Other Civil and Environmental Engineering Commons^™

Low-Level Groundwater Atrazine In High Atrazine Usage Nebraska Counties: Likely Effects Of Excessive Groundwater Abstraction, Moses New-Aaron, Olufemi P. Abimbola, Raheleh Mohammadi, Oluwaseun Famojuro, Zaeema Naveed, Azar M Abadi, Jesse E. Bell, Shannon Bartelt-Hunt, Eleanor G. Rogan

Biological Systems Engineering: Papers and Publications

Recent studies observed a correlation between estrogen-related cancers and groundwater atrazine in eastern Nebraska counties. However, the mechanisms of human exposure to atrazine are unclear because low groundwater atrazine concentration was observed in counties with high cancer incidence despite having the highest atrazine usage. We studied groundwater atrazine fate in high atrazine usage Nebraska counties. Data were collected from Quality Assessed Agrichemical Contaminant Nebraska Groundwater, Parameter–Elevation Regressions on Independent Slopes Model (PRISM), and water use databases. Descriptive statistics and cluster analysis were performed. Domestic wells (59%) were the predominant well type. Groundwater atrazine was affected by well depth. Clusters consisting …

Modeling Watershed Sensitivity To Climate Change In Systems Affected By Discharge Of Mine Tailings, Johnette C. Shockley

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

For more than a century, a large volume of gold-mining tailings was deposited in Whitewood Creek and the Belle Fourche River, tributaries to the Cheyenne River in western South Dakota. Much of it still remains, and field and historical evidence indicates continued remobilization of tailings-containing alluvium in these bedrock-dominated channels. Both long-term, natural fluctuations in climate and anthropogenically driven changes can impact regional precipitation, temperature, hydrologic patterns, and ecosystem functions. Such changes have the potential to affect both the transport and distribution of arsenic-laden sediments and mechanical erosion that can undermine the stability of channel-bed and overbank material.

This study …

Agrochemical Indicators Of New Irrigated Graph-Meadow Soils Formed On The Iii Underfladder Terrace Of Syrdarya, J.M. Kuziev

Irrigation and Melioration

Presents material on the geographical location, geomorphological and geological structure, as well as the agrochemical state of irrigated serozem-meadow soils, common in the Mirzaabad district of the Syrdarya region. According to the data obtained on the chemical analysis of soils, the studied soils are medium- and heavily loamy in texture, where particles of coarse sand predominate (0.05-0.01%). In the arable horizon of these soils, the humus content is 1.088-1.214%, total nitrogen 0.079-0.089%, total phosphorus 0.109-0.124%, and total potassium within 1.15-1.24%, and on the basis of these data, a regularity of the underlying horizon of these soils. The degree of provision …

Large-Scale Modeling And Assessments Of Climate, Land Cover, And Sea Level Change Impacts On Stormwater Runoff In Coastal Urban-Natural Environments, Erfanul Huq

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

This dissertation investigated the potential impacts of changing climate, land cover, and sea level on the future stormwater budget and extreme runoff in coastal urban-natural environments. Two large-scale basins, namely Florida Southeast Coasts Basin (7117 km2) and Saint Johns River Basin (24928 km2), were selected for this study. The basins represented gradients in climate, land cover, and hydrology across the Atlantic coasts of Florida and the southeast U.S. Two mechanistic hydrologic models were developed for the basins using U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA)’s Storm Water Management Model (SWMM) 5.1. The models were calibrated and validated with observed historical streamflow …

Developing Implementable Climatic Input Data And Moisture Boundary Conditions For Pavement Analysis And Design, Rifat Bulut, Amir Hossein Javid

Data

Corresponding data set for Tran-SET Project No. 18POKS03. Abstract of the final report is stated below for reference:

"The main objective of this study is to develop a practical and implementable numerical model for predicting the moisture (suction) regime within the pavement subgrade system. The research quality and uniformly-dispersed climate data over short distances from Oklahoma Mesonet and the Mitchell based moisture (suction) prediction methods establish the main background of the research study. The study involved numerical modeling and statistical analysis of climatic weather data. The proposed moisture variation model predicts the suction distribution throughout the soil subgrade by solving …

Quantifying Permafrost Extent, Condition, And Degradation Rates At Department Of Defense Installations In The Arctic, Christopher A.J. Edlund

Theses and Dissertations

The DoD is planning over $500M in military construction on Eielson Air Force Base (AFB) within the next three years. This construction program will expand the footprint of facilities and change parts of the storm water management scheme, which may have second order effects on the underlying permafrost layer. These changes in permafrost will drive engineering decision making at local and regional levels, and help shape the overall strategy for military readiness in the Arctic. Little site-specific knowledge exists on the human caused effects to permafrost at this location. In 2016, the permafrost degradation rates at Eielson AFB were modeled …

Spatial And Temporal Changes In Maize And Soybean Grain Yield, Precipitation Use Efficiency, And Crop Water Productivity In The U.S. Great Plains, Meetpal S. Kukal, S. Irmak

Biological Systems Engineering: Papers and Publications

Sustainable agricultural utilization of the limited water resources demands improvements in understanding the changes in crop water productivity (CWP) in space and time, which is often presented as a potential solution to relieve the growing pressure on fresh water resources. In addition, crop yield needs to be studied in relation to precipitation received annually and during the growing season for its contribution to reduce irrigation water requirements, which is quantified through precipitation use efficiency (PUE). Hence, systematic quantifications, mapping, and analyses of large-scale CWP and PUE levels are needed. This study aims to quantify long-term (1982-2013) information on grain yield, …

Effects Of Climate Data Aggregation On Regional Net Primary Production (Npp) Modelling, Matthias Kuhnert, Jagadeesh Yeluripati, Pete Smith, Holger Hoffmann, Marcel Van Oijen, Julie Constantin, Elsa Coucheney, Rene Dechow, Henrik Eckersten, Thomas Gaiser, Balász Grosz, Edwin Haas, Kurt-Christian Kersebaum, Ralf Kiese, Steffen Klatt, Elisabet Lewan, Claas Nendel, Helene Raynal, Carmen Sosa, Xenia Specka, Edmar Teixeira, Enli Wang, Lutz Weihermüller, Gang Zhao, Zhigan Zhao, Stephen Ogle, Frank Ewert

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

In ecosystem modelling studies, data are often collected at a small scale but are used in models to predict ecosystem responses e.g. net primary production (NPP) at coarser scale, using data aggregation. The data aggregation causes errors that are difficult to predict, because of model complexity and our limited knowledge of the spatial heterogeneity underlying our aggregated input values. Input aggregation thus adds to the uncertainty associated with model predictions. One way of reducing uncertainty related to input aggregation error is to evaluate models at different resolutions for areas where high-resolution input data are available. The objective of this study …

Using Scenario Analysis To Investigate Uncertainty In Water Resource Management, Baihua Fu, Joseph Guillaume, Mike Asher, Tony Jakeman

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Water resource management is a challenging task due to the complexity and uncertainty of the environmental systems and challenges of addressing multiple stakeholder perspectives. A crucial issue is therefore in specifically understanding if and how we can make decisions under such deep uncertainty.

We examined this issue in a case study which estimates groundwater sustainability, farm profit and ecological outcomes of many drivers (e.g. climate change, water policy, farm practices). An integrated model was developed for this purpose. It encompasses a surface and groundwater model, water allocation rules, a farm decision and crop model and an ecology model. Scenarios were …

The Next Billion: Lessons In Off-Grid Electricity Development From The Global South, Peter Mcdonough

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Today about a third of the world’s population has no access to electricity, and another third has only limited access. Driven by the push for development on one hand and the reality of climate change on the other, a combination of for-profit companies, NGOs, missions, and aid organizations is looking for the silver bullet to sustainable electricity development. In order to understand the challenges facing off-grid electricity projects I used recent literature in the form of peer-reviewed journals, agency reports, news articles, and technical documents; stakeholder interviews; and on-site observations in selected case studies in Nepal, India, and Tanzania. In …

Climate Change And Hydrological Risks Related To Railway Infrastructure In Northern Regions, Barry A. Palynchuk Phd

Barry A. Palynchuk PhD

In this paper, the authors discuss the possible consequences of global warming on northern hydrology and their impacts on railway drainage infrastructure. How can we change actual design approaches, methods and standards to adapt, to reduce vulnerability and to improve resilience to climate change? Under current climate conditions, snow, ice and permafrost play a dominant role in the water balance in cold regions. Three areas can be distinguished: regions of continuous permafrost, regions of discontinuous permafrost and permafrost-free regions. To predict the potential climate change impacts on each region, the spatial analog and the climate variability analog approaches can be …