Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Tracking Trucks To Improve Performance, Mecit Cetin, Christopher M. Monsere

TREC Project Briefs

Freight transportation is an important part of Oregon’s economy, and the Oregon Department of Transportation, or ODOT, continually observes the highway system to make sure it is running as smoothly as possible. By monitoring the progress of individual trucks, ODOT can obtain performance metrics such as travel time, travel delays, and origin-destination flows. This information can help identify slow passages or bottlenecks in the highway system. Typical ways of obtaining these metrics, however, may involve purchasing expensive equipment, and may also raise privacy concerns if each truck is required to carry a tracking unit. To avoid these difficulties, Portland State …

Investigations Of Attitudes Towards Offshore Wind Farm Development In Ireland: Their Implication Towards Future Development Of The Industry., Aidan Melia

Purdue Polytechnic Masters Theses

This current research investigates what the attitudes of Irish people are towards the development of offshore wind farms in Ireland. Using a qualitative approach, a questionnaire is carefully designed and distributed among a sample population from three coastal communities. One is located on the west coast and two on the east coast. The two locations on the east coast have an involvement in offshore wind farms. One of the locations plays host to Ireland’s only offshore wind farm, while there are plans in place for an offshore wind farm at the other location. The results from the questionnaires are analyzed …

Climate Change Adaptation Chapter: Marshfield, Massachusetts, Joshua H. Chase, Jonathan G. Cooper, Rory Elizabeth Fitzgerald, Filipe Antunes Lima, Sally R. Miller, Toni Marie Pignatelli

Sally Miller

Climate change, understood as a statistically significant variation in the mean state of the climate or its variability, is the greatest environmental challenge of this generation (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2001). Marshfield is already being affected by changes in the climate that will have a profound effect on the town’s economy, public health, coastal resources, natural features, water systems, and public and private infrastructure. Adaptation strategies have been widely recognized as playing an important role in improving a community’s ability to respond to climate stressors by resisting damage and recovering quickly. Based on review of climate projections for the …

Examining Consumer Behavior And Travel Choices, Kelly J. Clifton, Christopher Devlin Muhs, Sara Morrissey, Tomás Morrissey, Kristina Marie Currans, Chloe Ritter

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

This study represents a first attempt to answer a few of the questions that have arisen concerning multimodal transportation investments and the impacts of mode shifts on the business community. This research aims to merge the long history of scholarly work that examines the impacts of the built environment on non-work travel with the relatively new interest in consumer spending by mode of travel. This empirical study of travel choices and consumer spending across 89 businesses in the Portland metropolitan area shows there are important differences between the amounts customers spend on average at various businesses by their mode of …

Municipal Waste Management: Suffolk County Municipal Systems, Services And Infrastructure, Krista L. Greene, Susan Lienau, David J. Tonjes

Technology & Society Faculty Publications

This report describes the municipal waste management systems used by local governments to manage solid waste in Suffolk County, Long Island, New York. There are ten Towns that serve as the primary planners for waste systems in Suffolk County. Many of the 33 villages in Suffolk County have established their own waste management programs and policies. All programs tend to follow the same general plan of the approaches used by their respective Towns, however. All programs provide some degree of recycling services, although the scope of the services varies tremendously.

Determining Rural Areas Vulnerable To Illegal Dumping Using Gis Techniques. Case Study: Neamț County, Romania, Florin C. Mihai

Florin C MIHAI

The paper aims to mapping the potential vulnerable areas to illegal dumping of household waste from rural areas in the extra- Carpathian region of Neamț County. These areas are ordinary in the proximity of built-up areas and buffers areas of 1km were delimited for every locality. Based on various map layers in vector formats ( land use, rivers, buil-up areas, roads etc) an assessment method is performed to highlight the potential areas vulnerable to illegal dumping inside these buffer areas at local scale. The results are corelated to field observations and current situation of waste management systems. The maps outline …

Quantitative Assessment Of Household Waste Disposed In Floodplains Of Rivers From Extra-Carpathian Region Of Neamț County, Romania, Florin C. Mihai

Florin C MIHAI

This paper aims to develop a method which estimates the amounts of household waste disposed (HWD) by rural localities in floodplains of rivers from subcarpathian sector ( Bistrița, Cracău, Ozana) and also from coridor valleys sector of Moldova and Siret rivers. This approach takes into the consideration the average distance between the outer limits of buil-up area (village) and floodplain (river) in order to calculate the specific indicators. This method is applied for 2003 and 2010 with a view to highlight the potential impact of illegal dumping on rivers sectors from extra-Carpathian region between pre-accession and post-accession periods. Poor waste …

Simulating Land Use Land Cover Change Using Data Mining And Machine Learning Algorithms, Amin Tayyebi

Open Access Dissertations

The objectives of this dissertation are to: (1) review the breadth and depth of land use land cover (LUCC) issues that are being addressed by the land change science community by discussing how an existing model, Purdue's Land Transformation Model (LTM), has been used to better understand these very important issues; (2) summarize the current state-of-the-art in LUCC modeling in an attempt to provide a context for the advances in LUCC modeling presented here; (3) use a variety of statistical, data mining and machine learning algorithms to model single LUCC transitions in diverse regions of the world (e.g. United States …

Gis-Based Expert Systems Model For Predicting Habitat Suitability Of Blackside Dace, Benjamin L. Blandford, John Ripy, Ted H. Grossardt, Ryan Evans, Sara Hines

Kentucky Transportation Center Presentations

This study presents a GIS-based predictive habitat suitability model for the blackside dace, a federally-listed threatened species of the Upper Cumberland River basin in southeastern Kentucky. The model is a rules-based system which incorporates expert knowledge about habitat preferences for the species. The five habitat factors identified by experts and included in this model are stream gradient, canopy coverage, riparian vegetation type, riparian zone width, and stream order. Using GIS, the five habitat parameters were parameterized and combined across the entire stream network. Combinations were evaluated by blackside dace experts in terms of habitat suitability. The resulting model was tested …

Determinants Of Neighborhood Exposure To Extreme Heat: A Spatial Examination Of El Paso And Juárez, 2010, Faraj Mohamad Aboargob

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Numerous studies have been conducted on the modification of local weather by the urban environment. In studying urban environmental effects on the urban heat island (UHI), researchers have investigated influences such as land use, vegetation density, topography, population density, and neighborhood socioeconomic status. Many studies have used data collected from field observations, while other studies relied solely on computer modeling. This Dissertation research used a spatial analysis approach, which has been less widely employed, to investigate neighborhood level biophysical, built environmental and socio-demographic determinants of the El Paso and Juárez UHI. The research utilized inexpensive data obtained from US and …

Estimation Of Performance Indices For The Planning Of Sustainable Transportation Systems, Alexander Paz, Pankaj Maheshwari, Pushkin Kachroo, Sajjad Ahmad

Civil and Environmental Engineering and Construction Faculty Research

In the context of sustainable transportation systems, previous studies have either focused only on the transportation system or have not used a methodology that enables the treatment of incomplete, vague, and qualitative information associated with the available data. This study proposes a system of systems (SOS) and a fuzzy logic modeling approach. The SOS includes the Transportation, Activity, and Environment systems. The fuzzy logic modeling approach enables the treatment of the vagueness associated with some of the relevant data. Performance Indices (PIs) are computed for each system using a number of performance measures. The PIs illustrate the aggregated performance of …

Gis And Introductory Environmental Engineering: A Way To Fold Gis Into An Already-Existing Course, Mary P. Cardenas, David Wayne Kelley, Warren Roberts

All HMC Faculty Publications and Research

The use of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) was implemented in the upper-division undergraduate technical elective Introduction to Environmental Engineering at Harvey Mudd College. Students integrated technical engineering skills, newly-learned geographical information system (GIS) skills, and the engineering design process, all in the context of the design of a debris flow barrier for a wilderness land parcel acquired by a local conservancy group.

Junior and senior general engineering students, the majority of whom had no experience with GIS, were taught ArcGIS (a GIS mapping program) in the context of an Introductory Environmental Engineering course. Students learned how to map locations, find …

Applying Cognitive Principles To The Delivery Of Engineering Information By Different Mediums, Gabriel B. Dadi

Theses and Dissertations--Civil Engineering

Construction project performance and worker productivity are often tied to the availability and effective presentation of information, tools, materials, and equipment. While advancements in technology have improved much of the processes on a construction project, the medium of information dissemination at the construction work face has consistently relied on the use of two dimensional drawings and specifications.

Industry initiatives are driving increased collaboration through three dimensional BIM (Building Information Modeling) models. However, the added dimension partially loses its effect when presented on a two dimensional computer monitor. Other computer forms of presentation intended for mobility (PDAs, laptops, and tablets) can …

A Census Of The Us Near-Roadway Population: Public Health And Environmental Justice Considerations, Gregory Rowangould

University of Vermont Transportation Research Center

This study estimates the size and distribution of the population living near high volume roads in the US, investigates race and income disparities in these near roadway populations, and considers the coverage of the national ambient air quality monitoring network. Every US census block is classified by traffic density and proximity to roads falling within several traffic volume ranges using year 2008 traffic data and the 2010 and 2000 US Census. The results indicate that 19% of the population lives near high volume roads. Nationally, greater traffic volume and density are associated with larger shares of non-white residents and lower …

Path Clearance For Emergency Vehicles Through The Use Of Vehicle-To-Vehicle Communication, Craig Jordan, Mecit Cetin, R. Michael Robinson

VMASC Publications

The study described in this paper evaluated and tested a new strategy to enable emergency response vehicles (EVs) to navigate through congestion at signalized intersections more efficiently. The proposed strategy involves the use of vehicle-to-vehicle communication to send messages to alert vehicles to the approach of the EV and to provide specific instructions on maneuvering to allow the EV to proceed through congested signalized intersections as quickly as possible. This movement is achieved by creation of a split in the vehicle queue in one lane at a critical location to allow the EV to proceed at its desired speed but …

Assessing Appropriate Technology Handwashing Stations In Mali, West Africa, Colleen Claire Naughton

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Proper hand hygiene is the most effective and efficient method to prevent over 1.3 million deaths annually from diarrheal disease and Acute Respiratory Infections (ARIs). Hand hygiene is also indispensable in achieving the fourth Millennium Development Goal (MDG) to reduce the childhood mortality rate by 2/3rds between 1990 and 2015. Handwashing has been found in a systematic review of studies to reduce diarrhea by 47%#37; and is, thus, capable of preventing a million deaths (Curtis et. al., 2003). Despite this evidence, hand washing rates remain seriously low in the developing world (Scott et al., 2008).

This study developed and implemented …

Socioeconomic Factors' And Water Source Features' Effect On Household Water Supply Choices In Uganda And The Associated Environmental Impacts, Christine M. Prouty

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Over the last twenty years or more, Uganda has benefitted from significant strides in water and sanitation initiated by the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals. While the rapid progress towards development has been vastly beneficial, it is also important that it does not occur at the expense of the environment. The environmental impacts of these water sources must be evaluated and understood. However, to develop a robust understanding of the impact requires inclusion of the community members who use these sources and their perceptions of them. Consequently, the goal of this research is to investigate the interrelationships between socioeconomic factors, …

Spatial Transferability Of Activity-Based Travel Forecasting Models, Sujan Sikder

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Spatial transferability of travel forecasting models, or the ability to transfer models from one geographical region to another, can potentially help in significant cost and time savings for regions that cannot invest in extensive data-collection and model-development procedures. This issue is particularly important in the context of tour-based/activity-based models whose development typically involves significant data inputs, skilled staff, and long production times. However, most literature on model transferability has been in the context of traditionally used trip-based models, particularly for linear regression-based trip generation and logit-based mode choice models, with little evidence on the transferability of activity-based models and that …

Transaction Costs Analysis Of Low-Carbon Technologies, Luis Mundaca T., Mathilde Mansoz, Lena Neij, Govinda R. Timilsina

Luis Mundaca

Transaction costs (TCs) must be taken into account when assessing the performance of policy instruments that create markets for the diffusion and commercialization of low-carbon technologies (LCTs). However, there are no comprehensive studies on the development and application of transaction cost analysis to LCTs. In this meta-analysis, a wide-ranging evaluation of TCs associated with energy efficiency, renewable energy, and carbon market technologies is provided. There is a plethora of different definitions of, and measurement techniques to estimate, TCs. There is wide variation in the quantitative estimates, which can be attributed to factors such as the definition used, data collection, quantification …

Levees And The National Flood Insurance Program: Improving Policies And Practices

Earthea Nance, PhD (Stanford University, 2004)