Accounting For Groups Of Animals In Qmra Of Recreational Waters,
2014
Land and Environment, AgResearch Ltd, Invermay Research Centre
Accounting For Groups Of Animals In Qmra Of Recreational Waters, Richard W. Muirhead, Vanessa M. Cave
International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software
The development of QMRA for recreational waters often involves assessing the inputs from multiple sources, including human sewage, agricultural sources and wild animals. The concentrations of microorganisms in faeces from individual animals are highly variable leading to a broad spectrum of risk. When modelling the load of faecal microbes from a group of animals, based on data from individuals, the group distribution must be correctly accounted for. A further complication to QMRA is that pathogen concentrations in faeces have a high proportion of non-detects making them difficult to model using standard mathematical distributions. Moreover, when only limited concentration data are …
Towards An Interoperable And Distributed E-Infrastructure For Hydro-Meteorology: The Drihm Project,
2014
IMATI-CNR
Towards An Interoperable And Distributed E-Infrastructure For Hydro-Meteorology: The Drihm Project, Antonella Galizia, Daniele D’Agostino, Alfonso Quarti, Gabriele Zereik, Luca Roverelli, Emanuele Danovaro, Andrea Clematis, Fabio Delogu, Antonio Parodi, Quillon Harpham, Bert Jagers, Luis Garrote, Ljiljana Dekic, Vladimir Dimitrijevic, Evelyne Richard, Olivier Caumont
International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software
Predicting weather and climate and its impacts on the environment, including hazards such as floods and landslides, is one of the main challenges of the 21st century with significant societal and economic implications. To advance the state of the art in forecasting extreme events, an effective collaboration with the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) scientific community is necessary to address challenges in combining meteorological, hydrological, hydraulic and impact observations and modelling tools seemingly and in a platform that allows scenario building and decision-support. With these issues in mind, the Dis- tributed Research Infrastructure for Hydro-Meteorology (DRIHM) project aims at setting …
A Spatial Planning Tool For The Evaluation Of The Effect Of Hydrological And Land-Use Changes On Ecosystem Services,
2014
UNESCO-IHE Institute of Water Education
A Spatial Planning Tool For The Evaluation Of The Effect Of Hydrological And Land-Use Changes On Ecosystem Services, Leon Mugwiza, Seleshi Yalew, Johannes Van Der Kwast, Masoom Hamdard, Willem Van Deursen
International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software
Many point-based models have been designed to simulate hydrology, gas flux, nutrient dynamics, and/or plant growth processes at a single point on the landscape. However, these environmental processes are known to be spatially variable. Simulations at different spatial locations therefore require adjustment of model input parameters to reflect specific conditions at each location. Increased availability of geospatial data sets, including remote sensing images, land cover maps, digital soil surveys, crop yield maps, and vehicle-based plant or soil maps, can support spatial model parameterization efforts. However, tools are needed for processing geospatial data layers and interfacing the data with the simulation …
Silvio, Modelling Social Vulnerability Under A Local Perspective,
2014
Hamburg University
Silvio, Modelling Social Vulnerability Under A Local Perspective, Thaís López-Inojosa, Martina Neuburger, Sebastian Medina-Plascencia, Framklin Davila
International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software
The objective of this research is to develop and to model an indicator of social vulnerability as part of a multidimensional, multivariable and non linear process. Social vulnerability can be considered as a complex system, in which many relationships in society and environment can be described by considering individual and structural factors. Numerous studies provide tools to analyze and revise social systems but these tools were developed generalizing and overviewing the relationship among many intermediate realities, for another type of systems, more formalized and conceptualized. Social systems do not have this classical formalization. The development of the SocIaL Vulnerability I …
Reproducible Research Within The Datanet Federation Consortium,
2014
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Reproducible Research Within The Datanet Federation Consortium, Reagan W. Moore, Arcot Rajasekar
International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software
The DataNet Federation Consortium (DFC) is an NSF funded project that provides cyberinfrastructure for federating data management systems into a collaboration environment. Researchers are able to build a shared collection, apply analysis workflows, and manage the analysis results. The shared collections may span storage resources at multiple institutions, and multiple types of data management systems. The analysis workflows may include staging of files to remote compute platforms, and in-place analysis at the remote data storage location. The workflows can be captured as shareable objects, with automatic capture of input files, input parameters, and output files. A key feature is support …
Controls On Hydrologic Partitioning: Using A Mechanistic Model For Comparative Hydrology Across Ungauged Sub-Catchments In A Mountain Headwater Basin,
2014
Duke University
Controls On Hydrologic Partitioning: Using A Mechanistic Model For Comparative Hydrology Across Ungauged Sub-Catchments In A Mountain Headwater Basin, Christa Kelleher, Thorsten Wagener, Francesca Pianosi, Brian Mcglynn
International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software
Headwater streams are the most abundant portion of the river network but the least monitored. As such, we have a limited understanding of headwater stream behaviours and how they are influenced by catchment properties such as topography, geology, and vegetation. Given the lack of runoff monitoring within headwater streams, improving an understanding of how catchment properties influence hydrologic behaviour is necessary for transferring information from instrumented areas to ungauged sites. We utilize this concept to understand physical controls on similarities and differences in hydrologic behaviour for five adjacent sub-catchments located in the Tenderfoot Creek Experimental Forest in central Montana with …
Estimating The Benefits Of Early Warning Systems In Reducing Urban Flood Risk To People: A Spatially Explicit Bayesian Model.,
2014
BC3 Basque Centre for Climate Change
Estimating The Benefits Of Early Warning Systems In Reducing Urban Flood Risk To People: A Spatially Explicit Bayesian Model., Stefano Balbi, Ferdinando Villa, Vahid Mojthaed, Carlo Giupponi
International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software
Flood risk assessment usually focuses on damages to material objects (indirect tangible costs) and downplays the broader socio-economic aspects of flood-prone systems. Such aspects are crucial for an accurate assessment of risk to human receptors and of the benefits of non-structural measures. For example, an early warning system (EWS) that reduces the amount of direct tangible costs only partially could: (i) save lives (direct intangible costs); (ii) help avoid long-lasting trauma (indirect intangible costs); (iii) prevent post-disaster evacuation costs (indirect tangible costs). We present a methodology to assess flood risk to people, which integrates people's vulnerability and ability to cushion …
Overview And Application Of The Model Optimization, Uncertainty, And Sensitivity Analysis (Mouse) Toolbox,
2014
USDA-ARS-NPA, Agricultural Systems Research Unit
Overview And Application Of The Model Optimization, Uncertainty, And Sensitivity Analysis (Mouse) Toolbox, James C. Ascough Ii, Christian Fischer, Nathan Lighthart, Olaf David, Timothy R. Green, Sven Kralisch
International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software
For several decades, optimization and sensitivity/uncertainty analysis of environmental models has been the subject of extensive research. Although much progress has been made and sophisticated methods developed, the growing complexity of environmental models to represent real world systems makes it increasingly difficult to fully comprehend model behavior, sensitivities and uncertainties. This paper provides an overview of the Model Optimization, Uncertainty, and SEnsitivity Analysis (MOUSE) software application, an open-source, Java-based toolbox of visual and numerical analysis components for the evaluation of environmental models. MOUSE is based on the OPTAS model calibration system developed for the Jena Adaptable Modeling System framework, is …
Amadeus: A System For Monitoring Water Quality Parameters And Predicting Contaminant Paths,
2014
Institute of Technology, University of Washington
Amadeus: A System For Monitoring Water Quality Parameters And Predicting Contaminant Paths, Abdeltawab M. Hendawi, David Hazel, Joel Larson, Yiru Li, Dwaine Trummert, Mohamed Ali, Ankur Teredesai
International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software
Managing the water quality in an urban environment is extremely challenging. While it flows, the water picks up pollutants such as lawn care chemicals, oil, and pet waste bacteria. In fact, topography plays a factor in where water runoff goes. However, there are many other factors, such as urban density, impermeable surface coverage, weather events and tidal patterns which all have the potential to impact not only the final destination of a particular pollutant but also the rate of travel along the route. In this paper, we propose a system, named AMADEUS (Azure Marketplace of Applications for Diverse Environmental Use …
Socio-Economic Regional Risk Assessment (Serra) Application To Flood Risk In The Vipacco Basin (North-East Italy),
2014
Cà Foscari University of Venice
Socio-Economic Regional Risk Assessment (Serra) Application To Flood Risk In The Vipacco Basin (North-East Italy), Claudia De Luca, Vahid Mojtahed, Animesh Gain, Stefano Balbi, Michele Ferri, Carlo Giupponi
International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software
According to EEA (European Environmental Agency), flood is the most dangerous natural hazard in Europe in terms of economic losses. The KULTURisk Project (EU FP7) has developed a novel methodology for evaluating the integrated benefits of risk prevention of water related natural hazards: SERRA (i.e. Socio-Economic Regional Risk Assessment). The proposed methodology enhances the traditional flood risk assessment. Several case studies across Europe allowed for the consolidation, validation, and refinement of SERRA. This paper presents the results of its application to assess the benefits derived from the installation of an Early Warning System in Vipacco river basin in Friuli Venezia …
Investigating Parameter Sensitivity For Management In Snow-Driven Watersheds,
2014
University of Colorado Boulder
Investigating Parameter Sensitivity For Management In Snow-Driven Watersheds, Elizabeth Houle, Joseph Kasprzyk
International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software
Recent projections of environmental change have shown possible variation to temperature and precipitation patterns due to climate change. In snowmelt-dominated watersheds, adapting to such environmental changes requires a detailed understanding of hydrological processes in addition to historical snow cover and streamflow data. Snow models are often incorporated as an additional component of hydrological modeling studies that inform research and operations management. However, previous research and parameter estimation approaches using snow models assume that parameters have a single optimal value and that each parameter is sensitive. This paper demonstrates that an improved understanding of snow model parameter sensitivity can aid in …
Agent-Based Virtual Laboratories For A Novel Experimental Approach To Socio-Environmental Synthesis,
2014
University of Maryland
Agent-Based Virtual Laboratories For A Novel Experimental Approach To Socio-Environmental Synthesis, Nicholas R. Magliocca, Mary Shelley, Mike Smorul
International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software
The number of agent-based modeling (ABM) applications within the socio-environmental context has exploded over the last decade. Most of these ABMs have been designed to deepen our understanding of the decision-making processes and human-environment interactions that lead to emergent community- and/or landscape-level outcomes in specific locations and contexts. While these 'case-based' ABMs have generally been successful in this aim - to which their popularity attests - little progress has been made through this case-based approach towards the ultimate goal of building coherent theory about the structure, dynamics, and sustainability of socio-environmental systems. Moving away from case-based ABMs, this paper will …
The Qmra Wiki: A Social Media Tool For Interdisciplinary And Interagency Collaboration For Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment,
2014
Michigan State University
The Qmra Wiki: A Social Media Tool For Interdisciplinary And Interagency Collaboration For Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment, Jade Mitchell, Mark H. Weir, Wietske Van Osch, Joan Rose
International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software
This study presents a web-based social media system that supports quantitative microbial risk assessment (QMRA) and collaboration among interdisciplinary scientists and interagency stakeholders, namely the QMRA wiki. The QMRA wiki is intended to aid the development of risk assessments by providing a collection of raw data, models and calculators as well as a platform for exchange and cross-fertilization between the QMRA community and its stakeholders. The wiki is organized around the exploration of the QMRA paradigm including the following five components: hazard identification, dose-response assessment, exposure assessment, risk characterization and risk management. Additionally, the wiki houses a number of case …
Using Integrated Environmental Modeling To Automate A Process-Based Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment,
2014
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Using Integrated Environmental Modeling To Automate A Process-Based Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment, Gene Whelan, Keewook Kim, Rajbir Parmar, Kurt Wolfe, Mike Galvin, Paul Duda, Mark Gray, Marirosa Molina, Richard Zepp, Yakov Pachepsky, John Ravenscroft, Lourdes Prieto, Brenda Kitchens
International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software
Integrated Environmental Modeling (IEM) organizes multidisciplinary knowledge that explains and predicts environmental-system response to stressors. A Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment (QMRA) is an approach integrating a range of disparate data (fate/transport, exposure, and human health effects relationships) to characterize potential health impacts/risks from exposure to pathogenic microorganisms. We demonstrate loosely connected IEM legacy technologies (SDMProjectBuilder, Microbial Source Module, HSPF, and BASINS) to support watershed-scale microbial source-to-receptor modeling, focusing on animal-impacted catchments. The coupled models automate manual steps in standard watershed assessments to expedite the process, minimize resources, increase ease of use, and introduce more science-based processes to the analysis. SDMProjectBuilder …
Toward Integrated Environmental Modeling Using Research Data Infastructures,
2014
Utah State University
Toward Integrated Environmental Modeling Using Research Data Infastructures, Jeffery S. Horsburgh
International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software
Anticipated changes to climate, human population, land use, and urban form will alter the hydrology and availability of water within the water systems on which the world's population relies. Managing water resources, as well as maintaining associated capacity to provide ecosystem services (e.g., regulating flooding, maintaining instream flow during dry periods, cycling nutrients, and maintaining water quality) will require better information characterizing both the natural hydrologic system and human mediated hydrologic systems. The next generation of integrated environmental models will seek to provide this information but requires better access to data at the spatial and temporal scales relevant to decision …
The Csdms Standard Names: Cross-Domain Naming Conventions For Describing Process Models, Data Sets And Their Associated Variables,
2014
University of Colorado, INSTAAR
The Csdms Standard Names: Cross-Domain Naming Conventions For Describing Process Models, Data Sets And Their Associated Variables, Scott D. Peckham
International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software
The CSDMS (Community Surface Dynamics Modeling System) modeling framework provides mechanisms that allow models and data sets from different contributors to be automatically coupled in a plug-and-play manner to create composite models. In developing this capability, a key challenge has been that of automatic semantic mediation, or name matching, because each model or data set (here called a resource) uses its own set of terms for input and output variable names. These names are often domain-specific or abbreviated. In order for the CSDMS framework to determine whether one model’s output variable is appropriate to be used as another model’s input …
Sensitivity And Uncertainty Analysis Of A Plant-Wide Model For Carbon And Energy Footprint Of Wastewater Treatment Plants,
2014
Universita di Palermo
Sensitivity And Uncertainty Analysis Of A Plant-Wide Model For Carbon And Energy Footprint Of Wastewater Treatment Plants, Giorgio Mannina, Alida Cosenza, Riccardo Gori, Reza Sobhani, Manel Garrido, Diego Rosso
International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software
This paper presents the sensitivity and uncertainty analysis of a mathematical model for Greenhouse gas (GHG) and energy consumption assessment from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). The model is able to simultaneously describe the main biological and physical-chemical processes in WWTP. Specifically, the mathematical model includes the main processes of the water and sludge lines influencing the methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Further, the process energy demand and the energy recovery are also taken into account. The main objective of this paper is to analyze the key factors and sources …
App2adapt: Using Tablet Technology To Elicit Conditional Probabilities For Bayesian Belief Network Modelling,
2014
Griffith University
App2adapt: Using Tablet Technology To Elicit Conditional Probabilities For Bayesian Belief Network Modelling, Russell Richards, Oz Sahin, Marcello Sano, Jan-Olaf Meynecke, Rachel Tiller
International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software
The aim of this study is to use touch-screen computer tablet technology (e.g. iPAD) and its interactive flight console capabilities (e.g. touch screen 'sliders') as an improved method to stakeholder driven climate change adaptation research. Climate change vulnerability and adaptation have strong human dimensions meaning that the experiences of stakeholders often plays an important role when assessing adaptation options and/or the determinants of adaptive capacity. Methods such as Bayesian belief networks {BBNs) can draw upon the extensive knowledge and beliefs of stakeholders in a straightforward manner yet are underpinned by a robust mathematical framework (i.e. Bayes theory). This is critically …
Metadata For Describing Water Models,
2014
University of Virginia
Metadata For Describing Water Models, Mohamed M. Morsy, Jonathan L. Goodall, Christina Bandaragoda, Anthony M. Castronova, Jane Greenberg
International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software
Computer models are widely used in hydrology and water resources management. A large variety of models exist, each tailored to address specific challenges related to hydrologic science and water resources management. When scientists and engineers apply one of these models to address a specific question, they must devote significant effort to set up, calibrate, and evaluate that model instance built for some place and time. In many cases, there is a benefit to sharing these computer models and associated datasets with the broader scientific community. Core to model reuse in any context is metadata describing the model. A standardized metadata …
Engaging Australian Surf Lifesaving In Coastal Hazard And Climate Change Adaptation With Stakeholder Driven Modelling,
2014
Griffith University
Engaging Australian Surf Lifesaving In Coastal Hazard And Climate Change Adaptation With Stakeholder Driven Modelling, Marcello Sono, Russell G. Richards, Oz Sahin, Shauna Sherker, Rodger Tomlinson
International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software
Australia's beaches, an iconic playground and social hub for coastal communities, are threatened by coastal hazards and by the impacts of climate change. In particular, Surf Life Saving Australia (SLSA) has assets, facilities and personnel exposed to coastal hazards and climate change, including numerous surf life saving clubs (SLSCs), which can impact its capacity of providing beach and water safety for Australian beaches. This research employed a range of methods to identify climate change adaptation options and to identify mechanisms to enhance adaptive capacity, combining a range of system-oriented, stakeholder-based techniques, including system thinking conceptual modelling, structural analysis, system dynamics …
