Civil and Environmental Engineering Commons^™

Getting Seniors Moving Through Broome County, Nicole A. Zulu

MPA Capstone Projects 2006 - 2015

Faith in Action (FIA) is interested in expanding and restructuring its transportation program for seniors. FIA lacks the volunteers and program structure to serve all 449 clients. In 2013, transportation accounted for 66% of requested services, while only 30% of active volunteers are willing to provide transportation services. FIA is interested in learning volunteers' motivations and the best practices for volunteer recruitment and management, as well as the most effective way to structure a volunteer-provided transportation program.

Fema Region Iii Coastal Flood Study - Hampton Roads Adaptation Forum, Robin Danforth

March 28, 2014: Addressing Current and Future Vulnerability through Floodplain Management

No abstract provided.

Agenda: Fracking, Water Quality And Public Health: Examining Current Laws And Regulations, Network For Public Health Law, American Society Of Law, Medicine & Ethics, Public Health Law Research Program

Fracking, Water Quality and Public Health: Examining Current Laws and Regulations (March 20)

Improved technology developments in directional drilling and hydraulic fracturing, more commonly known as "fracking," have resulted in an oil and gas production boom nationwide. Fracking involves pumping pressurized water, sand, and chemicals down wells to crack bedrock, freeing petroleum and natural gas. Wastewater discharges, hydraulic fracturing fluid releases, and other accidental spills pose potential water quality risks, sparking concern for public health.

This webinar will examine the laws and regulations governing water quality issues related to fracking, recent state court decisions affecting regulations, and implications for public health.

Slides: Best Management Practices For Oil And Gas Development And Comparative Water Quality Database Of Regulations Relating To Shale Oil And Gas, Matt Samelson, University Of Colorado Boulder. Getches-Wilkinson Center For Natural Resources, Energy, And The Environment. Intermountain Oil And Gas Bmp Project

Fracking, Water Quality and Public Health: Examining Current Laws and Regulations (March 20)

Presenter: Matt Samelson, J.D., Attorney, Consultant for Intermountain Oil and Gas Best Management Practices (BMP) Project, Getches-Wilkinson Center for Natural Resources, Energy and the Environment, University of Colorado Law School

34 slides

Agenda: Natural Resource Industries And The Sustainability Challenge, University Of Colorado Boulder. Getches-Wilkinson Center For Natural Resources, Energy, And The Environment, University Of Colorado Boulder. The Colorado Law Energy Innovation Initiative

Natural Resource Industries and the Sustainability Challenge (Martz Winter Symposium, February 27-28)

"An International Conference hosted by The Getches-Wilkinson Center for Natural Resources, Energy, and the Environment and The Colorado Law Energy Innovation Initiative."

For more than two decades, sustainability has gained currency as a broad organizing principle for efforts to develop and use energy, natural resources, and the environment in ways that allow society to meet its needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. More recently, sustainability has been embraced by businesses across multiple sectors as part of a broader movement of corporate social responsibility. Hardly a day goes by without news of another corporate initiative …

Slides: Comments Of Jeff Bingaman, Jeff Bingaman

Natural Resource Industries and the Sustainability Challenge (Martz Winter Symposium, February 27-28)

Presenter: Jeff Bingaman, former Chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and U.S. Senator from New Mexico

6 slides

More Urban Form, Fewer Auto Trips, Kelly J. Clifton

TREC Project Briefs

Trip generation refers to the number of vehicle trips that are predicted to originate in a given zone. The Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) publishes standard trip generation rates for various land use types, but these rates are primarily measured in low-density suburban areas. There is national interest in building data that expands upon the existing ITE trip generation rates to include sites located in a multi-modal context.

In areas that have a more compact urban form, better access to transit and a greater mix of land uses, fewer vehicle trips may be generated there than ITE rates indicate. However, …

Generic Incident Model For Investigating Traffic Incident Impacts On Evacuation Times In Large-Scale Emergencies, Andrew J. Collins, Peter Foytik, Erika Frydenlund, R. Michael Robinson, Craig A. Jordan

VMASC Publications

Traffic incidents cause a ripple effect of reduced travel speeds, lane changes, and the pursuit of alternative routes that results in gridlock on the immediately affected and surrounding roadways. The disruptions caused by the secondary effects significantly degrade travel time reliability, which is of great concern to the emergency planners who manage evacuations. Outcomes forecast by a generic incident model embedded in a microscopic evacuation simulation, the Real-Time Evacuation Planning Model (RtePM), were examined to quantify the change in time required for an emergency evacuation that results from traffic incidents. The incident model considered vehicle miles traveled on each individual …

An Explanatory And Comparative Analysis Of Freight Transportation In Eu And U.S. Highways, Luis Alberto Hernandez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This thesis provides resources for data collection regarding road freight transportation in the Unites States and the European Union, as well as an explanatory description of data available at each source. Afterwards, individual analysis of the current state of affairs of the highway freight transportation systems in U.S. and EU are performed. Thereafter, an explanatory and comparative analysis between the two land freight transportation systems is performed in terms of regulatory authorities and associations, trucks volume flow, freight weight and volume flow, major issues affecting the system, infrastructure funding sources, and major logistics hubs. Besides, a correlation analysis was performed …

Motive And Conflict In The Disaster Recovery Process Of Housing Reconstruction In Sri Lanka After The 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, Chang Yeol Choi, Riki Honda

International Institute for Infrastructure Resilience and Reconstruction (I3R2) Conference

Normative solutions for the successful recovery from large-scale disasters have been presented by various researches, but implementation requires a long process, and mechanism for the process to continue is necessary. We consider the consistency among strategies of stakeholders such as government and NGOs. These players make a decision based on not only direct motive but various complex motives and interaction with other players. This paper considers interactive decision-making as a game among stakeholders. As a case to study, we analyze housing reconstruction project in Sri Lanka after the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami. There was relatively abundant financial support, but the …

Wider Dissemination Of Household Travel Survey Data Using Geographical Perturbation Methods, Kelly J. Clifton, Steven R. Gehrke

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Public agencies spend vast amounts of money collecting information about passenger travel in household travel surveys. These data are valuable for the rich and detailed information they provide, which contribute to regional and statewide travel demand models. These data have utility beyond travel demand modeling in their application to transportation policy and travel behavior research. As the demand on these data increase, so have the quantity of information collected. Detailed geospatial referencing of the home, work and other travel destinations are common practice and permit the integration with other spatially archived data sources, such as land use characteristics, transportation system …

Investigation Motorcycle Safety At Exit Ramp Sections By Analyzing Historical Crash Data And Rider’S Perception, Hongyun Chen, Chanyoung Lee Ph.D., Aicp, Ptp, Pei-Sung Lin

CUTR Faculty Journal Publications

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the safety performance of four exit ramp types and the major contributing factors on motorcycle crashes and injury severity of motorcycle riders. A six-year crash data were collected in Florida, and a web-based survey (234 samples) was conducted. 573 crashes were found at 419 exits, including 178 diamond exits, 71 directional exits, 85 loop exits and 85 outer connection exits. For a diamond exit, both the survey and crash data showed that this type was safer and more preferable by motorcycle riders; while a loop exit was the most dangerous exit due …

Performance Comparison Of Design-Build And Construction Manager/General Contractor Highway Projects, Binita Shakya

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Researchers have conducted numerous studies comparing project performance of design-bid-build (DBB) and design-build (DB) highway projects. However, little research has been done to compare the performance of DB and construction manager/general contractor (CM/GC) highway projects. Therefore, an exploratory study was conducted to compare the performance of 55 DB and 34 CM/GC highway projects from various States Departments of Transportation (DOTs) in terms of cost, change orders, and construction intensity. The results showed that contract award cost growth was significantly lower in DB projects than in CM/GC projects. In contrast to this, the total cost growth of DB projects was higher …

A Simple Method For Estimation Of Queue Length, S. P. Anusha, Lelitha Devi Vanajakshi, Anuj Sharma

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Faculty Publications

Urban arterials are characterized by frequent intersections. Queue length and delay are the two primary measures of performance of intersection. These measures play a primary role in determining the arterial performance. This article presents a methodology to determine the number of vehicles in queue at a signalized intersection for under saturated traffic conditions. The results obtained were validated using actual values that are manually extracted. The root-mean-square error is of the range 1.3 vehicles for estimation of number of vehicles in queue. The various aspects that have to be considered in accurate estimation of performance measures are also discussed.

Educational Campaign For Improving Pedestrian Safety: A University Campus Study, Yu Zhang, Makarand Gawade, Pei-Sung Lin, Trenda Mcpherson

CUTR Faculty Journal Publications

Florida is the state with the highest pedestrian fatality rate per unit population in the U.S. In addition to engineering countermeasures, educational efforts directed to pedestrians and other road users are equally important for improving pedestrian safety. To explore educational formats and identify effective educational methods, the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) sponsored a pilot program called “Bulls Walk and Bike Week Campaign” on the Tampa campus of the University of South Florida (USF). A before-and-after comparison study was designed to evaluate the effectiveness of this campaign. In the study, observational surveys and a questionnaire survey were conducted to compare …

Quantifying Risks Of Climate Change And Sea Level Rise To Naval Station Norfolk (Serdp Rc-1701), Kelly Burks-Copes

October 2, 2013: Quantifying Risks and Moving Forward

No abstract provided.

Developing A Framework For Determining The Contribution Of Transportation Project To Sustainable Development, Karim Ahmed Abdel Warith

Open Access Dissertations

In the past few years, stakeholders in the transportation industry have been concerned with sustainability. However, transportation decision makers have had difficulty incorporating sustainability into transportation infrastructure decisions. This is mainly attributed to the vagueness of the term. Incorporating sustainability into transportation decision making has been a desire put forth by engineers for that past 10 years. However, with no apparent method of defining sustainability, designers and decision makers have not been able to fulfill this desire.

This investigation attempts to define sustainability in a comprehensive and quantitative manner. The research proposes a new methodology that relies on the objective …

2012 Portland Metropolitan Region Transportation System Performance Report, Robert L. Bertini, Dean George, Matthew Downey

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Our transportation system is a key ingredient in the economy, quality of life and urban fabric of the Portland metropolitan area. It has been stated in the past that it is not possible to manage our transportation system tomorrow unless we understand how it is performing today. In this spirit, Portland State University has been working with regional and statewide partners to develop new capabilities to measure, monitor and track the performance of the transportation system in real time and using archived data sources. We believe that it is possible to leverage these disparate data sources toward providing better transportation …

Issue Brief: Saving By Mitigating, University Of Louisville, New England Environmental Finance Center

Sustainable Communities Capacity Building

Natural disasters can cause loss of life, inflict damage to buildings and infrastructure, and have devastating consequences for a community’s economic, social, and environmental well-being. Hazard mitigation means reducing damages from disasters.

Local governments have the responsibility to protect the health, safety, and welfare of their citizens. Proactive mitigation policies and actions help reduce risk and create safer, more disaster-resilient communities. Mitigation is an investment in your community’s future safety, equity, and sustainability.

Transit Bus Fleet Age And Replacement Type Optimization, Miguel A. Figliozzi, Wei Feng, Jesse Boudart

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Due to recent budget and fiscal constraints, it is ever more imperative for transit agencies to manage their fleets in an optimal way. Fleet data have consistently shown that bus operational and maintenance (O&M) per-mile costs increase as buses age. From a purely economic perspective, there is a cost tradeoff between the lower O&M costs of newer fleets and their higher initial capital costs. This tradeoff has a significant impact on the optimal timing of purchase and replacement decisions. Utilizing realistic cost data and an optimization modeling framework, we analyze (a) the impact of purchase timing decisions on fleet per-mile …

Research On Safety Supervision Of Tianjin Nanjiang Port Liquefied Natural Gas Floating Storage And Regasification Unit, Yong Xie

Maritime Safety & Environment Management Dissertations (Dalian)

No abstract provided.

Maritime Safety Supervision And Control Of Lng Vessels In China During The Marine Transportation Process, Yali Sun

Maritime Safety & Environment Management Dissertations (Dalian)

No abstract provided.

The Application Of Smart Phone, Weight-Mile Truck Data To Support Freight-Modeling, Performance Measures And Planning, Katherine E. Bell, Miguel A. Figliozzi

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Oregon is one of the few states that currently charge a commercial truck weight-mile tax (WMT). The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) has developed a data-collection system – Truck Road Use Electronics (TRUE) – to simplify WMT collection. The TRUE system includes a smart phone application that collects and records Global Positioning System (GPS) data. The TRUE data has enormous advantages over GPS data used in previous research due to its level of geographic detail and the potential to also integrate trip origin and destination, vehicle class, and commodity-type data. This research evaluates the accuracy of the TRUE data and …

Calibration Of Microscopic Traffic Flow Models Considering All Parameters Simultaneously, Victor Hugo Molano Paz

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study proposes a methodology to calibrate microscopic traffic flow simulation models. The proposed methodology has the capability to calibrate simultaneously all the calibration parameters as well as demand patterns for any network topology. These parameters include global and local parameters as well as driver behavior and vehicle performance parameters; all based on multiple performance measures, such as link counts and speeds. Demand patterns are included in the calibration framework in terms of turning volumes.

A Simultaneous Perturbation Stochastic Approximation (SPSA) algorithm is proposed to search for the vector of the model‟s parameters that minimizes the difference between actual and …

Agenda: Changing Regulatory Frameworks For Shale Development And "Social License To Operate", University Of Colorado Boulder. Getches-Wilkinson Center For Natural Resources, Energy, And The Environment

Changing Regulatory Frameworks for Shale Development and "Social License to Operate" (July 24)

Rapid development of unconventional shale resources in recent years has raised a series of regulatory issues both here and abroad. Because of the "distributed" nature of shale development and the significant increase in wells in key basins, local land-use conflicts have also erupted in certain areas of the country, leading to restrictions and moratoria on drilling by state, county, and municipal governments and raising questions about the industry's continued social license to operate in key jurisdictions. This moderated panel discussion will assess the current regulatory framework governing shale gas development and the changing dynamics among federal, state, and local regulation …

Public Works For Public Learning: A Case Study, Thalia Anagnos, Beckey Carroll, Shannon Weiss, David Heil

Faculty Publications

Large scale and small scale public works projects are important in the smooth operation of every community, yet a majority of the population has little awareness of how these projects work and what their functions are. Few non-engineers understand the engineering challenges of delivering clean water, disposing of our sewage, or changing a traditional intersection into a round-about, a project that seems quite simple on the surface. A consortium of public works engineers, science museums, faculty, and exhibit evaluators were awarded a grant by the National Science Foundation to build an outdoor museum next to a large suspension bridge. The …

Public Works Projects As Vehicles For Engineering Education And Outreach, Shannon Weiss, David Heil, Thalia Anagnos

Faculty Publications

America is built on small and large feats of public works engineering that, although often taken for granted, affect almost every aspect of our daily lives. So how can we celebrate these marvels of utilitarian infrastructure and use them to teach public audiences about the engineering principles, materials, and human innovations that make them possible? This case study will share how one project addressed these questions by leveraging informal learning strategies, multi-agency collaborations, and new media technologies to explain the history and engineering of one of the world’s most recognizable public work sites: the Golden Gate Bridge. This paper will …

Measuring Walkability: Development Of An Automated Sidewalk Quality Assessment Tool, Alexandra Frackelton, Alice Grossman, Evangelos Palinginis, Felipe Castrillon, Vetri Elango, Randall Guensler

Suburban Sustainability

Sidewalks are a critical part of sustainable transportation systems, supporting pedestrian travel and healthy physical activity. Presence and quality of sidewalks is a significant predictor of perceived safety and quality of the pedestrian environment. Lack of adequate pedestrian infrastructure data has been identified as a major barrier to large-scale pedestrian planning. Sidewalk presence, width, and surface condition are identified as important indicators of facility quality and accessibility. Georgia Tech is deploying an Android tablet application to automatically generate spatial sidewalk inventories, automatically assess sidewalk quality, and prioritize sidewalk repairs. The research team has collected field data on sidewalk segments across …

Agenda: Water, Oil And Gas: Recycling And Reuse Of Water, University Of Colorado Boulder. Getches-Wilkinson Center For Natural Resources, Energy, And The Environment. Intermountain Oil And Gas Bmp Project, Rocky Mountain Land Use Institute, Sturm College Of Law, University Of Denver, Colorado Bar Association, Natural Resources & Energy Section

Water, Oil and Gas: Recycling and Reuse of Water (June 11)

Program co-chairs: Sarah Klahn, Matthew Sura; planning committee: Susan Daggett, Kathryn Mutz.

Co-sponsored by: Getches-Wilkinson Center for Natural Resources, Energy and the Environment, University of Colorado Law School, Rocky Mountain Land Use Institute, Sturm College of Law, University of Denver, Natural Resources & Energy Section of the Colorado Bar Association.

This program is the second in a 3-part series focusing on critical water, oil and gas issues in Colorado. This second program focuses on the technology behind the recycling of produced water and hydraulic back fracturing flowback fluid and the issue of mandatory recycling. It also addresses the legal implications …

Exploring Factors Contributing To Injury Severity At Freeway Merging And Diverging Locations In Ohio, Worku Y. Mergia, Deogratias Eustace, Deo Chimba, Maher Butros Qumsiyeh

Civil and Environmental Engineering and Engineering Mechanics Faculty Publications

Identifying factors that affect crash injury severity and understanding how these factors affect injury severity is critical in planning and implementing highway safety improvement programs. Factors such as driver-related, traffic-related, environment-related and geometric design-related were considered when developing statistical models to predict the effects of these factors on the severity of injuries sustained from motor vehicle crashes at merging and diverging locations. Police-reported crash data at selected freeway merging and diverging areas in the state of Ohio were used for the development of the models. A generalized ordinal logit model also known as partial proportional odds model was applied to …