Digital Commons Network^™

Why Should Different City Characteristics Customize The Rate Of Pollution Charge? Evidence Of Factors Affecting Willingness-To-Pay For Wastewater Management In Thailand, Kwanmanas Meethavorn, Chanathip Pharino

Applied Environmental Research

A challenge for wastewater management is enhancing the efficiency of resource allocation. Polluter Pays Principle is a wastewater charge collection approach that could help support the financial burden faced by many countries. Tailor-made policy implementation based on city characteristics is critical to the success of implementing a national policy to fit well in different local contexts. This study examined gaps for improving municipal wastewater management systems in Thailand through in-depth interviews and a questionnaire survey to identify the factors influencing households’ perception and willingness to pay in three different cities. A contingent variation method technique was used to evaluate the …

Fire Drivers Affecting Forest Fire Occurrences In The Tropical Mixed Broad-Leaved Forests Of Nepal, Krishna Bahadur Bhujel, Rejina Maskey Byanju, Ambika P. Gautam, Ramesh Prasad Sapkota, Udhab Raj Khadka

Applied Environmental Research

Forest fires triggered by various natural and anthropogenic drivers are increasing and threatening forest ecosystems across the globe. In Nepal, the high value Tropical Mixed Broad-leaved Forests are prone to fire caused by both natural and anthropogenic drivers. Thus, understanding fire drivers and their effect is important for the sustainable forest fire management. However, the preceding studies on forest specific fire drivers and their effect are limited. This research has identified the fire drivers and assessed their effect to fire occurrences in the Tropical Mixed Broad-leaved Forests of Nawalparasi District, Nepal. Fire drivers were identified and prioritized by participatory approaches. …

Life Cycle Assessment Of Ethiopian Cement Manufacturing: A Potential Improvement On The Use Of Fossil Fuel In Mugher Cement Factory, Lemma Beressa, Battula Vijaya Saradhi

Applied Environmental Research

The use of imported fuel in the Ethiopian cement industry increased the cost of production and the environmental burden, necessitating intervention. The greenhouse gas (GHG) emission, energy usage intensity, and resource exploitation of Ethiopian cement production were evaluated using the life cycle impact assessment (LCA) tool, aiming to recommend improvements. The LCA study used cumulative energy demand (CED) and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 2006 life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) methods. For the case study of Mugher cement factory (MCF), the results on energy use intensities showed 3.74, 3.67, and 2.64 GJ/ton of clinker, Ordinary Portland cement (OPC), Pozzolana …

Effects Of Calcination Temperature Of Naturally Occurring Absorbents On Drinking Water Defluoridation, Brenda Mndolwa

Tanzania Journal of Engineering and Technology (TJET)

Currently, in Tanzania, fluoride removal from drinking water is treated mostly using the bone char method. The method has poor acceptability in some religious communities and also causes water quality deterioration in taste and odour if the bones are not properly prepared. The use of local natural adsorbents as an alternative is feasible with limitations of high levels of other impurities in treated water. Locally available gypsum, magnesite and bauxite were converted to adsorbents through calcination. The study was conducted to determine the removal efficiency, best calcination temperature and composite ratio of the three adsorbents for the removal of fluoride …

Framework For Water Management In The Food-Energy-Water (Few) Nexus In Mixed Land-Use Watersheds In Colombia, Camilo Torres, Margaret Gitau, Jaime Lara-Borrero, Diego Paredes-Cuervo

Purdue University Libraries Open Access Publishing Fund

The food-energy-water (FEW) nexus approach has emerged as an alternative for managing these resources more efficiently. Work from studies conducted in the FEW nexus in Latin America is scarce in the scholarly literature. This study aims to develop a framework for water management at the FEW Nexus, with a focus on Colombia. The study focuses on a typical mixed land-use watershed in the Andean region with specific objectives being to: (1) characterize the watershed with respect to land use, climate, water resources, and other factors pertinent to the nexus; (2) explore the relationship between factors in the FEW nexus that …

Brazil, Big Hydro, And A Beautiful Monster: “Green” Energy Generation In The Xingu River Basin, Ian F. Hirons

Student Works

Brazil is quickly becoming an influential actor on the world stage of geopolitics. The nation has achieved global economic and environmental recognition due to the extensive development of its hydrological resources in the form of hydroelectric power plants. As the world’s second greatest generator of hydroelectricity, Brazil has proven a staunch adherence to building dams in the large-scale. Though these dams have brought electricity to millions of people across the country, the socio-ecological toll inflicted by their construction has been devastating to natural biomes and local inhabitants. This article traces Brazil’s proclivity for large-scale hydropower to four motivational categories often …

Quality Control In Concrete Pavement: Early Detection Of Near-Surface Honeycombing With Gpr, Theresa Mccabe

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This thesis presents utilization of Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) for the assessment of highway pavements to gain a better understanding of this NDE method’s capabilities in terms of early detection of consolidation-caused air voids in brittle materials. The objectives are to first, determine the earliest time during the dormant, setting, and early hardening periods of concrete’s set that GPR can be used to detect shallow air voids. Secondly, the change in dielectric constant will be tracked over the first 24 hours of concrete setting in order to quantify the impact of the dielectric constant assumptions in early detection. Two different …

Understanding Of Aerosol Transmission Of Covid 19 In Indoor Environments, Adama Barro, Cathal O'Toole, Jacob S. Lopez, Matthew Quinones, Sherene Moore

Publications and Research

Our reason for discussing severe acute respiratory syndrome corona virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) or 2019 novel corona virus (Covid-19), is to understand its aerosol transmission characteristics in indoor spaces and to mitigate further spread of this disease by designing a new HVAC system. The problem that we are tackling is the spread of covid-19 droplets through aerosol transmission by looking at potential engineering solutions to the existing HVAC systems. The purpose is to eradicate the spread of the COVID-19 by testing indoor spaces in an effort to understand the effectiveness of ventilation controls. We believe that scientists and engineers have not …

Puerto Rico’S Electric Power System: An Analysis Of Contemporary Failures And The Opportunity To Rebuild A More Resilient Grid, Including The Development Of A Utility-Scale Solar Farm On The Island Municipality Of Culebra, Federico Sotomayor

Sustainability and Social Justice

Puerto Rico’s grid was decimated in 2017 after experiencing back-to-back hurricanes – Maria and Irma. Although the hurricanes caused tremendous damage and hardship to the island, it also created the right circumstances for the local energy landscape to transition toward a more resilient and sustainable model. Through an analysis of recent challenges by the local electric utility PREPA, and subsequent fallout from the hurricanes, we see that they now hold a unique opportunity to redeem themselves by taking advantage of catalyzed resources to rebuild a better system. One region that could greatly benefit from an improved and reimagined grid are …

Gurethyesit Dhe Ndikimi I Tyre Ne Mjedis, Valmir Hazrolli

Theses and Dissertations

Edhe pse guroret dhe industritë e gurit përfaqësojnë një sektor të rëndësishëm industrial në Kosovë për sa i përket prodhimit dhe eksportet dhe duke përmirësuar kështu situatën ekonomike, këto operacione kanë ndikim të kundërt në mjedis dhe në njerëz shëndetin. Studimi i tanishëm zbuloi se grimcat e imëta (pluhuri) të prodhuara si rezultat i aktiviteteve të ndryshme që lidhen me të këto industri i shkaktojnë disa probleme mjedisit dhe njerëzve që jetojnë në zonë. Matjet e cilësisë së ajrit treguan se përqendrime të larta të grimcave të ndryshme janë në zonën e studimit. Në këtë drejtim, shumica e njerëzve konfirmuan …

Carbon Sequestration By Reforesting Legacy Grasslands On Coal Mining Sites, James F. Fox, J. Elliott Campbell, Peter M. Acton

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications

Future carbon management during energy production will rely on carbon capture and sequestration technology and carbon sequestration methods for offsetting non-capturable losses. The present study quantifies carbon sequestration via reforestation using measurements and modeling for recent and legacy surface coal mining grasslands that are re-restored through tree planting. This paper focuses on a case study of legacy coal mining sites in the southern Appalachia the United States. This five million-hectare region has a surface mining footprint of approximately 12% of the land area, and the reclamation method was primarily grassland. The results of the soil carbon sequestration rates for restored …

An Analysis Of Wildlife Strikes To Aircraft In Brazil: 2011-2018, Flavio A. C. Mendonca, Julius Keller, Chenyu Huang Ph.D.

Publications

Purpose: Aircraft accidents due to wildlife hazards have become a growing safety and economic problem to the Brazilian and international aviation industries. These safety occurrences have resulted in significant direct and indirect economic losses as well injuries and fatalities worldwide. The purpose of this study was to develop empirical information obtained from the analysis of wildlife strike and aircraft operations data in Brazil that could be used for accident prevention efforts.

Design/methodology: The research team collected and analyzed aircraft operations as well as wildlife strike data from the 32 busiest commercial airports in Brazil, from 2011 through 2018. …

Environmental Hygiene For Covid-19: It's All About The Mask, Daniel B. Oerther, Mona Shattell

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

No abstract provided.

Electro-Optic Satellite Constellation Design Using Multi-Objective Genetic Algorithm, Yasin Tamer

Theses and Dissertations

Satellite constellation design is a complex, highly constrained, and multidisciplinary problem. Unless optimization tools are used, tradeoffs must be conducted at the subsystem level resulting in feasible, but not necessarily optimal, system designs. As satellite technology advances, new methods to optimize the system objectives are developed. This study is based on the development of a representative regional remote sensing constellation design. This thesis analyses the design process of an electrooptic satellite constellation with regional coverage considerations using system-level optimization tools. A multi objective genetic algorithm method is used to optimize the constellation design by utilizing MATLAB and STK integration. Cost, …

Atmospheric Measurements With Unmanned Aerial Systems (Uas), Marcelo I. Guzman

Chemistry Faculty Publications

This Special Issue provides the first literature collection focused on the development and implementation of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) and their integration with sensors for atmospheric measurements on Earth. The research covered in the Special Issue combines chemical, physical, and meteorological measurements performed in field campaigns as well as conceptual and laboratory work. Useful examples for the development of platforms and autonomous systems for environmental studies are provided, which demonstrate how careful the operation of sensors aboard UAS must be to gather information for remote sensing in the atmosphere. The work serves as a key collection of articles to introduce …

Life Cycle Assessment To Demonstrate How Automation Improves The Sustainability Performance Of An Underground Mining Operation, Kyle Moreau, Corey Laamanen, Ron Bose, Helen Shang, John A. Scott

Journal of Sustainable Mining

The worldwide move to introduce more automation into underground metal ore mining is currently aimed at improving both operational productivity and safety. We have used a comparative life cycle assessment (LCA) as a novel approach for the industry to determine the beneficial impacts automation can also have on environmental performance using data collected on mine site productivity and energy consumption. The LCA looked at four impact categories: global warming potential, acidification, eutrophication, and human toxicity. When comparing key automated equipment to their traditional manual counterpart, all four impact categories experienced a reduction with automation and a subsequent improvement in sustainability …

Wildfires Force Thousands To Evacuate Near Los Angeles: Here’S How The 2020 Western Fire Season Got So Extreme, Mojtaba Sadegh, Ata Akbari Asanjan, Mohammad Reza Alizadeh

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Two wildfires erupted on the outskirts of cities near Los Angeles, forcing more than 100,000 people to evacuate their homes Monday as powerful Santa Ana winds swept the flames through dry grasses and brush. With strong winds and extremely low humidity, large parts of California were under red flag warnings.

High fire risk days have been common this year as the 2020 wildfire season shatters records across the West.

More than 4 million acres have burned in California – 4% of the state’s land area and more than double the previous annual record. Five of the state’s six largest historical …

Peak Grain Forecasts For The Us High Plains Amid Withering Waters, Assaad Mrad, Gabriel G. Katul, Delphis F. Levia, Andrew J. Guswa, Elizabeth W. Boyer, Michael Bruen, Darryl E. Carlyle-Moses, Rachel Coyte, Irena F. Creed, Nick Van De Giesen, Domenico Grasso, David M. Hannah, Janice E. Hudson, Vincent Humphrey, Shin'ichi Iida, Robert B. Jackson, Tomo'omi Kumagai, Pilar Llorens, Beate Michalzik, Kazuki Nanko, Catherine A. Peters, John S. Selker, Doerthe Tetzlaff, Maciej Zalewski, Bridget R. Scanlon

Engineering: Faculty Publications

Irrigated agriculture contributes 40% of total global food production. In the US High Plains, which produces more than 50 million tons per year of grain, as much as 90% of irrigation originates from groundwater resources, including the Ogallala aquifer. In parts of the High Plains, groundwater resources are being depleted so rapidly that they are considered nonrenewable, compromising food security. When groundwater becomes scarce, groundwater withdrawals peak, causing a subsequent peak in crop production. Previous descriptions of finite natural resource depletion have utilized the Hubbert curve. By coupling the dynamics of groundwater pumping, recharge, and crop production, Hubbert-like curves emerge, …

The Use Of Green Pond Conglomerate As Building Stone In Morris County, New Jersey, Gregory A. Pope

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Green Pond Conglomerate (GPC) is a maroon colored quartzite with white quartz pebbles, a classic “puddingstone”. GPC derives from a NW-SW-trending sliver of Paleozoic sediments, the “Green Pond Outlier”, surrounded by older metamorphic and igneous rocks of Morris and Passaic Counties. Buildings, retaining walls, field fences, and monuments incorporate the durable and attractive stone, in a distinct geographic area of Morris County. Several instances of structures completely constructed or faced with GPC occur in and around Morristown, limited to affluent houses and one prominent church. In these cases, GPC stones were dressed and faced, a labor-intensive effort. Elsewhere in the …

Academic Education And Professional Training Towards Architecture Bestpractice In The Arab World, Sawsan Saridar, Hisham El-Aranaouty

Architecture and Planning Journal (APJ)

Architecture both defines and is defined by social, cultural, political and financial constraints: this is where the discipline and the profession of architecture meet. This mutual sway evolves wherever interferences in the built environment are thought-out and can be strengthened or weakened by the many ways in which the practice of architecture can be undertaken. The more familiar we are about the concerns and factors that control what can be made, the greater the opportunities to propose and make appropriate architectures. Apparently, the criteria in any qualification policy should permit flexibility of approach and will – for reasons including cultural …

Bridging Gaps In Architectural Education: Developing A Professional And Career-Oriented Curriculum, Rana Al-Matarneh, Ashraf Mansour

Architecture and Planning Journal (APJ)

The concern about the future of architecture education has been growing in the last few decades. This phenomenon is powered by the sensation that the existing models of teaching and practicing architecture may not be appropriate enough to address the challenges of tomorrow. The aim of this research paper is to explore the missing links between the continuous chain of architecture education and the current state of the profession that leads the future. The research conducted a comprehensive review of literature, surveys of academics and Heads of School in Architecture, and the development of some case studies of the existing …

Attaining The Appropriate Simulation Program Towards Better Environmental Decisions, Adeeb Sidani, Osama Omar

Architecture and Planning Journal (APJ)

Global Warming is one of the greatest environmental threats of the 21st century. Many parties around the world like governments, corporations, and researchers, etc. are working hard to find solutions. Architectural education is concerned with global warming issues, and trying to achieve reliable design related solutions for a sustainable environment. Majority of the students use simulation programs to determine with accuracy some variables that can support designers to take decisions about the best strategies to apply for any type of building. These simulation programs are usually selected based on their straightforward and user-friendly interface. The most common programs among architecture …

Mixed Reality Framework For Architectural Design Education, Eslam Elsamahy

Architecture and Planning Journal (APJ)

This study introduces a framework to build a new concept of architectural education based on the idea of Mixed Reality (MR) as a technique of merging real and virtual learning environment, studying its impact on the education curricular contents and the course outline especially in design studio courses to provide new possibilities for innovation design. the study aims to achieve strategies to design a model for architectural design education with the focus on the concept of design studio’s evolution through the analysis of its basic components, between Mind (Think of the human factor), Reality (spatial factor for the design process), …

Impact Of 3d Simulation Modeling On Architectural Design Education, Osama Omar, Rania El Messeidy, Maged Youssef

Architecture and Planning Journal (APJ)

Throughout the last few decades, architectural design education has witnessed several changes. One of these changes was using 3D Simulation modeling technology into design process. With the rise of environmental approach in design, new 3D simulation applications started to invade studios and laboratories of design. These applications proved an obvious efficiency for the architectural form concerning thermal adaptation, ideal lighting, and most appropriate ventilation. Lately, Arabic countries imported this technology into its schools of architecture, but unfortunately students faced obstacles in applying it in their design projects. Although there are certain courses, such as; 'Environmental Design', 'Indoor Environmental Control', and …

Increasing Concurrence Of Wildfire Drivers Tripled Megafire Critical Danger Days In Southern California Between 1982 And 2018, Mohammad Sadegh Khorshidi, Philip E. Dennison, Mohammad Reza Nikoo, Amir Aghakouchak, Charles H. Luce, Mojtaba Sadegh

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Wildfire danger is often ascribed to increased temperature, decreased humidity, drier fuels, or higher wind speed. However, the concurrence of drivers—defined as climate, meteorological and biophysical factors that enable fire growth—is rarely tested for commonly used fire danger indices or climate change studies. Treating causal factors as independent additive influences can lead to inaccurate inferences about shifting hazards if the factors interact as a series of switches that collectively modulate fire growth. As evidence, we show that in Southern California very large fires and 'megafires' are more strongly associated with multiple drivers exceeding moderate thresholds concurrently, rather than direct relationships …

Santa Clara Magazine, Volume 61 Number 3, Fall 2020 [Print Issue V.61:2], Santa Clara University

Santa Clara Magazine

16 - THE GIFT Is sacrifice, given willingly and with love, what makes us human? Leslie Griffy.

20 - NOT A MOMENT, BUT A MOVEMENT From protests in Benson in 1969 to a multi-decade movement called Unity, students of color have consistently pushed SCU to progress. Matt Morgan.

28 - ON BEING BETTER Discover the ways we can better support each other, particularly as white people seek to become allies to people of color. Lauren Loftus.

32 - THE SACRIFICIAL TWEET Social media missteps are costly, perhaps now more than ever. Just what are we willing to give up to …

Non-Conventional Vehicles As A Way Towards Carbon Neutrality In Iceland, Julia Sokolowska

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Paris Agreement’s chief objective is to protect the Earth and its inhabitants from a point of no return, when the effects of climate change will be so intense that they will shift the equilibrium of ecosystems. The distinctiveness of this international environmental treaty is that it does not impose climate change mitigation measures, but rather allows nation states to create their own set of measures, the NDCs, to reach the global warming of ‘well below 2oC’ by the end of the century. Thus, Iceland has submitted its own NDC, the Climate Action Plan 2018-2030, which has an ambitious goal of …

Navigating In Numerous Video Data: User Interface Design For An On-Camera Video Analytics Engine, Sabriya Maryam Alam

The Journal of Purdue Undergraduate Research

Video analytics powered by artificial intelligence shows high promise in making our society smarter. Harnessing large amounts of video data, however, requires the development of processing systems demonstrating high performance and high efficiency. To this end, this work has contributed to a video analytics system powered by artificial intelligence for object detection and recognition. Rather than streaming all the video frames to the cloud, the system analyzes images on-camera and only returns those of interest to the cloud. This edge analytics research-grade software is available, but it lacks a simple web interface for general use by scientists, engineers, and other …

Evaluation Of Sustainability Of Irish Road Transport Sector And Its Comparison With European Union Countries, Megha Jose Kandappasery, Boban Djordjevic, Bidisha Ghosh

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

Transport sustainability has been the topic of discussion since the past two decades and its importance has been recognised by most countries. Therefore, strategies and policies incorporating sustainable growth and development have been initiated as a measure to steer transport growth in the right path. This notion has led researchers to develop many ways of measuring transport sustainability, especially the frequently used road transport sector. Measurement of sustainability of the transport sector has been carried out using different methodologies in the past. Considering the complexity and multi-dimensional aspects of sustainability, multi-criteria analysis decision making tools have been considered in this …

Navigation Risk Evaluation Of The Northeast Passage Based On The Entropy Weight Topsis Model, Fengde Qu

Maritime Safety & Environment Management Dissertations (Dalian)

No abstract provided.