Civil and Environmental Engineering Commons^™

Approaches For Studying Fish Production: Do River And Lake Researchers Have Different Perspectives?, Wayne A. Wurtsbaugh, Nicholas A. Heredia, Brian G. Laub, Christy S. Meredith, Harrison E. Mohn, Sarah E. Null, David A. Pluth, Brett B. Roper, W. Carl Saunders, David King Stevens, Richard H. Walker, Kit Wheeler

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Biased perspectives of fisheries researchers may hinder scientific progress and effective management if limiting factors controlling productivity go unrecognized. We investigated whether river and lake researchers used different approaches when studying salmonid production and whether any differences were ecologically supported. We assessed 564 peer-reviewed papers published between 1966 and 2012 that studied salmonid production or surrogate variables (e.g., abundance, growth, biomass, population) and classified them into five major predictor variable categories: physical habitat, fertility (i.e., nutrients, bottom-up), biotic, temperature, and pollution. The review demonstrated that river researchers primarily analyzed physical habitat (65% of studies) and lake researchers primarily analyzed fertility …

Practitioner Interview, Kirk Westphal

All ECSTATIC Materials

Phone interview with Kirk Westphal from CDM Smith by Emily Berglund and David Watkins, Jr.. Interview questions asked inquired about (i) practitioner’s professional background, (ii) practitioner’s personal experience with systems analysis techniques and software in their job, (iii) role, benefits, and challenges in using systems analysis concepts in the water resources engineering profession, and (iv) recommendations for improving education of environmental and water resources systems analysis in universities.

A Study Of The Variability Versus The Assumed Constancy Of Manning's N, Tyler G. Allen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Culverts have traditionally been designed to a minimal size to pass a specific design flood. The traditional culvert designs may result in a localized increase in velocity which can result in a blockage of animal or fish movement across a barrier effectively changing the ecosystem surrounding a number of affected species. While hydraulic loss coefficients are relatively well defined for such traditional culverts, the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) identified a need for further study of these coefficients for culverts more conducive to fish and animal passage.

A research team headed by Dr. Blake Tullis of Utah State University …

Links Between Plant And Fungal Communities Across A Deforestation Chronosequence In The Amazon Rainforest, Babur S. Mirza, R. C. Mueller, F. S. Paula, J. L.M. Rodrigues, K. Nusslein, B. J.M. Bohannan

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Understanding the interactions among microbial communities, plant communities and soil properties following deforestation could provide insights into the long-term effects of land-use change on ecosystem functions, and may help identify approaches that promote the recovery of degraded sites. We combined high-throughput sequencing of fungal rDNA and molecular barcoding of plant roots to estimate fungal and plant community composition in soil sampled across a chronosequence of deforestation. We found significant effects of land-use change on fungal community composition, which was more closely correlated to plant community composition than to changes in soil properties or geographic distance, providing evidence for strong links …

How To Utilize Relevance Vectors To Collect Required Data For Modeling Water Quality Constitu-Ents, And Fine Sediment In Natural Systems? Case Study: Mud Lake, Idaho, Hussein Aly Batt, David King Stevens

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

The development of monitoring programs for water quality and habitat assessment in surface waters is an ongoing challenge because of inherent difficulties in determining the effective spatial and temporal distribution of sites and trips. Recent advances in statistical learning theory, in which system characteristics are learned from data, point to the possibility of using the information content of data to shed light on monitoring results that provide sensitive and independent results. One of those techniques, multivariate relevance vector machines (MVRVM), creates as part of its algorithm subsets of a data set, called relevant vectors (RVs), that are most relevant for …

Improving The Complementary Methods To Estimate Evapotranspiration Under Diverse Climatic And Physical Conditions, Fathi Anayah, Jagath J. Kaluarachchi

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Reliable estimation of evapotranspiration (ET) is important for the purpose of water resources planning and management. Complementary methods, including complementary relationship areal evapotranspiration (CRAE), advection aridity (AA) and Granger and Gray (GG), have been used to estimate ET because these methods are simple and practical in estimating regional ET using meteorological data only. However, prior studies have found limitations in these methods especially in contrasting climates. This study aims to develop a calibration-free universal method using the complementary relationships to compute regional ET in contrasting climatic and physical conditions with meteorological data only. The proposed methodology consists of a systematic …

Predicting Streamflows In Snowmelt-Driven Watersheds Using The Flow Duration Curve Method, Daeha Kim, Jagath J. Kaluarachchi

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Predicting streamflows in snow-fed watersheds in the Western United States is important for water allocation. Since many of these watersheds are heavily regulated through canal networks and reservoirs, predicting expected natural flows and therefore water availability under limited data is always a challenge. This study investigates the applicability of the flow duration curve (FDC) method for predicting natural flows in gauged and regulated snow-fed watersheds. Point snow observations, air temperature, precipitation, and snow water equivalent were used to simulate the snowmelt process with the SNOW-17 model, and extended to streamflow simulation using the FDC method with a modified current precipitation …

Modeling The Hydrology Of The Great Salt Lake: What Makes The Great Salt Lake Go Up And Down, David G. Tarboton

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Improved Registration For 3d Image Creation Using Multiple Texel Images And Incorporating Low-Cost Gps/Ins Measurements, Scott E. Budge, Xuan Xie

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

The creation of 3D imagery is an important topic in remote sensing. Several methods have been developed to create 3D images from fused ladar and digital images, known as texel images. These methods have the advantage of using both the 3D ladar information and the 2D digital imagery directly, since texel images are fused during data acquisition. A weakness of these methods is that they are dependent on correlating feature points in the digital images. This can be dicult when image perspectives are signicantly dierent, leading to low correlation values between matching feature points. This paper presents a method to …

Range Resolution Improvement Of Eyesafe Ladar Testbed (Elt) Measurements Using Sparse Signal Deconvolution, Scott E. Budge, Jacob H. Gunther

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

The Eyesafe Ladar Test-bed (ELT) is a experimental ladar system with the capability of digitizing return laser pulse waveforms at 2 GHz. These waveforms can then be exploited o-line in the laboratory to develop signal processing techniques for noise reduction, range resolution improvement, and range discrimination between two surfaces of similar range interrogated by a single laser pulse. This paper presents the results of experiments with new deconvolution algorithms with the hoped for gains of improving the range discrimination of the ladar system. The sparsity of ladar returns is exploited to solve the deconvolution problem in two steps. The rst …

Reliability Analysis For Shear In Lightweight Reinforced Concrete Bridges Using Shear Beam Database, Danile F. Jensen

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

The objective of this report is to analyze and calibrate the reliability indices for shear in reinforced concrete bridge girders. Existing statistical models are based on limited experimental data from only a few research tests. These existing models show that our current procedures for analysis are about 10-15% less conservative for lightweight concrete compared to an analysis for normal weight concrete. Accurate load models are used to find shear and moment envelopes of loads applied to bridges. Analysis is based on different span lengths, span number and girder dimensions. Design calculations are performed using design values and loads calculated from …

The Development And Validation Of An Isokinetic Calibration System For Multiple Aerosol Instruments, Wendy Michelle Merkley

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

A multi-port calibration xture for the cross calibration of aerosol point sensors has been developed. The system was designed for comparative calibrations of instruments using differing measurement methods such as optical particle counters, aerodynamic impactors, etc. Four isokinetic sampling ports are attached to a laminar ow plenum such that all four sampling ports sample identical aerosol concentrations under identical ow conditions. Correlation and correction factors are applied to each instrument creating a standard method. This standard method can be applied to inter-compare and calibrate aerosol sensing instrumentation and/or to characterize the microphysical properties of a test aerosol. The performance of …

Salinity Management In The Upper Colorado River Basin: Modeling, Monitoring, And Cost-Equity Challenges, Jongho Keum

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Salinity issues in the Upper Colorado River Basin have been a serious concern to the western United States and northern Mexico. The Colorado River salinity is mainly come from geologic materials located in the Upper Colorado River Basin. Natural weathering and human activities, such as irrigation, accelerate the dissolution of saline materials. Economic damages due to salinity in the Colorado River Basin are estimated at $295 million in 2010, for example, reduced crop yield, plugging of water pipes and fixtures, and ecological health of rivers. In order to manage salinity in the Upper Colorado River Basin, SPARROW model has been …

Volatile Organic Compounds (Vocs) In Indoor Air: Emission From Consumer Products And The Use Of Plants For Air Sampling, Todd A. Wetzel

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Adults living in North America spend an estimated 80-90% of their time indoors where they can be exposed to a wide range of volatile organic chemicals (VOCs) found in home construction materials and consumer products (e.g. molded plastics, adhesives, cleaning products, paints, etc.). Some of these VOCs are known to be harmful if exposure concentrations are high or occur over a long period of time. Vapor intrusion (VI), the process by which VOCs in the soil or groundwater migrate to indoor air from a contaminated site, can also contaminate indoor air. Since remediation activities to prevent or stop VI are …

Considerations For Hood Placement And Design Downstream From A Fixed-Cone Valve, Barry Jacob Prettyman

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In many hydroelectric projects there is a need to safely dissipate the energy associated with the elevation of the water surface. When the flow is not passing through the turbines, bypass valves are often used. A valve that is commonly used is the fixed-cone valve. Fixed-cone valves, also known as Howell-Bunger valves, are devices often used to safely reduce flow energy at dams with medium to high heads. The valve directs the outflow into a conical hollow jet, which requires a large area for energy dissipation. The flow is controlled by an adjustable sleeve, also known as the gate which …

Evaluation Of Composting Of Municipal Solid Waste, J. Ryan Stebbins

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Millions of tons of organic waste are lost each year by being deposited in landfills instead of being composted. Composting would increase the life of landfills and reduce the loss of renewable resources. Current composting techniques take approximately 6 months to break down the organic components, such as yard trimmings and food waste. In addition, a large amount of area is required for the windrows piles. Recycling techniques help to separate organics, such as yard trimmings and food waste, from the municipal solid waste (MSW) stream for composting. However, these techniques are time consuming, costly, and not extensively practiced. Since …

Labyrinth Weirs: A Look Into Geometric Variation And Its Effect On Efficiency And Design Method Predictions, Tyler Robert Seamons

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The rehabilitation of dams often requires spillway capacity upgrades. Replacing a less hydraulically efficient linear weir with a labyrinth weir can be an effective way to increase discharge efficiency (discharge at a given upstream head) for a fixed-width channel. Labyrinth weirs are linear weirs folded in plan view to increase total spillway crest length (which in turn increases discharge efficiency within a channel). Labyrinth weirs potentially have limitless geometric configurations. This study was performed to analyze the effects of varying certain geometric parameters on discharge efficiency and design method predictions.

Due to limited cross-sectional flow area near the upstream apex, …

The Effects Of Pipewall Offsets On Water Meter Accuracy, Jesse M. Pope

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Accurate flow measurement is essential for the management of any type of fluid system. In order for a meter to accurately measure the flow, some installation requirements must be met. These installation requirements are meant to produce a condition where there are limited flow disturbances as the fluid enters the meter. If flow disturbances do occur, the meter may produce inaccurate measurements.

This research investigated the effect on accuracy that different types of 12-inch flow meters have as a result of being installed in pipelines of differing inside diameter. The types of meters chosen for this research were the portable …

Effects Of Froude Scaling On Velocity-Induced Vortices In Physical Models, Michael S. Budge

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The Utah Water Research Laboratory at Utah State University proposes to examine further a little known issue frequently seen in research conducted. The Utah Water Research Lab frequently conducts physical model studies of hydraulic structures for organizations around the world during the design process. These studies allow engineers to determine potential design revisions though simulations of operations including flood flows. Often, vortices, or whirlpools, occur in these models. Vortices are common occurrences at intakes in hydraulic structures such as dams and pump sumps. They can be detrimental to the operation and efficiency of these structures.

The purpose of this work …

Nonlinear Weir Hydraulics, Mitchell R. Dabling

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

A hydraulically undersized control structure (i.e., an emergency dam spillway) could result in water overtopping a dam or riverbanks. To increase hydraulic capacity and reduce flooding risk, nonlinear weirs are being used to replace undersized linear weirs during control structure rehabilitation. The complex geometry of a nonlinear weir creates an infinite number of designs and three-dimensional flow patterns. This study investigates four subjects to further knowledge on two types of nonlinear weir, the piano key and labyrinth.

Weir submergence is a condition when the downstream water level of a weir exceeds the weir crest elevation, and can influence the head-discharge …

Uniform Temperature Predictions And Temperature Gradient Effects On I-Girder And Box Girder Concrete Bridges, Edyson Rojas

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) created the Long-Term Bridge Performance (LTBP) program with the objective of acquiring quality scientific data for in-service bridge performance throughout the United States. This information will be used to improve the practices of bridge design and maintenance. To accomplish this objective, a variety of sensors were installed on a bridge south of Sacramento, California and a bridge near Perry, Utah. Data from the sensors is constantly gather and analyzed.

This research analyzed the data from the temperature sensors in order to investigate the effect of temperature changes in the California and Utah bridges over a …

Weir-Baffled Culvert Hydrodynamics Evaluation For Fish Passage Using Particle Image Velocimetry And Computational Fluid Dynamic Techniques, Mohanad A. Khodier

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Due to a recent increase in environmental awareness regarding fish passage through hydraulic structures, including culverts, an evaluation of passage of wild brown trout through a weir-baffled, prototype-scale culvert, was conducted under a variety of culvert slopes and discharge conditions. The influence of the fish sample population and the lengths of the individual fish on passage rates were investigated. The data showed that the fish sample size of 25 per test was sufficiently large to minimize sample size dependency. Fish behavior, including resting/staging zone locations, while traversing the culvert was observed and reported. Two preferable resting zones for the fish …

Prediction Of Climate Change Effects On Streamflow Regime Important To Stream Ecology, Sulochan Dhungel

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Streamflow is expected to change with climate change, but a general understanding of how climate change will affect the characteristics of streamflow important to stream ecosystems is lacking. This thesis focused on specific characteristics of streamflow, or the streamflow regime, that are important to stream ecosystems. The need to evaluate the potential impacts of climate change on stream ecosystems makes it important to study how streamflow regime may change. This work has identified 16 characteristics of daily streamflow time series that quantify the patterns and span the aspects of streamflow regimes important for stream ecosystems. Principal component analysis objectively identified …

Causes And Countermeasures For Nappe Oscillation: An Experimental Approach, Aaron Allan Anderson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Weirs are commonly used as spillways to release flows from a reservoir. The freefalling jet on the downstream side of the weir is called the nappe. Under certain hydraulic conditions, determined mainly by the size, design, and construction of the weir, nappe oscillation, otherwise known as nappe vibration, can occur. Characteristics of this dynamic behavior include excessive acoustic energy manifested as sound pressure waves and lowfrequency noise accompanied by horizontal waves or banding on the nappe. Mitigation of this process may be required, especially if the weir operates in close proximity to occupied structures. Instability of water jets moving through …

Flexural, Shear, And Punching Shear Capacity Of Three 48-Year-Old Prestressed Lightweight Concrete Double-Tee Bridge Girders, Christopher S. Pettigrew

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The Icy Springs Bridge in Coalville, Utah carries 2^nd South Street over the Weber River west of Interstate 80. The bridge is owned by Coalville City and was originally constructed in 1965 as a single-span 51-foot long bridge using prestressed concrete double-tee girders. In the fall of 2013 the original bridge was replaced with a new 80-foot long single span bridge using prestressed concrete decked bulb-tee girders. The original girders were salvaged and transported to the Systems, Materials, and Structural Health Lab (SMASH Lab) where a series of tests were performed to determine the total losses in the prestressing …

Impact Of Beaver Ponds On Stream Temperature And On Solar Radiation Penetration In Water, Camilla J. Snow

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Beaver dams alter streams characteristics in a way that promotes the diversity of aquatic species and provides a wide distribution of temperatures within beaver ponds. In order to quantify the spatial distribution of these temperatures, a process-based temperature model was developed for a beaver pond in Northern Utah. This model provided insight into the processes and characteristics that are driving these temperatures. Solar radiation is one of these processes that is often the primary driver of stream temperature. There is a need to develop methods to measure the fate of solar radiation within the water to better represent solar radiation …

Improving The Physical Processes And Model Integration Functionality Of An Energy Balance Model For Snow And Glacier Melt, Avirup Sen Gupta

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The Hindu-Kush Himalayan region possesses a large resource of snow and ice, which acts as a freshwater reservoir for irrigation, domestic water consumption or hydroelectric power for billions of people in South Asia. Monitoring hydrologic resources in this region is challenging because of the difficulty of installing and maintaining a climate and hydrologic monitoring network, limited transportation and communication infrastructure and difficult access to glaciers. As a result of the high, rugged topographic relief, ground observations in the region are extremely sparse. Reanalysis data offer the potential to compensate for the data scarcity, which is a barrier in hydrological modeling …

Laboratory Modeling Of Erosion Potential Of Earthen Embankments In Contact With Open Bedrock Joints, Joseph T. Zaleski

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Earthen dams are often built into bedrock abutments and on bedrock foundations. Bedrock joints naturally occur in bedrock materials. These bedrock joints create voids for ground water to pass through. Historically earthen dams were sometimes built in direct contact with the bedrock joints, causing a contact point between the soil of the dam and the flowing water. It has been engineering practice to place grout into exposed bedrock joints for some time now. However, soil is not always cleaned out of bedrock joints before they are grouted, which leaves a weakness for water to push through.

The purpose of this …

Use Of Semi-Analytical Solutions To Examine Parameter Sensitivity And The Role Of Spatially Variable Stream Hydraulics In Transient Storage Modeling, Noah M. Schmadel

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Anticipating how stream water quality will respond to change, such as increased pollution or water diversions, requires knowledge of the main mechanisms controlling water and chemical constituent movement and a reasonable representation of those mechanisms. By deriving mathematical models to represent a stream system and collecting supporting field-based measurements, water quality response can be predicted. However, because each stream is unique and the movement of water and constituents is spatially and temporally complex, assessing whether the stream is appropriately represented and whether predictions are trustworthy is still a challenge within the scientific and management communities.

Building on decades of stream …

Interpolation And Validation Of Arced Labyrinth Weir Discharge Coefficients, Rhen Daniel Thurgood

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Arced labyrinth weirs have been researched in recent years as a viable option to help increase spillway discharge capacity. Previously published data have indicated the hydraulic efficiency of these weirs with several configurations at different sidewall angles (α=6°, α=12°, and α=20°), expressed in terms of the discharge coefficients. These published discharge coefficient data were used in the current study, along with new experimental data, to develop a better understanding of the accuracy associated with interpolating arced labyrinth weir discharge coefficients. Discharge coefficient data for a 16° arced labyrinth weir (of similar physical size to the arced labyrinth weirs in the …