Civil and Environmental Engineering Commons^™

Removal Of Selected Pharmaceuticals And Personal Care Products In Wastewater Treatment Plant In Jordan, Othman Al-Mashaqbeh, Diya Alsafadi, Sahar Dalahmeh, Shannon L. Bartelt-Hunt, Daniel D. Snow

Nebraska Water Center: Faculty Publications

The largest wastewater treatment plant in Jordan was monitored in the summer to determine the removal of pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs). Grab samples were collected from the influent and effluent of As-Samra Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP). Liquid chromatography and tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS) were utilized to determine the concentrations of 18 compounds of pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs). The results showed that 14 compounds were detected in the collected samples from the influent and effluent of As-Samra WWTP. These compounds are 1,7-dimethylxanthine, amphetamine, acetaminophen, caffeine, carbamazepine, cimetidine, cotinine, diphenhydramine, methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), morphine, phenazone, sulfamethazine, sulfamethoxazole, thiabendazole, and …

Long-Term Changes Of Open-Surface Water Bodies In The Yangtze River Basin Based On The Google Earth Engine Cloud Platform, Yue Deng, Wei-Guo Jiang, Zhenghong Tang, Ziyan Ling, Zhifeng Wu

Community and Regional Planning Program: Faculty Scholarly and Creative Activity

The spatiotemporal changes of open-surface water bodies in the Yangtze River Basin (YRB) have profound influences on sustainable economic development, and are also closely relevant to water scarcity in China. However, long-term changes of open-surface water bodies in the YRB have remained poorly characterized. Taking advantage of the Google Earth Engine (GEE) cloud platform, this study processed 75,593 scenes of Landsat images to investigate the long-term changes of open-surface water bodies in the YRB from 1984 to 2018. In this study, we adopted the percentile-based image composite method to collect training samples and proposed a multiple index water detection rule …

Variable Rate Irrigation Of Maize And Soybean In West-Central Nebraska Under Full And Deficit Irrigation, J Burdette Barker, Sandeep Bhatti, Derek M. Heeren, Christopher M.U. Neale, Daran Rudnick

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Variable rate irrigation (VRI) may improve center pivot irrigation management, including deficit irrigation. A remote-sensing-based evapotranspiration model was implemented with Landsat imagery to manage irrigations for a VRI equipped center pivot irrigated field located in West-Central Nebraska planted to maize in 2017 and soybean in 2018. In 2017, the study included VRI using the model, and uniform irrigation using neutron attenuation for full irrigation with no intended water stress (VRI-Full and Uniform-Full treatments, respectively). In 2018, two deficit irrigation treatments were added (VRI-Deficit and Uniform-Deficit, respectively) and the model was modified in an attempt to reduce water balance drift; model …

Modeling Irrigation Behavior In Groundwater Systems, Timothy Foster, Nicholas Brozovic, Adrian P. Butler

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

Integrated hydro-economic models have been widely applied to water management problems in regions of intensive groundwater-fed irrigation. However, policy interpretations may be limited as most existing models do not explicitly consider two important aspects of observed irrigation decision making, namely the limits on instantaneous irrigation rates imposed by well yield and the intraseasonal structure of irrigation planning. We develop a new modeling approach for determining irrigation demand that is based on observed farmer behavior and captures the impacts on production and water use of both well yield and climate. Through a case study of irrigated corn production in the Texas …

Effects Of Nutrient Level And Growth Rate On Mutation And Conjugation Processes That Confer Antibiotic Resistance To E. Coli, Mohammadreza Shafieifini

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) may enter surface water with the discharge of treated wastewater. Conjugation is a main mechanism for the horizontal gene transfer of ARGs from wastewater microbiome to the microbiome indigenous to surface water. However, little is known about how environmental factors affect the conjugation process of ARGs.

In this thesis, an extensive research related to spreading antibiotic resistance genes in the environment is reported. The project investigated how environmental parameters may affect the rate of dissemination of ARGs and in what extent the resistance level of the population is changed after mutation and conjugation event. The chemostat …

Water Productivity In Meat And Milk Production In The Us From 1960 To 2016, Mesfin Mekonnen, C.M.U. Neale, Chittaranjan Ray, Galen E. Erickson, Arjen Y. Hoekstra

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

Global demand for livestock products is rising, resulting in a growing demand for feed and potentially burdening freshwater resources to produce this feed. To offset this increased pressure on water resources, the environmental performance of livestock sector should continue to improve. Over the last few decades, product output per animal and feedstuff yields in the US have improved, but before now it was unclear to what extent these improvements influenced the water productivity (WP) of the livestock products. In this research, we estimate changes in WP of animal products from 1960 to 2016. We consider feed conversion ratios (dry matter …

Numerical Simulation Of Diffuse Ultrasonic Waves In Concrete, Hossein Ariannejad

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Concrete can be subject to various type of damages. Some damages such as Alkali Silica Reaction (ASR) tend to start from the inside, where there is no easy way to identify or evaluate them in the early stage. The study of ultrasonic waves scatterings in non destructive testing (NDT) methods play a major role in identifying such damages. In an ultrasonic test, high frequency ultrasonic waves are used to interrogate the internal structure of concrete material, where the coarse aggregates and microcracks cause multiple scattering of ultrasonic waves. Experimental studies have demonstrated that diffuse ultrasonic waves scattered by boundaries, coarse …

Investigation Of Dsr Test Methods To Determine Binder Low Temperature Properties, Kommidi Santosh, Yong-Rak Kim

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

The low temperature rheology of bituminous binders is of great interest because low temperature cracking is one of the primary asphalt pavement failure modes observed in cold-climate places such as Nebraska. Low temperature binder characterization/grading has been primarily conducted using the bending beam rheometer (BBR), while the dynamic shear rheometer (DSR) can alternatively be used to characterize the low temperature properties of binders with the recent advancement of DSR equipment that can cover a wide range of testing temperatures. This study investigates alternative testing-analysis methods using the DSR to determine low temperature asphalt binder properties that have been measured by …

Performance Evaluation Of Inverted Tee (It) Bridge System, Garrett P. Martindale, Daniel Watson, Antony Mohsen Kamal Masoud Kodsy, Mostafa Abo El-Khier, Richard L. Wood, George Morcous

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

The Inverted Tee (IT) girder bridge system was originally developed in 1996 by the University of Nebraska–Lincoln (UNL) researchers and Nebraska Department of Transportation (NDOT) engineers. This bridge system currently accounts for over 110 bridges in Nebraska used for both state highways and local county roads. Extensive longitudinal and transverse deck cracking have been observed and noted in numerous bridge inspection reports. Since the IT girder bridge system is relatively new, limited data and knowledge exist on its structural performance and behavior. This study evaluates the IT girder bridge system by conducting twenty field observations as well as recording accelerometer, …

Probabilistic Analysis Of Slide-Rocking Structures Under Earthquake Loads, Taylor J. Knickerbocker

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Estimates of rare seismic hazard are essential for the resilience of critical infrastructure and facilities. However, these estimates are highly uncertain at long return periods due to the lack of observed earthquake records. Several ground motion prediction equations have been proposed to close this gap and estimate rare seismic demands; however, these models were developed based on more moderate earthquake records and can yield physically unrealizable ground motions when extrapolated to long return periods. For this reason, seismologists have proposed using precariously balanced rocks (PBRs) as a way to constrain rare seismic hazard. PBRs are a type of fragile geologic …

Perchlorate Behavior In The Context Of Black Carbon And Metal Cogeneration Following Fireworks Emission At Oak Lake, Lincoln, Nebraska, Usa, Manish Kumar, Daniel D. Snow, Yusong Li, Patrick Shea

Nebraska Water Center: Faculty Publications

The imprints of fireworks displays on the adjacent water body were investigated from the perspective of cogeneration of black carbon, metals and perchlorate (ClO₄^–). In particular, the mixing and dissipation of ClO₄^– were studied at Oak Lake, Lincoln, Nebraska, following fireworks displays in 2015 and 2016. Following the display, ClO₄^– concentration in the water increased up to 4.3 μg/L and 4.0 μg/L in 2015 and 2016, respectively. A first-order model generally provided a good fit to the measured perchlorate concentrations from which the rate of dissipation was estimated as 0.07 d^–1 in …

Microbial Transport As Affected By Residue Cover And Manure Application Rate, Lisa M. Durso, John E. Gilley, Dave B. Marx, Chance A. Thayer, Brian L. Woodbury

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Manure is applied to cropland areas with varying surface cover to meet single- or multiple-year crop nutrient requirements. The objectives of this field study were to (1) examine microbial transport following land application of manure to sites with and without wheat residue, (2) compare microbial loads following land application to meet the 0, 1, 2, 4, and 8-year P-based requirements for corn, and (3) evaluate the effects of rainfall simulation run on microbial transport. Manure was added and incorporated by disking plots that were 0.75 m wide by 2.0 m long. Three 30 min simulated rainfall events, separated by 24 …

Sustainability Assessment Of U.S. Beef Processing And Its Antimicrobial Systems, Shaobin Li

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

With the increasing meat demand and awareness of sustainability, concerns have been raised regarding the sustainability of beef production and processing. However, scarce data and inadequate sustainability assessment frameworks for the U.S. beef processing industry limit the ability to develop new technologies and policies comprehensively without shifting sustainability burdens. To fill those gaps, various assessments of the U.S. beef processing industry were conducted from multiple perspectives regarding the environmental, economic, microbial effectiveness of its antimicrobial systems, and human health impacts from foodborne illness, occupational hazards, and environmental pollution.

First, process-level water and energy usage at a typical large-size beef processing …

High‑Throughput Analysis Of Leaf Physiological And Chemical Traits With Vis–Nir–Swir Spectroscopy: A Case Study With A Maize Diversity Panel, Yufeng Ge, Abbas Atefi, Huichun Zhang, Chenyong Miao, Raghuprakash Kastoori Ramamurthy, Brandi Sigmon, Jinliang Yang, James C. Schnable

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Hyperspectral reflectance data in the visible, near infrared and shortwave infrared range (VIS–NIR– SWIR, 400–2500 nm) are commonly used to nondestructively measure plant leaf properties. We investigated the usefulness of VIS–NIR–SWIR as a high-throughput tool to measure six leaf properties of maize plants including chlorophyll content (CHL), leaf water content (LWC), specific leaf area (SLA), nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K). This assessment was performed using the lines of the maize diversity panel. Data were collected from plants grown in greenhouse condition, as well as in the field under two nitrogen application regimes. Leaf-level hyperspectral data were collected with …

Biomethane Production From Distillery Wastewater, Zachary Christman

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Distillery wastewater treatment is a great ecological problem, for example, India produces 2.7 billion liters of alcohol that results in 40 billion liters of wastewater. However, this material can be seen as a resource since 11 million cubic meters of biogas at 60% methane could be produced in addition to cleaning the water. The distillery has two options of what to do with the biogas. The first is to use the biogas to fuel the distillery making the production plant more energy efficient and removing some of the need to buy natural gas. The other is to upgrade the biogas …

A Spatially Enhanced Data‐Driven Multimodel To Improve Semiseasonal Groundwater Forecasts In The High Plains Aquifer, Usa, A. Amaranto, Francisco Munoz-Arriola, D. P. Solomatine, G. Corzo

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

The aim of this paper is to improve semiseasonal forecast of groundwater availability in response to climate variables, surface water availability, groundwater level variations, and human water management using a two‐step data‐driven modeling approach. First, we implement an ensemble of artificial neural networks (ANNs) for the 300 wells across the High Plains aquifer (USA). The modeling framework includes a method to choose the most relevant input variables and time lags; an assessment of the effect of exogenous variables on the predictive capabilities of models; and the estimation of the forecast skill based on the Nash‐Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE) index, the normalized …

Environmental And Occupational Impacts From U.S. Beef Slaughtering Are Of Same Magnitude Of Beef Foodborne Illnesses On Human Health, Shaobin Li, Jeyamkondan Subbiah, Bruce Dvorak

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Foodborne pathogens and occupational hazards are two primary safety concerns for U.S. beef slaughterhouses. The anthropogenic environmental impacts due to intensive resource use and pollution also exert threats to human health. Quantifying human health impacts from various sources remain a grand sustainability challenge for U.S. beef industry. We develop a framework to systematically estimate and compare human health impacts associated with U.S. beef foodborne illnesses from major pathogens and environmental impacts and occupational hazards from U.S. beef slaughtering on a common metric, disability-adjusted life year (DALY). Foodborne illnesses and occupational hazards are estimated by synthesizing published data and methodologies while …

Restricted Crossings On Rural Highways, John Sangster, Tim Adams

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

This study examines the potential for replacing the standard intersection design at two-way stop control (TWSC) and all- way stop control (AWSC) intersections along rural highways with a roundabout or a restricted crossing u-turn (RCUT) facility. The geometry of the RCUT design prohibits left and through movements from the side road, and provides a u-turn location downstream from the main crossing. This type of facility has been implemented for rural highways extensively in both Maryland and North Carolina, as well as in limited cases in many other states such as Minnesota and Missouri, with the potential to serve as a …

Assessing The Impact Of Game Day Schedule And Opponents On Travel Patterns And Route Choice Using Big Data Analytics, Anuj Sharma, Vesal Ahsani

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

The transportation system is crucial for transferring people and goods from point A to point B. However, its reliability can be decreased by unanticipated congestion resulting from planned special events. For example, sporting events collect large crowds of people at specific venues on game days and disrupt normal traffic patterns.

The goal of this study was to understand issues related to road traffic management during major sporting events by using widely available INRIX data to compare travel patterns and behaviors on game days against those on normal days. A comprehensive analysis was conducted on the impact of all Nebraska Cornhuskers …

Asphalt Binder Laboratory Short-Term Aging, Hamzeh Haghshenas, Robert C. Rea

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

The Rolling Thin Film Oven (RTFO) is widely used to simulate asphalt binder short-term aging. However, there is a general interest to improve the current short-term aging protocol especially for reducing the aging time. Besides, there are some doubts about the capability of RTFO in the simulation of aging of highly polymer modified asphalt binders which is mainly due to improper dispersion of such binders in the bottles during rotating and creeping of highly viscous binder out of the bottles during rotation. This work addresses the effect of time, temperature, airflow rate, and weight of asphalt binder on the laboratory …

Restricted Crossing U-Turns At Rural Intersections, Timothy Adams

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This study examines the potential for replacing the standard intersection design at two-way stop control (TWSC) and all-way stop control (AWSC) intersections along rural highways with a roundabout or a restricted crossing u-turn (RCUT) facility. The geometry of the RCUT design prohibits left and through movements from the side road, and provides a u-turn location downstream from the main crossing. This type of facility has been implemented for rural highways extensively in other states and has the potential to serve as a cost-effective solution to improve roadway safety within Nebraska.

Comparative analysis is conducted for three site locations (Humphrey, Madison, …

Application Of Remote Sensing Technology In Water Resources Management, Mahesh Pun

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The primary goal of this dissertation was to leverage the capabilities of remote sensing technology for capturing detailed spatial information at different spatial resolutions to monitor agricultural crops and generate accurate input datasets for water resources models. This dissertation is divided into three different research studies. In the first study, a remote sensing classification method was developed for classifying irrigated and non-irrigated fields that integrates Vegetation indices with surface energy balance fluxes. The method was applied in the COHYST2010 hydrological model region with wide climate variation and to multiple growing seasons with results that were 92.1% accurate and explained 97% …

Full Scale 13-Story Building Implosion And Collapse: Effects On Adjacent Structures, Kanchan Devkota

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Two dormitory halls at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln known as Cather and Pound halls were demolished via controlled implosion on December 22, 2017. Cather and Pound halls were two thirteen-story reinforced concrete structures. The demolition of these two structures included the implosion of controlled charges at selected columns on alternating floors which initiated the progressive collapse of these structures. Three nearby structures in the vicinity of Cather and Pound halls were instrumented with high sensitivity uniaxial piezoelectric accelerometers to record the response of the adjacent structures during the event of the implosion and the progressive collapse. While these two thirteen-story …

Boy Scouts Of America Concept Site Master Plan And Improvements, Anna Cole, Jacob Chekal, William Seeger, Shanon Al-Brady, Nicholas Cowles

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Our team, G1 Engineering, has partnered with the Boy Scouts of America to provide an update to their master plan for the Outdoor Education Center site located at 600 S. 120^th Street, Lincoln, NE. Our work included providing transportation solutions; drainage evaluations; investigation of geotechnical conditions; environmental evaluation and determination of permitting requirements; preparation of concept design plans for bridges, drainage, utilities, and overall site plan; and evaluation of structural elements included in the project.

Two streams cross the property presenting site access issues. Our team provided pedestrian, UTV, and emergency vehicle access bridges to address these issues. With …

Outdoor Education Center Concept Site Master Plan And Improvements As Designed By Wingineers, Christina Thibodeau

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

This thesis builds on a basis of four years of engineering education to produce a final project for the capstone course. The idea behind this project was to provide a workable master plan and conceptual site improvements for a real application, the Outdoor Education Center in east Lincoln, Nebraska. The Boy Scouts of America Cornhusker Council and the University of Nebraska – Lincoln Department of Civil Engineering have cooperated throughout the Senior Design capstone course to make this possible for the students involved.

Bio-Desalination Of Brackish And Seawater Using Halophytic Algae, Endalkachew Sahle-Demessie, Ashraf Aly Hassan, Amro El Badawy

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Faculty Publications

Global demand for water is rising. A sustainable and energy efficient approach is needed to desalinate brackish sources for agricultural and municipal water use. Genetic variation among two algae species, Scenedesmus species (S. sp.) and Chlorella vulgaris (C. vulgaris), in their tolerance and uptake of salt (NaCl) was examined for potential bio-desalination of brackish water. Salt-tolerant hyper-accumulators were evaluated in a batch photobioreactors over salinity concentration ranging from 2 g/L to 20 g/L and different nutrient composition for their growth rate and salt-uptake. During algae growth phase, the doubling time varied between 0.63 and 1.81 days for S …

Field Evidence Of A Natural Capillary Barrier In A Gravel Alluvial Aquifer, Todd Halihan, Ronald B. Miller, David Correll, Derek M. Heeren, Garey A. Fox

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Ozark streams commonly feature “composite” floodplains, in which the vadose zone consists of silt or silt loam soils (?1 m thick) overlying gravel subsoil. Previous work has shown that preferential flow paths can exist within the gravel subsoil, which can conduct water and P at rates exceeding the sorption capacity of the gravel. At a site on Barren Fork Creek, a 1- by 1-m infiltration plot was constructed and an infiltration experiment was performed using sequentially introduced solutes including P (the constituent of regulatory interest), Rhodamine-WT (Rh-WT, a visual tracer), and Cl− (an electrical tracer). The solute transport was measured …

Biofiltration Of Volatile Organic Compounds Emitted At Ethanol Plants, Christopher Arthur Duerschner

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Ethanol manufacturing is an important and growing sector in the biofuels marketplace. At ethanol plants, the control of volatile organic compound containing emissions from fermentation tanks and distillers dried grains with solubles driers is accomplished through the use of air scrubbers and regenerative thermal oxidizers. The operation of these control units imposes substantial operating costs for the ethanol plant. Biotrickling filters have the ability to replace scrubbers and regenerative thermal oxidizers resulting in significant economic and environmental benefits. Two biotrickling filters were operated in parallel under acetaldehyde loadings ranging from 4 to 136 gm^-3hr^-1. To examine …

Theoretical Model For Shields Diagram And Its Application, Jichao Jiang

Department of Environmental Engineering: Theses and Other Student Research

The transition from the condition of “no motion” to initial sediment moment, defined as sediment initiation, has been related to practical engineering (channel degradation, stable channel design), oceanographic (dredging, pipelines, cables), sedimentologic (sediment mobility, transport rates), geologic (the hydraulic interpretation of paleoenvironments), geochemical (pollutant transport), and gained considerable interest since nineteenth century.

Shields diagram for sediment initiation in terms of critical shear stress is a classic problem in sediment transport, but it is still an empirical law without a simple and practical theory despite extensive research since the 1930s. Hence, this research presents a simple theoretical model for critical shear …

Driving Performances Assessment Based On Speed Variation Using Dedicated Route Truck Gps Data, Ying Li, Li Zhao, Laurence R. Rilett

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Faculty Publications

It was hypothesized that a driver is not safe when travel speed is too high and also not necessarily safe when travel speed is too low. Based on this hypothesis, this paper studied the risky driving performances by measuring speed variations of a driver’s recurrent trips in two perspectives: 1) driver profiles, which scored the risk on-road driving of each driver and 2) driving patterns, which reflected the risk speed patterns of a type of drivers. The proposed method was tested on a 30-day global positioning system (GPS) dataset, collected from 100 trucks. The study first split the raw dataset …