Engineering Commons^™

Water And Sanitation Accessibility And The Health Of Rural Ugandans, Jonathan E. Mellor

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

The lack of access to sufficient water and sanitation facilities is one of the largest hindrances towards the sustainable development of the poorest 2.2 billion people in the world. Rural Uganda is one of the areas where such inaccessibility is seriously hampering their efforts at development. Many rural Ugandans must travel several kilometers to fetch adequate water and many still do not have adequate sanitation facilities. Such poor access to clean water forces Ugandans to spend an inordinate amount of time and energy collecting water - time and energy that could be used for more useful endeavors. Furthermore, the difficulty …

Community Managed Rural Water Supply Systems In The Dominican Republic : Assessment Of Sustainability Of Systems Built By The National Institute Of Potable Water And Peace Corps, Dominican Republic , Ryan W. Schweitzer

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

In the Dominican Republic economic growth in the past twenty years has not yielded sufficient improvement in access to drinking water services, especially in rural areas where 1.5 million people do not have access to an improved water source (WHO, 2006). Worldwide, strategic development planning in the rural water sector has focused on participatory processes and the use of demand filters to ensure that service levels match community commitment to post-project operation and maintenance. However studies have concluded that an alarmingly high percentage of drinking water systems (20-50%) do not provide service at the design levels and/or fail altogether (up …

Development Of Measurement And Modeling Techniques To Quantify Atmospheric Deposition Of Persistent, Bioaccumulative And Toxic Chemicals In The Great Lakes, Mark D. Rowe

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

Measurement and modeling techniques were developed to improve over-water gaseous air-water exchange measurements for persistent bioaccumulative and toxic chemicals (PBTs). Analytical methods were applied to atmospheric measurements of hexachlorobenzene (HCB), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs). Additionally, the sampling and analytical methods are well suited to study semivolatile organic compounds (SOCs) in air with applications related to secondary organic aerosol formation, urban, and indoor air quality.

A novel gas-phase cleanup method is described for use with thermal desorption methods for analysis of atmospheric SOCs using multicapillary denuders. The cleanup selectively removed hydrogen-bonding chemicals from samples, including much of …

Identifying Indicators Of Sustainable Development Using The Global Sustainability Quadrant Approach , Andres B. Tarte

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

Advances in information technology and global data availability have opened the door for assessments of sustainable development at a truly macro scale. It is now fairly easy to conduct a study of sustainability using the entire planet as the unit of analysis; this is precisely what this work set out to accomplish.

The study began by examining some of the best known composite indicator frameworks developed to measure sustainability at the country level today. Most of these were found to value human development factors and a clean local environment, but to gravely overlook consumption of (remote) resources in relation …

Performance Evaluation Of Vip Latrines In The Upper West Region Of Ghana , James W. Dumpert

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

The prevalence of Ventilated Improved Pit (VIP) latrines in Ghana suggests that the design must have a high user acceptance. The two key factors attributed to user acceptance of a VIP latrine over an alternative latrine design, such as the basic pit latrine, are its ability to remove foul odors and maintain low fly populations; both of which are a direct result of an adequate ventilation flow rate.

Adequate ventilation for odorless conditions in a VIP latrine has been defined by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the World Bank, as an air flow rate equivalent to 6 air …

Planning And Adaptation Measures For Urban Slum Communities In West Africa : Stochastic Rainfall Modeling Applied To Domestic Rainwater Harvesting And Climate Change Adaptation, Joshua R. Cowden

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

Over half of the world’s population is living in urban settlements, and most urban growth is occurring in developing countries. These countries’ economies are often unable to accommodate these rural-urban immigrations, resulting in millions of people settling in insecure communities known as urban slums. Current efforts to prevent urban slums include UN-HABITAT strategies to upgrade slums and stimulate urban/regional development. Urban metabolism analysis, which studies material and energy flows/stocks through urban processes, help decision-makers better understand their urban system. Nine lessons from past urban metabolism studies are presented to assist in finding answers on how to best solve urban slum …

Analysis Of Atmospheric Transport And The Effects Of Seasonal And Interannual Transport Variability On Measurements Made At The Pico Mountain Observatory, Jessica Marie Strane

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

A non-hierarchical K-means algorithm is used to cluster 47 years (1960–2006) of 10-day HYSPLIT backward trajectories to the Pico Mountain (PM) observatory on a seasonal basis. The resulting cluster centers identify the major transport pathways and collectively comprise a long-term climatology of transport to the observatory. The transport climatology improves our ability to interpret the observations made there and our understanding of pollution source regions to the station and the central North Atlantic region. I determine which pathways dominate transport to the observatory and examine the impacts of these transport patterns on the O₃, NO_y, NO …

Selected Chemoautotrophic Processes In Wastewater Treatment: Low Temperature Nitrification Inhibition By An Azo Dye And Biofiltration For Odor Control Of Hydrogen Sulfide, Ronald W. Martin Jr.

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

Biochemical processes by chemoautotrophs such as nitrifiers and sulfide and iron oxidizers are used extensively in wastewater treatment. The research described in this dissertation involved the study of two selected biological processes utilized in wastewater treatment mediated by chemoautotrophic bacteria: nitrification (biological removal of ammonia and nitrogen) and hydrogen sulfide (H2S) removal from odorous air using biofiltration.

A municipal wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) receiving industrial dyeing discharge containing the azo dye, acid black 1 (AB1) failed to meet discharge limits, especially during the winter. Dyeing discharge mixed with domestic sewage was fed to sequencing batch reactors at 22oC and 7oC. …