Digital Commons Network^™

One Dimensional Riverine Water Quality Modeling System (Hec-Ras/Nsm), Billy E. Johnson, Zhonglong Zhang

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The transport of nutrients from watersheds to aquatic resources (streams and rivers, lakes and reservoirs, and coastal zones) directly influences their environmental quality and ecosystem. While this is a natural process, excessive inputs from anthropogenic sources (e.g., intensive agriculture) can exceed the assimilative capacity and resilience of aquatic ecosystems. The result is accelerated rates of eutrophication and destabilized ecological communities susceptible to the establishment of invasive species or to changes in food web structure, loss of valuable habitat, threats to human health, and reduced economic and societal benefits. As part of the Ecosystem Management and Restoration Research Program (EMRRP), a …

Number Of Patterns In Lempel-Ziv Algorithm Applied To Iterative Maps And Measured Time Series, G. Mimić, I. Arsenić, D. T. Mihailović

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Some tests with information measure based on Kolmogorov complexity, using Lempel-Ziv algorithm, were performed. Information measure, which indicates randomness, was applied on the modeled and measured time series. The logistic map iterations were used as the modeled time series and the measurements of velocity data from the turbulent flow collected in a laboratory channel, were used as the measured one. The complexity counter, indicating the number of distinct patterns in the time series, was computed. An analysis has shown that the number of patterns in the measured time series is increasing with the time series length, but having a saturation …

An Experimental Comparison Of Methods To Handle Missing Values In Environmental Datasets, A. D. Maldonado, P. A. Aguilera, A. Salmeron

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

This paper reports on a comparison of different techniques to handle missing data in a real environmental dataset containing missing values. In particular, we handled a dataset related to a surface water quality index. The chosen techniques were regression imputation by linear regression, a model tree and a Bayesian network; multiple imputation by chained equations; and data augmentation by a Bayesian network. The models were tested by analyzing the predictive maps and by comparing the density function of the predicted variable with the observed one. The experimental results showed that the imputation by linear regression and the multiple imputation by …

Design Of The Data Sensor Pre-Processing Stage For A Long Term Multi-Tracking Application, Pere Martí-Puig, Ramon Reig-Bolaño, Moisès Serra-Serra

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

This paper presents a design strategy for an underwater computer vision data system and its pre-processing stage with the purpose of long-term fish behavior monitoring in a controlled environment. The biological experiment requires the continuous tracking of a group of fishes (of 10 to 20 specimens) in a prepared installation located in the Science Marine Laboratory in Mallorca. The experiment is thought to obtain empirical data to estimate biological energy models from specimen’s activity. In consequence it is required to identify and track each individual in the images, which supposes an important image processing effort. Our approach takes advantage from …

Analysing The Error Potential Of Administrative Data In Determining The Sinuosity Of Small Rivers, Pierre Karrasch, Sebastian Hunger

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

According to the European Water Framework Directive the member states are committed to prove the good ecological status of all water bodies. These requirements are verified by a regular monitoring. Especially the use of remote sensing data and methods of applied geoinformatics and statistics can be recommended for the monitoring of several hydromorphological parameters. At the same time for some single parameters basic geodata provided by local authorities are available (e.g. river centrelines). In this study the quality of these basic geodata is compared with self-extracted results using different remote sensing data sources (CIR-orthophoto, digital terrain model). The results reveal …

Effects Of Climate Data Aggregation On Regional Net Primary Production (Npp) Modelling, Matthias Kuhnert, Jagadeesh Yeluripati, Pete Smith, Holger Hoffmann, Marcel Van Oijen, Julie Constantin, Elsa Coucheney, Rene Dechow, Henrik Eckersten, Thomas Gaiser, Balász Grosz, Edwin Haas, Kurt-Christian Kersebaum, Ralf Kiese, Steffen Klatt, Elisabet Lewan, Claas Nendel, Helene Raynal, Carmen Sosa, Xenia Specka, Edmar Teixeira, Enli Wang, Lutz Weihermüller, Gang Zhao, Zhigan Zhao, Stephen Ogle, Frank Ewert

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

In ecosystem modelling studies, data are often collected at a small scale but are used in models to predict ecosystem responses e.g. net primary production (NPP) at coarser scale, using data aggregation. The data aggregation causes errors that are difficult to predict, because of model complexity and our limited knowledge of the spatial heterogeneity underlying our aggregated input values. Input aggregation thus adds to the uncertainty associated with model predictions. One way of reducing uncertainty related to input aggregation error is to evaluate models at different resolutions for areas where high-resolution input data are available. The objective of this study …

Modelling Potential Nitrogen Losses In Oil Palm Plantations With In-Palm, An Agri-Environmental Indicator, Pardon Lénaïc, Bockstaller Christian, Marichal Raphaël, Sionita Ribka, Nelson Paul, Gabrielle Benoît, Jean-Paul Laclau, Caliman Jean-Pierre, Bessou Cécile

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Oil palm cultivation area is expected to increase until at least 2050. This expansion raises environmental concerns, not only regarding land-use change and its consequences, but also concerning potential impacts of losses of nitrogen such as ammonia volatilisation, nitrous oxide emission and nitrate leaching and runoff. The prerequisite to any work on the reduction of losses and identification of best practices is the development of an assessment tool. However, the available knowledge regarding nitrogen losses is limited for oil palm, which leads to high uncertainty in environmental assessment.

In this context, we chose to develop an agri-environmental indicator, IN-Palm, which …

An Agent-Based Model For Studying The Effects Of Sustainable Intensification On Food Security In The Nation State, James Reilly, Terry Dawson, Robin Matthews, Gary Polhill, Pete Smith

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Growth in World’s population, the expansion of human activities and the demand for land has and continues to damage the natural environment. Humans depend on the natural environment for essential life-preserving processes, for example food production. Damage to the environment has serious consequences for national (State) and human security and well-being. One concern is food security and, in particular, whether a growing World population will find enough food to eat. The consequences of using more land and resources to grow more food are an important area of research. The expansion of farming will leave less land for other important uses. …

A Multipurpose Soil Inorganic Carbon Prediction Model, Ben W. Kolosz, Peter Manning, Jorat M. Ehsan, Saran P. Sohi, David A.C. Manning

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

There is a lack of models to predict soil inorganic carbon (SIC) which are not only multipurpose, but can predict SIC in a variety of soils and materials. The importance of estimating SIC stocks is due to the large contribution they make towards total carbon in some soils. This paper proposes such a model which aims to account for the variance and geographical range of soils. As an example, one such use is the accurate prediction of passive SIC sequestration rates as this is currently a complex challenge, mainly due to environmental effects such as water, temperature and atmospheric CO …

Residual Soil Nitrogen Scenario Analysis Of Canadian Farmland Using A Canadian Agricultural Nitrogen Budget (Canb V4.0) Model, Jingyi Yang, Craig Drury

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

A Canadian Agricultural Nitrogen Budget (CANB) model has been developed since 2002 to estimate Residual Soil Nitrogen (RSN) and N leaching loss across Canadian farmland. The current results showed that national RSN averages in Canadian farmland (annual N input minus annual N output) increased from 9.4 kg N ha-1 in 1981 to 23.6 kg N ha-1 in 2011 as mainly affected by the increase in synthetic fertilizer N usage and biological N2 fixation. With annual drainage, about 50 and 80% of residual soil N was lost in Central (Ontario and Quebec) and Atlantic Canada, respectively, through leaching and varying according …

The European Information Platform For Chemical Monitoring (Ipchem) - How Can You Realize Interoperability?, Gerlinde Knetsch, Maria Ruether

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Monitoring programs in Germany offer a large variety of data. On the one hand, these data are generated over many years in selected sampling areas; on the other hand, studies of monitoring take place in the context of research projects or other investigations. These data are often available in web-based information systems. Two databases will be presented with their potential for the interoperability with a (technical) platform for data of the chemical monitoring. The European project "Information Platform for Chemical Monitoring (IPCheM)" promotes networking of various existing databases and information systems with the goal of advancing the environmental data exchange …

Uncertainties In Estimating Design Droughts, Devanmini Halwatura, Alex M. Lechner, Neil Mcintyre, Sven Arnold

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Severity-duration–frequency (SDF) curves of periods of rainfall deficits are useful tools for drought analyses. However, accuracy of these curves are affected by uncertainties associated with a number of factors including: (i) the choice of drought index, (ii) the sampling error due to the limited length of observation data, (iii) the effects of aggregation of data with respect to drought timescales, (iv) the selection of marginal probability distribution functions of drought severity and duration, (v) and the type of copula used to approximate the dependency between severity and duration. In this paper we assess the impact of these uncertainties on estimates …

Development Of A Nutrient Load Apportionment Modelling Toolbox, Eva M. Mockler

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Where surface waters are impacted by excess nutrients, understanding the sources of those nutrients is key to the development of effective, targeted, mitigation measures. In Ireland, nutrient emissions remains the top suspected cause of surface waters not achieving the required Good Status, as defined by the Water Framework Directive (WFD). Hence, a toolbox has been developed to predict the sources of nutrients contributing to these emissions, and to assess future pressures and the likely effectiveness of targeted mitigation scenarios. This Source Load Apportionment Model (SLAM) supports catchment managers by providing scientifically robust evidence to back-up decision-making in relation to reducing …

Consideration Of Decision-Making Processes In Agent-Based Models Of Social-Ecological Systems, Pierre Mazzega, Christophe Sibertin-Blanc, Olivier Therond

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The potential of Agent-Based Modeling is now well-established to address natural resource management and policy issues in social-ecological systems where a number of biophysical and anthropic processes interact. The selection of anthropic processes to be considered in a model according to the research question is not easy, due to modelers' difficulty to objectify and identify these processes. The paper proposes some criteria to identify anthropic processes, decide which ones to discard or retain and how to implement the latter. It is illustrated by the analysis of the governance sub-model of the MAELIA platform dedicated to the integrated assessment and simulation …

Implementing Urine Patches In A Dynamic Process- Based Simulation Model, V. O. Snow, R. Cichota, N. J. Hutchings, J. Vejlin

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Grazing ruminants harvest N from pasture in the entire paddock and then deposit between 40 and 80% of the ingested N into urine patches that cover only 2-4% of the paddock area during a typical rotational grazing event. While previous work has shown the importance of explicitly modelling these patches of very high N deposition, most process-based simulation models assume uniform return of N to the soil. The very few models that explicitly model urine patches within the paddock do so at significant, perhaps prohibitive, computational cost. We sought a solution that would preserve the most important biophysical effects but …

An Integrated Modelling Approach To Climate Change And Malaria Vulnerability Assessments, Esther Achieng Onyango, Oz Sahin, Cordia Chu, Brendan Mackey

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Malaria is one of the key research concerns in climate change-health relationships. Numerous risk assessments and modelling studies providing evidence that the transmission range of malaria will expand with rising temperatures resulting in adverse impacts on vulnerable communities. This risk is significant in East Africa whereby current research shows an expansion of malaria into the highland areas due to changes in temperature and rainfall. While there exist multiple lines of evidence for the influence of climate change on malaria and the risk posed to vulnerable communities, there is insufficient understanding of the complexity of factors influencing the spread of the …

Scientific Research Documentation - An Information Server For The National Park Hunsrück-Hochwald, Peter Fischer-Stabel, Micheal Mattern

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Within the world network of nature reserves, a national park is a park in use for conservation purposes. Beside it´s high value for nature and biodiversity, national parks are serving as sites for research, environmental monitoring, education and training. In order to ensure a long-lasting, central and efficient access to the literature and data on such a nature reserve for all scientists from the respective institutions, a research information portal was established for the National Park Hunsrück-Hochwald. Based on a user requirements analysis, a client-server architecture using open source components was set up. Core modules are a metadata-management component and …

Evaluation Of Future Climate Change Impact On Aquatic Ecosystem And Health Using Lm3-Tan Model In South Korea, Jin Wan Lee, Chung Gil Jung, So Ra Ahn, Seong Joon Kim

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Climate change could be one of the main threats faced by aquatic ecosystems and freshwater biodiversity. Recently, LM3-TAN (Land Model 3 Terrestrial and Aquatic Nitrogen) land-based physical, biological, chemical processes model for South Korea was developed to assess the combined effects of direct human influences and future climate change on Aquatic Nitrogen cycling by Korea NIEL (National Institute of Environmental Research). The objective of this study is to analyse the relationship between stream water quality, water temperature, and Trophic Diatom Index (TDI) and Benthic Macroinvertebrate Index (BMI) determined by stream water quality factors. The TDI and BMI monitored 2 times …

Supporting Wildlife Conservation By Modelling The Effectiveness Of Community-Led Poacher Mitigation, Marit E. Kragt, Eric J. Hay, Micheal Renton

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Illegal hunting and poaching are severely threatening biodiversity in Southeast Asia, especially those species that are rare or threatened. Management strategies to address this poaching problem include wildlife patrols that collect and remove wire snares. While studies exist that predict the impact of poaching on biodiversity loss, there are few studies that evaluate the effectiveness of policy strategies. We present a model that predicts how community-led poaching mitigation patrols could help wildlife conservation the Lao People's Democratic Republic (PDR). The results show that, without intervention, nearly all species will be poached to local extinction over the next 10 years. We …

Integrating Scientific Knowledge, Data And Stakeholder Perceptions For Decision Support, Jean-Luc De Kok, Peter Viaene, Karolien Vermeiren, Maarten Van Der Meulen, Rachel Tiller, Murat Ardelan, Jennifer Bailey, Robert Thorpe, Jonathan Beecham, Sonja Van Leeuwen, Frede Thingstad, Tatiana Margo Tsagaraki, Russell Richards, Can Bizsel, Hugo Salgado

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

the marine food web is considered to be a factor of key importance for the global carbon balance. The concept of the ‘Biological Pump’ refers to the mechanism by which CO2 fixed by photosynthesis is transferred to the deep ocean through biologically-driven processes, resulting in sequestration of carbon for a period of decades or longer. Stressors affecting the efficiency of the biological pump include water column stability, sea temperature, acidity, excessive nutrients inputs, overfishing, pollution and other anthropogenic changes. The aim of the EU-FP7 project OCEAN- CERTAIN is to reduce the uncertainties in our understanding of the impacts of these …

Theoretical Foundations Of Human Decision-Making In Agent-Based Land Use Models - A Review, Jule Schulze, Birgit Müller, Carsten M. Buchmann, Gunner Dressler, Niklas Hase, Falk Hoffmann, Felix John, Cheng Guo, Christian Klassert, Thomas Lauf, Veronika Liebelt, Henning Nolzen, Nadine Pannicke, Hanna Wise, Nina Schwarz, Jürgen Groeneveld

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Recent reviews stated that the complex and context-dependent nature of human decision-making resulted in ad-hoc representations of human decision in agent-based land use change models (LUCC ABMs) and that these representations are often not explicitly grounded in theory. However, a systematic survey on the characteristics (e.g. uncertainty, adaptation, learning, interactions and heterogeneities of agents) of the representation of human decision in LUCC ABMs is missing. To inform this debate we performed a quantitative review of 134 LUCC ABM papers using a standardised questionnaire with a particular focus on the characteristics and the theoretical foundation of human decision-making. Thereby, we investigated …

Dealing With Uncertainty: An Innovative Method To Address Climate Change Adaptation In The Whale Watch Industry, Jan-Olaf Meynecke, Russell Richards, Oz Sahin

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Impacts of climate change on natural and human ‘systems’ are often difficult to assess due to high uncertainty and the need to integrate trans-disciplinary knowledge. This includes the worldwide, billion-dollar whale watching industry that depends on some key species such as the humpback whale. The migratory corridors, feeding, resting and calving sites, which are used for whale watching may be influenced by changing ocean currents and water temperatures. Whales are responding through a shift in migration time, behavior, abundance and distribution impacting on whale watching. To address these challenges, the authors developed a participatory model to understand and evaluate the …

Modelling Of Nitrogen Removal In A Free Water Surface Constructed Wetlands Of Tibet, China, Lixiao Zhang, Shoujuan Tang, Alexey Voinov

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The construction of free-water surface constructed wetland (FWSCW) for wastewater treatment at high altitude region has being tried in Tibet Autonomous Region, an area with extremely cold weather and low air pressure. The FWSCW was designed to receive nitrogen loading of about 8.00 kg/ha/d and hydraulic loading of 546m3/ha/d. This study aims to develop a model for estimating nitrogen (N) dynamics in this constructed wetland situated in Maizhokunggar county alongside Lhasa river. To ensure stable temperature for healthy biological actions, a passive solar house was built. The major nitrogen transformation processes considered in this study were mineralization, nitrification, denitrification, plant …

Mathematical Modelling Of Sustainable Fisheries Management In Morocco, H. Essekhyr, K. Elkalay, K. Khalil

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Moroccan Atlantic coast is considered as one of the richest fishing areas in the world that support a rich assortment of aquatic biological diversity. In the past decade, the fisheries sector has achieved considerable growth. However, the sector suffers from many serious problems that need to be resolved to ensure their sustainable development. Such problems include over-fishing in the coastal, degradation of the marine environment and coastal resources. In this study, a mass-balance Ecopath Model of the Moroccan Atlantic coast is constructed, for improving fisheries management and attaining sustainable development of coastal fisheries in this ecosystem. The results indicate that …

Documenting Models For Interoperability And Reusability, Rajbir Parmar, Kurt Wolfe, Gene Whelan, Gerard F. Laniak, Mike Galvin, Jonathan L. Goodall

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Many modeling frameworks compartmentalize science via individual models that link sets of small components to create larger modeling workflows. Developing integrated watershed models increasingly requires coupling multidisciplinary, independent models, as well as collaboration between scientific communities, since component-based modeling can integrate models from different disciplines. Integrated Environmental Modeling (IEM) systems focus on transferring information between components by capturing a conceptual site model; establishing local metadata standards for input/output of models and databases; managing data flow between models and throughout the system; facilitating quality control of data exchanges (e.g., checking units, unit conversions, transfers between software languages); warning and error handling; …

Design And Implementation Of Integrated Surveillance And Modelling Systems For Climate- Sensitive Diseases, Michael C. Wimberly, Justin Davis, Geoffrey M. Henebry, Michael B. Hildreth, Yi Liu, Christopher L. Merkord

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Climatic variations can have a multitude of impacts on human health, ranging from the direct impacts of extreme heat events to indirect effects on the vectors and hosts that transmit a multitude of infectious diseases. Infectious disease surveillance has traditionally focused on monitoring human cases, and in some instances tracking population sizes and infection rates of arthropod vectors and zoonotic hosts. For climate-sensitive diseases, there is potential to strengthen surveillance and obtain early indicators of future outbreaks by monitoring environmental risk factors using broad-scale sensor networks that include earth-observing satellites as well as ground stations. We highlight the opportunities and …

Tools And Techniques For Computational Reproducibility, Stephen Piccolo, Michael B. Frampton

Faculty Publications

When reporting research findings, scientists document the steps they followed so that others can verify and build upon the research. When those steps have been described in sufficient detail that others can retrace the steps and obtain similar results, the research is said to be reproducible. Computers play a vital role in many research disciplines and present both opportunities and challenges for reproducibility. Computers can be programmed to execute analysis tasks, and those programs can be repeated and shared with others. The deterministic nature of most computer programs means that the same analysis tasks, applied to the same data, will …

Steady State Configurations Of Cells Connected By Cadherin Sites, Jared Adam Mcbride

Theses and Dissertations

Many cells employ cadherin complexes (c-sites) on the cell membrane to attach to neighboring cells, as well as integrin complexes (i-sites) to attach to a substrate in order to accomplish cell migration. This paper analyzes a model for the motion of a group of cells connected by c-sites. We begin with two cells connected by a single c-site and analyze the resultant motion of the system. We find that the system is irrotational. We present a result for reducing the number of c-sites in a system with c-sites between pairs of cells. This greatly simplifies the general system, and provides …

Studies Toward Yaku'amide A And Synthesis And Applications Of Bulky Α,Β-Dehydroamino Acids, Jintao Jiang

Theses and Dissertations

Yaku'amide A shows a unique inhibitory profile against a series of 39 human cancer cell lines (JFCR39). In our efforts to synthesize yaku'amide A, we have optimized our regioselective base-free aminohydroxylation method with a series of nitrogen sources, developed a chiral reagent-mediated aminohydroxylation strategy and chemoselective deprotections of the resulting aminohydroxylation product, and explored a stereospecific E2 dehydration and O-N acyl transfer sequence. In addition, we have prepared the right-hand tetrapeptide and the NTA subunit. For our bulky α,β-dehydroamino acids project, we have developed strategies to incorporate α,β-dehydroamino acids such as ΔVal and ΔEnv into small synthetic peptides via Solid …

The Effect Of Marital Therapy On Physical Affection, Tiffany Ann Migdat

Theses and Dissertations

Research indicates that marital satisfaction is associated with levels of physical affection between partners. This is important because there is evidence of physical and mental health benefits of physical affection. Although past research has shown that marital therapy increases levels of marital and sexual satisfaction, the association between marital therapy and physical affection has not been explored. This study used a treatment group and a control group of 108 married couples to assess the relationship between marital therapy and physical affection over a course of 12 weeks. Using structural equation modeling and an actor partner analytic model, results indicated that …