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Water Resources Systems Analysis Reading Assignments, Marcio Giacomoni

All ECSTATIC Materials

Read these articles:

https://ascelibrary.org/doi/10.1061/%28ASCE%290733-9496%282000%29126%3A3%28118%29

https://ascelibrary.org/doi/10.1061/%28ASCE%290733-9372%281990%29116%3A1%28182%29

https://ascelibrary.org/doi/10.1061/%28ASCE%290733-9496%281986%29112%3A3%28339%29

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11269-015-0970-6

https://ascelibrary.org/doi/10.1061/%28ASCE%290733-9496%282005%29131%3A6%28441%29

Answer the following questions:

1) Describe in your own words what is the problem that is being addressed? Why is it important?

2) What system is being modeled? Identify the system boundaries, processes, inputs and outputs.

3) How the system is being modeled? Identify the main state variables, parameters, initial conditions and boundary conditions.

4) What is the optimization method used to solve the problem. Describe the method.

5) What are the objective functions, constraints and decision variables?

6) What are the main conclusions and insights generated by the use of optimization? …

A Tool For Downscaling Weather Data From Large-Grid Reanalysis Products To Finer Spatial Scales For Distributed Hydrological Applications, Avirup Sen Gupta, David G. Tarboton

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

A downscaling tool was developed to provide sub-daily high spatial resolution surfaces of weather variables for distributed hydrologic modeling from NASA Modern Era Retrospective-Analysis for Research and Applications reanalysis products. The tool uses spatial interpolation and physically based relationships between the weather variables and elevation to provide inputs at the scale of a gridded hydrologic model, typically smaller (∼100 m) than the scale of weather reanalysis data (∼20–200 km). Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE) measures greater than 0.70 were obtained for direct tests of downscaled daily temperature and monthly precipitation at 173 SNOTEL sites. In an integrated test driving the Utah Energy …

Evaluation Of Spillway Stilling Basin Performance And Reservoir Sediment Flushing In A Physical Model Case Study: Due Hydroelectric Project In Ecuador, Ali Habibzadeh, Brian Hughes, Hernan Barahona

International Symposium on Hydraulic Structures

The Due Hydroelectric Project is a proposed 50 MW run-of-river hydroelectric project being developed by Hidroalto SA. The project will be located on the Rio Due in Ecuador. The civil works of the intake facility will be comprised of a 133.45 m wide diversion weir, with two overflow spillways and six gated sluice channels; a four bay intake structure with sediment excluder; and, a fish bypass facility. Northwest Hydraulic Consultants (NHC) evaluated the initial design of the Due intake and spillway facilities using a 1:35 Froude-scaled physical model for river discharges ranging from the intake design discharge of 57.2 m3 …

Decision-Making Through Sustainability, F. Pardo-Bosch, A. Aguado

International Symposium on Hydraulic Structures

From immemorial time, dams have contributed significantly for the progress of civilizations. For this reason, nowadays, there is a vast engineering heritage. Over the years, these infrastructures can present some ordinary maintenance issues associated with their normal operation or with ageing processes.

Normally, these problems do not represent an important risk for the structure, but they have to be attended. To do it, owners of dams have to finance many ordinary interventions. As it is impossible to carry out all of them at the same time, managers have to make a decision and select the most “important” ones. However, it …

Evapotranspiration Estimation: A Study Of Methods In The Western United States, Clayton S. Lewis

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Theoretical water use of well-watered vegetation in the western United States was investigated by comparing a gridded dataset developed from satellite and ground instruments to weather stations representative of irrigated agricultural conditions. Since wetter environments are cooler and therefore subject to lower levels of evaporation than the same scenario with warmer temperatures, models derived from dryland and often populated areas overestimate potential plant needs in semi-arid or arid conditions. Evaluation of the model revealed an acceptable fit for air temperatures and solar radiation but with less confidence in humidity and wind speeds. Ultimately, the last two parameters were minor components …

Traffic Sign Management: Data Integration And Analysis Methods For Mobile Lidar And Digital Photolog Big Data, Majid Khalilikhah

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Traffic signs often convey critical information to drivers. However, traffic signs are only effective when clearly visible and legible. This study aims to determine the effects of various damage and deterioration forms on sign retroreflectivity, identify the most important factors affecting traffic sign visual condition, predict traffic sign vandalism that obstructs critical messages to drivers, and identify important environmental factors contributing to the temporary obstruction of the sign messages. To do so, two data sets are used. A sample data of over 1,700 signs was manually collected in the field, and the background retroreflectivity of each sign was measured using …

A Comprehensive Safety Analysis Of Diverging Diamond Interchanges, Holly Lloyd

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

With the implementation of new roadway configurations, there is a great need to study the influence of the roadway design on the crash rate. Utah is one of the leading states in the implementation of the Diverging Diamond Interchange.

In order to determine the effects of the new roadway configuration on the safety of the intersection, this study employs an Empirical Bayes before-after study of the crash rates at selected Diverging Diamond Interchanges in Utah. The results of the Empirical Bayes method were also used to calculate crash modification factors. The total number of crashes at each site were analyzed. …