Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Engineering Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles 1 - 12 of 12

Full-Text Articles in Engineering

Assessment Of Groundwater Resources In Siwa Oasis, Western Desert, Egypt, Noha H. Moghazy, Jagath J. Kaluarachchi Dec 2019

Assessment Of Groundwater Resources In Siwa Oasis, Western Desert, Egypt, Noha H. Moghazy, Jagath J. Kaluarachchi

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

One of the major challenges facing Egypt is limited water resources associated with rapid increase in population. In 1960s, Egyptian government started to use groundwater from the Nubian Sandstone Aquifer System (NSAS) in the Western Desert to expand agricultural sector. Siwa Oasis is the focus of this study to assess the efficiency of groundwater use and corresponding impacts from 1980 to 2012. Results show that from 1980 to 1998, withdrawal from poorly designed wells increased rapidly causing an increase in excess water about 336%. The increase of excess water with the usage of poor drainage produced lakes. Remote Sensing showed …


Unmanned Aircraft System (Uas) Technology And Applications In Agriculture, Samuel C. Hassler, Fulya Baysal-Gurel Oct 2019

Unmanned Aircraft System (Uas) Technology And Applications In Agriculture, Samuel C. Hassler, Fulya Baysal-Gurel

Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Faculty Research

Numerous sensors have been developed over time for precision agriculture; though, only recently have these sensors been incorporated into the new realm of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS). This UAS technology has allowed for a more integrated and optimized approach to various farming tasks such as field mapping, plant stress detection, biomass estimation, weed management, inventory counting, and chemical spraying, among others. These systems can be highly specialized depending on the particular goals of the researcher or farmer, yet many aspects of UAS are similar. All systems require an underlying platform—or unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)—and one or more peripherals and sensing …


Variable Rate Irrigation Of Maize And Soybean In West-Central Nebraska Under Full And Deficit Irrigation, J Burdette Barker, Sandeep Bhatti, Derek M. Heeren, Christopher M.U. Neale, Daran Rudnick Sep 2019

Variable Rate Irrigation Of Maize And Soybean In West-Central Nebraska Under Full And Deficit Irrigation, J Burdette Barker, Sandeep Bhatti, Derek M. Heeren, Christopher M.U. Neale, Daran Rudnick

Department of Biological Systems Engineering: Papers and Publications

Variable rate irrigation (VRI) may improve center pivot irrigation management, including deficit irrigation. A remote-sensing-based evapotranspiration model was implemented with Landsat imagery to manage irrigations for a VRI equipped center pivot irrigated field located in West-Central Nebraska planted to maize in 2017 and soybean in 2018. In 2017, the study included VRI using the model, and uniform irrigation using neutron attenuation for full irrigation with no intended water stress (VRI-Full and Uniform-Full treatments, respectively). In 2018, two deficit irrigation treatments were added (VRI-Deficit and Uniform-Deficit, respectively) and the model was modified in an attempt to reduce water balance drift; model …


Evidence Of Instability In Previously-Mapped Landslides As Measured Using Gps, Optical, And Sar Data Between 2007 And 2017: A Case Study In The Portuguese Bend Landslide Complex, California, El Hachemi Y. Bouali, Thomas Oommen, Rüdiger Escobar-Wolf Apr 2019

Evidence Of Instability In Previously-Mapped Landslides As Measured Using Gps, Optical, And Sar Data Between 2007 And 2017: A Case Study In The Portuguese Bend Landslide Complex, California, El Hachemi Y. Bouali, Thomas Oommen, Rüdiger Escobar-Wolf

Michigan Tech Publications

Velocity dictates the destructive potential of a landslide. A combination of synthetic aperture radar (SAR), optical, and GPS data were used to maximize spatial and temporal coverage to monitor continuously-moving portions of the Portuguese Bend landslide complex on the Palos Verdes Peninsula in Southern California. Forty SAR images from the COSMO-SkyMed satellite, acquired between 19 July 2012 and 27 September 2014, were processed using Persistent Scatterer Interferometry (PSI). Eight optical images from the WorldView-2 satellite, acquired between 20 February 2011 and 16 February 2016, were processed using the Co-registration of Optically Sensed Images and Correlation (COSI-Corr) technique. Displacement measurements were …


Integrating Landsat Tm/Etm+ And Numerical Modeling To Estimatewater Temperature In The Tigris River Under Future Climate And Management Scenarios, Muhanned Al-Murib, Scott Wells, Stefan Talke Apr 2019

Integrating Landsat Tm/Etm+ And Numerical Modeling To Estimatewater Temperature In The Tigris River Under Future Climate And Management Scenarios, Muhanned Al-Murib, Scott Wells, Stefan Talke

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Modeling the water quality of rivers and assessing the effects of changing conditions is often hindered by a lack of in situ measurements for calibration. Here, we use a combination of satellite measurements, statistical models, and numerical modeling with CE-QUAL-W2 to overcome in situ data limitations and evaluate the effect of changing hydrologic and climate conditions on water temperature (Tw) in the Tigris River, one of the largest rivers in the Middle East. Because few in situ estimates of Tw were available, remotely-sensed estimates of Tw were obtained from Landsat satellite images at roughly 2 week intervals for …


Remote Sensing Of Water Use Efficiency And Terrestrial Drought Recovery Across The Contiguous United States, Behzad Ahmadi, Ali Ahmadalipour, Glenn Tootle Mar 2019

Remote Sensing Of Water Use Efficiency And Terrestrial Drought Recovery Across The Contiguous United States, Behzad Ahmadi, Ali Ahmadalipour, Glenn Tootle

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Ecosystem water-use efficiency (WUE) is defined as the ratio of carbon gain (i.e., gross primary productivity; GPP) to water consumption (i.e., evapotranspiration; ET). WUE is markedly influential on carbon and water cycles, both of which are fundamental for ecosystem state, climate and the environment. Drought can affect WUE, subsequently disturbing the composition and functionality of terrestrial ecosystems. In this study, the impacts of drought on WUE and its components (i.e., GPP and ET) are assessed across the Contiguous US (CONUS) at fine spatial and temporal resolutions. Soil moisture simulations from land surface modeling are utilized to detect and characterize agricultural …


Addressing Challenges For Mapping Irrigated Fields In Subhumid Temperate Regions By Integrating Remote Sensing And Hydroclimatic Data, Tianfang Xu, Jillian M. Deines, Anthony D. Kendall, Bruno Basso, David W. Hyndman Feb 2019

Addressing Challenges For Mapping Irrigated Fields In Subhumid Temperate Regions By Integrating Remote Sensing And Hydroclimatic Data, Tianfang Xu, Jillian M. Deines, Anthony D. Kendall, Bruno Basso, David W. Hyndman

Publications

High-resolution mapping of irrigated fields is needed to better estimate water and nutrient fluxes in the landscape, food production, and local to regional climate. However, this remains a challenge in humid to subhumid regions, where irrigation has been expanding into what was largely rainfed agriculture due to trends in climate, crop prices, technologies and practices. One such region is southwestern Michigan, USA, where groundwater is the main source of irrigation water for row crops (primarily corn and soybeans). Remote sensing of irrigated areas can be difficult in these regions as rainfed areas have similar characteristics. We present methods to address …


Performance Validation Of A Multi-Channel Lidar Sensor: Assessing The Effects Of Target Height And Sensor Velocity On Measurement Error, Surya S. Dasika, Michael P. Sama, L. Felipe Pampolini, Christopher B. Good Jan 2019

Performance Validation Of A Multi-Channel Lidar Sensor: Assessing The Effects Of Target Height And Sensor Velocity On Measurement Error, Surya S. Dasika, Michael P. Sama, L. Felipe Pampolini, Christopher B. Good

Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Faculty Publications

The objective of this study was to determine the effects of sensor velocity and target height above ground level on height measurement error when using a multi-channel LiDAR sensor. A linear motion system was developed to precisely control the dynamics of the LiDAR sensor in an effort to remove uncertainty in the LiDAR position and velocity while under motion. The linear motion system allowed the LiDAR to translate forward and backward in one direction parallel to the ground. A user control interface was developed to operate the system under different velocity profiles and to log LiDAR data synchronous to the …


Uas Flight Operations In Complex Terrain: Assessing The Agricultural Impact From Hurricane Maria In The Central Mountainous Region Of Puerto Rico, Kevin Adkins Jan 2019

Uas Flight Operations In Complex Terrain: Assessing The Agricultural Impact From Hurricane Maria In The Central Mountainous Region Of Puerto Rico, Kevin Adkins

Publications

Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico in September 2017 as a Category 4 storm causing major damage to infrastructure, agriculture and natural ecosystems, as well as the loss of many lives. Among the crops hardest hit was coffee, one of the most important crops in Puerto Rico. As a perennial system, coffee takes various production forms along a gradient from high shade/biodiversity coffee farms to low shade coffee monocultures and therefore offers an ideal means for the study of resistance and resilience of an agroecosystem to weather and climate disturbance. During the summer of 2018, 14 impacted farms across the production …


Fuzzy Control System For Variable Rate Irrigation Using Remote Sensing, Willians Ribeiro Mendes, Fábio Meneghetti U. Araújo, Ritaban Dutta, Derek M. Heeren Jan 2019

Fuzzy Control System For Variable Rate Irrigation Using Remote Sensing, Willians Ribeiro Mendes, Fábio Meneghetti U. Araújo, Ritaban Dutta, Derek M. Heeren

Department of Biological Systems Engineering: Papers and Publications

Variable rate irrigation (VRI) is the capacity to spatially vary the depth of water application in a field to handle different types of soils, crops, and other conditions. Precise management zones must be developed to efficiently apply variable rate technologies. However, there is no universal method to determine management zones. Using speed control maps for the central pivot is one option. Thus, this study aims to develop an intelligent fuzzy inference system based on precision irrigation knowledge, i.e., a system that can create prescriptive maps to control the rotation speed of the central pivot. Satellite images are used in this …


Rapeseed Seedling Stand Counting And Seeding Performance Evaluation At Two Early Growth Stages Based On Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Imagery, Biquan Zhao, Jian Zhang, Chenghai Yang, Guangsheng Zhou, Youchun Ding, Yeyin Shi, Dongyan Zhang, Jing Xie, Qingxi Liao Jan 2019

Rapeseed Seedling Stand Counting And Seeding Performance Evaluation At Two Early Growth Stages Based On Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Imagery, Biquan Zhao, Jian Zhang, Chenghai Yang, Guangsheng Zhou, Youchun Ding, Yeyin Shi, Dongyan Zhang, Jing Xie, Qingxi Liao

Department of Biological Systems Engineering: Papers and Publications

The development of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and image processing algorithms for field-based phenotyping offers a non-invasive and effective technology to obtain plant growth traits such as canopy cover and plant height in fields. Crop seedling stand count in early growth stages is important not only for determining plant emergence, but also for planning other related agronomic practices. The main objective of this research was to develop practical and rapid remote sensing methods for early growth stage stand counting to evaluate mechanically seeded rapeseed (Brassica napus L.) seedlings. Rapeseed was seeded in a field by three different seeding devices. A …


On Board Georeferencing Using Fpga-Based Optimized Second Order Polynomial Equation, Dequan Liu, Guoqing Zhou, Jingjin Huang, Rongting Zhang, Lei Shu, Xiang Zhou, Chun Sheng Xin Jan 2019

On Board Georeferencing Using Fpga-Based Optimized Second Order Polynomial Equation, Dequan Liu, Guoqing Zhou, Jingjin Huang, Rongting Zhang, Lei Shu, Xiang Zhou, Chun Sheng Xin

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

For real-time monitoring of natural disasters, such as fire, volcano, flood, landslide, and coastal inundation, highly-accurate georeferenced remotely sensed imagery is needed. Georeferenced imagery can be fused with geographic spatial data sets to provide geographic coordinates and positing for regions of interest. This paper proposes an on-board georeferencing method for remotely sensed imagery, which contains five modules: input data, coordinate transformation, bilinear interpolation, and output data. The experimental results demonstrate multiple benefits of the proposed method: (1) the computation speed using the proposed algorithm is 8 times faster than that using PC computer; (2) the resources of the field programmable …