Environmental Engineering Commons^™

Stage And Discharge Prediction From Documentary Time-Lapse Imagery, Kenneth W. Chapman, Troy E. Gilmore, Mehrube Mehrubeoglu, Christian D. Chapman, Aaron R. Mittelstet, John E. Stranzl Jr.

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Imagery from fixed, ground-based cameras is rich in qualitative and quantitative information that can improve stream discharge monitoring. For instance, time-lapse imagery may be valuable for filling data gaps when sensors fail and/or during lapses in funding for monitoring programs. In this study, we used a large image archive (> 40,000 images from 2012 to 2019) from a fixed, ground-based camera that is part of a documentary watershed imaging project (https://plattebasintimelapse.com/). Scalar image features were extracted from daylight images taken at one-hour intervals. The image features were fused with United States Geological Survey stage and discharge data as …

Life Cycle Greenhouse Gas Emissions In Maize No-Till Agroecosystems In Southern Brazil Based On A Long-Term Experiment, Guilherme Rosa Da Silva, Adam J. Liska, Cimelio Bayer

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Brazilian agriculture is constantly questioned concerning its environmental impacts, particularly greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This research study used data from a 34-year field experiment to estimate the life cycle GHG emissions intensity of maize production for grain in farming systems under no-tillage (NT) and conventional tillage (CT) combined with Gramineae (oat) and legume (vetch) cover crops in southern Brazil. We applied the Feedstock Carbon Intensity Calculator for modeling the “field-to-farm gate” emissions with measured annual soil N₂O and CH₄ emissions data. For net CO₂ emissions, increases in soil organic C (SOC) were applied as a proxy, …

Student Use Of Anchors And Metacognitive Strategies In Reflection, Anu Singh, Heidi A. Diefes-Dux

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Context: Self-regulation, a skillset involving taking charge of one’s own learning processes, is crucial for workplace success. Learners develop self-regulation skills through reflection where they recognize weaknesses and strengths by employing metacognitive strategies: planning, monitoring, and evaluating. Use of anchors assists learners’ engagement in reflection. Purpose or Goal: The purpose of this work was to gain insight into students’ use of anchors when reflecting on their learning. The two research questions: (1) To what extent do students link their self-evaluation and learning objective (LO) self-ratings to their reflections? and (2) What dimensions and level of metacognitive strategies do students use …

Classification Of Sow Postures Using Convolutional Neural Network And Depth Images, Md Towfiqur Rahman, Tami M. Brown-Brandl, Gary A. Rohrer, Sudhendu R. Sharma, Yeyin Shi

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

The United States swine industry reports an average preweaning mortality of approximately 16% where approximately 6% of them are attributed to piglets overlayed by sows. Detecting postural transitions and estimating sows’ time budgets for different postures are valuable information for breeders and engineering design of farrowing facilities to eventually reduce piglet death. Computer vision tools can help monitor changes in animal posture accurately and efficiently. To create a more robust system and eliminate varying lighting issues within a day including daytime/ nighttime differences, there is an advantage to using depth cameras over digital cameras. In this study, a computer vision …

Machine Learning-Based Disease Classification In Tomato (Solanum Lycopersicum) Plants = Klasifikasi Penyakit Berbasis Pembelajaran Mesin Pada Tanaman Tomat (Solanum Lycopersicum), Md Towfiqur Rahman, Sudipto Dhar Dipto, Israt Jahan June, Abdul Momin, Muhammad Rashed Al Mamun

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

English abstract

In Bangladesh, tomato cultivation faces significant challenges due to its susceptibility to various microorganisms, parasites, and bacterial infections. Typically, the early symptoms of these diseases first appear in roots and leaves, complicating timely detection. This study addresses the challenge of timely and accurate detection of diseases in tomato plants, crucial for effective plant protection management. Conventional manual inspection methods are time-consuming and subjective, resulting in delays in implementing necessary protection measures. Therefore, an image processing technique and machine learning algorithms were used for rapid and robust detection of diseases in tomato plant leaves, aiming to streamline the detection …

A Validation Of Wepp Water Quality Routines In Uniform And Nonuniform Agricultural Hillslopes, Ryan P. Mcgehee, Dennis C. Flanagan, Bernard A. Engel, John E. Gilley

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Nutrients in agricultural runoff may cause offsite environmental impacts. The objective of this investigation was to examine nutrient transport by overland sheet flow on sites containing swine slurry. Data examined in this study was collected during field rainfall simulation tests conducted on cropland sites in southeast Nebraska, USA. Inflow was added to the top of experimental plots in four successive increments to simulate runoff rates occurring at greater downslope distances. Runoff rates on the experimental sites ranged from 2.3 to 21.2 L min 1 and maximum equivalent downslope distances varied from 5 to 108 m. Phosphorus (P) and nitrogen (N) …

Effects Of Crate Size On Mortality And Postural Behavior In Post-Farrowing Sows, Md Towfiqur Rahman, Tami M. Brown-Brandl, Gary A. Rohrer, Sudhendu R. Sharma, Yeyin Shi

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Preweaning mortality (PWM) is a economic and animal well-being issue for swine producers in the US. On average, producers face about a 16% pre-weaning mortality. A significant portion of this, around 6%, is because sows accidentally overlay their piglets in farrowing crates. The posture behavior of sow plays a vital role in overlaying piglets and this behavior has a significant effect on farrowing crate dimensions. This study aims to explore the interplay between farrowing crate size, mortality rates, and postural behavior in post-farrowing sows. This study employed three farrowing stalls: Traditional (T), Expanded creep area (C), and Expanded sow area …

A Chemistry-Transport Model Study For Source Contributions Of Pm2.5 And Its Implications For Southeast Asia Regional Haze Management Policy, Abdul Wahab

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

PM2.5 pollution is a persistent issue in Southeast Asia. In response, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) launched the Second Hazefree Roadmap (2023-2030) to alleviate this issue. This roadmap can be an important institutional measure to reduce PM2.5 pollution regionally; however, it largely centres on biomass burning and does not comprehensively tackle other sources. This study aims to quantify the contributions of three key sectors—biomass burning, transport, and industry—to PM2.5 pollution. In addition, for the focus of Thailand, the study assesses transboundary PM2.5 pollution coming into Thailand. We employ the GEOS-Chem chemistry transport model, a widely used global model …

Closing Dichloramine Decomposition Nitrogen And Oxygen Mass Balances: Relative Importance Of End-Products From The Reactive Nitrogen Species Pathway, Huong T. Pham, David G. Wahman, Julian L. Fairey

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

In drinking water chloramination, monochloramine autodecomposition occurs in the presence of excess free ammonia through dichloramine, the decay of which was implicated in N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) formation by (i) dichloramine hydrolysis to nitroxyl which reacts with itself to nitrous oxide (N₂O), (ii) nitroxyl reaction with dissolved oxygen (DO) to peroxynitrite or mono/dichloramine to nitrogen gas (N₂), and (iii) peroxynitrite reaction with total dimethylamine (TOTDMA) to NDMA or decomposition to nitrite/nitrate. Here, the yields of nitrogen and oxygen-containing end-products were quantified at pH 9 from NHCl₂ decomposition at 200, 400, or 800 μeq Cl₂·L …

Implementation Of Acid/Gas Digestion Approach To Maximize Volatile Fatty Acids Production From Municipal Sludge And A Techno-Economic Feasibility Study, Aykut Sayin

Dissertations and Theses

Acid digestion, which is the first step of two-phase acid/gas anaerobic digestion process, was studied to identify the optimum operating conditions that would maximize the production of volatile fatty acids (VFAs). Batch and semi-continuous acid digesters were operated using combined primary sludge and waste-activated sludge as the feedstock from New York City (NYC)’s Wards Island water resource recovery facility (WRRF). Operating conditions tested in batch acid digesters for maximizing VFAs production included temperature (35-70°C), inoculum-to-substrate ratio (0.0-0.5 mgVS/mgVS), thickening (3-13%TS), and contact time (0-10 days), while simultaneously inhibition mechanisms on VFAs production were investigated. Once the optimum operating conditions for …

Ground Tire Rubber As A Sustainable Additive: Transforming Desert Sand Behavior, Nabil Ismael, Dalya Ismael, Asmaa Al-Ahmad

Engineering Technology Faculty Publications

Managing waste tires presents a significant challenge globally, particularly in regions experiencing high temperatures and shortage of landfill sites. This issue is affecting countries like Kuwait, where the abundance of waste tires is a major source of environmental and safety risks, particularly during the intensely hot summer months. This extreme heat has sparked numerous fires, leading to substantial air pollution due to thick black smoke. Given the limited disposal options, recycling waste tires and finding practical applications for ground tire rubber (GTR) is essential. To address the challenge, a comprehensive laboratory testing program was conducted, using locally produced rubber aggregates …

Evaluation Of The Physicochemical Properties And Soil Biogeochemistry Of Fire Residues, Lingqun Zeng

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Wildland fire is a main driving force in the Earth system and affects ecosystem properties and processes across spatio-temporal scales. The burning of biomass and production of solid fire residues (conventionally termed fire ash) that are a mixture of completely and incompletely burned materials (inorganic ash and pyrogenic carbon), represent the direct and prominent changes by fires. Cycling of the fire residues is an integral component of elemental cycles and can mediate other biogeochemical processes.

This dissertation aims to fill important knowledge gaps in understanding the disturbance of wildland fires to biogeochemical processes in soils. First, this work characterized and …

Characterizing Climatic Socio-Environmental Tipping Points In Coastal Communities: A Conceptual Framework For Research And Practice, Julie Elizabeth Shortridge, Anamaria Bukvic, Molly Mitchell, Jesse Goldstein, Tom Allen

Political Science & Geography Faculty Publications

The concept of climate tipping points in socio-environmental systems is increasingly being used to describe nonlinear climate change impacts and encourage social transformations in response to climate change. However, the processes that lead to these tipping points and their impacts are highly complex and deeply uncertain. This is due to numerous interacting environmental and societal system components, constant system evolution, and uncertainty in the relationships between events and their consequences. In the face of this complexity and uncertainty, this research presents a conceptual framework that describes systemic processes that could lead to tipping points socio-environmental systems, with a focus on …

Novel Membrane Materials For Nutrient Recovery From Nutrient-Rich Resources, Km Prottoy Shariar Piash

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Global demand for fertilizer production is expanding substantially to meet the food demand of an increasing world population. Anaerobic digestate (AD) of various centralized wastewater facilities contains substantial amounts of ammonium (NH₄⁺) (300-800 mg/L), potassium (K⁺) (13-120 mg/L), and phosphorus (P) (30-100 mg/L)- based nutrients. In addition to reducing energy costs and CO₂ emissions compared to conventional fertilizing raw material manufacturing, recovering nutrients from these waste streams could help mitigate problems such as eutrophication, which otherwise incurs billions of dollars losses to US economy annually. Apart from nutrients, wastewater streams also contain organic pollutants …

Removal Of Phosphorous, Copper And Zinc From Stormwater Using Powdered Activated Carbon (Pac) Based Water Treatment Residuals, Foysol Mahmud

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The main aim of this research was to evaluate the efficacy of Powdered Activated Carbon (PAC) based water treatment residual (WTR) in eliminating phosphorus (P), Copper (Cu), and Zinc (Zn) from stormwater. The characteristics of the PAC WTR were analyzed, and a series of batch and column tests were conducted to determine its capacity to remove P, Cu, and Zn from stormwater and synthetic solutions. The PAC WTR conformed to the Langmuir isotherm model, demonstrating P adsorption capacities of 3.51 mg/g at pH 5. Regarding Cu and Zn removal, the PAC WTR also adhered to the Langmuir isotherm model, showing …

Two-Dimensional Hydrodynamic Model Comparison For Fish Habitat Assessment In Rivers, Tyler Caseltine

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Accurate prediction of aquatic habitat availability for salmonids and other aquatic species is crucial for effective river and tributary restoration and management. Two-dimensional (2D) hydrodynamic models have become the standard for simulating depth and velocity conditions in open channel systems, leveraging advances in computational capabilities and spatial data collection. This study compares four 2D hydrodynamic models—SToRM, River2D, HECRAS2D, and SRH2D—using consistent topographic and calibration data, and adhering to Quality Assurance and Quality Control (QA/QC) standards as outlined by the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and McBain Associates. The models were evaluated with data from two study sites for their …

Understanding The Role Of Recalcitrant Organic Phosphorus Mineralization On Harmful Algal Blooms At The Sediment-Water Interface Of Freshwater System, Tasnuva Farnaz

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Over the past few decades, an enormous number of resources have been allocated to reduce the amount of phosphorus (P) entering the environment from both point and non-point sources. Nevertheless, the decrease in external P loading has not always resulted in a simultaneous decrease in the occurrence of harmful algal blooms (HABs) in waters contaminated with phosphorus. A two-part study is currently being conducted to investigate and measure the role of legacy recalcitrant P forms in the overall pool of soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP). However, the objective of this particular study is to evaluate the potential of Organic Phosphorus (PO) …

De-Risking Pretreatment Of Microalgae To Produce Fuels And Chemical Co-Products, Jacob S. Kruger, Skylar Schutter, Eric P. Knoshaug, Bonnie Panczak, Hannah Alt, Alicia Sowell, Stafanie Van Wychen, Matthew Fowler, Kyoko Hirayama, Anuj Thakkar, Sandeep Kumar

Civil & Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Conversion of microalgae to renewable fuels and chemical co-products by pretreating and fractionation holds promise as an algal biorefinery concept, but a better understanding of the pretreatment performance as a function of algae strain and composition is necessary to de-risk algae conversion operations. Similarly, there are few examples of algae pretreatment at scales larger than the bench scale. This work aims to de-risk algal biorefinery operations by evaluating the pretreatment performance across nine different microalgae samples and five different pretreatment methods at small (5 mL) scale and further de-risk the operation by scaling pretreatment for one species to the 80 …

Removal Of Pfoa/Pfos In Water Using Electrocoagulation And Associated Life Cycle Impacts And Financial Costs, Tianhong Mu

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Electrocoagulation (EC) with a zinc anode demonstrated promising results to remove perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) from an aqueous solution. However, the energy requirement for EC is usually very high due to water electrolysis or aeration. The second chapter of this dissertation aims to reduce energy consumption using an air-cathode in EC (ACEC) to supply oxygen electron acceptor without aeration for attenuating PFOA/PFOS in this new configuration. For the high PFOA concentration (0.25 mM), ACEC with 45 min of the reaction time exhibited an excellent PFOA removal (99.8 ± 0.3% removal) comparable to an EC with aeration (EC-aeration, …

Characterization Of Size Distribution And Source Contribution To Airborne Particles In Buddhist Religious Places In Bangkok, Sopannha Chy

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

Ultrafine particles, defined as particles with diameter below 100 nm, present high health risks but presently remain unknown in air quality management in Thailand. To better understand ultrafine particles, the appropriate quantification must be by aerosol numbers in a size-resolved manner in addition to the mass-based information currently used. This study investigated the particle number concentration and size distribution as well as estimating the source emission rate from incense burning in 3 temples and 1 shrine located in Bangkok, Thailand on peak days and normal day from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The Scanning Mobility Particle Sizer (SMPS) and the …