Civil and Environmental Engineering Commons^™

Calpoly 2015 Transportation Survey Report, William Riggs

City and Regional Planning Studios and Projects

In the spring of 2015, City & Regional Planning faculty conducted a campus-wide transportation survey as part of work on the campus Climate Action Plan. The survey represented spring 2014 commutes and was issued to a sample of full and part-time CalPoly faculty, staff, students and auxiliaries with assistance from Facilities Services and the Vice President for Administration and Finance.

The total number of responses was 3,961, roughly 17% of the entire campus population of roughly 23,000. Unsurprisingly, the majority of respondents were students, totaling 68.6%, while the rest were made up of faculty, staff, and visitors. Results are significant …

What Is Light Rail And How Can It Benefit Las Vegas?, Robert E. Lang

Brookings Scholar Lecture Series

Brookings Mountain West will lead an analysis of selected rail transportation systems in place and under construction throughout the United States, with an emphasis on the development of light rail systems in America's western cities. The implications for developing a light rail system in the Las Vegas Valley, including the impact on traffic congestion, environmental conditions, and the larger metropolitan economy will be explored. In addition, Keolis, a rail and transit operator in the United States and Canada, will be available to discuss the light rail option from a technological perspective. This summit is brought to you by Brookings Mountain …

Impact Of Irrigation Method On Water Use Efficiency And Productivity Of Fodder Crops In Nepal, Ajay K. Jha, Razan Malla, Mohan Sharma, Jeeban Panthi, Tarendra Lakhankar, Nir Y. Krakauer, Soni M. Pradhanang, Piyush Dahal, Madan Lall Shrestha

Publications and Research

Improved irrigation use efficiency is an important tool for intensifying and diversifying agriculture in Nepal, resulting in higher economic yield from irrigated farmlands with a minimum input of water. Research was conducted to evaluate the effect of irrigation method (furrow vs. drip) on the productivity of nutritious fodder species during off-monsoon dry periods in different elevation zones of central Nepal. A split-block factorial design was used. The factors considered were treatment location, fodder crop, and irrigation method. Commonly used local agronomical practices were followed in all respects except irrigation method. Results revealed that location effect was significant (p < 0.01) with highest fodder productivity seen for the middle elevation site, Syangja. Species effects were also significant, with teosinte (Euchlaena mexicana) having higher yield than cowpea (Vigna unguiculata). Irrigation method impacted green biomass yield (higher with furrow irrigation) but both methods yielded similar dry biomass, while water use was 73% less under drip irrigation. Our findings indicated that the controlled application of water through drip irrigation is able to produce acceptable yields of nutritionally dense fodder species during dry seasons, leading to more effective utilization and resource conservation of available land, fertilizer and water. Higher productivity of these nutritional fodders resulted in higher milk productivity for livestock smallholders. The ability to grow fodder crops year-round in lowland and hill regions of Nepal with limited water storages using low-cost, water-efficient drip irrigation may greatly increase livestock productivity and, hence, the economic security of smallholder farmers.

Using Casual Loop Diagramming To Explore The Drivers Of The Sustained Functionality Of Rural Water Services In Timor-Leste, Kate Neely, Jeffrey P. Walters

Faculty Publications - Biomedical, Mechanical, and Civil Engineering

It is recognized that international water sector development work has issues with a lack of sustained positive outcomes. A large driver of this outcome is how NGOs work with communities to implement and then manage water services. Many NGOs tend to focus their efforts on improving their reach and organisational growth by continually engaging in new projects. This behaviour is largely driven by short-term donor funding models that reward extended coverage, leaving little focus on sustained outcomes. Similarly, community-based management (CBM) schemes often impede sustained services as a result of the community’s limited capacity to operate and maintain the technology. …

Case Studies Of Cavity And External Wall Insulation Retrofitted Under The Irish Home Energy Saving Scheme: Technical Analysis And Occupant Perspectives, Aimee Byrne, Gerard Byrne, Garrett O'Donnell, Anthony Robinson

Articles

The residential sector represents 27% of primary energy consumption in Ireland. This paper examines the case study of the Irish government’s national grant scheme to encourage energy efficiency retrofit in private housing. That is the Home Energy Saving (HES) Scheme, later rebranded the Better Energy: Homes (BEH) Scheme. The methodology involved monitoring several homes immediately before and after retrofit alongside discussions with occupants. The examination focused on specific measures commonly introduced through the HES/BEH programme − cavity and external wall insulation. It has been found that a significant decrease in heat loss through the walls was measured in all cases. …

Bakken Crude Oil And The Changing Logistics Of The American Oil Industry, Austin Rau

Independent Research

The extraction of Bakken crude oil in the Williston Basin of North Dakota is transforming how petroleum is shipped. Before 2008, North American oil was carried primarily via pipeline from source regions to refineries along the Gulf Coast or to metropolitan areas close to consumers. The current pipeline system is ill-equipped to accommodate massive volumes of oil from this previously low producing region. Lack of infrastructure and high demand for “light tight oil” (LTO) led to the use of railroads as a means of moving the product to refineries across the nation. Transporting oil via rail over long distances was …

The Next Billion: Lessons In Off-Grid Electricity Development From The Global South, Peter Mcdonough

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Today about a third of the world’s population has no access to electricity, and another third has only limited access. Driven by the push for development on one hand and the reality of climate change on the other, a combination of for-profit companies, NGOs, missions, and aid organizations is looking for the silver bullet to sustainable electricity development. In order to understand the challenges facing off-grid electricity projects I used recent literature in the form of peer-reviewed journals, agency reports, news articles, and technical documents; stakeholder interviews; and on-site observations in selected case studies in Nepal, India, and Tanzania. In …

Laboratory Exercise- Mapping The Risk Of Structural Failure In Schools Due To An Earthquake, Joel Barker, Kimberly Sowards, Casey Webb

Engineering Applications of GIS - Laboratory Exercises

Utah’s present geology has been greatly dictated by tectonic stresses that have occurred over the last 0.7 Ga. A determining factor in much of this Geology is the Hingeline that runs through Salt Lake County. Throughout the history of the western North America, this has been an important weak zone. It is no surprise that this same zone is now home to the Wasatch Fault System, which accommodates some of the extension of Western North America. The steep mountains facing west toward Salt Lake City were formed from the tectonic processes of the Fault. The Wasatch Fault is a normal …

Laboratory Exercise X – Most Dangerous Places To Live In The United States Based On Natural Disasters, Joshua Alpers, Luke Kevan, Santiago Tovar

Engineering Applications of GIS - Laboratory Exercises

This laboratory assignment simulates the most dangerous places to live in the United States based on natural disasters. The natural disasters that will be used in this assignment include wild fires, earthquakes, landslides, hurricanes, tornadoes, and flooding. These inputs will be required in creating a heat map of the United States showing what locations are most likely to have a high probability of natural disasters.

Laboratory Exercise – Ideal Locations For A Family, Benjamin Barrett, Colin Esplin, Chris Garcia

Engineering Applications of GIS - Laboratory Exercises

Upon the successful completion of a college degree, many students (and their families) are offered job positions in various locations throughout the Unites States. As a result, these young families are tasked with the challenge of finding a suitable place to live in an area they are completely unfamiliar with. By using a model in ArcMap this task can be made much easier. In this lab a model will be created in ArcGIS Model Builder along with a corresponding map showing suitable locations.

Final Laboratory Project – Emergency Landing Site Map, John Chadwick, Daniel Pope, Todd Weichers

Engineering Applications of GIS - Laboratory Exercises

Utah County is constantly developing and expanding. New developments require new roads, new power lines, and changes to existing topography. GIS data is maintained and made available for the state of Utah by Utah AGRC (Automated Geographic Reference Center). GIS can be used to make an easy to update map that will display the current situation of roads, power lines, population density, and terrain. In this exercise a model will be created that will execute to create a map that will display safe emergency landing sites for recreational aircraft in Utah County.

Laboratory Exercise – Determining Evacuation Route For Deer Creek Dam Failure, Eleise Hinton, Matt Randall, Brian Packer

Engineering Applications of GIS - Laboratory Exercises

Deer Creek Reservoir holds a volume of approximately 153,000 acre-ft of water. All of this water is held back by Deer Creek dam. Below the dam, the Provo River flows through Provo Canyon and down into Provo before terminating at Utah Lake. While the chance of a dam break is considered unlikely, an extreme event such as a major earthquake could trigger a break. In the case of a dam break, residents of Provo who live in the flood path will need to know where to evacuate. This exercise will create a model to show the nearest evacuation sites for …

Laboratory Exercise — Safety On Roads, Elise Estep, Kyungmin Kim, Danielle Nixon

Engineering Applications of GIS - Laboratory Exercises

In transportation study area, safety is a great issue. GIS is appropriate to perform spatial analysis the accident history in define area. Specifically, GIS allow researchers to find an area or road segment that have high probability of any type of car accident such as Vehicle to Vehicle, Vehicle to Pedestrian, and Vehicle to Bicycle.

Final Laboratory Project - Finding The Ideal Camping Location In The Uintas, Jeffrey Baker, Josh Curtis, Ryan Egbert

Engineering Applications of GIS - Laboratory Exercises

GIS is used extensively by the United States Forest Service in mapping and research. Many resources are available online including raster data and shapefiles. The use of GIS tools allows for analyzing entire forests and finding specific points within large areas that meet certain criteria. The Ashley National Forest, High Uinta Mountains Wilderness, in northeastern Utah contains many shapefiles including roads, forest, highway, points of interest, lakes, streams, etc. The purpose of this lab is to use these available datasets to identify ideal locations to set up camp in the Uinta Mountains.

Child Safety Near Pot Shops In Denver, Jacob Flansberg, Elise Jackson, Amelia Theobald

Engineering Applications of GIS - Laboratory Exercises

Some major factors in deciding where one’s family should live include relative safety of the neighborhood, available green space such as parks and schools, grocery stores, and other commercial retail in the area. With the legalization of marijuana in states such as Colorado, proximity of these marijuana dispensaries has become another factor. The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) can be used as a measure of vegetation, and to determine areas with high levels of irrigated vegetation. Using ArcGIS Modelbuilder, the data from an NDVI analysis can be used to determine the proximity of marijuana shops to these types of greenspaces …

The Use Of Remote Sensing Technologies And Models To Study Pollutants In Pdn Region, Suhail Mahmud

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Using a suite of modeling techniques and instrumentation we study the atmospheric pollutants in the PdN Region. The first objective of this work was to measure hemi-spherically integrated, spectrally resolved solar photon flux (actinic flux) between the wavelengths 300 and 700 nm, and use the measured actinic flux to improve air quality simulations. Actinic flux was measured in the PdN region in order to calculate photolysis rate coefficients for different pollutants. The improved photolysis rate coefficients were then integrated into a photochemical air quality model (CAMx) in order to improve air quality forecasting. We present the simulations performed for a …

The Effects Of Commuter Rail On Population Deconcentration And Commuting: A Salt Lake City Case Study, Joanna Ganning, Mercedes Beaudoin, Simon Brewer, Keuntae Kim, Keunhyun Park

TREC Final Reports

All transportation systems have the ability to transform human settlement patterns, which can affect a range of social, economic and environmental issues. Considering investments in rail infrastructure have increased in recent decades (Bureau of Transportation Statistics, 2007; Israel & Cohen-Blankshtain, 2010), it is important for planners and researchers to understand how these rail systems influence land use, metropolitan development patterns, and population migration. The following paragraphs summarize the studies and their findings.

The Effects of Commuter Rail Establishment on the Relationships between the Built Environment, Travel Behavior, and Residential Self- Selection (RSS): To help regional and transportation planners better understand …

A Cracking Methodology To Assess Fracture And Fatigue Properties Of Asphalt Concrete Mixtures Using Overlay Tester, Victor M. Garcia

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Several highway agencies have either implemented or considered implementing performance tests to predict the cracking potential of asphalt concrete (AC) mixtures in the laboratory setting. One such test, the Overlay Tester (OT) test, measures the number of cycles to failure of the AC specimens by simulating the opening and closing of the cracks induced by daily temperature variations and high tensile strain generated by the traffic load. The variability of the OT test results is expressed as a major concern in reliably characterizing the cracking potential of the AC mixes.

The performance of the OT test, in general, and current …

Minimizing Environmental Impacts For Hub And Spoke Distribution Network Problems Through The Use Of Multi-Objective Evolutionary Algorithms, Ileana Delgado

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

While transportation is crucial to our economy and our personal lives, as a sector it is also a significant source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The AASHTO report states, "America's transportation system has served us well, but now faces the challenges of congestion, energy supply, environmental impacts, climate change, and threatens the economic, social, and environmental future of the nation". With respect to the environment, transportation is the most visible aspect of supply chains. Transportation emissions can be reduced by implementing approaches that contribute to GHG emissions reduction, for example, the use of low-carbon fuels, new and improved vehicle technologies, …

Impact Of Optimally Minimizing Delay Times On Safety At Signalized Intersections In Urban Areas, Case Study: The City Of Virginia Beach, Eugene Vida Maina, Albert Forde, R. Michael Robinson

VMASC Publications

Optimally minimizing delay times at signalized intersections can significantly improve both traffic flow and safety. However, most traffic flow optimizing tools do not measure the effect on safety. This study uses nonlinear programming (NLP) algorithms to optimally minimize delay times and employs both Safety performance functions (SPFs) and empirical Bayes (EB) before-after methodology to measure the impact on safety presented as a Crash Modification Factor (CMF). A crash modification factor (CMF) is a multiplicative factor used by transportation practitioners to compute the expected number of crashes at specific study site(s) after a countermeasure has been proposed or is implemented. Using …

Panic That Spreads Sociobehavioral Contagion In Pedestrian Evacuations, Terra Elzie, Erika Frydenlund, Andrew J. Collins, R. Michael Robinson

VMASC Publications

Crowds are a part of everyday public life, from stadiums and arenas to school hallways. Occasionally, pushing within the crowd spontaneously escalates to crushing behavior, resulting in injuries and even death. The rarity and unpredictability of these incidents provides few options to collect data for research on the prediction and prevention of hazardous emergent behaviors in crowds. This study takes a close look at the way states of agitation, such as panic, can spread through crowds. Group composition—mainly family groups composed of members with differing mobility levels—plays an important role in the spread of agitation through the crowd, ultimately affecting …

A Sustainability-Based Project Selection Algorithm: Socio-Technical-Economic Project Selection (Steps) Algorithm, Bharathi Bhattu

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Multi-dimensional aspects play a vital role in the task of project-decision making. Environmental effects are to be considered in addition to other technical and non-technical aspects in order to avoid undue environmental damage. This current work introduces a new decision-making algorithm (Socio-Technical-Economic Project Selection or STEPS) that is demonstrated with the use of RCA (recycled concrete aggregate) as riprap for slope stabilization and erosion control which leaches chemical arsenic when in contact with water. Arsenic has long been recognized for its lethal properties. The main intention of introducing this new algorithm is to use sustainability concepts of social, technical, and …

A Multi-Objective Sustainable Model For Transportation Asset Management Practices, Marketa Vavrova

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Transportation Asset Management (TAM) practices have gained popularity in the United States and worldwide with the aim to provide the required level of service for the transportation infrastructure network in the most cost-effective manner. However, TAM is a complex decision-making process because many objectives and different perspectives, often producing conflicting goals, must be considered.

This Dissertation presents a Multi-Objective Sustainable (MOS) model to integrate economic, social, and environmental sustainable objectives into TAM decision-making. The objective is to develop a holistic multi-objective asset management approach integrating environmental and social sustainability related performance measures with traditional indicators, such as asset condition and …

A Discretionary Lane Changing Decision Model Based On Fuzzy Inference System, Esmaeil Balal

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

A lane changing event involves up to five vehicles: the subject vehicle, preceding and following vehicles in the original lane, and the preceding and following vehicles in the target lane. Understanding the behavior of the subject vehicle with respect to the surrounding vehicles is fundamental to the study of the safety of a lane change maneuver and for the modeling of lane changing behavior. First, the statistical properties of 10 lane changing parameters were defined and studied using the Next Generation SIMulation (NGSIM) vehicle trajectory data collected at the I-80 Freeway in Emeryville, California, and then tested with data collected …

The Effect Of Community Connectivity On Water And Sanitation Systems In Rural Panama, M.C. Moritz

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

The world has yet to realize universal access to water and sanitation. Various academic and professional fields provide frameworks for understanding water and sanitation access, but none directly consider the impact of community connectivity. Community connectivity refers to the infrastructures linking rural communities with urban centers. These infrastructures fall under the broad categories of transportation, energy, and telecommunication. This paper examines 23 rural Panamanian communities and compares connectivity measures with the functionality of the communities’ rural water and sanitation systems (RWSS). Community connectivity was evaluated with the Community Connectivity Analysis Tool (CCAT), while the water and sanitation systems were evaluated …

Integrating A Simple Traffic Incident Model For Rapid Evacuation Analysis, Andrew J. Collins, R. Michael Robinson, Peter Foytik, Craig Jordan, Barry C. Ezell

VMASC Publications

Road transportation networks are a segment of society's critical infrastructure particularly susceptible to service disruptions. Traffic incidents disrupt road networks by producing blockages and increasing travel times, creating significant impacts during emergency events such as evacuations. For this reason, it is extremely important to incorporate traffic incidents in evacuation planning models. Emergency managers and decision makers need tools that enable rapid assessment of multiple, varied scenarios. Many evacuation simulations require high-fidelity data input making them impractical for rapid deployment by practitioners. Since there is such variation in evacuation types and the method of disruption, evacuation models do not require the …

Utilizing High Resolution Bus Gps Data To Visualize And Identify Congestion Hot-Spots In Urban, Nicholas B. Stoll, Travis B. Glick, Miguel Figliozzi

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Congestion and travel delay on urban roadways can influence the roadways’ operating costs and service attractiveness. This research used high-resolution bus data to examine sources of delay on urban arterials. A set of tools was created to help visualize trends in bus behavior and movement; these tools allowed larger traffic trends to be visualized along urban corridors and streets. With buses as probes and examining aggregated bus behavior, contoured speed plots were used to understand the behavior of roadways outside the zone of influence of bus stops. Speed plots were used to discover trends and travel patterns with only a …

Age-Related Differences In Vehicle Control And Eye Movement Patterns At Intersections: Older And Middle-Aged Drivers, Yusuke Yamani, William J. Horrey, Yulan Liang, Donald L. Fisher

Psychology Faculty Publications

Older drivers are at increased risk of intersection crashes. Previous work found that older drivers execute less frequent glances for detecting potential threats at intersections than middle-aged drivers. Yet, earlier work has also shown that an active training program doubled the frequency of these glances among older drivers, suggesting that these effects are not necessarily due to age-related functional declines. In light of findings, the current study sought to explore the ability of older drivers to coordinate their head and eye movements while simultaneously steering the vehicle as well as their glance behavior at intersections. In a driving simulator, older …

Do Characteristics Of Walkable Environments Support Bicycling? Toward A Definition Of Bicycle-Supported Development, Christopher D. Muhs, Kelly Clifton

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Does walkability equate with bikeability? Through a comprehensive review of studies of the built environment and bicycling, including mode choice, route choice, safety, and urban design literature, this paper addresses this question. Previous work has raised the issue that the two modes are functionally different, despite them often being combined into a nonmotorized category, and has highlighted research challenges. Existing studies of bikeability have largely focused on infrastructure. This paper contributes to the literature on bicycling and the built environment by providing a thorough review of past research with a focus on the relationships between land use, urban form, and …

Safety Analysis Of Freeway Segments With Unobserved Heterogeneity And Second Order Spatial Effects, Eneliko Mujuni Mulokozi

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Safety analysis of freeway networks entails the quantification of crash frequency influencing factors which include roadway and traffic characteristics, environmental factors as well as human factors. This quantification can be used to detect locations with large impacts on the occurrence of crashes which in turn assist engineers and planners to improve safety levels of the network. Roadway characteristics are comprised of the physical elements of the road geometry such as section length, median and right shoulders, speed-exchange lanes, the number of main facility as well as geometry of the entrance from and exit to the main freeway facility. Traffic characteristics …