Other Civil and Environmental Engineering Commons^™

The Challenges Of Incorporating Urine And Dung Patches In Process-Based Modelling Of Grazed Agricultural Systems, Val O. Snow, Richard J. Eckard, C. Alan Rotz, Ian R. Johnson, Nicholas J. Hutchings

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Animals are well known to be important in lateral transfers of nitrogen within the farm boundary. Those transfers can be categorised into those that are: (a) primarily random and small- scale dung and urine patches within a grazed paddock, (b) larger and systematic transfers resulting from preferred grazing and resting areas and (c) those that are additionally mediated by management actions such as manure management from housing systems. We review how key simulation models treat the random category of nitrogen transfers and develop recommendations for usage and further development. While urine patches are clearly understood to be important in N …

Using Remote Sensing And Radar Met Data To Support Watershed Assessments Comprising Iem, Keewook Kim, Katie Price, Gene Whelan, Mike Galvin, Kurt Wolfe, Paul Duda, Mark Gray, Yakov Pachepsky

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Meteorological (MET) data required by watershed assessments that comprise Integrated Environmental Modeling (IEM) have traditionally been provided by land-based weather (gauge) stations; although these data may not be most appropriate for describing adequate spatial and temporal resolution if the MET stations are too few, too far away, or operating improperly. To complement land-based stations, remote sensing and radar satellite data are being increasingly used in obtaining synoptic data with the spatial and temporal resolution required for site-specific and/or event-based assessments. This study compares and contrasts the viability of automating the use of radar satellite data and land-based gauge stations to …

The Grassland Model Intercomparison Of The Macsur (Modelling European Agriculture With Climate Change For Food Security) European Knowledge Hub, Shaoxiu Ma, Marco Acutis, Zoltán Barcza, Haythem Ben Touhami, Luca Doro, Dóra Hidy, Martin Köchy, Julien Minet, Eszter Lellei-Kovács, Alessia Perego, Susanne Rolinski, Franҫoise Ruget, Giovanna Seddaiu, Lianhai Wu, Gianni Bellocchi

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The grassland model intercomparison of the FACCE MACSUR knowledge hub involves nine modelling approaches. Grassland-specific approaches (AnnuGrow, PaSim, SPACSYS) were compared to the approaches mainly conceived to simulate crops (ARMOSA, EPIC, STICS) and biomes (Biome- BGC MuSo, CARAIB, LPJmL). The model intercomparison exercise is run over nine grassland sites across Europe and peri-Mediterranean regions where data were collected from at least five up to 31 years, with focus on biomass production and carbon exchanges. The protocol for model intercomparison, derived from Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project, includes sensitivity tests, as well as blind and calibrated simulations. A fuzzy logic-based …

Pre-Processing Techniques Applied To Automatic Taxon Identification On Fish Otoliths, Ramon Reig-Bolaño, Pere Marti-Puig

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

This paper analyzes the characteristics of a rotation-invariant Feature space to be used in a classifier of fish otoliths, it is compared to two other Feature spaces, one with raw data and another with transformed data (using the Elliptic Fourier Descriptors EFD). Otoliths are found in the inner ear of fish. Their shape can be analyzed to determine sex, age, populations and species, and thus they can provide necessary and relevant information for ecological studies. The Automatic Taxon Identifier (ATI) is used to classify fish otoliths directly from a query image and is implemented on-line in a Public Database. This …

Modelling Climate Change Adaptation Using Cross-Impact Analysis: An Approach For Integrating Qualitative And Quantitative Data, Johan Veltmeyer, Oz Sahin

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Inherently, 'Climate Change Adaptation' is a complex issue requiring use of a range of methods and data, which involves many stakeholders. In this, often quantitative models relying on quantitative data are used to explore and predict the likely impact of a changing climate, and to evaluate adaptation alternatives. While such models do provide useful information, in addressing such complex issues they clearly need more data. In reality, quantitative data are not readily available, or too expensive to obtain. Therefore, to provide a more comprehensive insight, qualitative and quantitative data needs to be collected from a variety of stakeholders with different …

Operational Flash Flood Warning Systems With Global Applicability, Theresa M. Modrick, Rochelle Graham, Eylon Shamir, Robert Jubach, Cristopher R. Spencer, Jason A. Sperfslage, Konstantine P. Georgakakos

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The availability of global meteorological information (observations and forecasts) and widespread digital data on the land surface now affords the use of hydrometeorological modelling in an operational environment to provide numerical guidance for local forecasts and warnings of flash flooding by meteorological and disaster management agencies, Flash floods are among the deadliest natural disasters and can have significant impact on the natural environment and infrastructure, Working with national meteorological and hydrologic services, the Hydrologic Research Center has developed and implemented regional software systems to convey remotely sensed data and guidance products for rapid decisions regarding flash flood warnings, The systems …

Practical Identifiability Analysis Of Environmental Models, Stefano Marsili-Libelli, Michael B. Beck, Philip Brunner, Barry Croke, Joseph Guillaume, Anthony Jakeman, John Jakeman, Karel Keesman, Hans Stigter

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Identifiability of a system model can be considered as the extent to which one can capture its parameter values from observational data and other prior knowledge of the system. Identifiability must be considered in context so that the objectives of the modelling must also be taken into account in its interpretation. A model may be identifiable for certain objective functions but not others; its identifiability may depend not just on the model structure but also on the level and type of noise, and may even not be identifiable when there is no noise on the observational data. Context also means …

Predicting Citation Counts Of Environmental Modelling Papers, Barbara J. Robson, Aurélie Mousquès

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

We assessed all papers published in two key environmental modelling journals in 2008 to determine the degree to which the citation counts of the papers could be predicted without considering the paper's quality. We applied both random forests and general additive models to predict citation counts using a range of easily quantified or categorised characteristics of the papers as covariates. The more highly cited papers were, on average, longer, had longer reference lists, had more authors, were more likely to have been published in Environmental Modelling and Software and less likely to include differential or integral equations than papers with …

A Modeling Framework For Oceanic Basins Under Double Exposure, Christian Mullon, Gorka Merino, Jose Fernandez, William Cheung, Manuel Barange

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Oceans stand under double exposure to global warming and of economic globalization. This generates anxieties and contributes to the need for specific governance. A first expression lies in the needs for integrated representations allowing a collaborative development of scenarios. Main challenge here lies in finding, in these representations, a balance between realism and abstraction admissible by all participants.

In this talk, we present modeling framework that has been designed to build scenarios about the possible futures of an oceanic basin. The principle lies in using a network model in which nodes correspond to fish stocks, specialized fleets, farming systems, trade …

Alces Online: Web-Delivered Scenario Analysis To Inform Sustainable Land-Use Decisions, Matthew Carlson, Brad Stelfox, Noah Purves-Smith, Justin Straker, Shanti Berryman, Tim Barker, Barry Wilson

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Simulation models are yet to reach their potential to inform environmental sustainability, in part due to inaccessibility. ALCES Online (www.online.alces.ca) addresses this deficiency through web-delivery of high quality scenario analysis to individuals lacking a modeling background. The simulator is available for the province of Alberta, Canada, and efforts are underway to create versions for additional jurisdictions. The underlying scenario analysis is holistic through incorporation of a diverse set of drivers and indicators. Simulated land uses include energy, agriculture, mining, forestry, and human settlements; natural drivers such as fire are also included. Environmental and socioeconomic consequences are conveyed by tracking indicators …

Lidar And Hyperspectral Data For Landscape And Vegetation Classification And Monitoring, Ake Sivertun, Katharina Zöphel, Simon Ahlberg

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Mapping of forest areas and other landscapes as to combine information about ground structures, topography as well as other natural and man-made features can be made with help of Li- DAR (Elmqvist, M. 2001). The result can be used for planning military and civil missions and analysis of the possibility to drive though areas with bad or no roads (Sivertun & Gumos 2006) as well as for management of natural recourses and for example in physical planning. By combining LiDAR and other remotely sensed data it is possible to make use of the different advantages the different sensors provides. In …

The Value Of Seasonal Productivity Forecasting In Biodiesel Plans, Giulia Fiorese, Giorgio Guariso

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Crop productivity is commonly assumed as a deterministic function when developing agricultural plans. Actual data prove however that, even for the same soil at the same location, crop productivity can be better interpreted as a random variable due to the meteorological conditions of the specific year. For the production of biodiesel, crops are easily substitutable and the farmer can chose every year between various alternatives. Without information on the seasonal meteorology, the farmers select the crop to cultivate mainly on the basis of the expected productivity. However, changes in the meteorological situation may result in a reduction in crop profitability. …

W(H)Ither The Oracle? Cognitive Biases And Other Human Challenges Of Integrated Environmental Modeling, Pierre D. Glynn

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Integrated environmental modeling (IEM) can organize and increase our knowledge of the complex, dynamic ecosystems that house our natural resources and control the quality of our environments. Human behavior, however, must be taken into account. Human biases/heuristics reflect adaptation over our evolutionary past to frequently experienced situations that affected our survival and that provided sharply distinguished feedbacks at the level of the individual. Unfortunately, human behavior is not adapted to the more diffusely experienced, less frequently encountered, problems and issues that IEM typically seeks to address in the simulation of natural resources and environments. While seeking inspiration from the prophetic …

Modelling Water And Land Resource Management In Dry Rainfed Areas Of India: Connecting The Environment And Technology To Institutions And Stakeholders, Vasant P. Gandhi

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The dry rainfed areas pose a serious challenge in India due to the environment of scarcity, fragility and adversity of natural resources in these areas, and the high incidence of poverty. The government has undertaken huge programs called watershed development programs in such areas to promote scientific and judicious use of the resources to improve sustainability, incomes, livelihoods. National and international contributions commit about $500 million annually for such programs. However, effective institutional arrangements are lacking and are required to combine scientific approaches with community participation and ownership, especially given the small farm sizes and high populations. This research supported …

Identification Of Spatial And Temporal Patterns Of Australian Daily Rainfall Under A Changing Climate, Tingbao Xu, Barry Croke, Michael F. Hutchinson

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Rainfall is a highly variable component of the climate system. There are substantial spatial and temporal variations in the frequency and spatial distribution of rainfall events. Little attention has been paid to the slow but ongoing variations of the spatial patterns of daily rainfall, especially over broad spatial scales. A better understanding of these variations and their long term trends would reduce uncertainty in environmental and natural resource models and improve assessment of ongoing climate change. This study examined the spatial cross-correlations of daily rainfall at 2322 high quality long run rainfall stations across Australia from 1910 to 2011, and …

Complexity Regularized Hydrological Model Selection, Saket Pande, Liselot Arkesteijn, Luis A. Bastidas

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

This paper uses a recently proposed measure of hydrological model complexity in a model selection exercise. It demonstrates that a robust hydrological model is selected by penalizing model complexity while maximizing a model performance measure. This especially holds when limited data is available. here by a robust model, we mean a model that predicts a variable of interest conditioned on future input forcing better than a model that is fitted on limited data. We demonstrate this on a rainfall-runoff model structure, SAC-SMA, using MOPEX data set of Guadalupe river basin.

Intelligent Workflow Systems And Provenance-Aware Software, Yolanda Gil

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Workflows are increasingly used in science to manage complex computations and data processing at large scale. Intelligent workflow systems provide assistance in setting up parameters and data, validating workflows created by users, and automating the generation of workflows from high-level user guidance. These systems use semantic workflows that extend workflow representations with semantic constraints that express characteristics of the data and analytic models. Reasoning algorithms propagate these semantic constraints throughout the workflow structure, select executable components for underspecified steps, and suggest parameter values. Semantic workflows also enhance provenance records with abstract steps that reflect the overall data analysis method rather …

Automating Data Management And Sharing Within A Large-Scale, Heterogeneous Sensor Network, Jeffery S. Horsburgh, Amber Spackman Jones, Stephanie Reeder

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Hydrology researchers are collecting data using in situ sensors at high frequencies, for extended durations, and with spatial distributions that require infrastructure for data storage, management, and sharing. Managing streaming sensor data is challenging, especially in large networks with large numbers of sites and sensors. The availability and utility of these data in addressing scientific questions related to water availability, water quality, and natural disasters relies on effective cyberinfrastructure that facilitates transformation of raw sensor data into usable data product. It also depends on the ability of researchers to share and access the data in usable formats. In this paper …

Integrating Neon Data With Existing Models: An Example With The Community Land Model, Edmund M. Hart, Andrew Fox, Steve Berukoff, T. J. Hoar

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

A central challenge to environmental forecasting in hydrological and land surface modeling is how to integrate multiple data sources over a wide range of spatial scales. Furthermore how can this complex task be achieved in the most productive and reproducible way with a robust informatics architecture? At the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) we are collecting a variety of biophysical and biogeochemical measurements which can be used with models to perform temporal forecasting on decadal timescales. To take advantage of this data we are developing a data assimilation framework. Using this framework NEON data can be combined with the Community …

Geospatial Workflow Process For Modelling Complex Land Use Cover Change, Isaac Kwadwo Nti, Philip Sallis

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The challenge of modelling the ever changing land use cover (LUC) of the earth has resulted in the creation of diverse models to depict these variations. Most of the land use cover change (LUCC) models were developed for either specific projects or locations; therefore, they are not generic. Also, most of the current LUCC models have been applied to only one LUC class which is less complex, e.g. urban growth or at most two LUC classes.

This work investigated existing LUCC models with the aim of finding a generic geospatial workflow process approach for modelling complex LUCC so that the …