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2014

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Articles 691 - 720 of 1522

Full-Text Articles in Civil and Environmental Engineering

Overview And Application Of The Model Optimization, Uncertainty, And Sensitivity Analysis (Mouse) Toolbox, James C. Ascough Ii, Christian Fischer, Nathan Lighthart, Olaf David, Timothy R. Green, Sven Kralisch Jun 2014

Overview And Application Of The Model Optimization, Uncertainty, And Sensitivity Analysis (Mouse) Toolbox, James C. Ascough Ii, Christian Fischer, Nathan Lighthart, Olaf David, Timothy R. Green, Sven Kralisch

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

For several decades, optimization and sensitivity/uncertainty analysis of environmental models has been the subject of extensive research. Although much progress has been made and sophisticated methods developed, the growing complexity of environmental models to represent real­ world systems makes it increasingly difficult to fully comprehend model behavior, sensitivities and uncertainties. This paper provides an overview of the Model Optimization, Uncertainty, and SEnsitivity Analysis (MOUSE) software application, an open-source, Java-based toolbox of visual and numerical analysis components for the evaluation of environmental models. MOUSE is based on the OPTAS model calibration system developed for the Jena Adaptable Modeling System framework, is …

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Amadeus: A System For Monitoring Water Quality Parameters And Predicting Contaminant Paths, Abdeltawab M. Hendawi, David Hazel, Joel Larson, Yiru Li, Dwaine Trummert, Mohamed Ali, Ankur Teredesai Jun 2014

Amadeus: A System For Monitoring Water Quality Parameters And Predicting Contaminant Paths, Abdeltawab M. Hendawi, David Hazel, Joel Larson, Yiru Li, Dwaine Trummert, Mohamed Ali, Ankur Teredesai

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Managing the water quality in an urban environment is extremely challenging. While it flows, the water picks up pollutants such as lawn care chemicals, oil, and pet waste bacteria. In fact, topography plays a factor in where water runoff goes. However, there are many other factors, such as urban density, impermeable surface coverage, weather events and tidal patterns which all have the potential to impact not only the final destination of a particular pollutant but also the rate of travel along the route. In this paper, we propose a system, named AMADEUS (Azure Marketplace of Applications for Diverse Environmental Use …

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Socio-Economic Regional Risk Assessment (Serra) Application To Flood Risk In The Vipacco Basin (North-East Italy), Claudia De Luca, Vahid Mojtahed, Animesh Gain, Stefano Balbi, Michele Ferri, Carlo Giupponi Jun 2014

Socio-Economic Regional Risk Assessment (Serra) Application To Flood Risk In The Vipacco Basin (North-East Italy), Claudia De Luca, Vahid Mojtahed, Animesh Gain, Stefano Balbi, Michele Ferri, Carlo Giupponi

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

According to EEA (European Environmental Agency), flood is the most dangerous natural hazard in Europe in terms of economic losses. The KULTURisk Project (EU FP7) has developed a novel methodology for evaluating the integrated benefits of risk prevention of water related natural hazards: SERRA (i.e. Socio-Economic Regional Risk Assessment). The proposed methodology enhances the traditional flood risk assessment. Several case studies across Europe allowed for the consolidation, validation, and refinement of SERRA. This paper presents the results of its application to assess the benefits derived from the installation of an Early Warning System in Vipacco river basin in Friuli Venezia …

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Investigating Parameter Sensitivity For Management In Snow-Driven Watersheds, Elizabeth Houle, Joseph Kasprzyk Jun 2014

Investigating Parameter Sensitivity For Management In Snow-Driven Watersheds, Elizabeth Houle, Joseph Kasprzyk

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Recent projections of environmental change have shown possible variation to temperature and precipitation patterns due to climate change. In snowmelt-dominated watersheds, adapting to such environmental changes requires a detailed understanding of hydrological processes in addition to historical snow cover and streamflow data. Snow models are often incorporated as an additional component of hydrological modeling studies that inform research and operations management. However, previous research and parameter estimation approaches using snow models assume that parameters have a single optimal value and that each parameter is sensitive. This paper demonstrates that an improved understanding of snow model parameter sensitivity can aid in …

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Agent-Based Virtual Laboratories For A Novel Experimental Approach To Socio-Environmental Synthesis, Nicholas R. Magliocca, Mary Shelley, Mike Smorul Jun 2014

Agent-Based Virtual Laboratories For A Novel Experimental Approach To Socio-Environmental Synthesis, Nicholas R. Magliocca, Mary Shelley, Mike Smorul

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The number of agent-based modeling (ABM) applications within the socio-environmental context has exploded over the last decade. Most of these ABMs have been designed to deepen our understanding of the decision-making processes and human-environment interactions that lead to emergent community- and/or landscape-level outcomes in specific locations and contexts. While these 'case-based' ABMs have generally been successful in this aim - to which their popularity attests - little progress has been made through this case-based approach towards the ultimate goal of building coherent theory about the structure, dynamics, and sustainability of socio-environmental systems. Moving away from case-based ABMs, this paper will …

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The Qmra Wiki: A Social Media Tool For Interdisciplinary And Interagency Collaboration For Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment, Jade Mitchell, Mark H. Weir, Wietske Van Osch, Joan Rose Jun 2014

The Qmra Wiki: A Social Media Tool For Interdisciplinary And Interagency Collaboration For Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment, Jade Mitchell, Mark H. Weir, Wietske Van Osch, Joan Rose

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

This study presents a web-based social media system that supports quantitative microbial risk assessment (QMRA) and collaboration among interdisciplinary scientists and interagency stakeholders, namely the QMRA wiki. The QMRA wiki is intended to aid the development of risk assessments by providing a collection of raw data, models and calculators as well as a platform for exchange and cross-fertilization between the QMRA community and its stakeholders. The wiki is organized around the exploration of the QMRA paradigm including the following five components: hazard identification, dose-response assessment, exposure assessment, risk characterization and risk management. Additionally, the wiki houses a number of case …

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Using Integrated Environmental Modeling To Automate A Process-Based Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment, Gene Whelan, Keewook Kim, Rajbir Parmar, Kurt Wolfe, Mike Galvin, Paul Duda, Mark Gray, Marirosa Molina, Richard Zepp, Yakov Pachepsky, John Ravenscroft, Lourdes Prieto, Brenda Kitchens Jun 2014

Using Integrated Environmental Modeling To Automate A Process-Based Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment, Gene Whelan, Keewook Kim, Rajbir Parmar, Kurt Wolfe, Mike Galvin, Paul Duda, Mark Gray, Marirosa Molina, Richard Zepp, Yakov Pachepsky, John Ravenscroft, Lourdes Prieto, Brenda Kitchens

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Integrated Environmental Modeling (IEM) organizes multidisciplinary knowledge that explains and predicts environmental-system response to stressors. A Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment (QMRA) is an approach integrating a range of disparate data (fate/transport, exposure, and human health effects relationships) to characterize potential health impacts/risks from exposure to pathogenic microorganisms. We demonstrate loosely connected IEM legacy technologies (SDMProjectBuilder, Microbial Source Module, HSPF, and BASINS) to support watershed-scale microbial source-to-receptor modeling, focusing on animal-impacted catchments. The coupled models automate manual steps in standard watershed assessments to expedite the process, minimize resources, increase ease of use, and introduce more science-based processes to the analysis. SDMProjectBuilder …

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Toward Integrated Environmental Modeling Using Research Data Infastructures, Jeffery S. Horsburgh Jun 2014

Toward Integrated Environmental Modeling Using Research Data Infastructures, Jeffery S. Horsburgh

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Anticipated changes to climate, human population, land use, and urban form will alter the hydrology and availability of water within the water systems on which the world's population relies. Managing water resources, as well as maintaining associated capacity to provide ecosystem services (e.g., regulating flooding, maintaining instream flow during dry periods, cycling nutrients, and maintaining water quality) will require better information characterizing both the natural hydrologic system and human mediated hydrologic systems. The next generation of integrated environmental models will seek to provide this information but requires better access to data at the spatial and temporal scales relevant to decision …

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The Csdms Standard Names: Cross-Domain Naming Conventions For Describing Process Models, Data Sets And Their Associated Variables, Scott D. Peckham Jun 2014

The Csdms Standard Names: Cross-Domain Naming Conventions For Describing Process Models, Data Sets And Their Associated Variables, Scott D. Peckham

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The CSDMS (Community Surface Dynamics Modeling System) modeling framework provides mechanisms that allow models and data sets from different contributors to be automatically coupled in a plug-and-play manner to create composite models. In developing this capability, a key challenge has been that of automatic semantic mediation, or name matching, because each model or data set (here called a resource) uses its own set of terms for input and output variable names. These names are often domain-specific or abbreviated. In order for the CSDMS framework to determine whether one model’s output variable is appropriate to be used as another model’s input …

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Sensitivity And Uncertainty Analysis Of A Plant-Wide Model For Carbon And Energy Footprint Of Wastewater Treatment Plants, Giorgio Mannina, Alida Cosenza, Riccardo Gori, Reza Sobhani, Manel Garrido, Diego Rosso Jun 2014

Sensitivity And Uncertainty Analysis Of A Plant-Wide Model For Carbon And Energy Footprint Of Wastewater Treatment Plants, Giorgio Mannina, Alida Cosenza, Riccardo Gori, Reza Sobhani, Manel Garrido, Diego Rosso

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

This paper presents the sensitivity and uncertainty analysis of a mathematical model for Greenhouse gas (GHG) and energy consumption assessment from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). The model is able to simultaneously describe the main biological and physical-chemical processes in WWTP. Specifically, the mathematical model includes the main processes of the water and sludge lines influencing the methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Further, the process energy demand and the energy recovery are also taken into account. The main objective of this paper is to analyze the key factors and sources …

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App2adapt: Using Tablet Technology To Elicit Conditional Probabilities For Bayesian Belief Network Modelling, Russell Richards, Oz Sahin, Marcello Sano, Jan-Olaf Meynecke, Rachel Tiller Jun 2014

App2adapt: Using Tablet Technology To Elicit Conditional Probabilities For Bayesian Belief Network Modelling, Russell Richards, Oz Sahin, Marcello Sano, Jan-Olaf Meynecke, Rachel Tiller

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The aim of this study is to use touch-screen computer tablet technology (e.g. iPAD) and its interactive flight console capabilities (e.g. touch screen 'sliders') as an improved method to stakeholder­ driven climate change adaptation research. Climate change vulnerability and adaptation have strong human dimensions meaning that the experiences of stakeholders often plays an important role when assessing adaptation options and/or the determinants of adaptive capacity. Methods such as Bayesian belief networks {BBNs) can draw upon the extensive knowledge and beliefs of stakeholders in a straightforward manner yet are underpinned by a robust mathematical framework (i.e. Bayes theory). This is critically …

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Metadata For Describing Water Models, Mohamed M. Morsy, Jonathan L. Goodall, Christina Bandaragoda, Anthony M. Castronova, Jane Greenberg Jun 2014

Metadata For Describing Water Models, Mohamed M. Morsy, Jonathan L. Goodall, Christina Bandaragoda, Anthony M. Castronova, Jane Greenberg

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Computer models are widely used in hydrology and water resources management. A large variety of models exist, each tailored to address specific challenges related to hydrologic science and water resources management. When scientists and engineers apply one of these models to address a specific question, they must devote significant effort to set up, calibrate, and evaluate that model instance built for some place and time. In many cases, there is a benefit to sharing these computer models and associated datasets with the broader scientific community. Core to model reuse in any context is metadata describing the model. A standardized metadata …

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Engaging Australian Surf Lifesaving In Coastal Hazard And Climate Change Adaptation With Stakeholder Driven Modelling, Marcello Sono, Russell G. Richards, Oz Sahin, Shauna Sherker, Rodger Tomlinson Jun 2014

Engaging Australian Surf Lifesaving In Coastal Hazard And Climate Change Adaptation With Stakeholder Driven Modelling, Marcello Sono, Russell G. Richards, Oz Sahin, Shauna Sherker, Rodger Tomlinson

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Australia's beaches, an iconic playground and social hub for coastal communities, are threatened by coastal hazards and by the impacts of climate change. In particular, Surf Life Saving Australia (SLSA) has assets, facilities and personnel exposed to coastal hazards and climate change, including numerous surf life saving clubs (SLSCs), which can impact its capacity of providing beach and water safety for Australian beaches. This research employed a range of methods to identify climate change adaptation options and to identify mechanisms to enhance adaptive capacity, combining a range of system-oriented, stakeholder-based techniques, including system thinking conceptual modelling, structural analysis, system dynamics …

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Addressing The Water-Energy-Climate Nexus Conundrum: A Systems Approach, Oz Sahin, Rodney A. Stewart, Russell G. Richards Jun 2014

Addressing The Water-Energy-Climate Nexus Conundrum: A Systems Approach, Oz Sahin, Rodney A. Stewart, Russell G. Richards

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Australia has the highest per capita surface water storage capacity of any country in the world. However, this storage capacity is at the mercy of Australia's rainfall, which is the most variable of any continental region. Recent drought shaved more than 1% off the nation's economy and saw unprecedented widespread water scarcity. In South-East Queensland (SEQ), six consecutive annual drops in storage level forced the introduction of water restrictions, limiting over 2 million citizens to less than 30% of pre-drought per capita usage. Moving forward, forecasts of high population growth and climate change will simultaneously increase water demand and significantly …

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Linking Water Resource Network Models To An Open Data Management Platform, Phillipp Meier, Stephen Knox, Julien Harou Jun 2014

Linking Water Resource Network Models To An Open Data Management Platform, Phillipp Meier, Stephen Knox, Julien Harou

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The development of models for complex water resources systems frequently involves cus- tomising model formulations to fit unique institutional or physical problems. Linking existing model components is part of this process. As an alternative to pre-packaged models or building models based on components that comply to the same standard interface we present a model platform where network resource models (water, energy, transport, etc.) are linked to a data manager in a generic way. A modular architecture is achieved using a server for data storage. Clients connecting to the server, called Apps, provide import and export functions from and to various …

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Multiscale Spatial Sensitivity Analysis For Agent-Based Modelling Of Coupled Landscape And Aquatic Systems, Arika Ligmann-Zielinska, Wei Liu, Daniel B. Kramer, Kendra Spence Cheruvelil, Patricia A. Soranno, Piotr Jankowski, Seda Salap Jun 2014

Multiscale Spatial Sensitivity Analysis For Agent-Based Modelling Of Coupled Landscape And Aquatic Systems, Arika Ligmann-Zielinska, Wei Liu, Daniel B. Kramer, Kendra Spence Cheruvelil, Patricia A. Soranno, Piotr Jankowski, Seda Salap

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Models of coupled landscape and aquatic systems (CLAS) are prone to input uncertainties that vary over space. To address this challenge, we employ a comprehensive model evaluation that: [1] quantifies the variability of model results (uncertainty analysis), and [2] decomposes this variability based on the relative contribution of inputs to identify major drivers in the model (sensitivity analysis). Our study simulates how agricultural land conversion from active to fallow lands reduces nutrient loading to lakes. We employ an agent-based model of farmer decision making coupled with a spatially-explicit biophysical lake model. A number of model inputs are uncertain including: variables …

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Defining The Spatiotemporal Surveillance Space For Alien Species' Invasions Using Approximate Bayesian Computation, Grant Hamilton, Rune Rasmussen, Jana Mullerova, Jan Pergl, Petr Pysek Jun 2014

Defining The Spatiotemporal Surveillance Space For Alien Species' Invasions Using Approximate Bayesian Computation, Grant Hamilton, Rune Rasmussen, Jana Mullerova, Jan Pergl, Petr Pysek

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The spatiotemporal dynamics of an alien species invasion across a real landscape are typically complex. While surveillance is an essential part of a management response, planning surveillance in space and time present a difficult challenge due to this complexity. We show here a method for determining the highest probability sites for occupancy across a landscape at an arbitrary point in the future, based on occupancy data from a single slice in time. We apply to the method to the invasion of Giant Hogweed, a serious weed in the Czech republic and throughout Europe.

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The Effect Of Recovery On Modeling Inactivation Of Bacillus Spores On Hvac Filters, Bharathi Murali, Jade Mitchell Jun 2014

The Effect Of Recovery On Modeling Inactivation Of Bacillus Spores On Hvac Filters, Bharathi Murali, Jade Mitchell

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The ability of microorganisms to persist on fomite surfaces is an important component in modeling their spread in physical environment. For example, Bacillus anthracis (Ba) spores have been found to be extremely resistant to inactivation, environmental stresses, and stable over decades. Modeling the inactivation of spores could form an integral element for estimating the exposure and the subsequent health risks posed by them. However, there is a knowledge gap in the quantification of recovery of Bacillus spores on porous surfaces, which may have a significant effect on the quantification of their persistence in the environment. Our work investigates the recovery …

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A K-Means Clustering Approach To Assess Wheat Yield Prediction Uncertainty With A Hydrus-1d Coupled Crop Model, Derek Groenendyk, Kelly Thorp, Ty Ferré, Wade Crow, Doug Hunsaker Jun 2014

A K-Means Clustering Approach To Assess Wheat Yield Prediction Uncertainty With A Hydrus-1d Coupled Crop Model, Derek Groenendyk, Kelly Thorp, Ty Ferré, Wade Crow, Doug Hunsaker

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Soil moisture, especially under drought conditions, is a factor that is known to impact crop yield predictions. Crop growth models used to make these predictions rely on soil texture estimates, which influence simulated soil moisture and ultimately crop growth. The purpose of this research was to implement a k-means clustering approach to address the uncertainty of the soil texture estimates. By grouping similar soil textures based on their simulated responses, clustering reveals how soil texture uncertainty may impact yield estimates. Wheat growth simulations were conducted using a HYDRUS 1D and coupled crop model for soils defined on the USDA soil …

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Gis-Based Environmental Modeling With Tangible Interaction And Dynamic Visualization, Anna Petrasova, Brendan Harmon, Vaclav Petras, Helena Mitasova Jun 2014

Gis-Based Environmental Modeling With Tangible Interaction And Dynamic Visualization, Anna Petrasova, Brendan Harmon, Vaclav Petras, Helena Mitasova

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

We present a new, affordable version of TanGeoMS, a tangible geospatial modeling and visualization system designed for collaboratively exploring how terrain change impacts landscape pro­ cesses. It couples a physical, three-dimensional model of a landscape with geospatial modeling and analysis through a cycle of scanning and projection. Multiple users can modify the physical model by hand while it is being scanned; by sculpting the model they generate input for modeling of geophysical processes. The modeling results are then visualized by projecting images or animations back on the physical model. This feedback loop is an intuitive way to evaluate the impacts …

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Calibration Of Simulation Platforms Including Highly Interweaved Processes: The Maelia Multi-Agent Platform, Romain Lardy, Pierre Mazzega, Christophe Sibertin-Blanc, Yves Auda, José-Miguel Sanchez-Perez, Sabine Sauvage, Olivier Therond Jun 2014

Calibration Of Simulation Platforms Including Highly Interweaved Processes: The Maelia Multi-Agent Platform, Romain Lardy, Pierre Mazzega, Christophe Sibertin-Blanc, Yves Auda, José-Miguel Sanchez-Perez, Sabine Sauvage, Olivier Therond

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The MAELIA project develops an agent-based modeling and simulation platform to study the environmental, economic and social impacts of various regulations regarding water use and water management in combination with climate change. An integrated modelling approach has been used to model the investigated social-ecological system. MAELIA combines spatiotemporal models of ecologic (e.g. water flow and plant growth) and human decision-making processes (e.g. cropping plan), socio-economic dynamics (e.g. land cover changes). Due to the diversity and the interweaving of the processes considered, the calibration and evaluation of such a multi-agent platform is a scientific challenge. Indeed, many parameters can reveal to …

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An Environmental Modeling Language For Agents And Fields, Kor De Jong, Merijn De Bakker, Derek Karssenberg Jun 2014

An Environmental Modeling Language For Agents And Fields, Kor De Jong, Merijn De Bakker, Derek Karssenberg

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Environmental modeling involves manipulating environmental attributes represented in soft­ware by agents, fields or both, but most modeling environments are designed to be especially useful for either agent-based or field-based modeling. Agent-based and field-based modeling environments have different properties with respect to their ease of use and how well both agents and fields can be represented and manipulated. Most agent-based modeling environments require the modeler to use a general purpose object oriented programming language like Java to express models, while field-based modeling environments often implement a high level, domain specific imperative language based on map algebra, or extent a general purpose …

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An Integrated Approach For Including Social Capacities, And Economic Valuation In Risk Assessment Of Water Related Hazards In Uncertain Scenarios, Carlo Giupponi, Vahid Mojtahed, Animesh K. Gain, Stefano Balbi, Claudio Biscaro Jun 2014

An Integrated Approach For Including Social Capacities, And Economic Valuation In Risk Assessment Of Water Related Hazards In Uncertain Scenarios, Carlo Giupponi, Vahid Mojtahed, Animesh K. Gain, Stefano Balbi, Claudio Biscaro

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

We propose a conceptual framework, KR-FWK (i.e. KULTURisk Framework from the name of the European project within which it originated) and its implementation methods SERRA (Socio-Economic Regional Risk Assessment) for integrated (physical and economical) risk assessment, and economic valuation of risk prevention benefits on multiple receptors. The KR-FWK and the SERRA approach are characterised by: (i) integration of physical-environmental dimensions and the socio-economic ones in risk assessment; (ii) consideration of the role of social capacities (adaptive and coping capacity) in reducing risk and related costs, (iii) quantitative (even monetary) assessment of risks and of the benefits of risk reduction measures, …

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Agile Workflows For Climate Impact Risk Assessment Based On The Ci:Grasp Platform And The Jabc Modeling Framework, Samih Al-Areqi, Anna-Lena Lamprecht, Tiziana Margaria, Steffen Kriewald, Dominik Reusser, Markus Wrobel Jun 2014

Agile Workflows For Climate Impact Risk Assessment Based On The Ci:Grasp Platform And The Jabc Modeling Framework, Samih Al-Areqi, Anna-Lena Lamprecht, Tiziana Margaria, Steffen Kriewald, Dominik Reusser, Markus Wrobel

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Analyzing and assessing potential impacts of climate change are critical and challenging tasks that require the processing of large and heterogeneous datasets. These analyses are particularly demanding because of the multi-scale and multi-objective nature of environmental modeling for climate change impact assessment. The Climate Impacts: Global and Regional Adaptation Support Platform (ci:grasp) is a web-based climate information service for exploring climate change related information in its geographical context. In this paper, we show how the agile workflow development style supported by the jABC process modeling and execution framework permits us to leverage the processes implemented in the ci:grasp platform to …

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The Data Processing Inequality And Environmental Model Prediction, Steven V. Weijs Jun 2014

The Data Processing Inequality And Environmental Model Prediction, Steven V. Weijs

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Prediction in environmental systems, such as hydrological streamflow prediction, is a challenging task. Although on a small scale, many of the physical processes are well described, accurate predictions of macroscopical (e.g. catchment scale) behavior with a bottom-up mechanistic approach often remains elusive. On the other hand, conceptual or purely statistical models fitted to data often perform surprisingly well for prediction. The data processing inequality, from the field of information theory, says that processing data with statistical procedures can only decrease, and not increase the information content of the data. This seems to contradict the intuition that our knowledge of physical …

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Managing Agricultural Landscapes For Favouring Ecosystem Services Provided By Biodiversity: A Spatially Explicit Model Of Crop Rotations In The Gama Simulation Platform, Hugo Thierry, Aude Vialatte, Jean-Philippe Choisis, Benoit Gaudou, Claude Monteil Jun 2014

Managing Agricultural Landscapes For Favouring Ecosystem Services Provided By Biodiversity: A Spatially Explicit Model Of Crop Rotations In The Gama Simulation Platform, Hugo Thierry, Aude Vialatte, Jean-Philippe Choisis, Benoit Gaudou, Claude Monteil

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The need to reduce the use of pesticides in agricultural ecosystems requires studying and developing new pest regulation methods. Individual-based models are useful to better understand how dynamics of insects interact with agricultural landscapes and to study the potential effects of alternative regulation methods, taking into account the spatial and temporal stochasticity of agricultural ecosystems caused by human management. Crop rotations and crop phenology have an important impact on the life cycles of populations of insects. We developed an individual-based model simulating the dynamics of an agricultural landscape from GIS data. The spatiotemporal stochasticity is simulated using typical landcover rotations …

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Diffuse Nutrient Pollution From Residential Catchments, Melissa Rachelle Butcher Jun 2014

Diffuse Nutrient Pollution From Residential Catchments, Melissa Rachelle Butcher

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Nonpoint source nutrient pollution is diffuse pollution lacking discrete origin and conveyance. This thesis synthesizes and critically reviews research on residential nitrogen and phosphorus loss to stormwater runoff and leaching. The evaluation pulls from research covering influential socio-demographic indicators, such as use of lawn maintenance services and homeowner fertilizer practices. The extent to which such social and economic factors may influence the prevalence and fate of diffuse nutrients in stormwater runoff from residential areas has not been adequately established. Understanding the source and influencing factors of diffuse nutrient pollution is important in order to effectively protect surface and groundwater resources. …

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Inactivation Of Ascaris In Double-Vault Urine-Diverting Composting Latrines In Panama: Methods And Environmental Health Engineering Field Applications, Daragh A. Gibson Jun 2014

Inactivation Of Ascaris In Double-Vault Urine-Diverting Composting Latrines In Panama: Methods And Environmental Health Engineering Field Applications, Daragh A. Gibson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The United Nations Millennium Development Goals have prioritized improving access to sanitation, but unfortunately about a third of the global population is still without an improved sanitation source and one billion still practice open defecation. Lack of access to adequate and safe sanitation means the proliferation of dangerous pathogens in the environment, especially soil-transmitted helminths (STHs). In the Bocas del Toro Province of Panama (and similar locations in the world), composting latrines have been built in many of the indigenous communities in the area. They are a form of dry or ecological sanitation and are designed to produce an end …

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Large Research Center Education And Outreach: Lessons From 5 Years Of Distributed Collaborative Design, Development And Implementation, Sean Brophy, Thalia Anagnos Jun 2014

Large Research Center Education And Outreach: Lessons From 5 Years Of Distributed Collaborative Design, Development And Implementation, Sean Brophy, Thalia Anagnos

Faculty Publications

Paper from the 121st ASEE Annual Conference, Indianapolis. The George E. Brown, Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Summation (NEES) completes its tenth year of operation in September 2014. The NEES Center consists of a network of 14 large-scale experimental laboratories that collaborate and share resources in support of research to inform civil engineering practice and reduce losses from future earthquakes. Since the development of the center in 2003, the education, outreach and training (EOT) program has grown from a federation of local outreach activities to an integrated network of “specialists” working together to obtain significant impact towards defined education goals. …

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Adventures In Paragraph Writing: The Development And Refinement Of Scalable And Effective Writing Exercises For Large-Enrollment Engineering Courses, Rebecca R. Essig, Cary David Troy, Brent K. Jesiek, Josh Boyd, Natascha Michele Trellinger Jun 2014

Adventures In Paragraph Writing: The Development And Refinement Of Scalable And Effective Writing Exercises For Large-Enrollment Engineering Courses, Rebecca R. Essig, Cary David Troy, Brent K. Jesiek, Josh Boyd, Natascha Michele Trellinger

IMPACT Publications

Adventures in paragraph writing: the development and refinement of scalable and effective writing exercises for large enrollment engineering courses. The ability to communicate effectively is a highly desirable attribute for today’s graduating engineers. Additionally, the inclusion of communication components in technical courses has been shown to enhance learning of technical content and can be leveraged to satisfy non-technical learning outcomes. However, the incorporation of such components in undergraduate engineering curricula remains challenging due to resource limitations, credit hour crunches, and other issues. This paper presents the design considerations and preliminary results from our ongoing work to create an effective, transferrable, …

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