Engineering Commons^™

W(H)Ither The Oracle? Cognitive Biases And Other Human Challenges Of Integrated Environmental Modeling, Pierre D. Glynn

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Integrated environmental modeling (IEM) can organize and increase our knowledge of the complex, dynamic ecosystems that house our natural resources and control the quality of our environments. Human behavior, however, must be taken into account. Human biases/heuristics reflect adaptation over our evolutionary past to frequently experienced situations that affected our survival and that provided sharply distinguished feedbacks at the level of the individual. Unfortunately, human behavior is not adapted to the more diffusely experienced, less frequently encountered, problems and issues that IEM typically seeks to address in the simulation of natural resources and environments. While seeking inspiration from the prophetic …

Modelling Water And Land Resource Management In Dry Rainfed Areas Of India: Connecting The Environment And Technology To Institutions And Stakeholders, Vasant P. Gandhi

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The dry rainfed areas pose a serious challenge in India due to the environment of scarcity, fragility and adversity of natural resources in these areas, and the high incidence of poverty. The government has undertaken huge programs called watershed development programs in such areas to promote scientific and judicious use of the resources to improve sustainability, incomes, livelihoods. National and international contributions commit about $500 million annually for such programs. However, effective institutional arrangements are lacking and are required to combine scientific approaches with community participation and ownership, especially given the small farm sizes and high populations. This research supported …

Identification Of Spatial And Temporal Patterns Of Australian Daily Rainfall Under A Changing Climate, Tingbao Xu, Barry Croke, Michael F. Hutchinson

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Rainfall is a highly variable component of the climate system. There are substantial spatial and temporal variations in the frequency and spatial distribution of rainfall events. Little attention has been paid to the slow but ongoing variations of the spatial patterns of daily rainfall, especially over broad spatial scales. A better understanding of these variations and their long term trends would reduce uncertainty in environmental and natural resource models and improve assessment of ongoing climate change. This study examined the spatial cross-correlations of daily rainfall at 2322 high quality long run rainfall stations across Australia from 1910 to 2011, and …

Effect Of Weak Magnetic Field On Arsenate And Arsenite Removal From Water By Zerovalent Iron: An Xafs Investigation, Yuankui Sun, Xiaohong Guan, Jianmin Wang, Xiaoguang Meng, Chunhua Xu, Gongming Zhou

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In this study, a weak magnetic field (WMF), superimposed with a permanent magnet, was utilized to improve ZVI corrosion and thereby enhance As(V)/As(III) removal by ZVI at pHini 3.0-9.0. The experiment with real arsenic-bearing groundwater revealed that WMF could greatly improve arsenic removal by ZVI even in the presence of various cations and anions. The WMF-induced improvement in As(V)/As(III) removal by ZVI should be primarily associated with accelerated ZVI corrosion, as evidenced by the pH variation, Fe2+ release, and the formation of corrosion products as characterized with X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy. The arsenic species analysis in solution/solid phases at …

Dissolved And Particulate Nutrient Transport Dynamics Of A Small Irish Catchment: The River Owenabue, S. T. Harrington, Joseph R. Harrington

Publications

The objective of this research was to investigate the relationship between water and sediment discharge on the transport of nutrients: nitrogen and phosphorus. Water discharge, suspended sediment concentration and dissolved and particulate forms of nitrogen and phosphorus were monitored on the 105 km2 River Owenabue catchment in Ireland. Water discharge was found to have an influence on both particulate and dissolved nutrient transport, but more so for particulate nutrients. The particulate portion of N and P in collected samples was found to be 24 and 39 %, respectively. Increased particulate nitrogen concentrations were found at the onset of high discharge …

Method For Producing Fuel Briquettes From High Moisture Fine Coal Or Blends Of High Moisture Fine Coal And Biomass, Darrell Neal Taulbee

Center for Applied Energy Research Faculty Patents

An apparatus and method are provided for producing fuel briquettes from high moisture fine coal. The apparatus includes a coal fine pelletizer, a pellet dryer and a fuel briquette former all provided in-line for the efficient production of fuel briquettes. The method comprises forming pellets from coal fines, drying those pellets to a desired moisture content of about 1 to about 10% and forming fuel briquettes from the dried pellets.

Looking For Your Next Disruptive Technology? Try Student Competitions, Jay R. Goldberg, Phil Weilerstein

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

A Comparative Study Of Commercially Available Comfort Fabrics, Melinda Elizabeth Finnie

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

The comfort fabric market continues to grow and become more competitive. Consumers expect their active wear to deliver performance beyond simply being a barrier between their body and the environment. Textile manufacturers have taken notice, and there is a wide range of comfort fabrics on the market. This research tests fabric samples from leading comfort fabric technologies: phase change materials, nanotechnology, modified fiber structure and blends, as well as the original comfort fiber, cotton. The most widely recognized comfort fabric properties concern the thermal and moisture management of a fabric. Using a guarded sweating hot plate, standardized test methods, and …

Single Event Mitigation For Aurora Protocol Based Mgt Fpga Designs In Space Environments, Alexander Stanley Harding

Theses and Dissertations

This work has extended an existing Aurora protocol for high-speed serial I/O between FPGAs to provide greater fault recovery in the presence of high-energy radiation. To improve on the Aurora protocol, additional resets that affect larger portions of the system were used. Detection for additional error modes that occurred but were not detected by the Aurora protocol was designed. Radiation testing was performed on the Aurora protocol with the additional mitigation hardware. The test gathered large amounts of data on the various error modes of the Aurora protocol and how the additional mitigation circuitry affected the system. The test results …

Side-Stepping The Politics: Cooperative Programs, James Marshall, Garry Schnelzer

Space Dynamics Laboratory Publications

SDL Presentation on International Cooperative Programs

A Critical Review Of Research On Reuse Of Mechanically Recycled Frp Production And End-Of-Life Waste For Construction, Ardavan Yazdanbakhsh, Lawrence C. Bank

Publications and Research

For the last three decades, fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) composite materials have been widely used in major engineering industries. Managing FRP waste is becoming an important issue due to the growth in the production of FRP composite materials. In this article, the issue of FRP waste management is discussed and the commonly used methods for the handling of FRP waste are reviewed. One potentially viable use of FRP waste is in the partial replacement of fillers or aggregates in cementitious materials (particularly portland cement mortar and concrete). A number of important prior investigations performed on the use of FRP waste …

Absorption And Fluorescence Properties Of Chromophoric Dissolved Organic Matter Of The Eastern Bering Sea In The Summer With Special Reference To The Influence Of A Cold Pool, E. J. D'Sa, J. I. Goes, H. Gomes, C. Mouw

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

The absorption and fluorescence properties of chromophoric dissolved organic matter (CDOM) are reported for the inner shelf, slope waters and outer shelf regions of the eastern Bering Sea during the summer of 2008, when a warm, thermally stratified surface mixed layer lay over a cold pool ( < 2 °C) that occupied the entire middle shelf. CDOM absorption at 355 nm (ag355) and its spectral slope (S) in conjunction with excitation-emission matrix (EEM) fluorescence and parallel factor analysis (PARAFAC) revealed large variability in the characteristics of CDOM in different regions of the Bering Sea. PARAFAC analysis aided in the identification of three humic-like (components one, two and five) and two protein-like (a tyrosine-like component three, and a tryptophan-like component four) components. In the extensive shelf region, average absorption coefficients at 355 nm (ag355, mg-1) and DOC concentrations (μM) were highest in the inner shelf (0.342 ± 0.11 mg-1, 92.67 ± 14.60 μM) and lower in the middle (0.226 ± 0.05 mg-1, 78.38 ± 10.64 μM) and outer (0.185 ± 0.05 mg-1, 79.24 ± 18.01 μM) shelves, respectively. DOC concentrations, however were not significantly different, suggesting CDOM sources and sinks to be uncoupled from DOC. Mean spectral slopes S were elevated in the middle shelf (24.38 ± 2.25 μmg-1) especially in the surface waters (26.87 ± 2.39 μmg-1) indicating high rates of photodegradation in the highly stratified surface mixed layer, which intensified northwards in the northern middle shelf likely contributing to greater light penetration and to phytoplankton blooms at deeper depths. The fluorescent humic-like components one, two, and five were most elevated in the inner shelf most likely from riverine inputs. Along the productive "green belt" in the outer shelf/slope region, absorption and fluorescence properties indicated the presence of fresh and degraded autochthonous DOM. Near the Unimak Pass region of the Aleutian Islands, low DOC and ag355 (mean 66.99 ± 7.94 μM; 0.182 ± 0.05 mg-1) and a high S (mean 25.95 ± 1.58 μmg-1) suggested substantial photobleaching of the Alaska Coastal Water, but high intensities of humic-like and protein-like fluorescence suggested sources of fluorescent DOM from coastal runoff and glacier meltwaters during the summer. The spectral slope S vs. ag355 relationship revealed terrestrial and oceanic end members along with intermediate water masses that were modeled using nonlinear regression equations that could allow water mass differentiation based on CDOM optical properties. Spectral slope S was negatively correlated (r2 = 0.79) with apparent oxygen utilization (AOU) for waters extending from the middle shelf into the deep Bering Sea indicating increasing microbial alteration of CDOM with depth. Although our data show that the CDOM photochemical environment of the Bering Sea is complex, our current information on its optical properties will aid in better understanding of the biogeochemical role of CDOM in carbon budgets in relation to the annual sea ice and phytoplankton dynamics, and to improved algorithms of ocean color remote sensing for this region.

Complexity Regularized Hydrological Model Selection, Saket Pande, Liselot Arkesteijn, Luis A. Bastidas

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

This paper uses a recently proposed measure of hydrological model complexity in a model selection exercise. It demonstrates that a robust hydrological model is selected by penalizing model complexity while maximizing a model performance measure. This especially holds when limited data is available. here by a robust model, we mean a model that predicts a variable of interest conditioned on future input forcing better than a model that is fitted on limited data. We demonstrate this on a rainfall-runoff model structure, SAC-SMA, using MOPEX data set of Guadalupe river basin.

Intelligent Workflow Systems And Provenance-Aware Software, Yolanda Gil

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Workflows are increasingly used in science to manage complex computations and data processing at large scale. Intelligent workflow systems provide assistance in setting up parameters and data, validating workflows created by users, and automating the generation of workflows from high-level user guidance. These systems use semantic workflows that extend workflow representations with semantic constraints that express characteristics of the data and analytic models. Reasoning algorithms propagate these semantic constraints throughout the workflow structure, select executable components for underspecified steps, and suggest parameter values. Semantic workflows also enhance provenance records with abstract steps that reflect the overall data analysis method rather …

Automating Data Management And Sharing Within A Large-Scale, Heterogeneous Sensor Network, Jeffery S. Horsburgh, Amber Spackman Jones, Stephanie Reeder

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Hydrology researchers are collecting data using in situ sensors at high frequencies, for extended durations, and with spatial distributions that require infrastructure for data storage, management, and sharing. Managing streaming sensor data is challenging, especially in large networks with large numbers of sites and sensors. The availability and utility of these data in addressing scientific questions related to water availability, water quality, and natural disasters relies on effective cyberinfrastructure that facilitates transformation of raw sensor data into usable data product. It also depends on the ability of researchers to share and access the data in usable formats. In this paper …

Integrating Neon Data With Existing Models: An Example With The Community Land Model, Edmund M. Hart, Andrew Fox, Steve Berukoff, T. J. Hoar

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

A central challenge to environmental forecasting in hydrological and land surface modeling is how to integrate multiple data sources over a wide range of spatial scales. Furthermore how can this complex task be achieved in the most productive and reproducible way with a robust informatics architecture? At the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) we are collecting a variety of biophysical and biogeochemical measurements which can be used with models to perform temporal forecasting on decadal timescales. To take advantage of this data we are developing a data assimilation framework. Using this framework NEON data can be combined with the Community …

Geospatial Workflow Process For Modelling Complex Land Use Cover Change, Isaac Kwadwo Nti, Philip Sallis

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The challenge of modelling the ever changing land use cover (LUC) of the earth has resulted in the creation of diverse models to depict these variations. Most of the land use cover change (LUCC) models were developed for either specific projects or locations; therefore, they are not generic. Also, most of the current LUCC models have been applied to only one LUC class which is less complex, e.g. urban growth or at most two LUC classes.

This work investigated existing LUCC models with the aim of finding a generic geospatial workflow process approach for modelling complex LUCC so that the …

Simulating The Sensitivity Of Residential Wildfire Risk To Land Use Policy, Tony Prato, Travis Paveglio, Micheal Hardy

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

An integrated model is used to simulate the sensitivity of expected residential losses from wildfire [E(RLW)]) and growth of the wildland urban interface (WUI) to three land use policies in Flathead County, Montana, during the period 2010–2059. The model accounts for the complex socio-ecological interactions among climate change, economic growth and associated residential development, land use policy, homeowners’ wildfire loss mitigation actions, and forest treatments by various land management agencies. E(RLW) depends on the number of developed residential properties, the total value of residential properties, the probability that parcels containing residential properties burn, the conditional probability of residential wildfire losses, …

Sea Level Rise Effects On Acidic Pollution In A Coastal Acid Sulphate Soil Area, Ngo Dang Phong, Chu Thai Hoanh, To Phuc Tuong, Reiner Wassmann

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Bac Lieu is a coastal province in the Mekong River Delta (MRD), Vietnam. Aside from salinity intrusion from the sea, the province is strongly affected by acidic pollution as 58% of the area (250,000 ha) is overlaid with acid sulphate soil (ASS). Previous studies showed that the eminent sea level rise (SLR) would influence the hydrology and salinity of the canal networks in the province. This study, using the previously validated hydraulic and water quality model CRSAP-ACIDITY (Vietnam River Systems And Plains, coupled with ACIDITY Module), aimed at quantifying impacts of different SLR scenarios (SLR=17, 30, 50, or 75 cm) …

Open Source Map Based Software For Photovoltaic System Layout Design, Daniel P. Ames, Kasem Pinthong, Michael Scott, Rohit Khattar, David Solan, Randy Lee

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

This paper presents a new free and open source GIS-based software package, PVDesktop, for designing large or small photovoltaic (PV) energy production systems with the goal of increasing use of alternative energy. PVDesktop considers numerous factors to better reflect the characteristics of landscape specific to the area including site location, time zone, sun path, nearby weather station data, tilt and azimuth angle of the solar panels, and nearby objects such as trees and buildings that may obstruct or shadow solar radiation over the panels. PVDesktop enables the design of a solar panel layout, assesses the solar shade that could reduce …

Residential Mobility And Model Complexity - An Agent-Based Modelling Experiment On A Small Shrinking Town In Eastern Germany, Carsten M. Buchmann, Nina Schwarz

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Residential mobility is one of the major drivers of urban land use change. For urban planning it is therefore essential to understand patterns of population distribution and residential mobility in cities. Agent-based modelling has been found to be the most suitable method to investigate the complex interplay of processes, including individual location decisions. While numerous of such models have been developed in recent years, the challenge of adequate model complexity is still a hot topic. In this talk we present an agent-based model on residential mobility in the shrinking town Delitzsch in eastern Germany. The model is parameterized by a …

Ocean Acidification And Fisheries - A Bayesian Network Approach To Assessing A Wicked Problem, Russell Richards, Jan-Olaf Meynecke, Oz Sahin, Rachel Tiller, Yaije Liu

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Increased carbon dioxide emissions are driving changes in the chemistry of seawater in a process termed 'ocean acidification' (OA). Globally, this is predicted to impact on coastal fisheries, especially those consisting of calcifying organisms (e.g. mollusks and crustaceans). The impact might also depend on synergistic co-stressors such as a concomitant increase in seawater temperature and the resilience of other biota. However, the framing of OA as a future problem coupled with the complexity of coastal systems means that assessing fisheries vulnerability to OA is characterised by strong variability and uncertainty. It is further characterised by strong socio-economic dimensions given the …

Uncovering Urban System Interrelations Using Land-Use Scenario Modelling, Steffen Lauf, Birgit Kleinschmit, Dagmar Haase

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

For the conservation as well as the improvement in life quality of human beings, today’s political decision makers are challenged to tackle the complex interactions between human activities and the natural environment. In order to better understanding these interactions, we applied a well- validated land-use change model that integrates demographic and residential dynamics, including a preference-driven choice algorithm to enable the simulation of simultaneously occurring growth and shrinkage processes. We introduce 13 scenarios that combine different assumptions based on demographic and economic development, residential preferences, short-range transit accessibility preferences and planning restrictions. They are applied to test the respective effects …

Physically Based Landslide Susceptibility Models With Different Degree Of Complexity: Calibration And Verification, Giuseppe Formetta, Giovanna Capparelli, Riccardo Rigon, Pasquale Versace

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Rainfall induced shallow landslides cause significant damages involving loss of life and properties. Predicting shallow landslide susceptible locations is a complex task that involves many disciplines: hydrology, geotechnical science, geomorphology, statistics. Usually to accomplish this task two main approaches are used: a statistical model or a physically based model.

In this paper, three physically based models for landslide susceptibility analysis were integrated in the Object Modelling System (OMS) and tested in real world applications. Models presented have an increasing degree of complexity. Effects of three different hydrological components connected to the stability model and of model parameters optimization were investigated. …

Modeling Of Urban Planning Actions By Complex Transactions On Semantic 3d City Models, Maximilian Sindram, Thomas H. Kolbe

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Decision support for environmental planning requires the impact analysis of envisaged actions. These actions often are adapted from measures specified in regulations or other legal doc­uments given in natural language. Their realization involves (possibly complex) changes to specific parts of the environment. For example, the energetic retrofitting of a building typically comprises the insulation of the faҫade and replacement of the windows. In general, different actions or combinations of actions can be chosen for the optimization of certain key performance indicators (KPI) like the over­ all energy demand or C0₂ emission of a city district. This requires the assessment …

Using Genetic Algorithms To Fit Species And Habitat Parameters For Modelling The Effect Of Climate Change On Species Distributions With Stochastic Patch Occupancy Models, Gary Polhill, Alessandro Gimona

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Standard approaches to modelling the effect of climate change on species distributions model a direct link between climatic and other biophysical variables and species occupancy. Though these provide a reasonable estimate for the effects of climate change on species distributions in the future, there are a number of issues with these approaches that fail to account for dynamic landscape interactions. For example, the mass occupancy effect means that species may be observed in unsuitable habitat patches surrounding a well-populated area of highly suitable patches. Conversely, a highly suitable area may be too disconnected from other suitable patches to allow long-term …

Modeling Of Co2 Solubility In Salty Aqueous Solutions At Geological Sequestration Conditions, Lu Wang, Qingchun Yu, Lu Xia, Yinhe Zheng

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Injecting CO₂ into deep saline aquifers possesses the highest potential capacity for geological carbon storage (GCS) in order to mitigate climate change. CO₂ solubility in salty aqueous solutions plays a key role in GCS. However, the models of CO₂ solubility are scanty when the mixture of K⁺, Na⁺, Ca²⁺ and Mg²⁺ in aqueous solution is included. In this study, a simple model for CO₂ solubility is proposed covering conditions typically encountered in geological sequestration. Effect of the property and concentration of K⁺, Na⁺, Ca²⁺ and …

Linking Bayesian Belief Networks And Gis To Assess The Ecosystem Integrity In The Brazilian Amazon, Peter Verweij, Margareth Simoes, Andrei Alves, Rodrigo Ferraz, Anouk Cormont

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Deforestation and climate change heavily impact the ecosystem of the Amazon rainforest threatening its resilience and the sustainability of many human activities. Land protection may prevent ecosystems and their services to deteriorate from the pressures of agricultural expansion, population growth and wood harvesting. In the Brazilian Amazon land protection occurs in several forms such as environmental conservation, setting biodiversity priority areas and the delineation of indigenous lands. Still, the effects are not clear as understanding of the ecosystems is incomplete and responses to human actions are highly uncertain. Bayesian Belief Networks (BBN) are models that probabilistically represent correlative and causal …

Object-Based Analysis Of Multispectral Rs Data And Gis For Detection Of Climate Change Impact On The Karakoram Range Northern Pakistan, Waquar Ui Hassan Chaudhary, Åke Sivertun

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Changing climate has a great impact on northern area of Pakistan's environment and is more prone to environmental change impacts than the rest of the country due to its high elevation. However, the results of melting glaciers effect not only the local environment but also the whole country with frequent and heavy floods. Although recent technological development provided solutions of many problems to mankind, the pace of development in the field of environmental preservation technologies are much slower than needed.

Remote sensing (RS) from Satellites and Airplanes used in Geographical Information Systems (GIS) are technologies that can aid in understanding …

Modelling Spatial Relationships Between Ecosystem Services And Agricultural Production In An Agent- Based Model, Changxing Dong, Mark Brady, Yann Clough, Ullrika Sahlin, Christoph Sahrbacher, Martin Stjernman

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The collective impacts of farmers’ land management decisions on above ground ecosystem services (ES) and their implications for agriculture are poorly understood. Managing habitat to provide ES is costly but at the same time it can support higher yields through, e.g., pollination or natural pest control. Due to the mobility of ES-providers (bees, natural enemies) farmers providing habitat might also benefit their neighbours, creating interdependencies among their decisions. Interdependencies among farmers’ land-use decisions and the flow of ES in space can be considered by integrating agent-based modelling and evidence-based ES models. Such integration requires a trade-off between the land-use details …