Environmental Engineering Commons^™

Development Of A Pedestrian Demand Estimation Tool, Kelly Clifton, Patrick Allen Singleton, Christopher D. Muhs, Robert J. Schneider

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Most research on walking behavior has focused on mode choice or walk-trip frequency. In contrast, this study is one of the first to analyze the destination choice behaviors of pedestrians. Using about 4,500 walk trips from a 2011 household travel survey in the Portland, OR, region, we estimated multinomial logit pedestrian destination choice models for six trip purposes. Independent variables included terms for impedance (walk-trip distance); size (employment by type, households); supportive pedestrian environments (parks, a pedestrian index of the environment variable called PIE); barriers to walking (terrain, industrial-type employment); and traveler characteristics. Unique to this study was the use …

Comparisons Of Linear Regression Models For Properties Of Alkaliactivated Binder Concrete, Arkamitra Kar, Udaya B. Halabe, Indrajit Ray, Avinash Unnikrishnan

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Concrete with alkali-activated binder (AAB) is increasingly considered as a better alternative to conventional portland cement (PC) concrete due to its superior sustainable and green properties. In order to promote the practical usage of AAB concrete, a previous study by the present authors proposed models on correlations among their mechanical and nondestructive properties. The present study extends the previous knowledge by proposing new improved models using linear regressions to predict compressive strengths and modulus of elasticity from ultrasonic pulse velocities. The models are developed for both unstressed and stressed AAB concrete with different curing temperatures. The accuracies of the models …

A Study On Navigation Safety On Putou Branch Channel Extension Project For Meizhou Bay, Kui Zhao

Maritime Safety & Environment Management Dissertations (Dalian)

No abstract provided.

Recovery Of Nutrients From Animal And Human Wastes, Nathaniel E. Kallmyer, Zhe Sun, Kaitlin Harris, Zhi Zhou, Ernest R. Blatchley Iii

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Removal of nitrogen- and phosphorus-containing molecules from wastewater is necessary to prevent excessive growth of algae and resulting chemical changes to bodies of water. Of wastewater components, urine contains relatively high concentrations of nitrogen and phosphorus, the majority of which is ultimately present as ammonia and phosphate. Separation and stabilization of these nutrients may also allow for their reuse as fertilizer. Before the nutrients may be stored, they must be stabilized. At least a portion of ammonia-N must be converted to nonvolatile nitrogen. This may be achieved by using ammonia- and nitrite-oxidizing bacteria (AOB and NOB, respectively) to convert ammonia …

Membrane Pre-Treatment Using Chemical Disinfectants In Halide Impaired Waters, Holly M. Haflich, Kun Huang, Amisha D. Shah, John Howarter, Logan Kearney

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

The use of membrane filtration processes for desalination, water reuse, and water reclamation techniques are becoming more prevalent given freshwater shortages. However, the treatment of these waters is challenging because of the membranes used in these processes. During nanofiltration and reverse osmosis the membranes undergo biofouling. Reverse osmosis and nanofiltration are high-pressure membrane filtration techniques that treat seawater, brackish waters, and industrial wastewaters. Because of the biofouling, the polyamide thin film needs to be pretreated with chlorine (HOCl/ OCl-) as a disinfectant, but this damages the polyamide membrane. When the free chlorine is in the presence of halide-impaired waters, it …

Estimation Of Historic Flows And Sediment Loads To San Francisco Bay, 1849 – 2011, Hamed Moftakhari Rostamkhani, David A. Jay, Stefan A. Talke, David H. Schoellhamer

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

River flow and sediment transport in estuaries influence morphological development over decadal and century time scales, but hydrological and sedimentological records are typically too short to adequately characterize long-term trends. In this study, we recover archival records and apply a rating curve approach to develop the first instrumental estimates of daily delta inflow and sediment loads to San Francisco Bay (1849 – 1929). The total sediment load is constrained using sedimentation/erosion estimated from bathymetric survey data to produce continuous daily sediment transport estimates from 1849 to 1955, the time period prior to sediment load measurements. We estimate that ~55% (45 …

Evaluating The Use Of Crowdsourcing As A Data Collection Method For Bicycle Performance Measures And Identification Of Facility Improvement Needs, Miguel A. Figliozzi, Bryan Philip Blanc

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

This research developed a smartphone application called ORcycle to collect cyclists’ routes, users, and comfort levels. ORcycle combines GPS revealed route data collection with new questionnaires that try to elicit cyclists’ attitudes as well as comfort levels and factors that influence their perceived comfort and route choice. The new questionnaires were developed to better understand how cyclists’ comfort levels are affected by route characteristics, route stressors, safety reports, cyclists’ demographics, and cyclists’ cycling attitude. Preliminary results show that many trip characteristics, route choice factors, route stressors and demographic variables are correlated with comfort levels. ORcycle is the first statewide deployment …

Fluoride And Phosphate Removal From Industrial And Domestic Wastewaters Using Cerium Chloride, John Michael Gonzales

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The use of cerium chloride (CeCl3) to remove fluoride and phosphate from waters is addressed in this study. High concentrations of fluoride exist in groundwater especially in developing countries. Consumption drinking water containing high levels of fluoride can lead to serious cases of dental and skeletal fluorosis. Current defluoridation technologies are limited, especially for high levels of fluoride, and are expensive. Industrial wastewaters contribute to the highest fluoride contamination in the world. With the increasing production of electronic materials, the global fluoride concentration and fluoride-contaminated waters have grown tremendously. Excessive discharge of phosphate into the environment promotes eutrophication of lakes …

Secondary Organic Aerosol Formation From The Β-Pinene+No3 System: Effect Of Humidity And Peroxy Radical Fate, C. M. Boyd, J. Sanchez, L. Xu, Alexis J. Eugene, T. Nah, W. Y. Tuet, Marcelo I. Guzman, N. L. Ng

Chemistry Faculty Publications

The formation of secondary organic aerosol (SOA) from the oxidation of β-pinene via nitrate radicals is investigated in the Georgia Tech Environmental Chamber (GTEC) facility. Aerosol yields are determined for experiments performed under both dry (relative humidity (RH) < 2 %) and humid (RH = 50 % and RH = 70 %) conditions. To probe the effects of peroxy radical (RO₂) fate on aerosol formation, "RO₂ + NO₃ dominant" and "RO₂ + HO₂ dominant" experiments are performed. Gas-phase organic nitrate species (with molecular weights of 215, 229, 231, and 245 amu, which likely correspond to molecular formulas of C₁₀H₁₇NO₄, C₁₀H₁₅NO₅, C₁₀H₁₇NO …

Detecting Grain Flow Rate Using A Laser Scanner, Hossein Navid, Randal K. Taylor, Arzu Yazgi, Ning Wang, Yeyin Shi, Paul Weckler

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Detecting and measuring agricultural material flow is important in a wide range of applications in agricultural engineering, such as material handling, food processing, yield monitoring, and fertilizer spreading. In these applications, flow rate is determined by measuring material mass or volume as a function of time. Although different materials require detection, the methods for a given material type (e.g., granular) can be similar. Researchers have developed methods such as impact based sensors, radiometric-based sensors, and optical methods to detect and measure material flow. Abdul Rahim and Green (1998) studied an optical-fiber sensor (containing 32 light sources and 32 light detectors) …

Municipal Wastewater Anaerobic Treatment With Enhanced Clarification, Kevin Berg

Master's Theses (2009 -)

As energy costs rise, water reclamation facilities (WRFs) desire lower cost, easily operated systems to remove BOD5 and suspended solids. WRFs typically utilize an aerobic process called activated sludge to remove biochemical oxygen demand (BOD). BOD, specifically 5 day BOD (BOD5), is used as an indicator of the organic strength of a solution. Anaerobic treatment provides an alternative to activated sludge by removing BOD5, generating biogas containing methane for energy and producing less biomass that requires disposal. Anaerobic treatment functions as an exceptional alternative to activated sludge when packaged as a system with a small footprint that operates at ambient …

Life Cycle Assessment Using Argonne Greet Model Of Algae Based Biofuels Produced Using Flash Hydrolysis Process, Andrew P. Bessette

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Traditional processing methods of algae to biofuels require dewatering after harvesting of the algae before the lipids can be extracted. This is typically the most energy intensive and therefore the most expensive step. Old Dominion University has successfully utilized a flash hydrolysis process where proteins are solubilized into the liquid phase of product and the remainder lipid-rich, low nitrogen product is separated into a solid phase. The solid phase (lipid-rich) is then an ideal candidate for biofuel feedstock and the liquid phase, or hydrolysate, can be used for coproducts such as a source of nutrients for new batches of algal …

Computer Vision System For Grading Mangos In Bangladesh, Md Abdul Momin, Md Towfiqur Rahman, Mst Sabrina Sultana, Igathinathane Cannayen

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Mango (Mangifera indica) is one of the most common, important, and popular fruits among fruits produced in Bangladesh. In Bangladesh, mango was cultivated in about 0.078 million acres with an annual production of 0.8 million tonne. However, the technologies used in post-harvest processing (e.g., grading, sorting, etc.) of mango are mostly traditional involving human labors; and the methods are far from satisfactory, in terms of accuracy and throughput. In order to grade mango according to size, we developed a machine vision system with image processing capabilities that can measure sizes of mango fruits from the images. In this system images …

Channel Shallowing As Mitigation Of Coastal Flooding, Philip M. Orton, Stefan A. Talke, David A. Jay, Larry Yin, Alan F. Blumberg, Nickitas Georgas, Haihong Zhao, Hugh J. Roberts, Kytt Macmanus

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Here, we demonstrate that reductions in the depth of inlets or estuary channels can be used to reduce or prevent coastal flooding. A validated hydrodynamic model of Jamaica Bay, New York City (NYC), is used to test nature-based adaptation measures in ameliorating flooding for NYC’s two largest historical coastal flood events. In addition to control runs with modern bathymetry, three altered landscape scenarios are tested: (1) increasing the area of wetlands to their 1879 footprint and bathymetry, but leaving deep shipping channels unaltered; (2) shallowing all areas deeper than 2 m in the bay to be 2 m below Mean …

Toward A Spatial-Temporal Measure Of Land-Use Mix, Steven R. Gehrke, Kelly Clifton

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Urban planning and public-health research has long been interested in the connection between land-use mix and travel. Interest from urban planners stems from the potential of transportation efficiency gains achieved by an increased land-use mix and subsequent shortening of trip lengths; whereas, public-health research advocates an increased land-use mix as an effective policy for facilitating greater physical activity. Yet, despite the transportation, land-use, and health benefits related to improving land-use mix and the extent of topical attention given by researchers, no consensus has been reached regarding the magnitude of its effect on travel. This absence of agreement may largely be …

Implementation Of Sustainability Improvements At The Facility Level: Business Motivations And Impact Of P2 Intern Recommendations, Vincent D. Kuppig

Department of Environmental Engineering: Theses and Other Student Research

Many sustainability and pollution prevention (P2) technical assistance programs exist across the Unities States. There is a need to quantify the actual impact using various metrics and, in addition, to identify the driving forces behind a company’s decision-making process. The University of Nebraska-Lincoln Partners in Pollution Prevention and the Kansas State University Pollution Prevention Institute intern programs partnered to complete 30 reassessments in 2014 to obtain specific information related to each P2 recommendation. After being reassessed, the clients were surveyed concerning their motivations for implementing and not implementing each recommendation; 23 clients responded to the survey.

The clients surveyed were …

Impact Of Limited Organic Carbon Addition On Nitrogen Removal In A Mainstream Anammox Moving Bed Biofilm Reactor, Johnnie Wayne Godwin

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Excessive nitrogen compounds are a growing problem in the world and are leading to further environmental degradation. For future nitrogen pennit limits, conventional water treatment processes tend to not meet the requirements to drive these concentrations to low levels, and if they do, it can be rather costly. However, in mid 1990s a new bacterium was discovered that has allowed for nitrogen removal to occur at a considerably reduced cost. The use of anaerobic ammonia oxidizing bacteria (anammox or AMX) is well established in sidestream deammonification (partial nitritation and anammox). However, as of late there has been discussion of applying …

Hydrothermal Catalytic Liquefaction And Deoxygenation Of Biomass For Renewable Fuel Production, Sergiy Popov

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

In recent years, sub- and supercritical water technologies received an increasing attention because of the numerous advantages they offer for biomass converting into biofuels. Water at elevated temperatures and pressures provides an ideal medium for chemical transformations. It serves as a reactant, reaction medium, and catalyst that helps biomass compounds undergo hydrolysis, depolymerization, dehydration, decarboxylation, and condensation/repolymerization reactions. Biomass is the fourth largest source of energy in the world after coal, oil, and natural gas that has the potential to provide the large scale substitution of hydrocarbon-based liquid transportation fuels and minimize the environmental issues. Biomass typically contains 40-60% oxygen. …

Using A High Altitude Balloon Platform To Observe And Measure Seasonal Ozone Flux Over Agricultural Landscapes, Cody Sabo

2017 Academic High Altitude Conference

The concentration of greenhouse gasses (GHGs) in the atmosphere has continued to rise since the industrial era. This issue has had a multitude of negative impacts on all living things. Among the major GHGs are carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone. Ozone is of particular importance because it not only has the ability to trap heat in the atmosphere, but it also directly impacts organisms by causing harm to both plants and humans. The damage that ozone causes to plants is most closely linked to ozone uptake rather than ozone concentration. So, measuring ozone uptake is becoming critical for …

A System Dynamics Approach To The Efficacy Of Oxime Therapy In Sub Lethal Exposure To Sarin Gas, Daniel J. Droste

Theses and Dissertations

The 2010 National Security Strategy states, The effective dissemination of a lethal agent would endanger the lives of thousands of people and have unprecedented economic, societal, and political consequences. We must continue to work at home with first responders and health officials to reduce the risk associated with high-consequence threats . Nerve agents, such as Sarin gas, are considered high consequence threats. The threat of use of agents such as Sarin is as much a threat today as any other time in our history. However, the suggested treatment protocol is not as precise as it could be. Debate exists over …