Civil Engineering Commons^™

Minimizing Surface Run-Off, Improving Underground Water Recharging, And On-Site Rain Harvesting In The Kathmandu Valley, Ambika P. Adhikari, Keshav Bhattarai

Himalayan Research Papers Archive

Nepal's political institutions and administrative units were thoroughly restructured in 2015 with the promulgation of the new Constitution. Several rural areas were combined to meet the definition of urban threshold criteria to classify rural areas into urban categories. Accordingly, over 3,900 local political and administrative units were amalgamated into 753 units, of which, 293 units are classified as urban. Within these newly defined urban areas, many natural environments have been converted into impervious surfaces such as paved roads, sidewalks, and building roofs. These impervious surfaces have drastically increased the amount of surface run-offs-often termed as "urban floods"--under increasing precipitation caused …

Effects Of Air-Injection Pressure On Airflow Pattern Of Air Sparging, Arvin Farid, Atena Najafi, Jim Browning, Elisa Barney Smith

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Air sparging is a remediation technology for treating soil/groundwater contaminated with volatile organic compounds (VOCs). VOC removal during air sparging is rendered less effective because of the random formation of air channels, creating preferential paths for airflow, thus limiting remediation to these channels, referred to as a zone of influence (ZOI). Pulsation is a popular method used to improve the effectiveness of air sparging through cyclic operation, with the hope that air channels would form elsewhere. Pulsation makes air sparging more time-consuming. This paper studies the effects of one cycle of pulsation and air pressure on the airflow pattern and …

Avoiding Water Bankruptcy In The Drought-Troubled Southwest: What The Us And Iran Can Learn From Each Other, Mojtaba Sadegh, Ali Mirchi, Amir Aghakouchak, Kaveh Madani

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The 2021 water year ends on Sept. 30, and it was another hot, dry year in the western U.S., with almost the entire region in drought. Reservoirs vital for farms, communities and hydropower have fallen to dangerous lows.

The biggest blow came in August, when the U.S. government issued its first ever water shortage declaration for the Colorado River, triggering water use restrictions.

In response, farmers and cities across the Southwest are now finding new, often unsustainable ways to meet their future water needs. Las Vegas opened a lower-elevation tunnel to Lake Mead, a Colorado River reservoir where water levels …

Promoting The Sustainable Utilization Of Groundwater Resources In Ethiopia Using The Integrated Groundwater Footprint Index, Xinyu Lin

Honors Scholar Theses

The country of Ethiopia is highly vulnerable to human-caused climate change and is already suffering from the effects. The predominately rural population relies heavily on small-scale agriculture, with 78% of households having at least one member engaged in the field, yet staple crops are highly susceptible to droughts and other weather shocks. Total and agricultural GDP growth in the country have been strongly linked to inter-annual rainfall variability, of which Ethiopia has among the highest in sub-Saharan Africa. A decrease in rainfall since the 1970s has been one of the primary causes of low crop yields, and stresses the immediate …

Tracing Sources Of Natural Organic Matter, Trihalomethanes And Metals In Groundwater From A Karst Region, Connie O'Driscoll, Eoin Mcgillicuddy, Peter Croot, Pamela Bartley, John Mcmyler, Jerome Sheahan, Liam Morrison

Articles

Groundwater offers an important source for drinking water around the world; however, groundwater quality is under increasing pressure and is particularly vulnerable in karst areas. Total organic carbon (TOC) is significantly related to groundwater quality and when not removed by water treatment processes can give rise to the formation of disinfection by-products trihalomethanes (THMs) above the level of compliance. This study investigated the source of organic matter giving rise to the THM exceedances in a groundwater supply in a karst area. Results highlighted that source water for this groundwater supply was prone to surface water infiltration linked to rainfall events; …

Physical Modeling Of Flow Nets In Groundwater And Determination Of Hydraulic Conductivity, Hannah Nicholas, Moses Karakouzian

AANAPISI Poster Presentations

The goal of this study is to physically model the paths that water particles take through soil, and estimate hydraulic conductivity for several soil configurations. Water paths, or flow lines, are shown by injecting dye into sand contained in a rectangular acrylic glass tank with a vertical barrier in the center; water is poured on one side of the tank and a pump is used to maintain constant head loss. If flow lines are formed, a flow net is to be drawn using photos of the tank and hydraulic conductivity is to be calculated.

This project consists of four phases: …

Development And Assessment Of A Groundwater Sustainability Index In Climatically Diverse Groundwater Irrigated Regions In Nebraska, Maria A. Mulet Jalil

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The aim of this research was to evaluate the impact of regional change in ET on groundwater level changes and the assessment and development of a groundwater sustainability index for climatically diverse regions across Nebraska during 2000-2014. Irrigation in the selected regions is predominantly supplied by groundwater. The hypothesis is that groundwater use can become sustainable if the regional evapotranspiration (ET) is managed so that it equals the ET of vegetation that is native to the region. Site locations were Box Butte, Chase, Dundy, Holt LNNRD and York Counties and 3 ecosystems were evaluated: native vegetation, dryland and irrigated cropping …

Estimation Of Submarine Groundwater Discharge Into The Indian River Lagoon, Ashok Pandit, N. Ali, H. Heck, K. Mamoua

Mechanical and Civil Engineering Faculty Publications

A calibrated and validated finite difference numerical model was used to estimate the spatial and temporal distribution of the Meteoric Groundwater Discharge (MGWD) and Submarine Groundwater Discharge (SGD) into a coasted estuary known as the Indian River Lagoon (IRL) at two transects. Specifically, this paper describes the methodology used to determine: a) the quantity of MGWD originating from the mainland and the barrier island, b) the spatial distribution of the SGD into the IRL, c) the groundwater salinity and hydraulic head distribution below the IRL, and d) the regional flow directions of the MGWD and the Oceanic Groundwater Discharge (OGWD) …

Digitalcrust - A 4d Data System Of Material Properties For Transforming Research On Crustal Fluid Flow, Y. Fan, S. Richard, R. S. Bristol, S. E. Peters, S. E. Ingebritsen, N. Moosdorf, A. Packman, T. Gleeson, I. Zaslavsky, S. Peckham, L. Murdoch, M. Fienen, David G. Tarboton, N. Jones, Richard P. Hooper, J. Arrigo, D. Gochis, J. R. Olson, D. Wolock

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Fluid circulation in the Earth's crust plays an essential role in surface, near surface, and deep crustal processes. Flow pathways are driven by hydraulic gradients but controlled by material permeability, which varies over many orders of magnitude and changes over time. Although millions of measurements of crustal properties have been made, including geophysical imaging and borehole tests, this vast amount of data and information has not been integrated into a comprehensive knowledge system. A community data infrastructure is needed to improve data access, enable large‐scale synthetic analyses, and support representations of the subsurface in Earth system models. Here, we describe …

Seepage And Stability Of A Dam In An Artesian Setting, Sean A. Parks

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Willow Creek Dam is located in a unique region on the boundary of a confined aquifer, where artesian conditions exist. Recently, groundwater levels have exceeded the elevation of the downstream berm well above anticipated piezometric elevations. It was presumed from limited evidence that these high piezometric levels resulted from pressure in the aquifer rather than from seepage out of the reservoir. The purpose of this investigation was to determine the relative contributions of the reservoir and the regional groundwater to observed piezometric levels and how these levels affect seepage exit gradients and slope stability of the dam.

Comparing the head …

Electro Osmotic Pulse Technology For Prevention Of Water Intrusion In Concrete Structure, Purdue Ect Team

ECT Fact Sheets

Groundwater intrusion into a building can cause serious structural degradation, corrosion of expensive mechanical equipment. ElectroOsmotic Pulse (EOP) technology is based on the concept of electroosmosis; the movement of an electrically charged ion in a liquid under the influence of an external electric field. EOP not only eliminates water-seepage problems from the interior of the structure without excavation, but it further mitigates corrosion damage to mechanical equipment and reduces the interior relative humidity of the basements.

Remediation Of Aromatic Hydrocarbons In Low Permeability Soils: Updating The Remediation Decision Tree (Synthesis Study), Inez Hua, Andy Hopf

JTRP Technical Reports

Because of the large number of technologies for in situ remediation, the very different types of contaminants to which these technologies are applicable, and the wide range of field conditions, it can be difficult to choose an optimal technology for a specific site. Sorting and prioritizing the various factors which contribute to the success of a particular clean-up can be daunting. Furthermore, non-technical factors, such as those in the legal, political, or financial realm, may also influence which technology is ultimately chosen. Most in situ treatment methods are effective in permeable soil. However, much of Indiana soil is low-permeability, so …

Remediation Of Soils And Ground Water Contaminated By Aromatic And Chlorinated Hydrocarbons And Metals, Inez Hua, P. Suresh Rao, Linda S. Lee, Barry K. Partridge, Ben Lawrence

JTRP Technical Reports

Many of the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) sites are contaminated with aromatic hydrocarbons and chlorinated solvents; these contaminants often occur in the form of light non-aqueous phase liquids (LNAPLs) or dense non-aqueous phase liquids (DNAPLs). Considerable effort has recently been focused on developing in-situ technologies for removing or destroying NAPL source zones, and several potentially viable methods have emerged, including in-situ chemical oxidation (ISCO). ISCO has become an attractive remediation option to managers at many contaminated sites. The three oxidants that are most often applied in-situ are hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) with iron catalysts, potassium permanganate (KMnO4), and ozone (O3). …

Bioremediation Treatability Studies For Soils Containing Herbicides, Chemicals, And Petroleum Products, Loring F. Nies, Matthew B. Mesarch

JTRP Technical Reports

Leaking underground storage tanks are widespread throughout the United States. It is estimated that there are 1.4 million underground gasoline storage tanks in the United States, with as many as 75,000 to 100,000 that may be leaking. In Indiana alone, more than 3,500 of the 15,000 registered underground storage tank facilities have reported leaks. Conventional remediation methods often involve pump-and-treat schemes for contaminated water, and excavation and burial of contaminated soil in hazardous waste landfills. These methods increase the risk of exposure to pollutants for workers and local residents. Furthermore, these methods merely involve the transfer of pollutants from one …

Groundwater Seepage Into The Indian River Lagoon At Port St Lucie, Ashok Pandit, Clovis Clovis El-Khazen

Mechanical and Civil Engineering Faculty Publications

A finite element program, GROSEEP, was developed to estimate the groundwater seepage from the surficial aquifer into Indian River lagoon along a selected cross-section in Port St. Lucie, Florida. The model is a general purpose model and can be used at other cross-sections. Model results using a single layer indicate that groundwater seepage could be an important freshwater source into the lagoon. Sensitivity analysis using a three-layer model predicted that among other parameters the presence of windows in the clay layers could significantly affect seepage rates into the lagoon.