Engineering Commons^™

3d Printed Architected Materials For Improving Biofilm Carriers For Wastewater Treatment Applications, Bryan Ovelheiro

Environmental & Water Resources Engineering Masters Projects

Wastewater infrastructure in the United States has been in dire need of improvement for quite a while. It was estimated that wastewater treatment systems would need about $57.2 billion to maintain acceptable levels of treatment in the coming years (Christen, 2003). This is just for maintaining the treatment systems in place, without any room for improvement, and it only accounts for about 31.6% of the total waster infrastructure need in this area (Christen, 2003). In fact, without sufficient upgrades, water quality gains achieved through the passing of the Clean Water and Safe Drinking Water acts could be lost (Christen, 2003). …

Complexities Of Attraction Water Systems: A Review & An Experiment Showcasing Their Effects, Marcia Rojas

Environmental & Water Resources Engineering Masters Projects

The presence of dams has direct negative effects on populations of migrating fish and their riverine habitat as well as impacts on the ecosystem services they provide. Fishways, provide upstream and downstream passage that is safe and timely, comprising specifically of “physical structures, facilities, or devices necessary to maintain all life stages of such fish, and project operations and measures related to such structures, facilities, or devices which are necessary to ensure the effectiveness of such structures, facilities or devices for such fish” (National Energy Policy Act 1992). Fishways, sloped channels or elevators that connect the tailrace to the head …

Hudson River Estuary Tidal Marsh Sediment Data, Brian Yellen, Jonathan Woodruff

Data and Datasets

This repository contains data from sediment cores collected at six tidal wetland complexes that are located within the Hudson River Estuary. The sites include Stockport Marsh, Esopus Delta, Tivoli North Bay, Tivoli South Bay, Vanderburgh Cove, and Iona Island Marsh. A variety of core collection tools and methods were used to collect uncompacted records, including gouge coring, Russian peat coring, and piston push coring, with the method determined by coring environment. The general workflow for cores included (1) splitting; (2) Itrax XRF scanning; (3) subsampling cores ~10 cm spacing; (4) drying and burning samples for percent water, organic, and mineral …

The Success, Morphology, And Performance Of Oxygenic Photogranules Under Light-Induced Stress Conditions, Samuel Downes

Environmental & Water Resources Engineering Masters Projects

No abstract provided.

Evaluation Of Two Real Time Methods For Assessing Thm Precursor Concentrations, Griffin Moriarty

Environmental & Water Resources Engineering Masters Projects

Conventional drinking water treatment generally requires maintenance of a disinfectant residual, most commonly free or combined chlorine. Since the discovery of disinfection byproducts (DBPs), utilities have relied on a broad range of water quality parameters to help them achieve compliance with DBP regulations. Most notably, dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and ultraviolet absorbance at 254 nm (UV254) have been used to assess DBP precursor levels in near-real time. These are often compared to actual system DBP concentrations or to results from laboratory DBP precursor tests resulting in a site-specific precursor-DBP model. The DOC or UV254 models are often inaccurate, requiring re-calibration, …

An Assessment Of Lead And Copper In School Drinking Water, Kaavya Raghavan Ram

Environmental & Water Resources Engineering Masters Projects

Metal contamination in drinking water, especially heavy metals such as lead, and corrosion issues, pose a threat to human health and have received increasing attention in recent years. This study reports on the results of ‘The Massachusetts Assistance Program for Lead in School Drinking Water’ and provides a better understanding of the dynamics of sampling protocols, premise plumbing and their influence on lead and copper concentrations. ‘The Massachusetts Assistance Program for Lead in School Drinking Water’ that was announced in April 2016, implemented tap-based water sampling for lead and copper at K-12 public schools and Early Education and Childcare centers …

Developing A Toolkit For Citizen Scientists' Evaluation Of Drinking Water Quality, Leighann D'Andrea

Environmental & Water Resources Engineering Masters Projects

This project evaluated tools for citizen science by assessing the potential to monitor drinking water quality at home with commercially sold, or off the shelf, test kits. The first objective was to compare the results of off the shelf test kits with laboratory-obtained values as performed in a controlled environment by trained laboratory personnel. The second objective was to provide potential citizen scientists with a selection of test kits to determine if they could successfully use the kits. These two objectives contributed to the end goal of understanding whether test kits on the market existed that could be used by …

Modeling Nature-Based Solutions For Climate Resilience, Mason Saleeba

Environmental & Water Resources Engineering Masters Projects

Riparian wetlands can serve as nature-based infrastructure that slow the rapid movement of water during high flow events. As the recurrence of high flow events increases due to global climate change, an improved understanding of the potential of wetland landscapes to provide flood mitigation is needed. This research addresses both the impacts of climate change and land cover on extreme flow events in the Otter Creek watershed in Vermont. The upstream portion of the basin is modeled with the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) to investigate the impacts of climate change on extreme flow events. A Hydrologic Engineering Center's …

Evaluating Policy And Climate Impacts On Water Resources Systems Using Coupled Human-Natural Models, Hassaan Furqan Khan

Doctoral Dissertations

Extensive human intervention in the terrestrial hydrosphere means that virtually every river basin globally reflects the interaction between human and natural hydrologic processes. Thus, sustainable watershed management needs to not only account for the diverse ways humans benefit from the environment but also incorporate the impact of human actions on the natural system. Informed policy making to address our water challenges requires a comprehensive understanding of these feedbacks and how they might be affected by future changes in climate. This work develops coupled human-natural models for improved surface water and groundwater management in water-scarce regions under future changes in climate. …

Evaluation Of The Erodibility Of Soft Clays And The Influence Of Biopolymers, Pamela Judge

Doctoral Dissertations

Erosion of silts and clays is less well understood than erosion of sands. Further, current and anticipated climate change impacts along coastlines compel consideration of new approaches to coastal protection measures; seawalls and breakwaters designs now include natural and nature-based measures. The first research topic consists of the Adaptive Gradients Framework which was a theoretically-informed facilitation tool. The framework was intended to aid a collaborative and interdisciplinary decision-making process to encourage inclusion of natural and nature-based measures in coastal protection planning and design. This research is the culmination of a series of workshops and fieldtrips executed by the Sustainable Adaptive …

Crowdsourcing The Georeferencing Of Historical Pictures, Timothée Produit, Nicolas Blanc, Sarah Composto, Jens Ingensand, Loic Furhoff

Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial (FOSS4G) Conference Proceedings

Countless organizations own archive pictures which are not used due to the difficulty of localizing them. Only the participation of volunteers can help to identify the image content. Through an accessible web interface called smapshot, citizens are able to georeference historical images without any prior specific competence. To avoid the volunteers to face the complexity of 3D digitization and navigation, we implemented a state of the art photogrammetry camera orientation algorithm in the platform. Currently several thousand images from all around Switzerland have been georeferenced by the crowd. At this time the tool is mainly used by the population for …

Seasonal Impacts Of Climate Change On Future Peak River Discharge In The U.S. Northeast, Christina Wu

Environmental & Water Resources Engineering Masters Projects

This research uses projected changes in future precipitation to calculate the changes in the magnitude, frequency, and timing of streamflow, particularly peak annual flows, in the U.S. Northeast through 20 representative watersheds. Temperature and precipitation data on a 3-hourly time step from five climate projection from the North American Regional Climate Change Assessment Program (NARCCAP) are downscaled and bias- corrected using the Spatial Downscaling and Bias Correction (SDBC) method. These data are used to force a regional hydrological model (WRF-Hydro) to estimate daily future streamflow. The changes in magnitude at various return intervals of peak flow events are determined through …

Formation Of Low-Molecular-Weight Dissolved Organic Nitrogen In Two-Stage And Four-Stage Pre-Denitrification Biological Nutrient Removal Processes, Siwei Chen

Environmental & Water Resources Engineering Masters Projects

To alleviate the eutrophication caused by excessive loading of nutrients, the upgrading of conventional activated sludge (CAS) process to biological nutrients removal (BNR) process has been widely applied in USA. In this study, we found that the dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) release can be effectively controlled by this upgrading, but dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) especially LMW-DON, which now is regarded as another important N source for supporting growth of phytoplankton in coastal water, cannot be removed effectively by BNR systems, especially by four-stage BNR systems. Different pre-denitrification BNR processes have different LMW-DON production rates. A four-stage pre-denitrification BNR releases more …

Application Of Ce-Qual-W2: Wachusett Reservoir Contaminant Spill Modeling, William Yan

Environmental & Water Resources Engineering Masters Projects

This research was done to investigate the fate and transport of a simulated contaminant spill into Wachusett Reservoir using the CE-QUAL-W2 model. The reservoir is located in central Massachusetts (north east of Worcester) and was first filled in 1908. The Massachusetts Water Resource Authority (MWRA) uses the reservoir as a primary source of drinking water for the metropolitan Boston area. The 65-billion-gallon reservoir is replenished by 9 tributaries and also supplemented by the transfer of water from Quabbin Reservoir (412 billion-gallon capacity) through the Quabbin Aqueduct. This transfer is used to meet system water demands, manage the water surface elevation …

Development Of Application Software For Water System Data Management, Visualization, And Analysis With The Shiny Framework, Nicholas Zinck

Environmental & Water Resources Engineering Masters Projects

A comprehensive watershed protection plan includes the collection of water quality, meteorological, and hydrological data. Large amounts of data can be difficult to manage if proper systems are not put in place for data management. Poor data management can be detrimental and may result in data loss, poor quality data, or underutilized data due to the lack of an efficient process of querying, visualizing, and analyzing data. Database software is a great solution to store and organize large datasets, yet database software often lack data visualization and analysis tools. Commonly, databases are paired with an outside application specialized for data …

Determination Of The Rate Constant For Reaction Of Ozone With 1-Hexene In Water, Pranav Mashankar

Environmental & Water Resources Engineering Masters Projects

Low molecular weight aldehydes such as formaldehyde may be formed as disinfection byproducts (DBPs) of ozonation when low molecular weight, aliphatic, alpha olefins are present as contaminants in water. Such alkenes form a small but significant part of crude oil, and would therefore be present in water contaminated with an oil spill. This project studied the kinetics of the reaction between ozone and 1-hexene in water as part of a study to predict the effects of an oil spill on the water quality in the Wachusett reservoir in Massachusetts. The data for the reaction rate constant for the aqueous ozonolysis …

Factors Impacting The Cultivation, Structure, And Oxygen Profiles Of Oxygenic Photogranules For Aeration-Free Wastewater Treatment, Megan Hann

Environmental & Water Resources Engineering Masters Projects

Oxygenic photogranules (OPGs) are novel biogranules which have successfully treated wastewater without external aeration at the bench scale. The formation of OPGs under both static and hydrodynamic conditions is a unique phenomenon which has no known counterpart. This report examines some of the granulation mechanisms and structural and functional differences between statically and hydrodynamically cultivated OPGs. As previously reported, filamentous cyanobacteria are an essential component of both types of OPGs. The addition of Oscillatoria in augmented activated sludge inoculum showed successful static OPG formation in a shorter time (28 vs 35 days) and produced more settled OPGs than native sludge …

Origins And Seasonal Variation Of Disinfection Byproduct Precursors, Ran Zhao

Doctoral Dissertations

Disinfection byproducts (DBPs) are formed from the disinfectant (e.g., chlorine) reacting with components of natural organic matter (NOM) in water drawn from surface water supplies, and are considered as the cause of potential serious human health problems. DBP precursors originate in large reservoirs from at least three types of sources: (1) watershed or allochthonous, (2) algal or autochthonous, and (3) bottom sediments or benthic. The properties of the NOM and the DBP precursor content of that NOM are unique to each source. The first objective of this dissertation was to use temporal and spatial water quality data from a drinking …

Role Of Manganese Oxide In The Formation Of Disinfection Byproducts In Drinking Water Treatment, Arianne A. Bazilio

Doctoral Dissertations

This work examined the role of manganese oxide (MnO_x) in the formation of disinfection byproducts (DBPs) in drinking water treatment. DBPs are of increasing concern as more is being learned about their carcinogenicity and genotoxicity. Studies were performed to determine the impact of MnO_x and free chlorine (Cl₂), used for dissolved manganese (Mn(II) removal, on the formation of these undesirable byproducts. Batch experiment results showed that the presence of MnO_x did not significantly increase the haloacetic acid or trihalomethane concentrations. Rates of DBP formation were also similar in the absence and presence of Mn(II) …

Effect Of Substrate Roughness, Slope, And Body Size On Climbing Behavior And Performance Of Juvenile American Eels (Anguilla Rostrata), Zahra Anwar

Environmental & Water Resources Engineering Masters Projects

The effect of ramp slope and substrate grain size on the passage of juvenile American Eel (Anguilla rostrata) over indoor ramps was tested from May – August 2016. Two size classes of fish (300 glass eels 50 – 70 mm and 300 elvers 90-114 mm), five substrates varying in coarseness (Substrate 1: 0.18-0.25 mm grain size, Substrate 2: 0.25-0.60 mm grain size,

Substrate 3; 0.60-1.00 mm grain size, Substrate 4: 1.00 – 2.00 mm grain size, Substrate 5: 2.00-

4.00 mm grain size), and three ramp slopes (25, 35 and 45 degrees) were explored. Individual fish were placed …

Microbial Competition In Bioelectrochemical Systems, Varun Srinivasan

Doctoral Dissertations

Bioelectrochemical systems(BESs)/ microbial fuel fells (MFCs) are a well-studied potential technology for bioremediation and decentralized wastewater treatment. However, progress has been somewhat stalled at the bench-scale. In well controlled experiments electron recovery is high. In natural environments, wastewaters are complex and anode-respiring bacteria can be outcompeted in the presence of competing microorganisms, leading to a loss in electron-recovery and power production. Furthermore, the cathode of the MFC plays a vital role in providing flexibility for treatment options but is an understudied part of MFCs. Modelling Intracellular Competition in a Denitrifying Biocathode: One potential MFC configuration uses an organic-oxidizing anode biofilm …

Analyses Of Densely Crosslinked Phenolic Systems Using Low Field Nmr, Jigneshkumar Patel

Doctoral Dissertations

A uniform dispersion of reactants is necessary to achieve a complete reaction involving multi-components, especially for the crosslinking of rigid high-performance materials. In these reactions, miscibility is crucial for curing efficiency. This miscibility is typically enhanced by adding a third component, a plasticizer. For the reaction of the highly crystalline crosslinking agent hexamethylenetetramine (HMTA) with a strongly hydrogen-bonded phenol formaldehyde resin, furfural has been traditionally used as the plasticizer. However, the reason for its effectiveness is not clear. In this doctoral thesis work, miscibility and crosslinking efficiency of plasticizers in phenolic curing reactions are studied by thermal analysis and spectroscopic …

Decision Analytical Methods For Robust Water Infrastructure Planning Under Deep Uncertainty, Mehmet Umit Taner

Doctoral Dissertations

Deep uncertainties resulting from climate change, demographic pressures, and rapidly evolving socioeconomic conditions are challenging the way that water planners design and operate large-scale infrastructure systems. Conventionally, water infrastructures have been developed using stationary methods, assuming that the underlying uncertainties can be derived from historical data or experience. However, these methods are less useful under deeply uncertain climate and socioeconomic conditions, in which the future can be substantially different from the past and cannot be expressed by well-defined probability distributions. The recognition of deep uncertainties in long-term water resources planning has led to the development of “decision-analytical” frameworks that do …

Microbial Dynamics And Design Considerations For Decentralized Microbial Fuel Cell Applications, Cynthia Castro

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation was to assess the practicality of using microbial fuel cells (MFCs) as alternative sanitation systems for wastewater treatment and energy recovery, focusing on identifying key design considerations for treating high strength wastewater and managing alternative metabolic pathways. We evaluated the energetic outputs of a lab-based pilot MFC designed to treat complex organics present in both synthetic feces and municipal wastewater. The pilot MFC produced two energetic products, methane and electricity, when treating two types of complex wastewaters. The energetic products associated with anode respiration and methanogenesis were simultaneously observed and yielded a combined energy ouput …

Restoring Floodplains In The Connecticut River Basin: A Flood Management Strategy, Abigail Ericson

Environmental & Water Resources Engineering Masters Projects

This research investigates how changes to floodplains in the Connecticut River Basin impact flood events. Climate impacted flows and increased development within the floodplain could lead to worsening flood events and less habitat availability for threatened species. Potential future conditions are evaluated through a wide range of scenarios to assess the range of possible impacts using a HEC-RAS 2D model. Three different flood events, 1-yr, 10-yr, and 100-yr, are evaluated for each scenario. Five metrics, Discharge, Depth, Time of Arrival, Flooding Duration, and Number of Buildings Flooded, are tracked for each scenario. These metrics are compared to select the ideal …

Pilot Reactor Operation Of The Oxygenic Photogranule (Opg) Wastewater Treatment Process, Adam Matthew Mcnair

Environmental & Water Resources Engineering Masters Projects

Treating wastewater is imperative for maintaining public health and sanitation as well as the natural environment. In the United States and developed countries around the globe, the activated sludge (AS) process has been paramount in effectively treating wastewater for over a century. However, high energy consumption due to required mechanical aeration of AS limits its potential as a sustainable process. The oxygenic photogranule (OPG) wastewater treatment process utilizes the photosynthetic ability of OPGs made possible by the symbiosis between heterotrophic AS and filamentous cyanobacteria and algae in dense, spherical biogranules. This research presents pilot operation of the OPG wastewater treatment …

Total Organic Iodine Quantification And Occurrence In Drinking Water, And Toxicity Assessment Of Iodinated Disinfection By-Products, Rassil El Sayess

Doctoral Dissertations

The focus of this work has been placed is on iodinated DBPs (I-DBPs), measured using total organic iodine (TOI), a surrogate measure of iodinated organics. This is due to the growing toxicity literature that places I-DBPs among the most toxic of all DBPs. To measure TOI in water, a new method was developed. This method combines adsorption, combustion, and trapping of combustion products, with an offline inductively coupled plasma/mass spectrometer (ICP-MS) for iodide detection. Three factors were varied across two levels each in order to optimize the method. The chosen method used a sample pH of less than 1 prior …

Effects Of Sulfidation On The Deposition And Detachment Of Silver Nanoparticles, Joseph Murphy

Environmental & Water Resources Engineering Masters Projects

The transformation of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) due to environmental factors can play a role in their fate and transport in aquatic systems. Sulfidation has the potential to alter these particles’ physio-chemical properties and their subsequent mobilization in aquatic environments. The water chemistry (e.g. pH, dissolved organic carbon) of these systems can also change the behavior of AgNPs. To better understand the effects of sulfidation on the characteristics and deposition of AgNPs, techniques such as quartz crystal microgravimetry (QCM) and dynamic light scattering (DLS) were used. In this study, AgNPs with two different ligand types, Polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP)-capped AgNPs (PVP-AgNPs) and Polyethylene …

Evaluation Of Disinfection Byproduct Speciation Models Based On Biodegradation And Chemical Decomposition, Xian Ma

Environmental & Water Resources Engineering Masters Projects

The USEPA has regulated both chlorinated and brominated trihalomethanes (THMs) and haloacetic acids (HAAs) since Stage 2 D/DBP Rule. Among regulated species, all four chlorinated and brominated THMs are regulated as total TTHMs (TTHM). But of the nine HAAs, only the sum of five (HAA5) are regulated, with no detail on individual species. This leaves four unregulated HAAs of which all contain bromine. With more attention on the brominated haloacetic acids due to their higher toxicity, the focus on the formation of those unregulated brominated species is elevated. The objective of this study is to assess national occurrence of all …

River And Stream Power Assessment Report Including Culvert And Bridge Vulnerability Analysis: Deerfield River Basin, Massachusetts And Vermont, James G. Macbroom, Roy Schiff, Jessica Louisos

Water Reports

This geomorphic assessment of Deerfield River in western Massachusetts and southern Vermont has been prepared by Milone & MacBroom, Inc. (MMI) on behalf of the University of Massachusetts as part of its "Farms, Floods, and FGM" project, funded by the United States Department of Agriculture – National Institute of Food and Agriculture National Integrated Water Quality Program(USDA – NIFA NIWQP) program. This project is a broad-based geomorphic assessment of the Deerfield River and its adjacent riparian corridor to define its characteristics, processes, and management issues. The river channel is used extensively for hydroelectric power generation and recreation, with agricultural …