Environmental Design Commons^™

Enhancing Bim Implementation In The Ethiopian Public Construction Sector: An Empirical Study, Solomon Belay, James D. Goedert, Asregedew Woldesenbet, Saeed Rokooei3

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

Recently, the popularity of BIM has grown rapidly in the public construction sector. However, only a few studies so far have been seeking to address the BIM adoption benefits and barriers in developmental public projects across the low-income countries. Thus, the study aims to investigate the benefits and barriers of BIM adoption in the context of the Ethiopian infrastructure market. To achieve the objectives, a comprehensive systematic literature review was conducted to identify BIM adoption benefits and barriers in developing countries. Then, a structured questionnaire survey was conducted to collect data from various professionals working in organizations including client, consultant, …

City Tarmita (Old Termez) In The Kushans’ Period, Mamatmusaev Tohir

The Scientific-Practice Journal of Architecture, Construction and Design

This article is devoted to results of expeditions that were explored by archaeological monuments of Chingiztepa and Karatepa in 2004-2005 yy. in the Old Termez.

Condition Rating Prediction Using An Interactive Deterioration Model Development Package, Minwoo Chang, Mitchell S. Maguire

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

This paper presents an advanced method to determine explanatory variables required for developing deterioration models without the interference of human bias. Although a stationary set of explanatory variables is ideal for long-term monitoring and asset management, the penalty regression results vary annually due to the innate bias in the inspection data. In this study, weighting factors were introduced to consider the inspection data collected for several years, and the most stationary set was identified. To manage the substantial amount of inspection data effectively, we proposed a software package referred to as the Deterioration Model Development Package (DMDP). The objective of …

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 …

Scenario Analysis Of Downtown One-Way Street Conversions In Lincoln, Nebraska, A Case Study For Downtown Livability And Pedestrian Safety, Terrence Lage

Community and Regional Planning Program: Theses

An era of downtown street design benefiting the automobile has become over designed for the movement of volumes of traffic in many North American cities. Since the 1950s, the primary focus of planners and traffic engineers has been to address the growing problem of traffic congestion caused by the suburban traveler coming into and out of downtown. The solution was retrofitting the original two-way street grid into a network of wide and straight multi-lane one-way corridors. This design successfully moved volumes of traffic through downtown streets but induced behavior to favor the automobile instead of design that favors active mobility …

Landfill Suitability Analysis Using Gis (Geographic Information System) And Ahp (Analytic Hierarchy Process): A Case Study Of Scotts Bluff County, Nebraska, Sunah Moon

Community and Regional Planning Program: Theses

The objective of this study was to identify and prioritize the potential sites that are the most suitable to host landfills using Geographic Information System (GIS) and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) in Scotts Bluff County, Nebraska. First, the criteria that influence in a decision-making process of landfill placement in social, environmental, and physical perspectives were established, and the area was assessed based on the grading structure of each criterion on a scale of 0 to 10. The second step was the main process for the study using the AHP. Thirty-two experts who work as planners, engineers, landfill staff, and environmental …

Shahar Sharoitida Avtomobilllarni Parkovkalashda Innovatsion Loyihalash Tizimi, Zohidjon Baxtiyor O`G`Li Abdurahmonov, Jamshid Abdunazarov

Scientific-technical journal

Annotatsiya: Shahar ko`chalarida transport vositalarining soni ko`payishi sababli, transport bilan bog`liq bo`lgan muammolar ko`paymoqda. Bunga sabab qilib yo`lning infratuzilmasi va parkovka joylarining yetarli emasligini hamda mavjud parkovka joylari to`g`risida axborotni yetkazadigan tizimning yo`qligini misol qilib keltirish mumkin. Bu bir qancha salbiy oqibatlarga olib kelishi mumkin. Jumladan transport vositalaridan chiqayotgan zaharli moddalarning atrof – muhitga zarari ko`payishiga, yo`lning o`tkazish qobiliyatiga va haydovchining yo`lda ortiqcha vaqt sarflashlarga olib kelishi mumkin.

Yuqoridagi aytib o`tilgan muammolarni bartaraf etish uchun shahar parkovkalarini innovatsion intellektual loyihasini ishlab chiqish va uni hayotga tatbiq etish lozim. Bu intellektual tizim orqali transport vositalari egalari bo`sh parkovka hududlarini osongini topib …

Framework For Extracting And Characterizing Load Profile Variability Based On A Comparative Study Of Different Wavelet Functions, Andrew Parker, Kevin James, Dongming Peng, Mahmoud Alahmad

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

The penetration of distributed energy resources (DERs) on the electric power system is changing traditional power flow and analysis studies. DERs may cause the systems' protection and control equipment to operate outside their intended parameters, due to DERs' variability and dispatchability. As this penetration grows, hosting capacity studies as well as protection and control impact mitigation become critical components to advance this penetration. In order to conduct such studies accurately, the electric power system's distribution components should be modeled correctly, and will require realistic time series loads at varying temporal and spatial conditions. The load component consists of the built …

Americanization Of Islamic Cultural Design: Erasure, Orientalism/Exoticism, And Americanization, Peter L. Stanley

Landscape Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

Islam arrived in North America primarily through the importation of Muslim African slaves. Subsequent suppression of the slaves, and by extension their religion and places of worship, generated a lack of understanding and misunderstanding about Islam. Over time, this misunderstanding evolved into xenophobic and orientalist representations of the religion. This Capstone project researches Islam’s roots in colonial America through the period before the Columbian Exposition of 1893, and its evolution after the Columbian Exposition, with defining time periods expressed as Erasure, Orientalism/Exoticism, and Americanization. With the help of cultural trust organizations such as the Aga Khan Foundation, the contemporary Americanization …

Oceanside Transit Center Transit-Oriented Development (Otc Tod): Revisioning North San Diego's County Transit Hub, Chad Johnston

City and Regional Planning

Many California coastal communities lack a supply of housing, produce high levels of greenhouse gas emissions by daily auto commuters but have existing local and commuter rail stations with large fields of parking surrounding it. Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) integrates the building of housing, retail, office, and public space together focused around transit stations. This infill of development locates people within comfortable walking distance, usually within a quarter-mile, of a public trail transit station reducing automobile dependence for local trips or commuting for work.

The Oceanside Transit Center (OTC) is a major railway interchange, serving as a gateway to the San …

Chinese Gardens: Solutions For Urban Nature Deficit, Zachary K. Warner

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Research shows that time spent in nature is good for human health and well-being. However, as the world’s population becomes more concentrated in urban areas regular time in nature, especially extended time, is becoming more difficult to have. On the other hand, Chinese gardens can provide one solution to this problem because they have a unique way of providing a naturalistic space within a small area. Despite this fact, there aren’t many Chinese style gardens outside of China. Therefore, the objective of this thesis was to identify possible barriers to using Chinese garden design principles and construction techniques, then address …

A Deep Dive Into Natural Swimming Pool Filtration: Living Walls As Technical Wetland Filters, Anna Farb

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Vertical gardens such as living walls can filter air and water, in addition to cooling buildings, reducing noise, increasing urban biodiversity, providing food, and enhancing well-being. Natural swimming pools (NSPs) are an ecologically sound alternative to chemically treated pools, but they have not reached their potential in the U.S. We investigated whether a living wall could be integrated into an NSP system for water filtration purposes, given that the vertical filter would have to produce excellent water quality for human swimmers. This could be a novel landscape design, particularly in the cases of steep contours, urbanized sites with limited space, …

Semi Open Partitions: A Defense Strategy For Airborne Disease, Kerrie Marshall, Arik Palileo, Eric A. Schiff

SyracuseCoE

This brief summarizes research on two measures that reduce the risk of transmitting COVID-19 from an infected person to a virus-free individual. Semi-partitioned spaces can reduce airborne disease transmission when combined with a proper ventilation flow pattern in a room. With advanced displacement ventilation risk can be reduced by at least 4 times.

Methanosarcina Acetivorans Contains A Functional Isc System For Iron-Sulfur Cluster Biogenesis, Thomas M. Deere, Divya Prakash, Faith H. Lessner, Evert C. Duin, Daniel J. Lessner

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background

The production of methane by methanogens is dependent on numerous iron-sulfur (Fe-S) cluster proteins; yet, the machinery involved in Fe-S cluster biogenesis in methanogens remains largely unknown. Methanogen genomes encode uncharacterized homologs of the core components of the ISC (IscS and IscU) and SUF (SufBC) Fe-S cluster biogenesis systems found in bacteria and eukaryotes. Methanosarcina acetivorans contains three iscSU and two sufCB gene clusters. Here, we report genetic and biochemical characterization of M. acetivorans iscSU2.

Results

Purified IscS2 exhibited pyridoxal 5′- phosphate-dependent release of sulfur from L-cysteine. Incubation of purified IscU2 with IscS2, cysteine, and iron (Fe2+) resulted …

The Role Of Urban Design In Strengthening Social Links Between Residents Of Residential District, Hussam Alsahli, Tarek Habib

Emirates Journal for Engineering Research

When thinking about planning residential neighborhoods, they usually plan for a service purpose and to cover the housing need without taking into account social life, as Kreidis[1] mentioned that the traditional planning (network) pattern highlighted many social problems and the scarcity of spaces led to a decline in public life and affected the population negatively. With a general overview within the residential neighborhoods, the researcher found that the city of Riyadh suffers from the absence of urban design elements within residential neighborhoods, where it was noticed the absence of pedestrian paths and the lack of continuity of sidewalks, as …

Tiny Homes: 3 Things You Need To Know, Eric J. Forbush

Marriott Student Review

Tiny Homes are a modern trend that many millennials are embracing. This article explores zoning laws, cost, and utilities to help you decide if the Tiny Home lifestyle is right for you.

Ventilation & Masks: Reducing Airborne Transmission Of Covid-19 In A Classroom, Eric A. Schiff

SyracuseCoE

We've calculated the number of COVID-19 infections that will be spread from a single COVID-19 "superspreader" to students and teachers in a classroom shared for 4 hours in different ventilation and masking conditions.

How Natural Materials Affect Our Perception Of The Built Environment, Iryna Demianiuk

International Programs

Our daily life is shaped by the emotions we feel, and our emotions are highly dependent on the environment we live in. Those connections have been developing through the whole history of humankind, starting with the feeling of shelter near bonfires in caves. Today, we can discover neural responses to environmental conditions and even certain materials around us. Those findings have allowed architects and neuroscientists to work more closely together, and, through that collaboration, the new field of neuroarchitecture appeared. This relatively young discipline explores the way our brain responds to the environmental stimuli we are facing, and how different …

Cultural Ecosystem Services Of Agroecosystems Along The Wasatch Front, Utah, Tiffany K. Woods

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Agroecosystems, including peri-urban systems, are important providers of a range of services. However, management of these systems has generally been based on the market value of crops, neglecting to capture the broader public goods that ecosystem services provide to stakeholders. While the ecosystem service framework (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment [MEA], 2005) has been adopted to measure the market and non-market values associated with these services, knowledge gaps persist, particularly with respect to the quantification and valuation of cultural ecosystem services (CES). In this paper, the determination of CES values assigned to agroecosystems by residents of two communities along the Wasatch Front, …

His And Hers: Gender-Specific Design In Mid-Twentieth Century North America Through Film And Television, Morgan O'Shaughnessy

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

The built environment exists as a variety of ‘spaces’ which are constructed by, and for, the people who occupy them. What is the relationship between social constructs of gender and our built environment in the 20^th century? How does film and television representing the mid-20^th century exemplify this relationship? The overall theme of this topic will include a positive relationship between social gender constructs and our built environment. Through the exploration of select film and television, this study attempts to answer the question of how gender-focused design reinforces traditional gender roles in North American society in mid-20^{th …}

Water-Infused Design: Two Contemporary Projects, Ziwei Zheng

International Programs

No abstract provided.

Architecture In Open World Video Games, Congshuo Zhang

International Programs

No abstract provided.

Turn Trash Into Treasure: Recycling Of Waste Building Materials, Xiaoyin Shen

International Programs

No abstract provided.

Reconsidering Black And Light: Black And Light Projects That Challenge Perception, Chen-Yang Chang

International Programs

No abstract provided.

Housing At Markham Square, Community Design Center

Community Design Center Project Reports

A former scrap metal yard located four blocks north of Conway’s main commercial street was re-imagined as a new square surrounded by a mixed-use residential district. The new square features “wilded” landscapes for stormwater runoff management and flood control. Proposed multifamily housing with distinct frontages— two-story screened porches, balconies, terraces, patios, and courtyards—will line the edge of “green” streets incorporating stormwater treatment landscapes.

Outdoor Learning Environments, Elizabeth Farin

City and Regional Planning

Outdoor Learning Environments have the ability to enhance the campus socially, educationally, psychologically, and environmentally. They can provide a defined, outdoor environment that students feel comfortable using and learning in. Outdoor Learning Environments create the space and opportunity to bring individuals and professors together to work on an interdisciplinary project. These spaces provide an area for students to relax and rewind during a stressful day. Outdoor Learning Environments have an enormous potential to achieve University-wide social and learning objectives.

This project examines the potential for Outdoor Learning on University campuses. Through analyzing existing outdoor spaces both at Cal Poly and …

Planning For Pollinators, Encouraging Biodiversity For Agriculture Resiliency, Sebastian Brian Cardoza

Master's Theses

Pollinators are essential to food production globally. Without them, the production of food becomes increasingly difficult, time consuming, and costly. Unfortunately, due to the rapid changes to our earth's physical and climatic structure millions of species are becoming classified as threatened, endangered or extinct. Among these declining species are pollinating insects such as Aphis mellifera (honeybee) and other native species. This is due to a phenomenon known as colony collapse disorder (CCD) and other native bees. The decline indicates that the future habitability of earth may be in jeopardy. The solution to this crisis is to expand the habitat of …

Analysis Of Burning Wood In The Transient State And The Application To Structural Design, Roberta Veliz, Kimberly Guzman

Architectural Engineering

Determining the extent of the contribution of exposed timber on compartment fire dynamics in open floor plans is a complex process. Designers traditionally used compartmentalization design methods which create spaces where flashover is likely, given the fuel load and ventilation conditions. However, due to the large geometric dimensions and spread of fuel, fires in open floor plans are more likely to remain as localized or traveling fires. As such, an understanding of not only ignition potential but also flame spread is critical to characterizing the contribution of exposed timber. An integral step in characterizing the potential contribution is through an …

An Iot Framework For Modeling And Controlling Thermal Comfort In Buildings, Fadi Alsaleem, Mehari K. Tesfay, Mostafa Rafaie, Kevin Sinkar, Dhaman Besarla, Parthiban Arunasalam

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

Humans spend more than 90% of their day in buildings, where their health and productivity are demonstrably linked to thermal comfort. Building thermal comfort systems account for the largest share of U.S energy consumption. Despite this high-energy cost, due to building design complexity and the variety of building occupant needs, addressing thermal comfort in buildings remains a difficult problem. To overcome this challenge, this paper presents an Internet of Things (IoT) approach to efficiently model and control comfort in buildings. In the model phase, a method to access and exploit wearable device data to build a personal thermal comfort model …

Campus Design And The Community College Experience: An Exploration Of Stress, Belonging And Scholarly Identity, Vanita Naidoo

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This mixed methods research study examines factors that influence the development of scholarly identity at a community college campus. It uses survey methods and a focus group with undergraduate students at the Bronx Community College (BCC) campus to examine how campus design relates to a sense of belonging, the process of reflection, and the development of a scholarly identity. Academic attrition and low performance are challenges at urban community colleges. The study aims to address how campus design, specifically green space, impacts undergraduate students at a community college. It seeks to better understand the experience of the diverse student population …