Engineering Commons^™

Integrating Emerging River Forecast Center Streamflow Products Into The Salt Lake City Parley’S Drinking Water System, Rebecca Guihan

Environmental & Water Resources Engineering Masters Projects

Seasonal forecasts of weather provide valuable information for reservoir operations, particularly during unusual events, such as floods or droughts. A challenge confronting reservoir operators today is whether to incorporate new climate products into their operations to help manage such extremes or to use historic data to guide them. This research evaluates the accuracy and value of the Hydrologic Ensemble Forecast System (HEFS) generated from the Climate Forecast System version 2 (CFSv2) using the operations of the Salt Lake City Parley’s System nd compares it to the accuracy and value of using an Ensemble Streamflow Predictions (ESP) approach. Streamflow reforecasts are …

Investigating Tradeoffs Between Flood Control And Ecological Flow Benefits In The Connecticut River Basin, Jocelyn Anleitner

Environmental & Water Resources Engineering Masters Projects

The flow regime of the Connecticut River Basin (CRB) has been markedly altered due to the high number of impoundments reservoirs in the basin. The major services provided by these reservoirs include hydropower production, water supply, recreation and flood control. The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) operates 14 flood control facilities within the basin. The storage capacities of these facilities range from 3,740 to 71,000 acre-feet. USACE is currently exploring operational alternatives that include both traditional economic benefits of the reservoirs and benefits of returning the flows of the Connecticut River and its tributaries to a more natural …

Quantifying The Impacts Of Future Uncertainties On The Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint Basin, Katherine E. Lownsbery

Environmental & Water Resources Engineering Masters Projects

Water resources systems are increasingly stressed by both climate and changing water demands. The uncertainty associated with these stressors greatly complicates risk assessments, especially because the relative and combined impacts of each stressor on water resources systems is often unknown. This study applies a bottom-up ex post scenario analysis approach (termed decision-scaling) to explore the spatiotemporal distribution of impacts from multiple stressors on a multi-objective transboundary river basin – the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint basin. The response of this large water resources system to variability and change in climate (specifically precipitation and temperature), as well as change in water demand (specifically municipal, industrial, …

Application Of Stormwater Management Techniques For Mitigation And Education At The Stockbridge School Agricultural Learning Center, Samantha R. Anderson

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Masters Projects

The Stockbridge School Agricultural Learning Center (SSALC) will be a 40-acre hands-on agricultural learning laboratory for students, staff, visitors, and neighbors. Still in its planning phases, the Center will be located on what is currently a hay field just north of UMass Amherst campus. A conceptual master plan was created in 2013 that is being used for fundraising as well as planning for agricultural demonstration plots and architectural hubs. Improperly managed agricultural landscapes are known as one of the biggest threats to water quality in the United States. As a model of forward thinking agricultural practices, properly managed stormwater on …

The Green Latrine: Development Of A Large Scale Microbial Fuel Cell For The Treatment Of Human Waste In Developing Areas, Cynthia Castro

Environmental & Water Resources Engineering Masters Projects

Global access to sanitation systems in the developing world has yet to be attained. Several concepts for small-scale ecological decentralized waste treatment systems have been developed to further disseminate sanitation systems in rural environments. These systems have added incentives such as compost and fertilizer obtained from human waste. The goal of this research is to develop a novel microbial fuel cell latrine that treats human waste and produces three incentives: treated effluent, compost, and electricity. The MFC proposed in this work uses a simple three-chamber design. Each chamber is hydraulically partitioned, eliminating the need for a proton exchange membrane. A …

Potential Impacts Of Changes In Climate On Water Quality In New York City's Ashokan, Nicholas Rossi

Environmental & Water Resources Engineering Masters Projects

This thesis investigates an approach for determining water resources vulnerability caused by climate change and applies it to a case-study for the New York City ater Supply System (NYCWSS).The results provide potential responses of the system to changes in climate and guidance that can inform short and long-term planning decisions.

This research models the hydrology and operations of the NYCWSS and includes a statistical model of turbidity concentration in the Ashokan Reservoir. Using a stochastic weather generator, incremental changes are made to precipitation and temperature and used to drive the coupled hydrology-simulation model. The results are aggregated and examined to …