the job. My research analyzes a pre-construction case study conducted for Gallop NYC’s Stable in Howard Beach, Queens. The findings suggest that the practice of construction planning is effective in order to avoid delays in construction itself and ensure successful project completion. Supporting literature examines some of the best practices for pre-construction analysis. These include but are not limited to: …

National Summer Transportation Institute: Increasing Career Awareness In Civil Engineering For Underserved High School Students, Melanie L. Villatoro, Janet Liou-Mark

Publications and Research

Our nation needs to increase the number of students pursuing degrees in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) and those leading to transportation-related careers. In order to meet the demand for qualified graduates in transportation, it is necessary to diversify the pool of students entering college with an interest in these fields. The National Summer Transportation Institute (NSTI) is an educational initiative developed by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and Department of Transportation (DOT). The NSTI at City Tech was designed to increase awareness of transportation-related careers among New York City high school students. The structure of …

A Comparison Of Half And Quarter Space Penetration Into Granular Media, Ivan L. Guzman, Magued Iskander, Stephan Bless

Publications and Research

In this study, two experimental techniques are compared for the purpose of visualizing projectile penetration at speeds ranging between 60 and 150 m/s into granular media. The two techniques are half space penetration into a transparent synthetic soil surrogate and quarter space penetration of an opaque natural sand and transparent soil surrogate against an observation window. In both techniques a pneumatic projectile accelerator was employed to launch the projectiles, and high-speed imagery was employed to visualize the penetration events unintrusively. Transparency in transparent targets was achieved by saturating angular fused quartz with a refractive index matched pore fluid made of …

Exploring The Evolution Of Drought Characteristics In Balochistan, Pakistan, Shoaib Jamro, Falak Naz Channa, Ghulam Hussain Dars, Kamran Ansari, Nir Krakauer

Publications and Research

In the wake of a rapidly changing climate, droughts have intensified, in both duration and severity, across the globe. The Germanwatch long-term Climate Risk Index ranks Pakistan among the top 10 countries most affected by the adverse effects of climate change. Within Pakistan, the province of Balochistan is among the most vulnerable regions due to recurring prolonged droughts, erratic precipitation patterns, and dependence on agriculture and livestock for survival. This study aims to explore how the characteristics of droughts have evolved in the region from 1902–2015 using 3-month and 12-month timescales of a popular drought index, the Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration …

Lake Volume Data Analyses: A Deep Look Into The Shrinking And Expansion Patterns Of Lakes Azuei And Enriquillo, Hispaniola, Mahrokh Moknatian, Michael Piasecki

Publications and Research

This paper presents the development of an evenly spaced volume time series for Lakes Azuei and Enriquillo both located on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola. The time series is derived from an unevenly spaced Landsat imagery data set which is then exposed to several imputation methods to construct the gap filled uniformly‐spaced time series so it can be subjected to statistical analyses methods. The volume time series features both gradual and sudden changes the latter of which is attributed to North Atlantic cyclone activity. Relevant cyclone activity is defined as an event passing within 80 km and having regional monthly …

Forensic Investigation Of Building Failure – The Harbour Cay Condominium Disaster, John Airis

Publications and Research

When a building suffers collapse, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is tasked with conducting an investigation into the cause. Often OSHA will request technical assistance from the National Institute for Standards and Technology to assist in the forensic technical aspects determining a most probable cause. This forensic effort entails many actions. The Harbour Cay Condominium disaster occurred on March 28, 1981 in Cocoa Beach, Florida. It was a total collapse of a five story reinforced concrete structure during the last stage of roof construction, resulting in 11 deaths and 24 injuries. The investigation report revealed structural design …

Static Analysis Of Structural Members, Amani Calderon, Alexis Villalona, Farhad Alinaghizadeh

Publications and Research

This research is devoted to statics analysis of structural members under mechanical loads. Static analysis of beams under uniform transverse mechanical loads is presented. The beams are supported by simply supported boundary condition at both sides. The equilibrium equation of the beams is obtained and solved using analytical method and numerical method. The numerical method employed in this work is generalized differential quadrature (GDQ) method. The type of differential quadrature method used for numerical solution is the polynomial-based GDQ method. The differential equation is discretized into algebraic equations based on the GDQ technique. The algebraic equations are then solved to …

Green Roof System Integrated Soil Methods, Jude R. Vallon, Ivan L. Guzman

Publications and Research

Large metropolitan areas like NYC are seeking to integrate sustainability into retrofitting buildings for the development of green infrastructure. Among the many environmental issues of urbanization, the UHI (urban heat island) effect and storm water runoff are of particular interest when it comes building structures. Individual buildings can contribute towards mitigating these effects with implementation of vegetative rooftops, i.e. Green Roofs. Commercial buildings are currently receiving government incentives and new constructions are required to include green roof installations. However, if existing buildings are considering the addition of a green roof on an existing roof, they have to factor in the …

Static Analysis Of Circular Plates Under Mechanical Loads, Harpreet Lalia

Publications and Research

In this research statics analysis of circular plates is performed using SolidWorks.

Circular plates with different material properties, thickness to radius ratios, and boundary conditions under mechanical loads are modeled and analyzed in SolidWorks.

The results are obtained for deflections of circular plates under uniform and point loads.

A three-dimensional (3D) model of circular plates is first created in SolidWorks. Then the material properties, mechanical loads and boundary conditions are defined for the plate.

It is found deflection of plates is depended on magnitude of mechanical loads, geometrical parameters, boundary conditions and material properties. Responses of SolidWorks for deflections of …

Energy & Carbon Neutral Nyc, Evan Banks, Elena Zimareva, Elena Malysheva

Publications and Research

In 2016, the world's leading countries signed the Paris Agreement which focused on reducing anthropogenic climate change on the planet. On May 2019, New York State and New York City declared its own ambitious goals aimed at decarbonizing the city and restricting the state’s energy use to relying completely on renewables.

Some of these goals specifically target infrastructure in the city since estimates cite buildings as accounting for nearly 70% of New York’s energy use. The main law of New York’s Climate Policy, Local Law 97, requires all buildings over 25,000 sq ft to reduce their CO2 footprint by 40% …

Land Surface Temperature Variability Across India: A Remote Sensing Satellite Perspective, Satya Prakash, Hamidreza Norouzi

Publications and Research

Land surface temperature (LST) plays a key role in the surface energy budget computation and land surface process studies. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensors onboard the Aqua and Terra satellites provide comprehensive global LST estimates at a fine spatial resolution. The MODIS products were recently upgraded to Collection 6, and shown to be more accurate than its predecessor Collection 5 products. In this study, LST and its variability have been examined across India from Collection 6 of the Aqua MODIS data at 0.05° spatial resolution for the period of 2003 to 2017. All-India mean LST characteristics show distinctive …

Spatio-Temporal Variability Of Drought In Pakistan Using Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index, Shoaib Jamro, Ghulam Hussain Dars, Kamran Ansari, Nir Krakauer

Publications and Research

Pakistan is among the top ten countries adversely affected by climate change. More specifically, there is concern that climate change may cause longer and severer spells of droughts. To quantify the change in the characteristics of droughts in Pakistan over the years, we have evaluated spatio-temporal trends of droughts in Pakistan over the period 1902–2015 using Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI). Additionally, the Spatial “K” luster Analysis using Tree Edge Removal (SKATER) method was employed to regionalize droughts into five contiguous zones. The run theory was then applied to each zone to identify drought events and characterize them in terms …

Precipitation Trends Over The Indus Basin, Nir Krakauer, Tarendra Lakhankar, Ghulam Hussain Dars

Publications and Research

A large population relies on water input to the Indus basin, yet basinwide precipitation amounts and trends are not well quantified. Gridded precipitation data sets covering different time periods and based on either station observations, satellite remote sensing, or reanalysis were compared with available station observations and analyzed for basinwide precipitation trends. Compared to observations, some data sets tended to greatly underestimate precipitation, while others overestimate it. Additionally, the discrepancies between data set and station precipitation showed significant time trends in many cases, suggesting that the precipitation trends of those data sets were not consistent with station data. Among the …

Trends In Drought Over The Northeast United States, Nir Y. Krakauer, Tarendra Lakhankar, Damien Hudson

Publications and Research

The Northeast United States is a generally wet region that has had substantial increases in mean precipitation over the past decades, but also experiences damaging droughts. We evaluated drought frequency, intensity, and duration trends in the region over the period 1901–2015. We used a dataset of Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI), a measure of water balance based on meteorology that is computed at multiple timescales. It was found that the frequency of droughts decreased over this period, but their average intensity and duration did not show consistent changes. There was an increase in mean SPEI, indicating mostly wetter conditions, but …

Evaluation Of The Uncertainty In Satellite-Based Crop State Variable Retrievals Due To Site And Growth Stage Specific Factors And Their Potential In Coupling With Crop Growth Models, Nathaniel Levitan, Yanghui Kang, Mutlu Özdogan, Vincenzo Magliulo, Paulo Castillo, Fred Moshary, Barry Gross

Publications and Research

Coupling crop growth models and remote sensing provides the potential to improve our understanding of the genotype x environment x management (G X E X M) variability of crop growth on a global scale. Unfortunately, the uncertainty in the relationship between the satellite measurements and the crop state variables across different sites and growth stages makes it diffcult to perform the coupling. In this study, we evaluate the effects of this uncertainty with MODIS data at the Mead, Nebraska Ameriflux sites (US-Ne1, US-Ne2, and US-Ne3) and accurate, collocated Hybrid-Maize (HM) simulations of leaf area index (LAI) and canopy light use …

An Urban Flash Flood Alert Tool For Megacities—Application For Manhattan, New York City, Usa, Rafea Hashim Al-Suhili, Cheila Cullen, Reza Khanbilvardi

Publications and Research

Urban flooding is a frequent problem affecting cities all over the world. The problem is more significant now that the climate is changing and urbanization trends are increasing. Various, physical hydrological models such as the Environmental Protection Agency Storm Water Management Model (EPA SWMM), MIKE URBAN-II and others, have been developed to simulate flooding events in cities. However, they require high accuracy mapping and a simulation of the underground storm drainage system. Sadly, this capability is usually not available for older or larger so-called megacities. Other hydrological model types are classified in the semi-physical category, like Cellular Automata (CA), require …

Development Of Digital Bathymetry Maps For Lakes Azuei And Enriquillo Using Sonar And Remote Sensing Techniques, Michael Piasecki, Mahrokh Moknatian, Fred Moshary, Jorge Gonzalez

Publications and Research

This article presents an improved algorithm for optimization and development of a digital bathymetric model (DBM) for Lake Azuei (LA) (Haiti) and Lake Enriquillo (LE) (Dominican Republic) using the ANUDEM method. Both sonar data and contour lines of the lakes’ layout extracted using Landsat imagery were compiled for bathymetry development. We show that the performance of the ANUDEM method was strongly dependent on the density and irregularity of the spatial distribution of the data. Changing the resolution of the output grids and deriving auxiliary topographically corrected contours improved the ANUDEM performance and minimized the systematic errors of the method. Statistical …

Observational Time Series For Lakes Azuei And Enriquillo: Surface Area, Volume, And Elevation, Mahrokh Moknatian, Michael Piasecki

Publications and Research

In this report, we present historical time series of surface area, volume, and elevation for lakes Azuei (Haiti) and Enriquillo (Dominican Republic). The intention is to present a history of the lakes’ levels for both bodies of water as derived from Landsat imagery that is augmented by reports and narratives that reach further back in time. We also summarize lake level time series data collected and developed through various other efforts and compare these data sets to our time series. The time series contains 45 years’ worth of data ranging from 1972 to 2017 which we developed from Landsat imagery …