Civil and Environmental Engineering Commons^™

Development And Validation Of An Analytical Modeling Tool For Solar Borehole Heat Exchangers, Adam Ornelles

All Theses

Current numerical modeling solutions used for subsurface heat flow, such as the Berkeley TOUGH codes, are often difficult to use and time-consuming compared to analytical modeling methods. However, current analytical modeling methods for subsurface heat flow and groundwater cannot accurately model the subsurface in 3 dimensions, a feature paramount to the planning and installation of thermal borehole heat exchangers used in environmental remediation.

This research developed a novel 3-dimensional analytical modeling tool for solar-powered borehole heat exchangers. The analytical modeling tool can plan thermal remediation systems while being more straightforward to operate than current numerical modeling software. By creating a …

Effects Of Air-Injection Pressure On Airflow Pattern Of Air Sparging, Arvin Farid, Atena Najafi, Jim Browning, Elisa Barney Smith

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Air sparging is a remediation technology for treating soil/groundwater contaminated with volatile organic compounds (VOCs). VOC removal during air sparging is rendered less effective because of the random formation of air channels, creating preferential paths for airflow, thus limiting remediation to these channels, referred to as a zone of influence (ZOI). Pulsation is a popular method used to improve the effectiveness of air sparging through cyclic operation, with the hope that air channels would form elsewhere. Pulsation makes air sparging more time-consuming. This paper studies the effects of one cycle of pulsation and air pressure on the airflow pattern and …

Avoiding Water Bankruptcy In The Drought-Troubled Southwest: What The Us And Iran Can Learn From Each Other, Mojtaba Sadegh, Ali Mirchi, Amir Aghakouchak, Kaveh Madani

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The 2021 water year ends on Sept. 30, and it was another hot, dry year in the western U.S., with almost the entire region in drought. Reservoirs vital for farms, communities and hydropower have fallen to dangerous lows.

The biggest blow came in August, when the U.S. government issued its first ever water shortage declaration for the Colorado River, triggering water use restrictions.

In response, farmers and cities across the Southwest are now finding new, often unsustainable ways to meet their future water needs. Las Vegas opened a lower-elevation tunnel to Lake Mead, a Colorado River reservoir where water levels …

Potential Impact Of Contour Bunds On Diclofenac Removal For Stormwater Control In Rangeland Applications, Braden Alan Whitehead

Master's Theses

Diclofenac (DCF) and other emerging contaminants have been found in environments worldwide. These contaminants may enter the environment due to the application of treated wastewater, biosolids and direct excrement related to veterinary application. Leakage from the soils toward the groundwater is largely controlled by sorption and microbial degradation. Most studies on the environmental fate of DCF have focused on degradation during wastewater treatment processes. However, little is known about their behavior in soil. In this study, the combined effect of adsorption and degradation of diclofenac has been investigated in four (4) 24 ft³ agricultural soil-filled beds designed to mimic …

Groundwater Model Studying Effects Of Existing Recharge Basin And Proposed Subsurface Barrier For A Ranch In Santa Rosa Creek Watershed, Stefan J. Young

Master's Theses

A groundwater model of a 126.2-acre ranch in Cambria, California was expanded upon to analyze the effects of artificial recharge and a subsurface barrier. The ranch lies within the 48mi² Santa Rosa Creek Watershed along the Central Coast of California. The mainly agricultural watershed outfalls to the Pacific Ocean to its west. Creek Lands Conservation, a non-profit that aims to conserve and restore habitat along the Central Coast, plans to identify projects to restore stream flow during dry seasons in the creek that runs through the Santa Rosa Creek Watershed and to increase artificial groundwater recharge. This study focuses …

Assessment Of Endogenous Biomass Decay As A Source Of Precursors For Microbially-Mediated Toluene And P-Cresol Production, Samuel J. Reynolds

LSU Master's Theses

The research reported in this thesis was conducted to investigate whether protein hydrolysis associated with endogenous decay of biomass produced following the addition of a readily fermentable substrate is a potential source of precursors that can ultimately be transformed to toluene and p-cresol in environments undergoing enhanced bioremediation.

A packed column intended to represent a laboratory-scale section of an aquifer was seeded with groundwater and then supplied with molasses-amended groundwater for a two-day interval. The injected molasses concentration and surface loading rate were selected to be representative of conditions in the vicinity of injection wells at a Superfund Site …

Investigation Of Bench-Scale Packed Bioreactor For Perchlorate Reduction In The Presence Of Co-Contaminants And High Salinity, Julia Ribeiro Rabello

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Perchlorate (ClO4-), commonly found as a salt, is naturally occurring in nature and is found in natural nitrate deposits (such as the Chilean nitrate). Perchlorate anion is considered an inhibitor of iodine by the thyroid gland, reducing the production of thyroid hormones. The latest action by the USEPA was to not determine a national drinking water standard for perchlorate. However, the states still have their own regulations on perchlorate concentration in drinking water. Contaminated sites with high concentrations of perchlorate (ppm levels) are associated with historic perchlorate manufacture and use, while those with low concentrations (ppb levels) are found in …

2021 Final Butte Reduction Works (Brw) Smelter Area Mine Waste Remediation And Contaminated Groundwater Hydraulic Control Site Phase Iii Quality Assurance Project Plan (Qapp), Pioneer Technical Services, Inc.

Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area Superfund Site

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of Precipitation On The Groundwater Of Coal Waste Dump, Tomasz Suponik, Dawid Franke, Robert Frączek, Katarzyna Nowińska, Piotr Pierzyna, Zenon Różański, Paweł Wrona

Journal of Sustainable Mining

The aim of the study was to assess the effect of climate change, mainly higher and lower precipitation, on the intensity of the impact of a coal waste dump on groundwater. The analysis used meteorological data for the Katowice region in 2002-2020 as well as data on the height of the groundwater table in the vicinity of the coal waste dump, and data on physicochemical parameters and chemical composition of groundwater in 2004-2020. Based on the analyses, it was found that the periods of drought in the Silesian Voivodeship, located in the south of Poland, occurred mainly in spring, while …

Baseflow Nitrate Dynamics Within Nested Watersheds Of An Agricultural Stream In Nebraska, Usa, Galen Richards, Troy E. Gilmore, Aaron R. Mittelstet, Tiffany Messer, Daniel D. Snow

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

There is a need to evaluate high surface nitrate concentrations across agricultural watersheds, both spatially and temporally, to increase understanding of source and timing of nitrogen loads in streams and rivers. Bazile Creek is a high-nitrate stream originating in the agriculturally intensive Bazile Groundwater Management Area of Eastern Nebraska, USA. It is a gaining stream that receives groundwater with high nitrate concentrations originating from nonpoint sources. The objective of this study was to determine spatial and temporal variability of baseflow nitrate concentrations in Bazile Creek and its tributaries and to relate this variability to watershed characteristics. Surface-water nitrate samples were …

Water Efficient Technology Of Drip Irrigation In Intensive Gardens, F.U. Juraev, G.H. Karimov

Irrigation and Melioration

The studies were carried out in 2017-2019 at the Zodabek farm on a 6 hectare garden plot with seedlings of half-tall apple trees “Golden Delicious”. Experimental research work was carried out at a groundwater level in the experimental area of 1.5-2.0 m, mineralization 1.0-1.2 g/l in alluvial, mechanical, medium sandy soils with the following irrigation options. The first option is irrigation, at the start of the second - drip irrigation; third, the use of specially designed soil pegs. The following results were obtained: in the control option, the average irrigation rate for three years was 1125.7 m3/ha, with drip irrigation …

Effect Of Landfill Leachates On Some Water Quality Indicators Of Selected Surface Water And Groundwater At Ilokun, Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria, Olorunwa Omofunmi, Adesola Satimehin, Abraham Oloye, Okwunna Umego

Makara Journal of Technology

This study was conducted to examine the impact of dumpsites on the quality of groundwater and surface water. The water samples and leachates were collected from dumpsites in respective zones. The physicochemical properties of the samples were examined and determined in accordance with the standards of the American Public Health Association. Results indicated that the groundwater and surface water that are close to the dumpsites have an electrical conductivity of 385 and 245 Sd/cm, total dissolved solids of 168 and 128 mg/L, a turbidity of 4.6 and 22 NTU, a total alkalinity of 103 and 50 mg/L, a total hardness …

Modeling The Impact Of Changes In The Ground Water Level On The Stability Of Agricultural Landscapes Using Gis, A.M. Arifjanov, L.N. Samiev, F.K. Babajanov, G.M. Xamdamova, Sh.N. Yusupov

Irrigation and Melioration

The article presents modern GIS methods for determining the stability of changes in irrigated areas and the depth of the ground water level.the most correct solutions are given in modeling this process. To distinguish agricultural landscapes, the classification of agricultural acreage in the lower part of the Amu Darya river region was made using 16-day periodic rasters 2017 of 2018 and the NDIS MOD13Q1 sensor of agricultural acreage, type NDVI. The annual change in the level of underground water in relation to the state of rivers and channels is analyzed. A steady change in agricultural acreage on the right Bank …

The Role Of Carbonate Minerals In Arsenic Mobility In A Shallow Aquifer Influenced By A Seasonally Fluctuating Groundwater Table, Jeremy Jensen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Arsenic (As) is a poison historically used to great effect before modern detection methods rendered it obsolete. However, the largest mass poisoning in human history occurred due to groundwater in the Bengal Basin contaminated by natural sources of As. Since that time, research has determined that As is found in groundwater worldwide. This includes aquifers located in basin-filled valleys of the western United States. One of these valleys is the Cache Valley Basin located in Northern Utah. This semi-arid region contains carbonate-rich soils and is heavily influenced by snowmelt and seasonal runoff. Previous studies have found that 15% of private …

Groundwater Level Mapping Tool: An Open Source Web Application For Assessing Groundwater Sustainability, Steven W. Evans, Norman L. Jones, Gustavious P. Williams, Daniel P. Ames, E. James Nelson

Faculty Publications

Decision makers need an accurate understanding of aquifer storage trends to effectively manage groundwater resources. Groundwater is difficult to monitor and quantify since the data collected from monitoring wells are often available only at irregular and infrequent intervals. We present an open-source web application (app) to visualize groundwater data over time and automatically calculate changes in aquifer storage volume to help managers assess aquifer sustainability. This app uses a novel multi-linear regression (MLR) algorithm to impute missing data for infrequently sampled wells, using correlated data from other wells in the same aquifer. The app uses this MLR-imputed data to spatially …

Climate Change Impacts The Subsurface Transport Of Atrazine And Estrone Originating From Agricultural Production Activities, Renys Enrique Barrios, Simin Akbariyeh, Chuyang Liu, Khalid Muzamil Gani, Margarita T. Kovalchuk, Xu Li, Yusong Li, Daniel D. Snow, Zhenghong Tang, John Gates, Shannon L. Bartelt-Hunt

Nebraska Water Center: Faculty Publications

Climate change will impact soil properties such as soil moisture, organic carbon and temperature and changes in these properties will influence the sorption, biodegradation and leaching of trace organic contaminants to groundwater. In this study, we conducted a modeling case study to evaluate atrazine and estrone transport in the subsurface under current and future climate conditions at a field site in central Nebraska. According to the modeling results, in the future, enhanced evapotranspiration and increased average air temperature may cause drier soil conditions, which consequently reduces the biodegradation of atrazine and estrone in the water phase. On the other hand, …

Promoting The Sustainable Utilization Of Groundwater Resources In Ethiopia Using The Integrated Groundwater Footprint Index, Xinyu Lin

Honors Scholar Theses

The country of Ethiopia is highly vulnerable to human-caused climate change and is already suffering from the effects. The predominately rural population relies heavily on small-scale agriculture, with 78% of households having at least one member engaged in the field, yet staple crops are highly susceptible to droughts and other weather shocks. Total and agricultural GDP growth in the country have been strongly linked to inter-annual rainfall variability, of which Ethiopia has among the highest in sub-Saharan Africa. A decrease in rainfall since the 1970s has been one of the primary causes of low crop yields, and stresses the immediate …

Nitrate And Herbicides Removal From Groundwater Using Immobilized Algae, Sara Mollamohammada

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

To improve crop yield and control broadleaf weeds, many farmers apply nitrate-based fertilizers and chemical herbicides to their fields. Excessive use of these chemicals can cause contamination in waterbodies and impact on the public health. The physical and chemical methods have been suggested to remove these herbicides are usually costly. In this study, the capability of immobilized algal beads in removing nitrate and several herbicides of environmental concern from synthetic and actual groundwater and surface water was evaluated.

The experiments were performed in batch, sequencing batch and continuous flow modes and the effect of different operational conditions (light intensity, cultivation …

An Evaluation Of Bank Storage At Lake Mead Reservoir In The Southwest United States, Jon Woodrow Wilson

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

A water balance model is employed at Lake Mead to monitor and verify changing hydrology that affects total volume at the reservoir. Bank storage, which is defined as the volume of water captured in permeable lithologic layers subject to changes induced by contact and proximity to an open waterbody, is one component that is updated regularly and is based upon data and methods that were developed in the 1960’s from observations made within the first 30 years of the reservoir's maturation. Since this period, the reservoir has undergone further development and a current understanding of additional hydrologic affects to bank …

Model Development To Assess Groundwater Flooding And Levee Underseepage In New Orleans, Louisiana, Shuo Yang

LSU Master's Theses

Flooding is a major threat to New Orleans due to its geographic location and geologic condition. However, potential groundwater flooding is seldom studied and poorly understood even though groundwater level is expected high in the city. High groundwater level might result in groundwater flooding in low-lying areas. High uplift pore water pressures may cause strong underseepage and risk levee safety. The objective of this study is to assess the impacts of hydrogeology on groundwater flooding and evaluate potential underseepage-induced hazards along levees in New Orleans. In this study, a groundwater flow model development which involves stratigraphy modeling, groundwater flow model …

Apple Orchard Drip Irrigation Conditions Of The Tashkent Region Of Uzbekistan, Sardor Gulyamov, Bakir Serikbaev, Anvar Sherov

Irrigation and Melioration

The article presents the results of many years of theoretical experimental field research on drip irrigation of the apple orchard of the Golden variety in the conditions of the Tashkent region. Based on the analysis of climatic, soil, hydrogeological, geological, hydrological and economic conditions of the experimental plot, as well as biological features of the garden, the values of total water consumption, water consumption deficit, irrigation, irrigation rate and the number of irrigation by the bioclimatic method are determined.

Risk And Cost Assessment Of Nitrate Contamination In Domestic Wells, Pongpun Juntakut, Erin M.K. Haacker, Daniel D. Snow, Chittaranjan Ray

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

This study combines empirical predictive and economics models to estimate the cost of remediation for domestic wells exceeding suggested treatment thresholds for nitrates. A multiple logistic regression model predicted the probability of well contamination by nitrate, and a life cycle costing methodology was used to estimate costs of nitrate contamination in groundwater in two areas of Nebraska. In south-central Nebraska, 37% of wells were estimated to be at risk of exceeding a threshold of 7.5 mg/L as N, and 17% were at risk of exceeding 10 mg/L as N, the legal limit for human consumption in the United States. In …

Tracing Sources Of Natural Organic Matter, Trihalomethanes And Metals In Groundwater From A Karst Region, Connie O'Driscoll, Eoin Mcgillicuddy, Peter Croot, Pamela Bartley, John Mcmyler, Jerome Sheahan, Liam Morrison

Articles

Groundwater offers an important source for drinking water around the world; however, groundwater quality is under increasing pressure and is particularly vulnerable in karst areas. Total organic carbon (TOC) is significantly related to groundwater quality and when not removed by water treatment processes can give rise to the formation of disinfection by-products trihalomethanes (THMs) above the level of compliance. This study investigated the source of organic matter giving rise to the THM exceedances in a groundwater supply in a karst area. Results highlighted that source water for this groundwater supply was prone to surface water infiltration linked to rainfall events; …

An Open-Source Tool To Facilitate The Processing Of Grace Observations And Gldas Outputs: An Evaluation In Bangladesh, Adam J. Purdy, Cédric H. David, Md. Safat Sikder, John T. Reager, Hrishikesh A. Chandanpukar, Norman L. Jones, Mir A. Matin

Faculty Publications

Bangladesh lies at the intersection of the Ganges, Brahmaputra, and Meghna rivers with a combined average discharge of 38,000 m3s−1 ranking fourth globally. Despite the volume of water flowing through and seasonally inundating parts of the landscape, groundwater reliance is necessary to support an intensive agricultural industry. Here we use newly-developed open-source software to combine observations from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites with hydrologic estimates of land water storage from the Global Land Assimilation Data System (GLDAS) to isolate basin-scale groundwater anomalies in Northwest Bangladesh from 2002 to 2016. We place our estimates in the context of …

Investigation Of Subsurface Stratigraphy And Groundwater Dynamics In The Mississippi River Delta, An Li

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The Mississippi River Delta (MRD) is socioeconomically important to the state of Louisiana and the United States. Various types of land-water system data have been collected in the MRD. However, very few efforts have been made to utilize these datasets in modeling regional stratigraphy and groundwater dynamics in the MRD, especially for the upper 50 m of the depth. In this interval of depth, the Mississippi River and surrounding interdistributary bays intensively interact with the groundwater system. The lack of knowledge in regional stratigraphy and groundwater dynamics hinder an understanding of how hydrogeological setting affects processes such as surface-groundwater interaction, …

Active Layer Groundwater Flow: The Interrelated Effects Of Stratigraphy, Thaw, And Topography, Michael T. O'Connor, M. Bayani Cardenas, Bethany T. Neilson, Kindra D. Nicholaides, George W. Kling

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

The external drivers and internal controls of groundwater flow in the thawed “active layer” above permafrost are poorly constrained because they are dynamic and spatially variable. Understanding these controls is critical because groundwater can supply solutes such as dissolved organic matter to surface water bodies. We calculated steady‐state three‐dimensional suprapermafrost groundwater flow through the active layer using measurements of aquifer geometry, saturated thickness, and hydraulic properties collected from two major landscape types over time within a first‐order Arctic watershed. The depth position and thickness of the saturated zone is the dominant control of groundwater flow variability between sites and during …

Comparison Of Zero Valent Iron (Zvi) And Zvi+Sludge For The Removal Of High Levels Of Hexavalent Chromium And Chlorate From Waters, Kenneth R. Greenhalgh

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Remediation of contaminated groundwater is becoming increasingly more

important as much of the U.S. population relies on groundwater for their drinking water.

Contaminates such as Chromium, common pollutant at industrial waste sites, and

Hexavalent chromium which is toxic to humans, animals, and plants are major

concerns. Chlorate, another contaminate of concern, has been widely detected in

ground and surface water in the United States and even locally in Henderson Nevada at

the Nevada Environmental Response Trust (NERT) sites. To assist in mitigating this

issue, this research focuses on the removal of high levels of hexavalent chromium (ppm

range) (Cr(VI)) and …

Estimation Of Number Of People Living In Developing Countries That Received Water From A Spring Source, Prapti Shinde

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the year 2000, 170 countries decided to stand together and solve some primary and common global problems like poor health, water, and sanitation. Obtaining access to safe drinking water is every individual’s right. The UN defines safe drinking water as “the water required for each personal or domestic use must be safe, therefore free from micro-organisms, chemical substances and radiological hazards that constitute a threat to a person's health” (UNDESA, 2014). This thesis focuses on identifying the number of people who potentially receive spring water from a piped source in rural mountainous areas. There are three significant steps and …

Modeling Of Grace-Derived Groundwater Information In The Colorado River Basin, Md Mafuzur Rahaman, Balbhadra Thakur, Ajay Kalra, Sajjad Ahmad

Civil and Environmental Engineering and Construction Faculty Research

Groundwater depletion has been one of the major challenges in recent years. Analysis of groundwater levels can be beneficial for groundwater management. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s twin satellite, Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE), serves in monitoring terrestrial water storage. Increasing freshwater demand amidst recent drought (2000–2014) posed a significant groundwater level decline within the Colorado River Basin (CRB). In the current study, a non-parametric technique was utilized to analyze historical groundwater variability. Additionally, a stochastic Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) model was developed and tested to forecast the GRACE-derived groundwater anomalies within the CRB. The ARIMA model …

Harnessing Smart Technology For Private Well Risk Assessment And Communication, Tanner Hoffman, Paul Hynds, Corinne Schuster-Wallace, Sarah Dickson-Anderson, Anna Majury

Articles

Unregulated, privately owned water supplies, including groundwater wells, are relied upon extensively, particularly in rural and remote regions. While adequate stewardship behaviors (water testing, treatment, and maintenance) have been shown to decrease the incidence and frequency of faecal indicator organism (FIO) presence and, by extension, the risk of pathogenic ingress, contaminated private water supplies continue to constitute a significant public health risk. Recognizing that innovative approaches are needed to bolster well stewardship, this paper identifies and assesses 35 tools (smartphone and web-based applications) to better understand components, functionality, strengths, and weaknesses. Applications for both data collection and risk communication were …