Engineering Commons^™

Modeling Urban Heat Island Mitigation Strategies In Egyptian Cities Using Envi-Met, Islam M. Gaber, Abbas M. Hassan, Tarek Elkashef, Ola A. Gad, Ahmed M. Abdo, Abdelrazek Elkomy

HBRC Journal

Mitigation techniques for urban heat islands (UHI) have emerged as a critical concern for global urban environmental sustainability. Passive cooling employing cool materials and/or urban greening has shown to be the most effective strategy for mitigating the impacts of UHI. This latter method, however, is relatively new in the literature of urban environmental studies, and research on it is still limited, particularly for cities in hot-dry climatic zones. This study aims to investigate the possibility of improving albedo rates and adopting urban greening measures, such as greening building roofs, roadways, and walkways, in several Egyptian cities located in various climatic …

Proposed Modifications To The Egyptian Concrete Code Based On A Comprehensive Sustainability Assessment Of Portland Cement Alternatives For Climate Change Mitigation, Yasmin Elhakim

Theses and Dissertations

Climate change is a major challenge facing planet earth today. This phenomenon is foreseen to continue to represent a major concern for decades to come. The construction industry is one of the most polluting sectors worldwide and is considered one of the top greenhouse gas emitters. Egypt, in particular, is one of the most vulnerable countries to the adverse effects of climate change. The construction sector plays a major role in Egypt’s economy, contributing significantly to the national GDP, yet it also represents one of the country’s largest greenhouse gas emitters. However, the Egyptian Concrete Code does not enforce the …

Climate Change Impact On Cooling Energy Demand Of Major Airports In Nigeria, Abdullah C. Salihu, Yahaya Z. Ibrahim, Rukayyat Abdulkarim, Emmanuel I. Aruya

Journal of Aviation Technology and Engineering

Rising global temperatures due to climate change are intensifying the cooling energy demands of critical infrastructure, including airports. This study assesses the impact of climate change on the cooling energy needs of five major international airports in Nigeria (Abuja, Enugu, Kano, Lagos, and Port Harcourt) using cooling degree days (CDDs) derived from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6) multi-model ensemble climate projections. Monthly and annual CDD calculated with a base temperature of 18°C were obtained from the World Bank Climate Change Knowledge Portal (CCKP) at a spatial resolution of 25 km × 25 km. Percentage changes in CDD were analyzed …

Pollution And Biodiversity Loss: A Comprehensive Review Of Impacts And Mechanisms, Great Iruoghene Edo, Agatha Ngukuran Jikah, Patrick Othuke Akpoghelie, Joseph Oghenewogaga Owheruo, Endurance Fegor Isoje, Ufuoma Augustina Igbuku, Arthur Efeoghene Athan Essaghah

Al-Mustaqbal Journal of Sustainability in Engineering Sciences

Biodiversity plays a vital role in maintaining ecological balance and providing essential ecosystem services. However, human activities, including pollution and overexploitation, have led to significant biodiversity loss. Pollution has particularly emerged as a major threat to biodiversity, impacting various species and ecosystems worldwide. This article synthesizes evidence on pollution-driven biodiversity loss, emphasizing industrial, agricultural, and urban sources. We discuss cascading ecosystem impacts and propose mitigation strategies to inform policy making. Overall, the article highlights the importance of addressing the impact of pollution on biodiversity to ensure the preservation of our planet's ecology and the sustainability of our natural resources.

Exploring The Interactions Between Mining And Climate Change: A Bibliometric Analysis, Artatrana Mishra, Sarat Chandra Sahu, Manish Yadav, Nitin Kumar Singh

Journal of Sustainable Mining

The increasing demand for minerals has placed huge pressure on the mining industry to increase production, which consequently affects the environment, and, thus, contributes to climate change. Coal extraction has been reported to be a major contributor to global CO₂ emissions, mainly due to the burning of fossil fuels. As a consequence, the frequency and severity of extreme climatic events have also increased throughout the world. Mining is essential for the development of society but contributes to climate change. On the contrary, extreme weather events and rising temperatures associated with climate change affect the overall productivity of mining companies. …

Enhancing Water Supply Resilience & Sustainability: Potential Solutions To Address Water Scarcity In Bogotá, Colombia, Sophia Alvarez Wong

Master's Projects and Capstones

Municipal water utilities are in urgent need of adapting to the intensifying impacts of climate change and population growth—key drivers of urban water scarcity worldwide. In rapidly expanding cities like Bogota, Colombia, these pressures have contributed to a severe water crisis driven by prolonged droughts, ecosystem degradation, increasing water demands, and overdependence on limited water sources. This study explores potential adaptation and management strategies that utilities can implement to sustainably strengthen supply system resilience and enhance water security, in the context of low- to middle-income regions. A series of comparative and case study analyses were conducted to assess the feasibility …

Integrating Satellite-Based Precipitation Analysis: A Case Study In Norfolk, Virginia, Imiya M. Chathuranika, Dalya Ismael

Engineering Technology Faculty Publications

In many developing cities, the scarcity of adequate observed precipitation stations, due to constraints such as limited space, urban growth, and maintenance challenges, compromises data reliability. This study explores the use of satellite-based precipitation products (SbPPs) as a solution to supplement missing data over the long term, thereby enabling more accurate environmental analysis and decision-making. Specifically, the effectiveness of SbPPs in Norfolk, Virginia, is assessed by comparing them with observed precipitation data from Norfolk International Airport (NIA) using common bias adjustment methods. The study applies three different methods to correct biases caused by sensor limitations and calibration discrepancies and then …

Decadal Climate And Landform Variables Analysis In Iraq Using Remote Sensing Datasets, Sungwon Kim, Maryam Bayatvarkeshi, Atif Muhammad Ali, Kamal Ahmed

AUIQ Technical Engineering Science

Iraq has experienced record-breaking temperatures, making it one of the hottest places on Earth. It is also ranked among the world's top five most climate-vulnerable nations. Climate change is a hazard to Iraq's people and may cause societal disintegration, instability, and displacement. Therefore, it is important to assess Iraq's decadal climate and landform variables analysis. In the present study, the Climate Hazards Center InfraRed Precipitation with Station (CHIRPS) data in the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform from 2000 to 2022, as well as rainfall, anomaly, temperature, vegetation, and water, are used to analyse climate change in Iraq. As the land …

Towards Green Cities As An Approach To Achieve Climate Change Adaptation, Noha H. Hefnawy Nouran M. Ibrahim

Journal of Engineering Research

Climate change is a complicated problem and there is an urgent need for climate change adaptation. Cities are the primary drivers of social, economic, and technical progress. Green Cities are cities that show high environmental performance relative to adapting risks derived from climate change while maximizing the economic and social co-benefits. The Authors adopted a data collection strategy to review the issues, and difficulties caused by climate change and how green cities could assist in addressing them, then adopted a case study analysis to analyze the strategies used by Sharm El Sheikh in the transition to green city. The study …

A Comparative Analysis In Energy Efficiency In Buildings To Support Clean Energy Transitions In Architecture, Nourhane M. El-Haridi

Journal of Engineering Research

Over the past few decades, there has been a growing recognition of the importance of energy efficiency policies in designing buildings for supporting clean energy transitions. Buildings account for a significant share of global energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, and improving their energy efficiency in the design phase can reduce energy use and emissions, while also providing numerous other benefits such as cost savings, improved comfort and health, and job creation. Many countries have already implemented energy efficiency policies in buildings, such as building codes, standards, labeling schemes, and financial incentives in addition to governmental regulations. Since the governments …

Empathy, Education, And Awareness: A Vr Hackathon’S Approach To Tackling Climate Change, Noor Alqallaf, Dalia W. Elnagar, Sherif G. Aly, Khalil I. Elkhodary, Rami Ghannam

Faculty Journal Articles

Climate change education is crucial for fostering informed and engaged future generations. However, traditional pedagogies often fail to engage learners fully and provide real-world, experiential learning. This paper presents a novel approach to climate change education through a three-day virtual reality (VR) hackathon. The hackathon focused on four United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)—Quality Education, Affordable and Clean Energy, Sustainable Cities and Communities, and Climate Action. Using VR technology and game design software, engineering students worked in teams. They competed against each other in designing immersive environments that demonstrated their understanding of these SDGs and climate change. Our goal …

Youth Resilience Toward Climate Smart Agriculture Technology Adoption In Brunei Darussalam, Rosita Hassan, Wida S. Suhaili, Beston F. Nore, Mohamad A. Basuni

ASEAN Journal on Science and Technology for Development

Climate change and food security are critical issues to be addressed, nationally and globally, to reach sustainable agricultural development goals to feed the growing human population. The great challenge is to adapt to the climate change and in the meantime increase food production with sustainable farming practices that require farmers to have a paradigm shift toward climate smart agricultural technology (CSAT). Encouraging farmers to adopt and implement CSAT have become a priority for governmental policy making programmes. The question is what are the measures that can be taken for Brunei to leapfrog into this technology bandwagon to revitalise farmers for …

Impact Of Irrigation On Vulnerability Of Winter Wheat Under Extreme Climate Change Scenario: A Case Study Of North China Plain, Yulian Gao, Lin Wang, Yaojie Yue

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

An inadequate understanding of the impacts of adaptation countermeasures tends to exaggerate the adverse e􀀀ects of climate change on agricultural systems. Motivated by proposing reasonable climate change adaptation countermeasures, the present study applied the EPIC model to quantify the impacts of climate change and irrigation changes with future socioeconomic development on agricultural production. Winter wheat yield losses using dynamic irrigation parameters in the North China Plain (NCP) from 2010 to 2099 under a scenario coupling climate change and future socioeconomic development (RCP8.5-SSP3), and those under an extreme climate change scenario (RCP8.5), were simulated. Results show that EPIC model demonstrates superior …

Alca: Comparing Icelandic Aluminum Emissions To The World Through Statistical Reasoning And Programming-Based Predictive Tools, Markus Sujansky

Iceland: Climate Change and The Arctic

Aluminum production is a process that is heavily reliant on large amounts of available

energy, and therefore lends itself to locations where energy production is abundant. Iceland, as a global leader in Geothermal and Hydropower energy, has experienced an industrial boom in the past 20-30 years, quickly becoming a top 10 worldwide aluminum producer. However, although the three main companies that operate their smelting processes in the country are powered by clean energy, they still import raw materials from all over the world, with source locations ranging from Brazil to Australia. In order to find out if the long distance …

Aquaculture In Hydropower Reservoirs, Racheal Macharia

Tanzania Journal of Engineering and Technology (TJET)

There is an undoubtedly existing relationship between water, energy, and food and their interaction with the natural environment and mankind. Climate change is the talk of the day in global development discussions as it intensifies water shortages, energy, poverty, food shortages, and environmental degradation. Currently, most of the hydropower dams constructed in Africa are majorly built to store water for agricultural purposes, control flooding, and generate electricity. Notable projects include the seven forks hydropower stations located on the Tana River in Kenya; Aswan high dam in Egypt; Grand Renaissance dam in Ethiopia; Kariba dam in Zimbabwe and Akosombo in Ghana. …

How Active Rainwater Harvesting May Help Reduce Nuisance Flooding: Flood Analysis And Social Barriers To Adoption, Isabel Lopez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

As urbanization continues to expand, fewer pervious surfaces are available to help reduce stormwater runoff from rainfall. The impacts of urbanization are becoming evident through sunny day flooding - flooding that occurs in areas not designated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) as flood zones. Nevertheless, water accumulates in low-lying areas and compromises street intersections and other parts of neighborhoods. Some methods can help alleviate the impacts of unexpected heavy rains, such as passive and active rainwater harvesting. As a pilot study, in a selected area in the northeast of El Paso, the level of adoption (e.g., what percentage …

Climate Change And The Law Of National Security Adaptation, Mark P. Nevitt

Faculty Articles

The Department of Defense (DoD) is the largest employer in the world, owns and operates an enormous global real estate portfolio, and emits more Greenhouse Gases (GHGs) than many nations. Entrusted with the national security, the DoD is now threatened by a new enemy—climate change. Climate change imperils national security infrastructure while undermining the military’s capacity to respond to climate-driven disasters at home and abroad. However, legal scholarship has yet to address what I call “the law of national security adaptation” and related questions. For example, how do environmental and climate change laws apply to the U.S. military? What laws …

Uncertainties In Wave-Driven Longshore Sediment Transport Projections Presented By A Dynamic Cmip6-Based Ensemble, Amin Reza Zarifsanayei, José A.A. Antolínez, Nick Cartwright, Amir Etemad-Shahidi, Darrell Strauss, Gil Lemos, Alvaro Semedo, Rajesh Kumar, Mikhail Dobrynin, Adem Akpinar

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

In this study four experiments were conducted to investigate uncertainty in future longshore sediment transport (LST) projections due to: working with continuous time series of CSIRO CMIP6-driven waves (experiment #1) or sliced time series of waves from CSIRO-CMIP6-Ws and CSIRO-CMIP5-Ws (experiment #2); different wave-model-parametrization pairs to generate wave projections (experiment #3); and the inclusion/exclusion of sea level rise (SLR) for wave transformation (experiment #4). For each experiment, a weighted ensemble consisting of offshore wave forcing conditions, a surrogate model for nearshore wave transformation and eight LST models was used. The results of experiment # 1 indicated that the annual LST …

Changes To Sea Surface Temperatures And Vertical Wind Shear And Their Influence On Tropical Cyclone Activity In The Caribbean And The Main Developing Region, Keneshia Hibbert, Equisha Glenn, Thomas M. Smith, Jorge E. González-Cruz

Publications and Research

Sea surface temperatures and vertical wind shear are essential to tropical cyclone formation. TCs need warm SSTs and low shear for genesis. Increasing SSTs and decreasing VWS influences storm development. This work analyzes SST and VWS trends for the Caribbean, surrounding region, and the Atlantic hurricane main developing region from 1982–2020. Storm intensity increases significantly during this period. Annual and seasonal trends show that regional SSTs in the MDR are warming annually at 0.0219 °C yr⁻¹ and, per season, 0.0280 °C yr⁻¹. Simultaneously, VWS decreases during the late rainfall season, at 0.056 m/s yr⁻¹ in the …

Flood Hazard Index Application In Arid Catchments: Case Of The Taguenit Wadi Watershed, Lakhssas, Morocco, Mustapha Ikirri, Farid Faik, Fatima Zahra Echogdali, Isabel Margarida Horta Ribeiro Antunes, Mohamed Abioui, Kamal Abdelrahman, Mohammed S. Fnais, Abderrahmane Wanaim, Mouna Id-Belqas, Said Boutaleb, Kochappi Sathyan Sajinkumar, Adolfo Quesada-Román

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

During the last decade, climate change has generated extreme rainfall events triggering flash floods in short periods worldwide. The delimitation of flood zones by detailed mapping generally makes it possible to avoid human and economic losses, especially in regions at high risk of flooding. The Taguenit basin, located in southern Morocco, is a particular case. The mapping of the flood zones of this basin by the method of the Flood Hazard Index (FHI) in a GIS geographic information systems environment was based on the multi-criteria analysis, taking into consideration the seven parameters influencing these extreme phenomena, namely rainfall, slope, flow …

Anthropogenic Stressors Compound Climate Impacts On Inland Lake Dynamics: The Case Of Hamun Lakes, Arash Modaresi Rad, Jason Kreitler, John T. Abatzoglou, Kendra Fallon, Kevin R. Roche, Mojtaba Sadegh

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Inland lakes face unprecedented pressures from climatic and anthropogenic stresses, causing their recession and desiccation globally. Climate change is increasingly blamed for such environmental degradation, but in many regions, direct anthropogenic pressures compound, and sometimes supersede, climatic factors. This study examined a human-environmental system – the terminal Hamun Lakes on the Iran-Afghanistan border – that embodies amplified challenges of inland waters. Satellite and climatic data from 1984 to 2019 were fused, which documented that the Hamun Lakes lost 89% of their surface area between 1999 and 2001 (3809 km² versus 410 km²), coincident with a basin-wide, multi-year …

Hydrologic Profiles And Geospatial Trend Analysis Evaluating Recurrent Flooding At Coastal U.S. Air Force Installations, Dylan D. Bechen

Theses and Dissertations

Military installations are exposed to numerous threats, including a changing climate and the risk of recurrent flooding. The four components of recurrent flooding are sea-level rise, tidal fluctuations, storm surges, and precipitation. This research analyzed 40 years of historical precipitation and tidal data at 17 coastal U.S. Air Force installations using indicators of both peak and threshold exceedances to identify long-term temporal trends in the hydrologic components that make up recurrent flood risk, establishing an installation’s “hydrologic profile” which can be used to better inform decision makers when evaluating portfolio-wide adaptation strategies and prioritization of long-term infrastructure investments.

Increasing Heat-Stress Inequality In A Warming Climate, Mohammad Reza Alizadeh, John T. Abatzoglou, Jan F. Adamowski, Jeffrey P. Prestemon, Bhaskar Chittoori, Ata Akbari Asanjan, Mojtaba Sadegh

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Adaptation is key to minimizing heatwaves' societal burden; however, our understanding of adaptation capacity across the socioeconomic spectrum is incomplete. We demonstrate that observed heatwave trends in the past four decades were most pronounced in the lowest-quartile income region of the world resulting in >40% higher exposure from 2010 to 2019 compared to the highest-quartile income region. Lower-income regions have reduced adaptative capacity to warming, which compounds the impacts of higher heatwave exposure. We also show that individual contiguous heatwaves engulfed up to 2.5-fold larger areas in the recent decade (2010–2019) as compared to the 1980s. Widespread heatwaves can overwhelm …

On A New Framework For Detecting, Classifying, And Forecasting Floods For Large-Scale Flood Risk Analysis, Equisha Glenn

Dissertations and Theses

Increasing trends in flooding events are projected to continue as climate changes have increased the chance of extreme weather events. Given the significant, damaging impacts of extreme floods, the ability to effectively model floods is crucial for risk management and mitigation of the impacts of these extreme flooding events. This dissertation presents a new framework for detecting and predicting large-scale flood risk in the United States using climate information. This methodology categorizes regional, simultaneous floods into an index that is used to forecast the risk of extreme flooding a season ahead. The index proposed herein, named the Spatial Flood Index …

Empirical Assessment Of Climate Change Impacts On Agriculture In Samarkand Region, Sh.B. Babakholov

Irrigation and Melioration

Agricultural production is highly sensitive to climate factors like other endogenous factors, and the expected climate change projections may have a negative impact on the efficiency and income of agricultural producers. Therefore, this study aims to analyze the impact of changes in climatic factors (average air temperature and precipitation) on the technical efficiency of cotton growing farmers as its determinants in Samarkand region. Empirical analyzes were performed on the cases of 1141 cotton-growing farms using panel-based Time-Invariant Inefficiency model. According to the results of the analysis, cotton farms in the region have an average technical efficiency of 76%, which in …

Bibliometric Survey On Effects Of Climate Change On Incidences Of Infectious Diseases, Seema Harshad Patil, Yatharth Jain, Vedant Marathe

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

^{For understanding the influx of Infectious Diseases, research of climate change and its effects pertaining to the diseases is important. The motive of this bibliometric survey is to understand the research which has been carried out regarding the aforementioned topics. This paper summarizes the research in the 21st Century from 2001 to present. We conducted this analysis using tools such as Gephi, Researchgate, Scopus, ScienceScape, Google Scholar and Mapchart. This Bibliometric Survey on “Effects of Climate Change on Infectious Diseases” showed that maximum publications are articles. These publications are from conferences and journals related to Environmental Science. The United States …}

Climate Change Impacts The Subsurface Transport Of Atrazine And Estrone Originating From Agricultural Production Activities, Renys Enrique Barrios, Simin Akbariyeh, Chuyang Liu, Khalid Muzamil Gani, Margarita T. Kovalchuk, Xu Li, Yusong Li, Daniel D. Snow, Zhenghong Tang, John Gates, Shannon L. Bartelt-Hunt

Nebraska Water Center: Faculty Publications

Climate change will impact soil properties such as soil moisture, organic carbon and temperature and changes in these properties will influence the sorption, biodegradation and leaching of trace organic contaminants to groundwater. In this study, we conducted a modeling case study to evaluate atrazine and estrone transport in the subsurface under current and future climate conditions at a field site in central Nebraska. According to the modeling results, in the future, enhanced evapotranspiration and increased average air temperature may cause drier soil conditions, which consequently reduces the biodegradation of atrazine and estrone in the water phase. On the other hand, …

The Effect Of Climate Change On Groundwater Recharge In The United Arab Emirates, Yuliya Fadlallah Saade

Civil and Environmental Theses

Climate change is impacting ecosystems and the water resources by causing temperature variation. Evapotranspiration rates are increasing when the temperature is high whereas, precipitation amount and intensity are varying based on geographical locations.

This change in precipitation has an inevitable impact on the groundwater recharge. Quantification of groundwater recharge is a prerequisite for efficient and sustainable groundwater resources management in arid regions.

Although, both surface and groundwater resources in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are scarce; the anticipated climate change impacts could make these resources even scarcer. As such, the main aim of this thesis is to assess the potential …

An Assessment Of Renewable Energy Technology Implementation In Storrs, Connecticut: Emissions Reduction And Feasibility Of A Microgrid System At Uconn, Sophie Macdonald

Honors Scholar Theses

The purpose of this project is to design a clean energy-sourced microgrid for UConn’s main campus that would reduce the university’s energy emissions while remaining within the geographic boundaries of viable UConn-owned land. Economic cost was not considered in this analysis; instead, emissions and space constraints were the optimized measures of value and feasibility. Sources of energy that were considered include photovoltaics (PV), wind turbines, hydrokinetic systems, and fuel cells. Energy storage capacity was included in the analysis as well. The overall system was optimized first by ignoring space constraints and for a minimum of 10% reduction from the current …

Exploring The Evolution Of Drought Characteristics In Balochistan, Pakistan, Shoaib Jamro, Falak Naz Channa, Ghulam Hussain Dars, Kamran Ansari, Nir Krakauer

Publications and Research

In the wake of a rapidly changing climate, droughts have intensified, in both duration and severity, across the globe. The Germanwatch long-term Climate Risk Index ranks Pakistan among the top 10 countries most affected by the adverse effects of climate change. Within Pakistan, the province of Balochistan is among the most vulnerable regions due to recurring prolonged droughts, erratic precipitation patterns, and dependence on agriculture and livestock for survival. This study aims to explore how the characteristics of droughts have evolved in the region from 1902–2015 using 3-month and 12-month timescales of a popular drought index, the Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration …