Engineering Commons^™

A New Hybrid Decision Support Tool For Evaluating The Sustainability Of Mining Projects, S. Kamenopoulos, Zacharias Agioutantis, K. Komnitsas

Mining Engineering Faculty Publications

The integration of sustainable development challenges and opportunities into the decision making process during the design and/or implementation of multi-disciplinary mining projects is generally not supported by decision support systems (DSS). A new hybrid decision support tool, which features an integrated assessment of sustainable development issues as they apply to mining projects, is hereby proposed. The proposed DSS framework, named “Acropolis DSS”, can be used to assist involved stakeholders in critical decisions, especially when addressing issues such as stakeholder participation, transparency, and trade-offs. The proposed DSS is based on a multi-criteria decision analysis combined with the multi-attribute utility theory.

The Tensile Root Strength Of Emergent Coastal Macrophytes, Lauris Olivia Hollis

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Spartina patens is a dominant emergent macrophyte in fresh, intermediate, and brackish marshes along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of United States where its biomechanical properties are a key component of wetland health and resilience. Its root biomass and tensile root strength are essential for anchorage, erosion protection, and are important determinants of soil strength. Nutrients and the herbicide atrazine are suspected of negatively impacting this wetland plant and others. The objectives of this study were to: 1) ascertain the tensile root strength of five emergent coastal macrophytes in coastal estuaries, and 2) test the effects of nutrient addition, atrazine …

Occurrence Of Chlorinated Volatile Organic Compounds (Vocs) In A Sanitary Sewer System: Implications For Assessing Vapor Intrusion Alternative Pathways, Mohammadyousef Roghani, Olivia P. Jacobs, Anthony Miller, Evan James Willett, James A. Jacobs, C. Ricardo Viteri, Elham Shirazi, Kelly G. Pennell

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications

Sewer systems have been recently recognized as potentially important exposure pathways to consider during vapor intrusion assessments; however, this pathway has not been well-characterized and there is need for additional information about the occurrence of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in sewer systems. This paper reports the results of sewer gas sampling conducted in a sanitary sewer over the years of 2014–2017. Sewer gas samples were collected and analyzed using several different techniques, including TO-15 (grab), TO-17 (passive), Radiello® (passive) and a novel continuous monitoring technique, the Autonomous Rugged Optical Multigas Analyzer (AROMA). The applicability of each of the different approaches …

Bathymetry Data For Lakes Azuei And Enriquillo, Michael Piasecki, Mahrokh Moknatian

Publications and Research

This data set supports and forms the basis for the development of Digital Bathymetry Models (DBM) for Lakes Azuei (Haiti) and Enriquillo (Dominican Republic). Bathymetric Data is typically acquired using Sonar devices that measure the depth at specific points along a boat track and for which the longitude and latitude is recorded. From the resulting point cloud one develop a seamless representation of the floor of the lake on either a raster set (which is what we have done) or try to use a contour (vector representation) model in which the depth contours appear as polygons or -lines. The raw …

Apprehensive Drought Characteristics Over Iraq: Results Of A Multidecadal Spatiotemporal Assessment, Maysoun Ayad Hameed, Ali Ahmadalipour, Hamid Moradkhani

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Drought is an extreme climate phenomenon that happens slowly and periodically threatens the environmental and socio-economic sectors. Iraq is one of the countries in the Middle East that has been dealing with serious drought-related issues in the 21st century. Here, we investigate meteorological drought across Iraq from 1948 to 2009 at 0.25° spatial resolution. The Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) has been utilized as a multi-scalar drought index accounting for the effects of temperature variability on drought. Four of the main characteristics of drought including extent, intensity, frequency and duration are studied and the associated spatiotemporal patterns are investigated for …

Decision Support System For The Design And Planning Of Low-Impact Development Practices: The Case Of Seoul, Jae-Yeol Song, Eun-Sung Chung, Soo Hyun Kim

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

This study presented the conceptual framework of the water-management analysis module (WMAM) to derive effective physical specifications for the design and planning of low-impact development (LID) practices using the storm-water management model (SWMM). This decision-support system can be used for six LID types and has the following key capabilities: determining relevant LID design parameters within the SWMM that critically influence the hydrological cycle components using a simple sensitivity analysis and determining the best hydrological values for LID planning specification. This study analyzed a highly urbanized university campus as a case study to determine the design and planning specifications for an …

Global Anthropogenic Phosphorus Loads To Freshwater And Associated Grey Water Footprints And Water Pollution Levels: A High-Resolution Global Study, Mesfin Mekonnen, Arjen Y. Hoekstra

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

We estimate the global anthropogenic phosphorus (P) loads to freshwater and the associated grey water footprints (GWFs) for the period 2002–2010, at a spatial resolution of 5 3 5 arc min, and com- pare the GWF per river basin to runoff to assess the P-related water pollution level (WPL). The global anthro- pogenic P load to freshwater systems from both diffuse and point sources is estimated at 1.5 Tg/yr. More than half of this total load was in Asia, followed by Europe (19%) and Latin America and the Caribbean (13%). The domestic sector contributed 54% to the total, agriculture 38%, …

Assessing The Impacts Of Climate Change On Streamflow And Reservoir Operation In Central Florida, Toni Panaou

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Climate change is a global concern as it may affect many aspects of life, including water supply. A tool used to model climate change’s impacts is called a General Circulation Model (GCM). GCMs project future scenarios including temperature and precipitation, but these are designed at a coarse resolution and require downscaling for employment for regional hydrologic modeling. There is a vast amount of research on downscaling and bias-correcting GCMs data, but it is unknown whether these techniques alter precipitation signals embedded in these models or reproduce climate states that are viable for water resource planning and management. Using the Tampa, …

Riverbank Filtration Impacts On Post Disinfection Water Quality In Small Systems—A Case Study From Auburn And Nebraska City, Nebraska, Matteo D'Alessio, Bruce Dvorak, Chittaranjan Ray

Nebraska Water Center: Faculty Publications

Small water systems can experience a fluctuating quality of water in the distribution system after disinfection. As chlorine is the most common disinfectant for small systems, the occurrence of disinfection byproducts (DBPs) represents a common problem for these systems. Riverbank filtration (RBF) can be a valuable solution for small communities located on riverbanks. The objectives of this study were to evaluate (i) the improvements in water quality at two selected RBF systems, and (ii) the potential lower concentrations of DBPs, in particular, trihalomethanes (THMs), in small systems that use RBF. Two small communities in Nebraska, Auburn and Nebraska City, using …

Flow Analysis Through Collector Well Laterals: A Case Study From Sonoma County Water Agency, California, Matteo D'Alessio, John Lucio, Ernest Williams, James Warner, Donald Seymour, Jay Jasperse, Chittaranjan Ray

Nebraska Water Center: Faculty Publications

The Sonoma County Water Agency (SWCA) uses six radial collector wells along the Russian River west of Santa Rosa, to provide water for several municipalities and water districts in north-western California. Three collector wells (1, 2, and 6) are located in the Wohler area, and three collector wells (3, 4, and 5) are located in the Mirabel area. The objective of this paper is to highlight the performance of the three collector wells located in the Mirabel area since their construction. The 2015 investigation showed a lower performance of Collectors 3 and 4 compared to their original performances after construction …

The Future Of Groundwater In California: Lessons In Sustainable Management From Across The West, Christina Hoffman Babbitt, Katherine E. B. Gibson, Scott Sellers, Nicholas Brozovic, Anthony Saracino, Ann Hayden, Maurice Hall, Sandi Zellmer

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

The 2014 Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) created, for the first time and on an unprecedented scale, a mandate to change how groundwater is managed statewide in California. While enacting SGMA was a tremendous step forward, communities and water districts now face the considerable challenge of creating successful groundwater management programs. This report is aimed at helping California’s water managers, public water agencies, county commissioners, city planners, and others better understand the suite of tools and approaches that can be used to enhance the sustainable management of groundwater. Specifically, we consider four categories of management tools—regulatory, incentive-based, agency supply augmentation …

Energy Slices: Benchmarking With Time Slicing, Katarina Grolinger, Hany F. Elyamany, Wilson Higashino, Miriam Am Capretz, Luke Seewald

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

Benchmarking makes it possible to identify low-performing buildings, establishes a baseline for measuring performance improvements, enables setting of energy conservation targets, and encourages energy savings by creating a competitive environment. Statistical approaches evaluate building energy efficiency by comparing measured energy consumption to other similar buildings typically using annual measurements. However, it is important to consider different time periods in benchmarking because of differences in their consumption patterns. For example, an office can be efficient during the night, but inefficient during operating hours due to occupants’ wasteful behavior. Moreover, benchmarking studies often use a single regression model for different building categories. …

The Long Term Effect Of Agricultural, Vadose Zone And Climatic Factors On Nitrate Contamination In Nebraska’S Groundwater System, Pongpun Juntakut, Daniel D. Snow, Erin M.K. Haacker, Chittaranjan Ray

Nebraska Water Center: Faculty Publications

A four-decade dataset (1974–2013) of 107,823 nitrate samples in 25,993 wells from western and eastern parts of Nebraska was used to assess long-term trends of groundwater nitrate concentration and decadal changes in the extent of groundwater nitrate-contaminated areas (NO₃-N≥10 mg N/L) over the entire state. Spatial statistics and regressions were used to investigate the relationships between groundwater nitrate concentrations and several potential natural and anthropogenic factors, including soil drainage capacities, vadose zone characteristics, crop production areas, and irrigation systems. The results of this study show that there is no statistically significant trend in groundwater nitrate concentrations …

Surfactant Driven Assembly Of Freeze-Casted, Polymer-Derived Ceramic Nanoparticles On Grapehene Oxide Sheets For Lithium-Ion Battery Anodes, Ali Zein Khater

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Traditional Lithium-Ion Batteries (LIBs) are a reliable and cost-efficient choice for energy storage. LIBs offer high energy density and low self-discharge. Recent developments in electric-based technologies push for replacing historically used Lead-Acid batteries with LIBs. However, LIBs do not yet meet the demands of modern technology. Silicon and graphene oxide (GO) have been identified as promising replacements to improve anode materials. Graphene oxide has a unique sheet-like structure that provides a mechanically stable, light weight material for LIB anodes. Due to its structure, reduced graphene oxide (rGO) is efficiently conductive and resistive to environmental changes. On the other hand, silicon-based …

Integrated Strategies For Sustainable Wastewater-Based Algal Biofuel Production And Environmental Mitigation In The Us, Javad Roostaei

Wayne State University Dissertations

Integration of algae cultivation with wastewater treatment has received increasing interest as a cost-effective strategy for biofuel production. However, there has been no full assessment of algal biofuel production with wastewater on macro-scale by taking into account wastewater resources, land availability, CO2 emission resources, and geographic variation. This research addressed and evaluated the use of wastewater for algae cultivation, in terms of modeling and laboratory experiments. The first goal of this research was to develop a spatially explicit lifecycle model, by integrating life cycle assessment (LCA), and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) analysis, for the evaluation of the environmental and economic …

Investigation Of Volatile Organic Compounds (Vocs) Detected At Vapor Intrusion Sites, Mohammadyousef Roghani

Theses and Dissertations--Civil Engineering

This dissertation investigates unexplained vapor intrusion field data sets that have been observed at hazardous waste sites, including: 1) non-linear soil gas concentration trends between the VOC source (i.e. contaminated groundwater plume) and the ground surface; and, 2) alternative pathways that serve as entry points for vapors to infiltrate into buildings and serve to increase VOC exposure risks as compared to the classic vapor intrusion model, which primarily considered foundation cracks as the route for vapor entry. The overall hypothesis of this research is that theoretical knowledge of fate and transport processes can be systematically applied to vapor intrusion field …

Stormwater Capture In The Built Watershed: Fostering Public Awareness Of Water Conservation Through A Parcel-Level Approach To Stormwater Management, Benjamin Rigby

Pitzer Senior Theses

As California contends with climate change and more extreme cycles of drought and deluge, water management agencies and conservation groups are looking towards solutions to the decreasing reliability of imported water supplies. Stormwater has historically been perceived as a threat to development but when captured properly, it presents a resource that can augment local water supplies. Solutions to water supply issues in California have traditionally employed technical and centrally controlled methods for importing water, but there is a growing understanding that parcel-level capture through vegetated swales presents an opportunity for reducing the impact that development has on California’s hydrology. Vegetated …

Dust Control Examination Using Computational Fluid Dynamics Modeling And Laboratory Testing Of Vortecone And Impingement Screen Filters, Ashish R. Kumar

Theses and Dissertations--Mining Engineering

Heavy industries, such as mining, generate dust in quantities that present an occupational health hazard. Prolonged exposure to the respirable dust has been found to result in many irreversible occupational ailments in thousands of miners. In underground mining applications, a variety of scrubbing systems are used to remove dust near the zones of generation. However, the wire-mesh type fibrous screens in the flooded-bed dust scrubbers used on continuous miners, are prone to clogging due to the accumulation of dust particles. This clogging results in a reduced capture efficiency and a higher exposure to the personnel. This research establishes the Vortecone, …

Predicting Energy And Water Consumption On Dairy Farms Through Statistical Analysis And Machine-Learning Methods, Philip Shine

Theses

With the abolishment of milking quotas across all European Union member states in April 2015, dairy farmers must adjust their farming practises to minimise milk production costs to adequately prepare for potential periods of reduced revenue. Milk production is an intense energy and water consuming process. Coupled with challenging European greenhouse gas reduction targets and legislation regarding the prevention of groundwater pollution and deterioration, increasing the production of milk in Ireland must be met with the sustainable consumption of on-farm energy and direct water resources, to ensure the future monetary and environmental sustainability of Ireland’s dairy industry. Thus, this body …

Modeling Water Availability, Risk And Resilience In A Semi-Arid Basin In Southern Africa, Esther N. Mosase

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Climate variability need to be incorporated into the management and planning of water resources, particularly in arid and semi-arid regions, where water availability is more sensitive to rainfall and air temperature. This study used modified Man-Kendall trend analysis test and ArcGIS to process data. Annual means of rainfall, minimum temperature and maximum temperature in the Limpopo River Basin (LRB) varied between 160 and 1109 mm, 8 °C to 20 °C and 23 °C to 32 °C respectively. The spatial pattern is generally increasing from west to east for rainfall and minimum temperature while maximum temperature increases from south to north …

Application Of Drainage Water Management And Saturated Buffers For Conservation Drainage In South Dakota, Abhinav Sharma

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Edge of field practices such as drainage water management (DWM) and saturated buffers can reduce nutrient transport from croplands to surface waterbodies. DWM uses stackable weir boards in a control structure to manipulate the water table depth throughout the cropping season and reduce the amount of nutrient rich water draining out from the field. Saturated buffers, on the other hand, use a control structure to divert water draining out from the cropland to a vegetative strip via a subsurface tile installed parallel to a waterway. For the saturated buffer systems, a combination of natural denitrification, nitrogen mineralization, and plant uptake …

Comparison Of Historical Precipitation For Aberdeen, Ipswich, And Eureka, South Dakota, Uday Singh Kshatriya

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The availability of water resources varies from time to time with the climate conditions. Keeping track of climate conditions would eventually benefit for the future predictions. The objective of this research was to compare and contrast the climate especially for Aberdeen, Ipswich and Eureka, South Dakota utilizing the historical monthly precipitation records and to develop the techniques that are reliable to estimate the missing data. For these necessary statistical analyses were performed using the monthly precipitation data from High Plains Regional Climate Center (HPRCC) for the annual and 8-Year periods for Aberdeen, Ipswich and Eureka, South Dakota. 63 water years …

Utility-Scale Solar Photovoltaic Hosting Potential Of Historic Mill Sites In Humboldt County, California, Michael Avcollie

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

The adoption of Redwood Coast Energy Authority’s (RCEA’s) Community Choice Energy program in May of 2017 across Humboldt County has sparked interest in locally produced energy from solar photovoltaics (PV). RCEA has a goal of bringing 5 Megawatts (MW) of local, utility-scale, solar PV under contract by 2018 and 15 MW by 2023. Humboldt County’s former mill sites offer features that make them suitable for hosting PV development. This study performed an inventory and analysis of these sites to answer two questions: Can Humboldt County’s former mill sites provide the hosting capacity for15 MW of local, utility-scale solar PV? Which …

Processing Different Mixtures Of Regionally Available Resources To Create Pellets That Meet A Minimum Standard, Jacob Hixson

Masters Theses

There are several ways to produce energy today, one of the oldest is the gasification of biomass. This process uses a fire to heat the material until it starts to produce gasses that are used as fuel. There are several types of biomass that can be used, many of which have large pieces with low bulk densities. By pelletizing the biomass bulk density increases and allows the opportunity to add in other biomass materials.

There are standards for condensing large pieces of biomass to smaller pelletized materials. Pellet Fuels Institute has set minimum standards for pellets used in the different …

Phenomenological Study On Female Engineering Leaders In The New York Utility Industry, Shelanda Gonsalves

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

This qualitative phenomenological study explored the development of women with an engineering background who became leaders. The purpose of this study was to explore the lived experiences of female engineering leaders in the New York utility sector. The research problem was why few women with engineering degrees obtain leadership positions. Women comprise half the total working population, yet few hold leadership positions, especially in the utility sector. In this study, 28 women in the New York utility sector shared experiences on their progression from engineer to leadership. The conceptual framework was the Moustakas phenomenological approach, investigating the humanistic properties of …

A Development Of Travel Time Equation For Overland Flow As Affected By Vegetation, Naga Vara Prasad Ganti

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In overland flow water research, travel time is a significant parameter used in estimating peak discharge in channels or rivers. Overland flow is assumed to be in turbulent condition to estimate travel time using Manning’s Velocity Equation (MVE). When the flow is in a laminar condition, Grismer’s Laminar Mean Velocity Equation (GLMVE) is applied but fails to consider the roughness parameter. A review of the literature shows numerous equations for overland travel time, but there is no known equation that determines the mean velocity of overland flow under laminar condition with a roughness coefficient or other coefficient related to the …

Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Biochar For Treating Wsu Parking Lot Runoff, Alan-Christian Thomas

Research Opportunities for Engineering Undergraduates (ROEU) Program 2017-18

Various pollutants including pesticides, herbicides, automotive fluids, and excess nutrients from fertilizers are found in high concentrations in urban runoff. There are many technologies that can be used to control and redirect the water flow such as retention basins, constructed wetlands, and rain gardens; however, these methods are specifically focused on controlling water and not necessarily the nutrients and contaminants in the water. There has recently been an increased interest in the potential for using additional materials (e.g., compost, charcoal) to enhance the pollution treatment ability by either adding them to the soil or by engineering prefilters to remove pollutants …

2018 Nebraska Groundwater Quality Monitoring Report

Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality: Reports

The 2001 Nebraska Legislature passed LB329 (Neb. Rev. Stat. §46-1304) which, in part, directed the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality (NDEQ) to report on groundwater quality monitoring in Nebraska. Reports have been issued annually since December 2001. The text of the statute applicable to this report follows: “The Department of Environmental Quality shall prepare a report outlining the extent of ground water quality monitoring conducted by natural resources districts during the preceding calendar year. The department shall analyze the data collected for the purpose of determining whether or not ground water quality is degrading or improving and shall present the …

Assessing The Feasibility Of Soil Infiltration Trenches For Highway Runoff Control On The Island Of Oahu, Hawaii, Martina Sobotkova, Jaromir Dusek, Ghasem Alavi, Laxman Sharma, Chittaranjan Ray

Nebraska Water Center: Faculty Publications

The coastal waters of Hawaii are extremely important for recreation as well as for the health of the marine environment. Non-point source pollution from storm runoff poses a great threat to surface water quality in Hawaii. The State of Hawaii Department of Transportation (HDOT) includes infiltration trenches as a best management practice (BMP) option to reduce pollution caused by stormwater runoff. HDOT guidelines state that the implementation of BMPs is needed to reduce sediment and pollutant loads to streams and the ocean. In this study, the suitability of soils adjacent to highways on Oahu for the siting of infiltration trenches …

A Multi-Criteria And Dynamic Sustainability Assessment Of Crop Rotation Alternatives, Saturnina Fabian Nisperos

Computational Modeling & Simulation Engineering Theses & Dissertations

With the food security challenge faced by nations globally, agriculture sustainability has been a significant consideration for concerned agencies. Sustainability assessments are significant tools in providing support to stakeholders in their crop production planning. Agricultural sustainability assessment, however, is complex and it involves numerous criteria that can be conflicting. Limitations on crop rotation sustainability assessment methods include: non-dynamic assessment; lack of regard to cover crops and to the individual crop production preferences of farmers; and focused only on single-year and single-crop rotation. We sought to address these limitations by developing a multi-criteria and dynamic sustainability assessment model that considers the …