Mapping And Analyzing Energy Use And Efficiency In A Modified Hydroponic Shipping Container,
2016
Purdue University
Mapping And Analyzing Energy Use And Efficiency In A Modified Hydroponic Shipping Container, Rachel E. Sparks
Open Access Theses
In urban centers today, vertical farming is becoming a popular alternative to conventional agriculture in an effort to increase local food production and improve urban food security by growing crops using hydroponic methods in controlled environment spaces. More specifically, one vertical method involves growing crops inside refurbished shipping containers, or a “farm-in-a-box” concept, which offers a flexible, mobile, and scalable means of year-round food production in a variety of climates. Despite benefits of producing food locally, some of the concerns associated with these vertical farming systems include high energy consumption from climate control and electric lighting systems as well as …
Influence Of Stormwater Control Measures On Watershed Hydrology And Biogeochemical Cycling,
2016
Purdue University
Influence Of Stormwater Control Measures On Watershed Hydrology And Biogeochemical Cycling, Colin D. Bell
Open Access Dissertations
Urban development replaces vegetation with impervious surfaces and natural drainage channels with pipe networks that quicken flow paths and alter hydrologic regimes. Additionally, the import of food, application of fertilizer to lawns and gardens, and heightened atmospheric deposition increases nutrient availability in urban landscapes. These excess nutrients are ultimately routed to streams through the pipe networks before it can be processed by the vegetation and microorganisms of the landscape. This combination of physical and chemical disturbances impacts stream ecosystems and degrades their ability to perform valuable services such as removal of nutrients, degradation of pollutants, and provision of recreational and …
Reactions Of Graphene Oxide And Buckminsterfullerene In The Aquatic Environment,
2016
Purdue University
Reactions Of Graphene Oxide And Buckminsterfullerene In The Aquatic Environment, Yingcan Zhao
Open Access Dissertations
Due to unique physical and chemical properties, carbon-based nanomaterials, including C60 and graphene oxide, now being used in an increasing number of applications. Considering their widespread use, nanoparticles will inevitably find their way to the natural environment. However, their environmental fate and transport have not been intensively explored, resulting in a general lack of knowledge regarding their risk assessment and life cycle exposure concentrations. To this end, this study has investigated: (i) the photo mineralization of aqu/nC60 clusters under photo irradiation, and (ii) environmental transformation of graphene oxide in the aquatic environment. This study shows that CO2 was produced from …
Miss Lonesome: Old Boats Past Their Prime,
2016
Andrews University
Miss Lonesome: Old Boats Past Their Prime, Garth Woodruff
Faculty Publications
No abstract provided.
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles For High-Throughput Phenotyping And Agronomic Research,
2016
Texas A&M University
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles For High-Throughput Phenotyping And Agronomic Research, Yeyin Shi, J. Alex Thomasson, Seth C. Murray, N. Ace Pugh, William L. Rooney, Sanaz Shafian, Nithya Rajan, Gregory Rouze, Cristine L. S. Morgan, Haly L. Neely, Aman Rana, Muthu V. Bagavathiannan, James Henrickson, Ezekiel Bowden, John Valasek, Jeff Olsenholler, Michael P. Bishop, Ryan Sheridan, Eric B. Putman, Sorin Popescu, Travis Burks, Dale Cope, Amir Ibrahim, Billy F. Mccutchen, David D. Baltensperger, Robert V. Avant, Jr., Misty Vidrine, Chenghai Yang
Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications
Advances in automation and data science have led agriculturists to seek real-time, high quality, high-volume crop data to accelerate crop improvement through breeding and to optimize agronomic practices. Breeders have recently gained massive data-collection capability in genome sequencing of plants. Faster phenotypic trait data collection and analysis relative to genetic data leads to faster and better selections in crop improvement. Furthermore, faster and higher-resolution crop data collection leads to greater capability for scientists and growers to improve precision-agriculture practices on increasingly larger farms; e.g., site-specific application of water and nutrients. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have recently gained traction as agricultural …
Development And Assessment Of A Groundwater Sustainability Index In Climatically Diverse Groundwater Irrigated Regions In Nebraska,
2016
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
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 …
Fire-Spotting Modelling And Parametrisation For Wild-Land Fires,
2016
BCAM–Basque Center for Applied Mathematics
Fire-Spotting Modelling And Parametrisation For Wild-Land Fires, Inderpreet Kaur, Gianni Pagnini
International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software
This article describes a mathematical formulation for simulating the effects of firebrands on the propagation of the wild-land fires. Among the different approaches available in literature, this formulation is defined in a way to provide a versatile approach for application to operational wildfire models. Most of the operational wildfire models like WRF-SFIRE and ForeFire model only the evolution of the fire-line according to the definition of the rate of spread, fuel characterisation and the average fire properties and concurrent atmospheric conditions. But this information is not enough to simulate the effects of turbulence and fire-spotting. The formulation presented here can …
A Generator Of Landuse Application For Complex And Heterogeneous Agricultural Practices,
2016
Irstea, ETBX
A Generator Of Landuse Application For Complex And Heterogeneous Agricultural Practices, Odile Leccia-Phelpin, Jean-Marie Lescot, Françoise Vernier
International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software
Non-point source pollution from agriculture has become a major concern for water managers and institutional stakeholders. To reduce diffuse pollution, agricultural conservation measures are widely used with efficiency. On non-monitored territories environmental modelling enables the assessment of their long term impacts on water and soils and to evaluate land-use change scenarios. We developed an innovative Generator of Landuse (GenLU) application in order to build up multi-year spatial crop successions from identified crop rotations with their related management schedule s. GenLU can be used solely for generating landuse or coupled with the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model so as …
Water Supply System Classification For Water Quality Improvement,
2016
LHC - FEC, University of Campinas
Water Supply System Classification For Water Quality Improvement, Bruno Melo Brentan, Gustavo Meirelles Lima, Edevar Luvizotto Junior, Joaquín Izquierdo, Rafael Pérez-García
International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software
Universal access to drinkable water is a constitutional right guaranteed in Brazil. However, not all cities in this country are able to supply the population with the expected quality. Important actions should be taken to improve the supply of drinkable water. To define a strategic plan for this purpose, classification tools can facilitate the design of plans, by grouping cities with similar quality conditions. During the last decades, neural network approaches have been used in environmental models, allowing more accurate representation of some complex systems. This work proposes the use of self-organizing maps (SOM’s) coupled with the k-means algorithm …
Optimal Land Use?! – A Review On Optimization Techniques Used In Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis,
2016
Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ
Optimal Land Use?! – A Review On Optimization Techniques Used In Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis, Andrea Kaim, Anna Cord, Martin Volk
International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software
Agriculture, forest management, conservation planning and other related disciplines have specific land use demands, and thus different perspectives on how land should be used in an “optimal way”. One way to solve arising land use conflicts is employing the ecosystem services concept together with methods from the field of multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA). Especially optimization techniques provide the possibility to include socio-economic and ecological aspects as well as the protection of biodiversity. In this study, we give an overview of these methods, focusing especially on their application in agricultural areas. We explore their abilities for the identification of ecosystem service …
The Economics Of Agricultural Water Productivity In The Blue Nile,
2016
Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB)
The Economics Of Agricultural Water Productivity In The Blue Nile, Imeshi Weerasinghe, James Booker, Wim Bastiaanssen, Lisa-Marie Rebelo, Ann Van Griensven
International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software
Agricultural Water Productivity (AWP) is often simplified as the ‘crop per drop’, described as the output in terms of yield or biomass per unit of water input. This purely physical measure of Water Productivity (WP) using only a single factor input (water) does not consider: (1) the level of other inputs used in conjunction with water, (2) the opportunity cost of water as an input, (3) the value of the output and (4) the costs of production for different crops. This study presents a justification and methodology for incorporating these factors into WP indicators. The application of these extensions to …
Atlas: A Tool To Model Spatial-Temporal Dynamics Of Processes Influencing Ecosystem Services,
2016
Dynafor, Université de Toulouse, INRA, INPT, INP-EI Purpan
Atlas: A Tool To Model Spatial-Temporal Dynamics Of Processes Influencing Ecosystem Services, Hugo Thierry, Aude Vialatte, Claude Monteil, Annie Ouin
International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software
Biodiversity provides various benefits to humankind throughout what is defined as ecosystem services. Within a specific ecosystem, a wide range of ecosystem services can be identified. During the past decades, human intervention has aimed to increase some services such as food production through agricultural intensification, at the expense of other services such as water regulation. Mapping, evaluating and quantifying each of these ecosystem services provided by biodiversity to crop production could help to increase the multi-functionality of agricultural landscapes. In this context, we developed a spatially-explicit model called ATLAS (AgriculTural LandscApe Simulator). ATLA …
Understanding The Relationships Between Sanitation And Health In Nicaragua And Honduras, Through Data Mining Tools,
2016
University Research Institute for Sustainability Science And Technology, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya – Barcelona Tech
Understanding The Relationships Between Sanitation And Health In Nicaragua And Honduras, Through Data Mining Tools, Ginevra Marina Lazerini, Josep Nualart, Sergio Ruiz-Cayuela, Maialen Urbina, Miquel Sànchez Marrè, Karina Gibert
International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software
The aim of this work is to analyze water and sanitation supply data from Nicaragua and Honduras by using different data mining tools. The data has been provided by SIASAR (Rural Water and Sanitation Information System), which is a water and sanitation management and information platform created through the joint effort of different Central American Governments and the World Bank. In the study data from a survey performed in all the rural communities in Nicaragua and in a sample of the rural communities in Honduras from 2012 to 2015 is analyzed. Database contains 10206 communities described by 23 numerical variables …
Data-Driven Wildfire Behaviour Modelling: Application Of Firefly To Field-Scale Grassland Controlled Burns,
2016
CECI, CNRS-CERFACS
Data-Driven Wildfire Behaviour Modelling: Application Of Firefly To Field-Scale Grassland Controlled Burns, M. C. Rochoux, C. Zhang, D. Lucor, S. Ricci, A. Trouve
International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software
Assessing epistemic uncertainties is now considered as a milestone for improving numerical predictions of a dynamically evolving system. The objective of this project is to demonstrate the benefits of data assimilation combined with sensor observations of the fire front position to both quantify and reduce the uncertainties in wildfire behaviour forecasting capability. The challenges found on the route to modelling wildfire behaviour are two-fold. There is the modelling challenge associated with providing accurate representations of the multi-scale multi-physics processes governing wildfire dynamics. There is also the data challenge associated with providing accurate estimates of the environmental conditions (biomass moisture, near-surface …
Resilience Of Punta S’Aliga Barrier Beach To Storm Impacts,
2016
University of Cagliari
Resilience Of Punta S’Aliga Barrier Beach To Storm Impacts, Andrea Sulis
International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software
Beach and dune provide natural defense against erosion and flooding, and associated mitigation measures are classical coastal engineering problems studied by many researchers. Winter storms cause severe erosion leading to dune breaching and then flooding of the hinterland areas. Resiliency of a barrier beach depends on the ability of the dune (resistor) to recover in height and extent following storms. Whereas erosion of the beach and dune occurs over hours and days, it can be years to decades before the beach and dune are able to recover to their pre-storm state. In the last two decades, numerical modelling methods have …
E3.Pt – An E3 Portabledyme Model For Portugal,
2016
Institute of Economic Structure Research (GWS)
E3.Pt – An E3 Portabledyme Model For Portugal, Anett Großmann, Frank Hohmann
International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software
E3 models are environmentally extended economic models. They are extensively used for impact assessment of energy, climate and resource policies at national and international level. E3 models have proven to be suitable tools for quantifying effects on the economy, environment and energy system. Usually, the structure and documentation of such models are only accessible by the model builders. They are facing the allegation to be a "black box" meaning that only their creators are able to operate and fully understand the model system. Decision makers are often only engaged at the end of the model building process to discuss the …
A Markov Decision Process Model To Compare Ecosystem Services Provided By Agricultural Landscapes,
2016
INRA-UMR Agroécologie
A Markov Decision Process Model To Compare Ecosystem Services Provided By Agricultural Landscapes, Sabrina Gaba, Nathalie Peyrard, Régis Sabbadin, Julia Radoszyckic
International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software
One current challenge in managing agricultural landscapes, is to reach a trade-off between provision of food and biodiversity conservation. Two extreme land-use strategies, land sharing and land sparing, are often discussed. The design of decision rules for allocating crops and lands for biodiversity conservation (e.g. grasslands) can be formalized as an optimization problem. However the target to optimize, representing the trade-off between ecosystem services (ES) can be complex to model since ES are usually not defined on comparable scales and may rely on different sides of biodiversity. Here, we will investigate how landscape composition and structure affect the magnitude of …
A Framework For Decision-Making In Cases Of Invasive Species,
2016
York University
A Framework For Decision-Making In Cases Of Invasive Species, Peter A. Khaiter, Marina G. Erechtchoukova, Sina Roushan
International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software
Invasion of nonindigenous species is one of the most pressing global challenges, causing substantial environmental, economic and social harm. Invasion of alien species alters the composition, structure and functioning of invaded ecosystems as well as the services they generated before the invasion. Decisions about the management of invasive cases are inherently difficult because of the multifactorial and multiattribute scope of the problem. In particular, the resilience limits of invaded ecosystems to fully recover original, pre-invaded states remain unclear. To facilitate management efforts, decision-makers and environmental practitioners require a framework integrating relevant knowledge and acting as a supporting expert system. The …
A Mathematical Model For Ghg From Sb-Mbr: Calibration By An Innovative Protocol,
2016
Universita di Palermo
A Mathematical Model For Ghg From Sb-Mbr: Calibration By An Innovative Protocol, Giorgio Mannina, Alida Cosenza
International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software
A mathematical model to quantify greenhouse gases (GHG) (carbon dioxide, CO2 and nitrous oxide, N2O) for a membrane bioreactor (MBR) is presented. The model has been applied to a pilot plant with a pre-denitrification MBR scheme. The pilot plant was cyclically filled with real saline wastewater according to the fill-draw-batch operation. The model was calibrated by adopting a specific protocol based on extensive field dataset. Standardised Regression Coefficient (SRC) method was adopted to select the most influential model factors to be calibrated. Results related to SRC method show that among the important model factors a key role …
Sectorization Of Intermittent Water Supply Networks Based On Graph Theory And Clustering Techniques,
2016
FluIng-IMM Universitat Politècnica de València
Sectorization Of Intermittent Water Supply Networks Based On Graph Theory And Clustering Techniques, Amilkar E. Ilaya-Ayza, David Ayala-Cabrera, Joaquín Izquierdo, Enrique Campbell, Rafael Pérez-García
International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software
Intermittent water supply is the form of access to water in many countries around the world. It is very common that design, operation, maintenance and, in general, decision-making in these systems are performed using tools originally developed for systems with continuous supply, which are not adequate. However, these tools can be reasonably applied to network sectorization of intermittent supply networks. We propose a sectorization methodology for networks that do not have the possibility of working with continuous supply. In addition, to ensure sufficient pressure, sector design must guarantee equity in the supply. Furthermore, it is not enough to establish sector …
