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Full-Text Articles in Engineering

Flooding, Landslides, Wildfires, Air Pollution, And Income: Risk In California, Brittany Bondi, Alyssa J. Kaewwilai Jun 2020

Flooding, Landslides, Wildfires, Air Pollution, And Income: Risk In California, Brittany Bondi, Alyssa J. Kaewwilai

Gettysburg Social Sciences Review

California is infamously known for its likelihood of environmental hazards such as flooding, landslides, air pollution, and forest fires which can be attributed to the natural climate of the area as well as anthropologically influenced climate change. Air pollution also poses potential threats and dangers to the civilians of California as increasing populations and uses of fossil fuels continue to contribute to the growing issue of climate change. The goal of this study was to examine and analyze the geospatial trends environmental hazards in California such as landslides, air pollution, flooding, and forest fires. A weighted test, zone and slope …


Economically Viable Methods For Wildfire Protection For Residential Homes In Santa Barbara County, Ryan F. Chiment Jun 2020

Economically Viable Methods For Wildfire Protection For Residential Homes In Santa Barbara County, Ryan F. Chiment

Construction Management

Santa Barbara County experiences wildfires often, with fourteen major wildfires occurring in the last thirty years. Title 24, Part 9 of the California Building Code establishes the minimum building requirements for fire protection in residential construction, but there are many ways to protect a home from wildfires that go beyond the minimum requirements established in the building code. The goal of this paper is to assess the perceived increase in value to Santa Barbara County homeowners of wildfire protective measures for their homes, and to determine realistic methods for wildfire protection that are within the budget of these homeowners. This …


California High Speed Rail Central Valley Realignment, Jossian Pineda, Devin Schmidt Apr 2020

California High Speed Rail Central Valley Realignment, Jossian Pineda, Devin Schmidt

Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Senior Theses

The California High-Speed Rail in California has exceeded its budget and proven that typical methods of laying out High-Speed Rail were inefficient and detrimental to residents. By analyzing routes where the High-Speed Rail could instead be routed through medians or dead space around existing freeways, the project team determined the feasibility and cost efficiency of such an undertaking. The team analyzed multiple routes and upon choosing the best route, completed a curve analysis on a portion of the alignment, as well as completed an analysis on typical bridges that would be required. The analysis proved that utilizing this median space …


A Comparison Of Zinc Levels In Runoff From Rubberized Hot Mix Asphalt And Conventional Pavement, Peter A. Duin Jan 2020

A Comparison Of Zinc Levels In Runoff From Rubberized Hot Mix Asphalt And Conventional Pavement, Peter A. Duin

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

High levels of dissolved zinc in water bodies can be toxic to aquatic organisms. There are currently over 40 waterways in California that have on occasion been in exceedance of Clean Water Act minimum toxicity threshold standards for zinc. Recycled tires that contain 1-2% zinc by mass are commonly used in California paving formulations known as Rubberized Hot Mix Asphalt (RHMA). The addition of tires to RHMA increases the zinc content of the pavement in comparison to conventional HMA. This research assesses the zinc content and leaching rate of RHMA in field and laboratory settings to estimate its contribution of …


Optimization Study Of A Combined Wind-Solar Farm For A Specified Demand, Venkat Siddhartha Rama Jan 2020

Optimization Study Of A Combined Wind-Solar Farm For A Specified Demand, Venkat Siddhartha Rama

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

At the present time, using wind and solar energy for producing electricity in the United States is becoming cost competitive. According to Lazard’s 2019 [36] levelized cost of energy (LCOE) analysis of a number of energy sources used for producing electricity in the United States, wind and solar are cheaper than natural gas and coal. While capital, maintenance, operation, and fuel costs are included in LCOE numbers, energy source intermittency is not. Intermittency is an important issue with wind and solar energy sources, but not with natural gas or coal energy sources. Combining wind and solar energy sources into one …