Engineering Commons^™

Road Scholars For The Western States: Protecting Natural Areas By Improving Road Management Research, Brian Cooke, Charlie Luce, Tom Black, David G. Tarboton

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

A poorly placed or unsuitably designed road can result in landslides, flooding, gullies, stream damage, and wildlife habitat destruction. Particularly in natural areas, benefits of roads, such as accessibility and convenience, must be weighed against potential water quality degradation, scenic and wildlife habitat destruction, and hazardous driving conditions.

Scientists at the Rocky Mountain Research Station helped create two free tools—GRAIP (Geomorphic Road Analysis and Inventory Package) and GRAIP-Lite—to help land managers make better decisions about road management in environmentally sensitive areas. GRAIP helps land managers analyze and predict surface erosion, gully risk, landslide risk, stream crossing failure risks, and other …

Comparison Of Selected Differential Producing, Ultrasonic And Magnetic Flow Meters, Johnny B. Prettyman, Michael C. Johnson, Steven L. Barfuss

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Selecting the best flow meter for a specific application can be challenging because of the many types and designs of flow meters, with each having its own merits and drawbacks. Illustrating these specific benefits and drawbacks can help the buyer select the meter best suited for the desired application. The flow meters investigated in this research include five designs of differential-pressure meters (i.e., differential-producing), a magnetic flow meter, and an ultrasonic flow meter. The differential meters included the Venturi designs, the wedge flow meter, and the V-cone meter. Testing was completed at the Utah Water Research Laboratory to quantify the …

Long-Term Winter Inversion Properties In A Mountain Valley Of The Western United States And Implications On Air Quality, Shih-Yu (Simon) Wang, Lawrence E. Hipps, Oi-Yu Chung, Robert R. Gillies, Randy S. Martin

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Because of the geography of a narrow valley and surrounding tall mountains, Cache Valley (located in northern Utah and southern Idaho) experiences frequent shallow temperature inversions that are both intense and persistent. Such temperature inversions have resulted in the worst air quality in the nation. In this paper, the historical properties of Cache Valley’s winter inversions are examined by using two meteorological stations with a difference in elevation of approximately 100 m and a horizontal distance apart of ~4.5 km. Differences in daily maximum air temperature between two stations were used to define the frequency and intensity of inversions. Despite …

Hydroshare: Sharing Diverse Environmental Data Types And Models As Social Objects With Application To The Hydrology Domain, Jeffery S. Horsburgh, Mohamed M. Morsy, Anthony M. Castronova, Jonathan L. Goodall, Tian Gan, Hong Yi, Michael J. Stealey, David G. Tarboton

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

The types of data and models used within the hydrologic science community are diverse. New repositories have succeeded in making data and models more accessible, but are, in most cases, limited to particular types or classes of data or models and also lack the type of collaborative and iterative functionality needed to enable shared data collection and modeling workflows. File sharing systems currently used within many scientific communities for private sharing of preliminary and intermediate data and modeling products do not support collaborative data capture, description, visualization, and annotation. In this article, we cast hydrologic datasets and models as “social …

Effects Of Pipe Wall Offsets On Differential Pressure Meter Accuracy, Jesse M. Pope, Steven L. Barfuss, Michael C. Johnson, Zachary B. Sharp

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Accurate flow measurement is essential for the management of any type of fluid system. This research investigated the effect on accuracy that five types of 12-in. differential-pressure flow meters have as a result of being installed in pipelines of differing inside diameter. The types of meters chosen for this research were the classical Venturi meter, Halmi Venturi Tube, wedge meter, V-cone meter, and the X-meter. Each meter was tested for accuracy with 10 pipe wall offsets varying from a 0.125-in. sudden contraction to a 0.937-in. sudden expansion of the pipe radius. The meters' reading during each test series was compared …

Assessment Of Surface Soil Moisture Using High-Resolution Multi-Spectral Imagery And Artificial Neural Networks, Leila Hassan-Esfahani, Alfonso F. Torres-Rua, Austin M. Jensen, Mac Mckee

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Many crop production management decisions can be informed using data from high-resolution aerial images that provide information about crop health as influenced by soil fertility and moisture. Surface soil moisture is a key component of soil water balance, which addresses water and energy exchanges at the surface/atmosphere interface; however, high-resolution remotely sensed data is rarely used to acquire soil moisture values. In this study, an artificial neural network (ANN) model was developed to quantify the effectiveness of using spectral images to estimate surface soil moisture. The model produces acceptable estimations of surface soil moisture (root mean square error (RMSE) = …

Modeling The Snow Surface Temperature With A One-Layer Energy Balance Snowmelt Model, J. You, David G. Tarboton, C. H. Luce

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Snow surface temperature is a key control on and result of dynamically coupled energy exchanges at the snow surface. The snow surface temperature is the result of the balance between external forcing (incoming radiation) and energy exchanges above the surface that depend on surface temperature (outgoing longwave radiation and turbulent fluxes) and the transport of energy into the snow by conduction and meltwater influx. Because of the strong insulating properties of snow, thermal gradients in snow packs are large and nonlinear, a fact that has led many to advocate multiple layer snowmelt models over single layer models. In an effort …

Hydroshare: Advancing Collaboration Through Hydrologic Data And Model Sharing, David G. Tarboton

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

HydroShare is an online, collaborative system being developed for open sharing of hydrologic data and models. The goal of HydroShare is to enable hydrology researchers to easily discover and access hydrologic data and models, retrieve them to their desktop for local analysis and perform analyses in a distributed computing environment that may include grid, cloud or high performance computing. Users may also share and publish outcomes (data, results or models) into HydroShare, using the system as a collaboration platform. HydroShare is expanding the data sharing capability of the CUAHSI Hydrologic Information System by broadening the classes of data accommodated. HydroShare …

Modeling The Hydrology Of The Great Salt Lake: What Makes The Great Salt Lake Go Up And Down, David G. Tarboton

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Hydroshare: Advancing Collaboration Through Hydrologic Data And Model Sharing, David G. Tarboton

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Response Of Stream Ecosystems To Climate Change (Iii): Characterizing And Predicting Ecologically Relevant Flow Regimes, David G. Tarboton, Sulochan Dhungel, Yi He, J.J. V. Laan, Ryan A. Hill, Jiming Jin

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Community Approaches To Hydrologic Data And Model Sharing Using Cloud Resources, David G. Tarboton, R. Idaszak, Jeffery S. Horsburgh, Daniel Ames, J. Goodall, L. Band, V. Merwade, A. Couch, J. Arrigo, R. P. Hooper, D. W. Valentine

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Cloud Computing

The CUAHSI HIS

• A Services-Oriented Architecture Based System for Sharing Hydrologic Data

HydroShare

• A Web-Based Collaborative Environment for the Sharing of Hydrologic Data and Models

Ozone Photochemistry In An Oil And Natural Gas Extraction Region During Winter: Simulations Of A Snow-Free Season In The Uintah Basin, Utah, P. M. Edwards, C. J. Young, K. Aikin, J. Degouw, W. P. Dubé, F. Geiger, J. Gillman, D. Helmig, J. S. Holloway, J. Kercher, B. Lerner, Randy S. Martin, R. Mclaren, D. D. Parrish, J. Peischl, J. M. Roberts, T. B. Ryerson, J. Thornton, C. Warneke, E. J. Williams, S. S. Brown

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

The Uintah Basin in northeastern Utah, a region of intense oil and gas extraction, experienced ozone (O3) concentrations above levels harmful to human health for multiple days during the winters of 2009–2010 and 2010–2011. These wintertime O3 pollution episodes occur during cold, stable periods when the ground is snow-covered, and have been linked to emissions from the oil and gas extraction process. The Uintah Basin Winter Ozone Study (UBWOS) was a field intensive in early 2012, whose goal was to address current uncertainties in the chemical and physical processes that drive wintertime O3 production in regions of oil and gas …

Combining Data From Multiple Sources Using The Cuahsi Hydrologic Information System (Invited), David G. Tarboton, Daniel Ames, Jeffery S. Horsburgh, J. L. Goodall

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

The Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science, Inc. (CUAHSI) has developed a Hydrologic Information System (HIS) to provide better access to data by enabling the publication, cataloging, discovery, retrieval, and analysis of hydrologic data using web services. The CUAHSI HIS is an Internet based system comprised of hydrologic databases and servers connected through web services as well as software for data publication, discovery and access. The HIS metadata catalog lists close to 100 web services registered to provide data through this system, ranging from large federal agency data sets to experimental watersheds managed by University investigators. The …

Advancing Cyberinfrastructure To Support High Resolution Water Resources Modeling (Invited), David G. Tarboton, F. L. Ogden, N. Jones, Jeffery S. Horsburgh

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Addressing the problem of how the availability and quality of water resources at large scales are sensitive to climate variability, watershed alterations and management activities requires computational resources that combine data from multiple sources and support integrated modeling. Related cyberinfrastructure challenges include: 1) how can we best structure data and computer models to address this scientific problem through the use of high-performance and data-intensive computing, and 2) how can we do this in a way that discipline scientists without extensive computational and algorithmic knowledge and experience can take advantage of advances in cyberinfrastructure? This presentation will describe a new system …

Impact Of Sampling Frequency On Annual Load Estimation Of Total Phosphorus And Total Suspended Solids, Amber Spackman Jones, Jeffery S. Horsburgh, David King Stevens, Nancy O. Mesner, Ronald J. Ryel

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

The determination of sediment and nutrient loads is typically based on the collection and analysis of grab samples. The frequency and regularity of traditional sampling may not provide representation of constituent loading, particularly in systems with flashy hydrology. At two sites in the Little Bear River, Utah, continuous, high-frequency turbidity was used with surrogate relationships to generate estimates of total phosphorus and total suspended solids concentrations, which were paired with discharge to estimate annual loads. The high frequency records were randomly subsampled to represent hourly, daily, weekly, and monthly sampling frequencies and to examine the effects of timing, and resulting …

Flow Measurement Accuracies Of In-Service Residential Water Meters, Devin M. Stoker, Steven L. Barfuss, Michael C. Johnson

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Water utility managers generally agree that water meters, especially mechanical water meters, experience a degradation of accuracy over time. This degradation is a function of several factors, such as wear, water quality, water velocities, throughput volumes, and installation and handling. Both a thorough understanding of the factors that affect meter accuracy and the ability to pinpoint, if possible, the optimal lifespan of any particular type of water meter in a residential distribution system are desirable for improved system management. The purpose of this article was to investigate the relationship between meter accuracy degradation and factors such as age, wear, and …

Hydroshare: An Online, Collaborative Environment For The Sharing Of Hydrologic Data And Models, David G. Tarboton, R. Idaszak, Daniel Ames, Jeffery S. Horsburgh, J. Goodall, L. Band, V. Merwade, A. Couch, J. Arrigo, R. Hooper, D. Valentine

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Hydroshare: An Online, Collaborative Environment For The Sharing Of Hydrologic Data And Models, David G. Tarboton, R. Idaszak, Daniel Ames, J. Goodall, Jeffery S. Horsburgh, L. Band, V. Merwade, C. Song, A. Couch, D. Valentine, R. Hooper, J. Arrigo, D. Maidment, T. Whiteaker

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Montana Flume Flow Corrections Under Submerged Flow, Ryan P. Willeitner, Steven L. Barfuss, Michael C. Johnson

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

A Montana flume is a Parshall flume without a diverging downstream section and is used to measure open channel flow. Under free-flow conditions, the Parshall flume and the Montana flume have the same calibration characteristics, but under submerge flows, their calibrations significantly differ. Tests were conducted at the Utah Water Research Laboratory on an acrylic 15.2-cm (6-in.) Montana flume to determine the effects of submergence on the flow readings. This type of investigation has not been previously analyzed. It was found that a standard Parshall flume rating curve overpredicted flow rates in the submerged Montana flume, up to 48%. Parshall …

The Cuahsi Community Hydrologic Information System, David G. Tarboton, D. R. Maidment, I. Zaslavsky, Daniel Ames, J. L. Goodall, R. P. Hooper, Jeffery S. Horsburgh

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Optimizing Reservoir-Stream-Aquifer Interactions For Conjunctive Use And Hydropower Production, Hala Fayad, Richard C. Peralta, Ali Forghani

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Conjunctive management of water resources involves coordinating use of surface water and groundwater resources. Very few simulation/optimization (S-O) models for stream-aquifer system management have included detailed interactions between groundwater, streams, and reservoir storage. This paper presents an S-O model doing that via artificial neural network simulators and genetic algorithm optimizer for multiobjective conjunctive water use problems. The model simultaneously addresses all significant flows including reservoir-stream-diversion-aquifer interactions in a more detailed manner than previous models. The model simultaneously maximizes total water provided and hydropower production. A penalty function implicitly poses constraints on state variables. The model effectively finds feasible optimal solutions …

The Cuahsi Community Hydrologic Information System (Invited), David G. Tarboton, D. R. Maidment, I. Zaslavsky, Daniel Ames, J. L. Goodall, R. P. Hooper, Jeffery S. Horsburgh

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Hydrologic information is collected by many individuals and organizations in government and academia for many purposes, including general monitoring of the condition of the water environment and specific investigations of hydrologic processes. Comprehensive understanding of hydrology requires integration of this information from multiple sources. The Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science, Inc. (CUAHSI) has developed a Hydrologic Information System (HIS) to provide better access to data by enabling the publication, cataloging, discovery and retrieval of hydrologic data using web services. This paper describes HIS capability developed to promote data sharing and interoperability in the Hydrologic Sciences with …

Managing Hydrologic Data, Observations And Terrain Analysis, David G. Tarboton

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Improving Concrete Containment Structures Associated With Fixed Cone Valves, B. Skyler Buck, Michael C. Johnson, Zachary B. Sharp

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Fixed-Cone valves are often used to dissipate energy and regulate flow at the low level outlet works of dams.Fixed-Cone valves, also known as Howell-Bunger valves, create an expanding conical jet allowing the energy of the water to dissipate over a large area. However, in many applications constructing the large stilling basin necessary for these valves is either not possible or not feasible. In order to reduce the relative size of the stilling basin, hoods or concrete containment structures have been used in conjunction with Fixed-Cone valves. This paper discusses the use of baffles in concrete containment structures in order to …

Terrain Analysis Using Digital Elevation Models, David G. Tarboton, Daniel W. Watson, Rob Wallace, Kimberly A. T. Schreuders, Jeremy Neff

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Cuahsi Community Hydrologic Information System, David G. Tarboton, David R. Maidment, Ilya Zaslavsky, Jon Goodall, Daniel Ames, Jeffery S. Horsburgh, Kimberly A. T. Schreuders

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Experimental Method Calibration (Mecr): A New Relative Method For Heat Flux Sensor Calibration, Craig D. Adams, A Jean, M Medina, F Miranville

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Heat flux sensor calibration is often expensive, but it is also a fundamental step to obtain valid results. According to the needs, several calibration procedures could be considered. If experimental interpretations focus on heat flux values comparison rather than true values, a relative calibration with high accuracy can be performed. This paper focuses on a new relative calibration-type method of heat flux sensors (HFSs). In general, the HFSs were originally (even recently) factory and in-house-calibrated, but this method was used to calibrate them to an exact common reading to help in performing accurate experiments and eliminating errors that could result …

Increasing Parameter Certainty And Data Utility Through Multi-Objective Calibration Of A Spatially Distributed Temperature And Solute Model, Christina J. Bandaragoda, Bethany T. Neilson

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

To support the goal of distributed hydrologic and instream model predictions based on physical processes, we explore multi-dimensional parameterization determined by a broad set of observations. We present a systematic approach to using various data types at spatially distributed locations to decrease parameter bounds sampled within calibration algorithms that ultimately provide information regarding the extent of individual processes represented within the model structure. Through the use of a simulation matrix, parameter sets are first locally optimized by fitting the respective data at one or two locations and then the best results are selected to resolve which parameter sets perform best …

Integration Of Remote Lidar And In-Situ Measured Data To Estimate Particulate Flux And Emission From Tillage Operations, Vladmir V. Zavyalov, Gail E. Bingham, Michael D. Wojcik, Jerry L. Hatfield, Thomas D. Wilkerson, Randy S. Martin, Christian Marchant, Kori D. Moore, Bill Bradford

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Agriculture, through wind erosion, tillage and harvest operations, burning, diesel-powered machinery and animal production operations, is a source of particulate matter emissions. Agricultural sources vary both temporally and spatially due to daily and seasonal activities and inhomogeneous area sources. Conventional point sampling methods originally designed for regional, well mixed aerosols are challenged by the disrupted wind flow and by the small mobile source of the emission encountered in this study. Atmospheric lidar (LIght Detection And Ranging) technology provides a means to derive quantitative information of particulate spatial and temporal distribution. In situ point measurements of particulate physical and chemical properties …