Environmental Engineering Commons^™

Development Of A Novel Mobile Industrial-Scale Fluidized Adsorption Process For Emergency Treatment Of Water Polluted By Aniline: Cfd Simulation And Experiments, Zhaolin Du, Tong Zheng, Huizhe Cao, Jiping Jiang, Peng Wang

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Sudden river chemical spills accidents occurred frequently these years and caused great economic losses and odious social impacts. Although the current methods, such as the granular activated carbon package treatment in the Sudden Water Pollution Accident of Zhuozhang River of China, could make the water quality up to the standard, they resulted in the limited flow ability and low mass transfer capability, and also had some difficulty treating the unpredicted emergencies because of its location-specific treatment and time-consuming preparation work. Hence, a novel mobile industrial-scale fluidized adsorption process, which could address the above problems and was fast to deploy with …

Participatory Modelling To Assess Climate Impacts On Water Resources In The Big Wood Basin, Idaho, J. Koch, A. Inouye, D. Lach, J. Stevenson, J. P. Bolte

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Many of the natural resource issues we face today cannot be fully understood using normal scientific methods or theories. When uncertainties or decision stakes are high, participation by an “extended peer community” can be critical to studying and managing complex systems since local expertise on land use and ecosystem processes may not otherwise be captured. We conducted a case study of participatory modelling to support natural resource management under a changing climate. Over a two-year period, we convened a Knowledge to Action Network (KTAN) of scientists and stakeholders interested in exploring the impacts of climate change in Idaho’s Big Wood …

R Package Mvghd: Causal Inference Procedure For Geographic High-Dimensional, Stéphane Bourrelly, Pascal Auquier

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Causal statistic inference is a key issue in machine learning. The goal is designing procedures that are able to select relevant subsets of explanatory variables, which might help scientists to better understand the underlying mechanisms behind the studied phenomena. We present a causal statistic inference procedure, especially designed for Geographic High-dimensional Datasets (GHD). The promise of discovering unknown informative factors are as great as the intrinsic learning challenges in these complex datasets, which are more and more common in the fields of environment, health, ecology, epidemiology, geography, agriculture, etc. Firstly, we point out the difference between the variable selection strategies …

From Openmi To Hydrocouple: Advancing Openmi To Support Experimental Simulations And Standard Geospatial Datasets, Caleb A. Buahin, Jeffery S. Horsburgh

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

HydroCouple is a cross-platform, component-based modeling interface definition that largely follows the Open Modeling Interface 2.0 (OpenMI) specification. HydroCouple provides advancements to better facilitate those experimental model investigations that fall into the so-called “embarrassingly parallel” class of simulations, including uncertainty assessment, ensemble forecasting, and optimization simulations. Additionally, HydroCouple explicitly incorporates low level interface definitions for multi- dimensional datasets and geospatial data formats including the Open Geospatial Consortium’s Simple Feature Access specification, raster datasets, and meshes that are widely used in the earth systems and environmental modeling field. In this paper, we describe these and other advances provided by the HydroCouple …

Towards A Neural Networks-Based Prediction Tool Devoted To Low Water-Levels Forecasting: Relevant Architecture Selection Based On Main Physical Processes, A. Coutouis, A. Johannet, S. Pistre, P. -A. Ayral, L. Cadilhac

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Karst aquifers provide water resource for a large part of the Mediterranean population and water resource becomes a strategic problem during summer when population increases due to tourism. To help managers to optimize the exploitation of water, this work studies the ability of a neural network model to efficiently simulate water levels in the Cèze River, connected to a karst aquifer, few months ahead during the dry season. The neural model is based on recurrent multilayer perceptrons that learn the relations between inputs (mainly rainfall and ETP) and output (water level). After a training step using 17 years of data, …

Paper And Pebbles Simulations And Modelling For The Governance Of Socio-Environmental Systems: A Review Of 8 Years Of Experimenting With The Wat-Agame Toolkit, Géraldine Abrami, Nils Ferrand, Raphaele Ducrot, Sylvie Morardet, Emeline Hassenforder, Patrice Garin, Bruno Bonté, Patrice Robin, Wanda Aquae-Gaudi

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Wat-A-Game (WAG) is an open toolkit and a method based on simple bricks for designing and using participatory simulations (i.e. role playing games) for water management, policy design and education. It is included in a more extensive package of integrated methods and tools, called CoOPLAaGE, targeting the main needs and steps in the multilevel decision and management process.

The main principle of WAG is to use pebbles to show explicitly how water (and other resources) flows, and are transformed and used, and different paper elements and cards to represent space, activities and rules (Abrami et al, 2012; Ferrand et al, …

Analysing The Error Potential Of Administrative Data In Determining The Sinuosity Of Small Rivers, Pierre Karrasch, Sebastian Hunger

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

According to the European Water Framework Directive the member states are committed to prove the good ecological status of all water bodies. These requirements are verified by a regular monitoring. Especially the use of remote sensing data and methods of applied geoinformatics and statistics can be recommended for the monitoring of several hydromorphological parameters. At the same time for some single parameters basic geodata provided by local authorities are available (e.g. river centrelines). In this study the quality of these basic geodata is compared with self-extracted results using different remote sensing data sources (CIR-orthophoto, digital terrain model). The results reveal …

Artificial Intelligence Techniques To Enhance Actors’ Decision Strategies In Socio-­Ecological Agent-­ Based Models, Shaheen A. Abdulkareem, Ellen-­Wien Augustijn-­Beckers, Yaseen T. Mustafa, Tatiana Filatova

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Agent-­Based Models (ABMs) are indispensable to studying the aggregated impacts of individual actions of heterogeneous interacting adaptive agents. Concurrently, artificial intelligence has been employed for decades to simulate autonomous actions of individual entities that react, learn and exchange information with an environment and one another. There are obvious synergies between the two computational approaches. For example, artificial intelligence is often used to enhance agents’ behaviour in ABMs. Artificial intelligence learning algorithms (AILAs) allow for a richer agents’ architecture for operationalization of more realistic learning decisions beyond a simplistic treatment of agents’ cognitive and sensory capacities. Firstly, we review recent socio-­economic …

Experimental Measurement Of Stakeholder Expectation Formation And Risk Taking Behaviour For Integrated Regional Agricultural Land Use Modelling, Marius Eisele, Christian Troost, Thomas Berger

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Understanding how stakeholders respond to climate signals, form expectations about the future and adapt behaviour under uncertainty is crucial for simulating land use change in integrated assessment models. Traditional economic models of expectation formation assume rational or quasi- rational patterns of expectation formation and have typically been derived in the context of price expectations. Approaches for modelling decisions under uncertainty typically either follow the paradigms of (subjective) expected utility maximization or prospect theory.

These approaches however may not fit to the analysis of climate change responses due to ambiguous climate signals, a long time span of change, and the significance …

Gis Mash-Ups In The Cloud: Visualizing Online Data Using Hydroshare And Tethys Platform, Daniel P. Ames, Shawn Crawley, Zhiyu Li

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

HydroShare is a web based data management system for climate and water data that is includes a web-services application programmer interface (API) to allow third party programmers to access and use its open data resources. To provide end users with data analysis and visualization tools for HydroShare resources, we have implemented an online web app development system called Tethys Platform and have developed several apps that utilize the HydroShare API. Tethys Platform is an open source software package based on the Django framework and Python programming language. The Tethys software development kit allows users to create web apps for visualizing, …

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 …

Climate Change Impacts And Implications: An Integrated Assessment In A Lowland Environment Of New Zealand, A. G.E. Ausseil, K. Bodmin, A. Daigneault, E. Teixeira, E. D. Keller, M. U. F. Kirschbaum, L. Timar, A. Dunningham, C. Zammit, S. Stephens, M. Cameron, P. Blackett, G. Harmsworth, B. Frame, A. Reisinger, A. Tait, D. Rutledge

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

New Zealand’s mixed economy includes a range of sectors (e.g. primary production, energy, tourism) that depend heavily on the state of natural resource capital. This makes the economy heavily dependent on future global climate change and the global economic situation. In this paper, we present a framework to evaluate socio-economic and environmental impacts of future climate and land-use change, and give results for one scenario in a typical lowland environment in New Zealand. The future scenario was designed as a combination of global climate and socio-economic assumptions, along with New Zealand-specific policy assumptions. We evaluated the impacts and implications of …

Water Resource Management With The Management Software Manuela, Monika Von Haaren

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The impact of climate change with increasing droughts will lead to an increase of water consumption in agriculture. Even in Germany, agricultural land is already irrigated intensively to secure harvests at a higher level. The demand for additional irrigation will lead to conflicts between agriculture, water management and nature conservation. This paper shows a new way for the evaluation of water use in agricultural farming. With the developed method stakeholder can assess the water consumption for irrigation in agriculture, which is transferable, regionally applicable and comparable. The water-module is available as a new plug-in in the management software MANUELA and …

Modelling Adaptive Behaviour In Spatial Agent-­Based Models: Coastal Cities And Climate Change, Tatiana Filatova, Erik Horstman, Suzanne J.M.H. Hulscher, Ju-­Sung Lee, Johan De Waard

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

A major part of world population lives in coastal and delta areas threatened by adverse consequences of climate change (increasing probabilities or severity of floods and hurricanes). It might lead to a forced displacement of up to 187 million people in coastal zones. Still, exposure and vulnerability in coastal areas rapidly escalate due to the clustering of population and growth of property values in flood-­prone areas. Land markets driven by individual location preferences are crucial in the formation of spatial patterns of activities and the economic value they receive. Under the conditions of uncertainty where probabilistic disasters and rich amenities …

Assessing Crop Portfolios: Diversification Versus Monoculture For Biodiesel, G. Guariso, F. Recanati

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The selection of crop patterns for agricultural areas is usually guided by the maximization of expected income. This variable is, however, influenced by the fluctuations of both crop productivity and prices. The annual variability is directly related to the risk of a crop portfolio and, according to the so called Modern Theory Portfolio (MTP), it is a fundamental aspect to be taken into account during the selection of crops. This is true especially in case of those farmers who are not wealthy. Crop diversification is considered an effective solution able to alleviate the abovementioned inter-annual fluctuations and to guarantee a …

Design And Implementation Of Hydrologic Model Sharing Capabilities Within The Cuahsi Hydroshare System, Mohamed M. Morsy, Jonathan L. Goodall, Anthony M. Castronova, Pabitra Dash, Brian Miles, Venkatesh Merwade, Jeffrey M. Sadler, David G. Tarboton

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

HydroShare is an online repository tailored for the hydrology community and designed to facilitate collaboration and open sharing of hydrologic data, analytical tools, and models to enable model reuse, and research reproducibility. In HydroShare data, models and their input and output files are considered as objects of collaboration, or social objects. Collectively these are referred to as "Resources" and HydroShare supports a number of resource types each designed to represent a specific hydrologic data type or model. Each resource type includes a metadata profile that describes key attributes of that resource. This research focuses on the resource types and metadata …

Web Portal For Corporate Sustainability Evaluation, Modelling And Benchmarking, Oldřich Faldík, Jiří Hřebíček, Oldřich Trenz, Edward Kasem

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The ability of a company to maintain productivity over time and thus retain the potential of profitability and stability to the long-term is termed sustainability. The appropriate combination of sustainability indicators from a number of different fields, such as economic, social, environmental and corporate governance, is maintained during this period. In conjunction with the support of corporate reporting, it is a powerful tool that companies use to endorse internal environmental and financial reporting, distribution of descriptive information about the company into its surroundings, and a way to follow Key Performance Indicators. The aim of this paper is to present the …

Modelling Potential Nitrogen Losses In Oil Palm Plantations With In-Palm, An Agri-Environmental Indicator, Pardon Lénaïc, Bockstaller Christian, Marichal Raphaël, Sionita Ribka, Nelson Paul, Gabrielle Benoît, Jean-Paul Laclau, Caliman Jean-Pierre, Bessou Cécile

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Oil palm cultivation area is expected to increase until at least 2050. This expansion raises environmental concerns, not only regarding land-use change and its consequences, but also concerning potential impacts of losses of nitrogen such as ammonia volatilisation, nitrous oxide emission and nitrate leaching and runoff. The prerequisite to any work on the reduction of losses and identification of best practices is the development of an assessment tool. However, the available knowledge regarding nitrogen losses is limited for oil palm, which leads to high uncertainty in environmental assessment.

In this context, we chose to develop an agri-environmental indicator, IN-Palm, which …

The Role Of Subjective Risk Perceptions In Shaping Coastal Development Dynamics, Nicholas R. Magliocca, Virginia Mcconnell, Margaret Walls

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

In highly dynamic socio-environmental systems, particularly those affected by frequent natural hazards, the ways in which people perceive their environment, formulate expectations of risk, and make decisions influence the long-term vulnerability of the built landscape to natural hazards. A common observation in landscapes prone to natural hazards, such as flooding and/or hurricanes, is the emergence of overly reactive (i.e., out-of-equilibrium, or ‘boom-bust’ cycles) market dynamics. Housing prices and insurance uptake rates have been shown to decline and spike, respectively, immediately after hazard events and then return to long-term trends as time since the event increases. Theoretical explanations for such dynamics …

Groundwater Recharge And Associated Uncertainty Estimation Combining Multi-Method And Multi-Scale Approaches, S. Lanini, Y. Caballero

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Groundwater resource assessment is a major concern for water managers who have to balance water demands and resources at a basin or territory scale. One operational way to address this question is to estimate the part of recharge which is linked to precipitation. Many methods to estimate groundwater recharge are described in the literature, varying in terms of time scale and the nature of the data they treat. They do not always provide a suitable estimate of uncertainty. To obtain both a realistic estimation of groundwater recharge and a confidence interval at the hydrogeological basin scale, we propose a multi-method …