Civil Engineering Commons^™

Tethys: A Software Framework For Web-Based Modeling And Decision Support Applications, Norm Jones, Jim Nelson, Nathan Swain, Scott Christensen, David Tarboton, Pabitra Dash

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

We have developed a software framework called Tethys to aid in the creation of web-based water resource modeling applications. This suite is a Python-based scripting environment that leverages open source tools for geoprocessing of spatial data, map rendering and visualization, distributed computing, and database management. The system makes it possible to deploy a calibrated, high-resolution watershed or surface water model as a web-based application for decision support. The framework provides data managements, access to computing resources, and pluggable components (e.g. plots, maps and user controls) that enable rapid development of modeling applications. We have used the system to develop prototype …

Balancing Conflicting Management Objectives Using Interactive, Three-Dimensional Visual Analytics, Joseph Kasprzyk, Joshua Kollat, Chris Danilo

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

In the US, the recently introduced Principles and Requirements for Federal Investment in Water Resources captures an increasing trend for using multiple objective approaches to make funding decisions for water resources and environmental problems. Moreover, advanced search tools such as multi objective evolutionary algorithms can develop solutions to such problems, even when the problems are characterized by non-linearities, uncertainty, and false optima. However, our presentation argues that multi-objective decision support requires innovative methods for visualizing complex trade-offs between conflicting objectives, interrogating design possibilities, imposing preferences between objectives, and eventually negotiating a small set of final alternatives. Specifically we present a …

Assessing The Relative Value Of Stereoscopic 3d Versus Head Tracking In Large Scale Immersive Visualization, Derrick Turner, Daniel P. Ames

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The use of large-scale stereoscopic immersive visualization environments is growing globally as a supplement to field work in environmental science and engineering. Such systems typically include large-scale stereoscopic displays and head/hand tracking to facilitate an immersive user experience. These components can add significant cost and complication to such a system that may not be warranted if the components do not significantly improve the user experience. This paper presents a study conducted in a large-scale visualization environment called the VuePod, to help determine the relative value of head-tracking and stereoscopic technologies in terms of improved data interpretation. Forty-eight individuals were recruited …

Evaluation Of Metamodeling Techniques On A Co2 Injection Simulation Study, Jared Schuetter, Srikanta Mishra, Doug Mooney

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Full-physics models for geologic carbon sequestration applications can be time-consuming to run. As a result, optimization of a particular response over a range of predictor values can be difficult. A common approach is to use a small number of simulation runs to develop a metamodel that can approximate the system response with much less computing time; this metamodel can then be used for optimization. Choosing a metamodeling approach is not always straightforward, and it can also be difficult to determine how well a model is fitting after it is trained. Here, we present a case study for a CO_{2 …}

The Use Of Object-Oriented Programming Concepts For Documenting A Model Ensemble, Georgii A. Alexandrov

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The spread of cloud computing services gives community modelling a reasonable opportunity to become a reality in scientific research. However, even if models will be deployed in clouds, and model codes will be open for re-use, there will be little progress in community modelling in the lack of consensus standards for model documentation. This paper is to discuss a conceptual framework for developing such standards. The proposed conceptual framework is based on the idea that a new model is often a modification of an old one, and hence, the similarities between the models of the same environmental process could be …

Benefits Of The Use Of Natural User Interfaces In Water Simulations, Gennadii Donchyts, Fedor Baart, Arthur Van Dam, Bert Jagers

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The use of natural user interfaces instead of conventional ones has become a reality with the emergence of 3D motion sensing technologies. However, some problems are still unsolved (for example, no haptic or tactile feedback); so this technology requires careful evaluation before the users can benefit from it. We argue that the best benefits can be achieved when these natural user interface technologies are combined with classical computer interaction devices such as mouse and keyboard. In our demonstration, we will show how the LEAP Motion controller can be applied in environmental modeling when combined with the shallow water flow model …

Modeling With Citizen Scientists: Using Community- Based Modeling Tools To Develop Citizen Science Projects, Steven Gray, David Mellor, Rebecca Jordan, Alycia Crall, Greg Newman

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Although model-based reasoning is often at the center of environmental science and management, the process of constructing, refining and empirically validating scientific models is not often made explicit to participants in many citizen science programs. The lack of attention that modeling receives in citizen science programs is likely attributable to resource constraints, given that scientific modeling often requires considerable training and scientific software tools are not easily accessible to members of the general public. To address these constraints, we describe the development and use of a fuzzy-logic cognitive mapping software called Mental Modeler (http://www.mentalmodeler.org/), embedded within a citizen science …

Problem-Specific Rule Extraction For Better Performance Of Evolutionary Algorithms, Joaquin Izquierdo, Idel Montalvo, Enrique Campbell, Rafael Pérez-García

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Evolutionary algorithms (EAs) are ubiquitous to many environmental issues. Typically, most evolutionary techniques use just a small part of the solutions evaluated at a time. Thus, many of the solutions evaluated during the search process are "forgotten" after one generation, and combined experience of several generations is typically not well exploited. Data mining (DM) techniques can enable deeper insight into the many "good" solutions that have been just simply glimpsed and have been rapidly disregarded because they were dominated by better solutions during an ephemeral moment in the evolution process. Based on a database obtained by suitably recording certain of …

Enhancing The Link Between Surface And Groundwater Models For Climate Change Assessment Of Water Supply And Demand In Northwest Mexico, George Whitten, Matthew Hann, Agustin Robles-Morua, Alex S. Mayer, Enrique R. Vivoni

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The integrated use of surface and groundwater models is critical for analyzing water resources sustainability. We have applied surface and groundwater models to the Sonora River basin (SRB) in Northwest Mexico within the context of participatory modeling with stakeholders to explore alternative futures under climate change impacts. The models are used to assess the hydrologic consequences of temperature and precipitation scenarios generated through the dynamical downscaling using the Weather Research and Forecast (WRF) model for historical, near-future and far- future study periods. WRF is used to downscale two global circulation models (GCMs), HadCM3 and MPI-ECHAM5. Improved representation of surface-groundwater interactions …

Three-Dimensional Numerical Model To Evaluate The Suspended Solid Removal In Surface Flow Constructed Wetland, Sangsoo Han, Zhi Chen, Fayi Zhou

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Surface flow constructed wetlands (SFCWs) have been widely used to treat various types of wastewater and stormwater due to the advantages such as low costs for operating and maintenance compared with conventional treatment systems. In SFCW, the flow pattern, which is determined by the geometric features including bed morphology and vegetation distribution, significantly influences the removal processes of suspended solids and other pollutants. In this study, a three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics model, that integrates hydrodynamic model and the Lagrangian particle tracking model, is applied to determine the effectiveness of a SFCW in removing suspended solids based on the predicted flow …

Computational Evaluation Of Pedestrian Wind Comfort And Wind Safety Around A High-Rise Building In An Urban Area, Wendy D. Janssen, Bert Blocken, Twan Van Hooff

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Pedestrian wind comfort is analyzed for a new shopping street area in Eindhoven city center. Wind nuisance is especially perceived around a tower of 105 m high, at an intersection of two streets. The Dutch wind nuisance standard NEN 8100 combined with CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) simulations is used to assess the pedestrian wind comfort. Special care is given to the grid generation and comparison of the CFD simulations with on-site wind speed measurements. The effectiveness of a series of incremental remedial measures is analyzed. A large canopy is shown to be successful in bringing the wind comfort to an …

Environmental Fluid Mechanics At Iemss Conferences (2002-2014), Carlo Gualtieri, Dragutin T. Mihailoviĉ

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Environmental Sciences encompass issues such as climate change, conservation, biodiversity, water quality, groundwater contamination, soil contamination, use of natural resources, waste management, sustainable development, disaster reduction, air pollution, and noise pollution. Within this broad and inherently interdisciplinary field, Environmental Fluid Mechanics (EFM) is the scientific study of naturally occurring fluid flows of air and water on our planet Earth, especially of those flows that affect the environmental quality of air and water, with scales of relevance, which are ranged (i) spatially from millimetres to kilometres, and (ii) temporally from seconds to years.

The paper presents a comprehensive review of the …

Experiences With A Serious Online Game For Exploring Complex Relationships Of Sustainable Land Management And Human Well-Being: Landyous, Ralf Seppelt, Romina Martin, Alexander Finger, Christin Henzen, Martin Linder, Katrin Pietzsch, Andreas Werntze, Ute Zander, Jule Schulze

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Land is a limited resource. Its use for one purpose excludes other uses. Addressing the issue of human appropriation of natural resources thus requires understanding of a variety of complex feedbacks between decisions on land use and ecosystem services. The complexity is caused by a large number of mostly nonlinear feedbacks between management strategies, productivity, environmental quality, human well-being, consumption and many other aspects of land use. Here, we present LandYOUs: an educational online game, which aims at explaining and illustrating various options and feedbacks of sustainable land management (SLM) to the interested public, students and stakeholders. The game gives …

Extending Existing Models To Capture Vegetation Response To Extreme Weather Events: The Modextreme Project, Gianni Bellocchi, Francisco J. Villalobos, Marcello Donatelli, Ole B. Christensen, Oscar Rojas, Roberto Confalonieri, Ioannis N. Athanasiadis, Irina Carpusca, Claudio O. Stöckle

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Extreme weather events are combinations of meteorological drivers that exceed certain thresholds and occur with low frequency, negatively impacting human living conditions and economic systems including agriculture. The three-year European project MODEXTREME (started on November 1st, 2013) aims at improving the predictive capability of biophysical crop and grassland simulation models under extreme weather conditions (mainly high/low temperatures and water deficit/excess). Existing modelling solutions can be improved with re-usable software libraries to capture extreme weather impacts. Estimates from existing and new modelling solutions will be compared on a variety of datasets and evaluated with respect to medium-term trajectories of future climate …

Calsim Modeling Of Proposed San Joaquin River Basin Flow Standards, Thomas W. Fitzhugh

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Water resources system modeling was conducted using the CalSim II San Joaquin River model to evaluate streamflow standards proposed during the current update to the 2006 Water Quality Control Plan for the San Francisco Bay/Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Estuary (Bay-Delta Plan Update). Phase I of the Bay-Delta Plan Update will select and implement State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) standards for San Joaquin River instream flows and salinity. CalSim II is a monthly model of reservoir and water system operations in the Central Valley of California. The first modeling effort was to analyze a proposed agreement between the Bureau of Reclamation …

Modeling Potential Environmental Impacts Of Deep Aquifer C02 Sequestration, Nigel W. T. Quinn

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

A promising measure for mitigating climate change is to store large volumes of C0₂ captured from large point-source carbon emitters in deep saline aquifers. In vulnerable systems, water resources impacts of large-scale C0₂ storage need to be evaluated and assessed before industrial­ size storage projects get under way. In California's southern San Joaquin Basin the land surface uplift caused by large C0₂ injection projects land deformation could have the potential to create reverse flow along certain canal reaches, or to reduce canal deliveries to agricultural land and managed wetlands. The impact of C0₂ storage on shallow …

Predicting Impact Of Natural Calamities In Era Of Big Data And Data Science, Carol K. Joseph, Sunil Kakade

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Every year thousands of lives and millions of dollars are lost during natural catastrophic events. Data scientists have recognized the value of employing data mining techniques for evaluating these events to assist in understanding trends, predicting future disasters, and assessing vulnerability of populations. The goal of such analysis is to prepare governments for emergency response and relief efforts as well as to formulate strategies for future disaster mitigation. In addition, increasing pressures from a growing world population further emphasize the need for governments to seek viable solutions for balancing human needs with environmental constraints. Identifying populations vulnerable to environmental calamities …

Planning Modeling In The Klamath River Basin - Usefui Tools For Stakeholders, Nancv Parker, Kristin White, Lee Traynham, Jason Cameron

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The Klamath River Basin, straddling the borders of Oregon and California, has been the scene of both substantial controversy and cooperation during the last twenty years over the analysis of water management solutions to address a broad range of interests. Threatened and endangered fish, trust obligations to four Native American tribes, the viability of irrigated agriculture, wildlife refuges on the Pacific Flyway, and a regional source of hydropower are all important aspects of the operation of this small basin. The U. S. Bureau of Reclamation has played a central role in conducting modeling studies to serve multiple management processes. A …

Numerical Modelling Of Dissolved-Oxygen In A Cold­ Region River, Ahmad Shakibaeinia, Yonas B. Dibike, Terry D. Prowse

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Dissolved oxygen (DO) content is a critical measure of the ability of water bodies to support healthy aquatic ecosystems. To better understand DO behaviour in large cold-region rivers, a one­ dimensional water quality model is setup for a -200 km reach of the lower Athabasca River below Fort McMurray, Alberta using the Mike-11 modelling system. A river-ice model is applied to reproduce ice conditions during the cold season so that the effects of ice-cover on the physical/chemical processes in the river system are taken into account. The combined model is used to simulate the transport and transformation of dissolved oxygen …

A Model Component For Simulating Co2 Emissions Growth, Gleb Alexandrov

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Development of comprehensive Earth System models requires a variety of model components related to human feedbacks. Among them are the model components relating energy use to climate change and resource availability. Simulations of the changes in usage of various fuels over the next 25 years are essential for predicting the pathways of CO2 emission reduction needed for climate change mitigation, and considered as a challenging aspect of Earth system modelling (Erickson et al, 2009). Here I present a model component for simulating CO2 emission growth that takes into account the effect of non-renewable resource availability on the rate of consumption …

We C.A.N. Do It: Actively Engaging Stakeholders In Modelling, A. Micheal S. Sheer

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Active stakeholder participation is critical when trying to find local solutions to environmental problems. When consultants present externally developed suggestions, stakeholders often distrustful. This paper describes a novel methodology that encourages and stakeholder participation, trust, and cooperation while developing model-informed solutions to such issues. This process is illustrated by examples from recent work in the Bow River Basin in Alberta, Canada.

The Computer Aided Negotiation process (CAN) is a form of Computer Modelling for Decision Support developed by Hydrologics Inc. and facilitated with OASIS software. It has 4 main stages intended to keep stakeholders engaged and clear difficult problems in …

Automating Data-Model Workflows At A Level-12 Huc Scale In A Distributed Computing Environment, Lorne Leonard, Christopher J. Duffy

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The HydroTerre web services provide the Essential Terrestrial Variable (ETC) datasets to create common hydrological models anywhere in the continental United States (CONUS). These services allow web users to download data for their own purposes in their own computing environment. The datasets are provided using standard Geographic information System formats and the data transformation is dependent on the users’ own needs, goals, and computing environment. In this article, we demonstrate the feasibility of automating data-transformation workflows for United States Geological Survey level-12 Hydrological Unit Codes (HUC-12) to be consumed in hydrological models. The Penn State Integrated Hydrological Model (PIHM) is …

Case Study: Prognostic Model Of Czech Municipal Waste Production And Treatment, Jiří Kalina, Jiří Hřebíček, Gabriela Bulková

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The paper introduces the application of multidimensional regression methods and a mathematically applicable waste streams structure model for the development of new complex model of municipal waste management (production and treatment) of the Czech Republic. This model was developed for purposes of the Ministry of the Environment of the Czech Republic and consequently of the European Environment Agency. It can evaluate the sustainability of environmental decisions on the national level with the focus on waste management data requirements, national strategies for waste data acquisition, management and processing to support sustainability of waste management in accordance with the European waste legislation.

Sustainability Indicators For Water Resource Assessment: Compatibility And Data Requirements, Marina G. Erechtchoukova, Peter A. Khaiter

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The concept of sustainability emerged as a solution to natural resource depletion and deterioration under significant anthropogenic impacts imposed on the natural environment. Recognition that changes in the state of natural environments have complex causes and even more complex consequences motivated the development of a structured approach to managing environmental issues and their interrelations with political and economic processes. Sustainable development can be achieved through management activities which are based on sustainable decisions. To evaluate a decision's sustainability, it is necessary to evaluate and analyse values of current and future welfare outcomes. The latter requires quantitative methods, simulation models, and …

Stakeholder Engagement In Public Natural Resource Management, Lindell Ormsbee, Jim Kipp, Anna Hoover

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The management of public natural resources can be challenging, especially in the face of diverse stakeholders with varied interests and concerns. In most cases, decision-makers lack sufficient data from which to assess the range, intensity, and convergence of community preferences. Traditional attempts to acquire such information from public meetings frequently are constrained by a format that too often permits a few individuals to monopolize or co-opt sessions for their own purposes or agendas. Such experiences in past public meetings subsequently drive community expectations for future meetings, frequently resulting in decreased attendance and a less representative participant base. Consequently, regulators or …

Discovering Comprehensible Hydrogeological Profiles In The Margarita Island's Aquifers Including Post-Processing In A Data Mining Process, Conti Dante, Gibert Karina

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Groundwater wells are one of the most important water resources in the world. Control and management of these resources are of high importance due to the implicit need of water as the main resource for life. This research focuses on a hydrogeological analysis with clustering, which is one of the most popular data mining methods, including In the classical data mining scheme, last step corresponds to the effective production of knowledge. In this paper, special focus on that part is done, by means of post-processing tools. The main goal is to discover prototypical profiles from the acquifer Pedro González in …

Graph Clustering Based On Social Network Community Detection Algorithms, Enrique Campbell, David Ayala-Cabrera, Joaquín Izquierdo, Rafael Pérez-García

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Graph network clustering has been an important field of investigation in recent years with a wide spectrum of applications, including environmental, genetic and engineering studies. There are two main types of applications; their suitability depends of the modeling context. Cases where the number of subdivisions is a priori known are tackled with different techniques than those where such number is not clearly evident. The second falls within the field of community detection, which has been broadly studied by social network scientists. Traditionally, community detection in graphs has been tackled by means of hierarchical clustering, which groups nodes based on their …

An Approach For Encapsulating Fortran Coded Models Into A R Package, Carlos A. Hölbig, Willingthon Pavan, Jose M. C. Fernandes, Angela Mazzonetto, Tiago Zortea

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Computer crop simulations have been successfully used around the world, specially, towards the understanding and transferring of agricultural technology. However, as soon as crop models become more complex, increases the difficulty to use, maintain, expand and improve these models. Most of crop simulation models are written in Fortran, a well-established computer language especially suited to numeric computation and scientific computing. However, Fortran has severe limitations regarding integration, interoperability and data visualization. In this study, an approach for wrapping a Fortran coded model into a R package is presented using a free and multiplatform software. By encapsulating the simulation engine in …

Reimplementation And Reuse Of The Canegro Model, Tommaso Stella, Valentina Pagani, Caterina Francone, Sevim Seda Yamaҫ, Giacomo Finotto, Simone Bregaglio, Enrico Ceotto, Roberto Confalonieri

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Model reuse can be limited by software design, which often forces third parties to completely rewrite new versions of existing models before adapting them to new needs. This tendency removes resources from the development and improvement of models, and from the extension of their domain, leading to the proliferation of software having many different implementations of the same algorithms. A component-oriented paradigm allows these limitations to be overcome, facilitating massive model reuse and extension. This study presents the application of component-oriented principles to the reimplementation of the sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum L.) model Canegro (DSSAT v4.5) in a framework-independent component …

Convective Heat Transfer At The Surfaces Of A Surface-Mounted Cube In A Turbulent Boundary Layer: Les And Rans Simulations, Hamid Montazeri, Bert Blocken, Jan Hensen

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Computational fluid Dynamics (CFD) is increasingly used as a tool for determining the convective heat transfer coefficient (CHTC) at the surfaces of bluff bodies immersed in turbulent flows. Some previous studies on high-resolution CFD simulations of CHTC used the steady Reynolds- Averaged Navier-Stokes RANS approach. However, steady RANS is incapable of capturing the inherently transient behaviour of separation, reattachment and recirculation downstream of the windward surface and of von Karman vortex shedding in the wake. LES on the other hand can provide accurate descriptions of the mean and instantaneous flow field around bluff bodies. Therefore more accurate CHTC simulations should …