Civil Engineering Commons^™

Analysis Of Vegetation Heterogeneity As Sensor For Soil Moisture Patterns Using Remote Sensing, Angela Lausch, Claudia Schütze, Bernhard Siemon, Steffen Zacharias, Ulrike Werban

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Soil moisture patterns are key parameters when it comes to controlling and managing process-pattern interactions in processes relating to soil, vegetation, landscape, climate and the ecosystem. Soil pattern heterogeneity is hard to determine in European landscapes using direct procedures, which are used on soil with little or no vegetation, because the soil is often covered with vegetation all year round. The goal of this study is therefore to develop indirect procedures to analyze soil moisture patterns, which "use the biochemical-biophysical characteristics of plants as sensors and indicators" for soil moisture heterogeneity. For this research, geoelectrical methods which include electromagnetic induction …

Use Of A One-Dimensional Link-Node Model To Develop Total Maximum Daily Load Strategies For The San Joaquin River Estuary, Mary Kay Camarillo, William Stringfellow, Joel Herr, Scott Sheeder, Gregory Weissmann, Shelly Gulati, Ashley Stubblefield

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

A one-dimensional link-node model was used to simulate water quality conditions in the tidally­-influenced, deep water ship channel (DWSC) of the San Joaquin River located in Central California. The DWSC has been plagued with low dissolved oxygen (DO) conditions for decades and is currently a focus of restoration efforts. The model was calibrated using a six-year flow and water quality data set. Model simulations were run by removing the mass loads of each of the following major sources of oxygen depletion to determine the effects: elimination of the deepened ship channel (i.e., restore to its pre­ existing depth), elimination of …

Modpi: A Parallel Model Data Passing Interface For Integrating Legacy Environmental System Models, Andre Q. Dozier, Olaf David, Yao Zhang, Mazdak Arabi

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Integration of environmental system models across multiple disparate disciplines has been an area of growing interest because such models typically only represent knowledge and advancements in one discipline or several, similar disciplines. Many challenges have arisen, though, in integrating such models due to varied programming expertise amongst modelers, dependence on specific frameworks or operating systems in addition to different programming languages and requirements for two-way feedbacks that are crucial for improving model representation of the physical reality. in response to these challenges, this paper presents a novel approach based on a publish-subscribe type system to both simplify and improve the …

Whale Trails - A Smart Phone Application For Whale Tracking, Jan-Olaf Maynecke

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Whale watching is undertaken by millions of tourists every year around the world and forms an important industry for a number of countries. Recent changes in migration patterns of whales in particular Humpback whales maybe attributed to climate change. Identifying movement and resting spots of whales can provide opportunities for adaptation of the whale watch industry in times of uncertainty. Such tracking of movements and activities of whales can be collected using smart phones. Smart phones are a readily available technology and capable of complex computations. They have abilities required for tracking including GPS location, maps and a compass function. …

Crowdsourcing In Early Warning Systems, Ulrich Meissen, Frank Fuchs-Kittowski

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The use of mobile devices as an effective and targeted way for alerting the public in cases of disasters has become an important part of future infrastructures for early warning and disaster management. In contrast to classical alert approaches such as TV, Radio and sirens that are offering solely a one-directional communication the use of smart phones opens new potentials such as feedback mechanisms that support more precise warnings and adapted response actions. In this context crowdsourcing techniques show a high potential as an effective measure to meliorate the data basis for predictions and augment warnings. This paper discusses the …

Integra: From Global Scale Contamination To Tissue Dose, Dimosthenis Sarigiannis, Spyros Karakitsios, Alberto Gotti, George Loizou, John Cherrie, Roel Smolders, Kathleen De Brouwere, Karen Galea, Kate Jones, Evangelos Handakas, Krystalia Papadaki, Anne Sleeuwenhoek

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The objective of the INTEGRA project is to bring together all information necessary for assessing the source-to-dose continuum over the entire life cycle of substances covering an extensive chemical space through the use of QSARs. The major outcome of INTEGRA is a comprehensive computational platform that integrates multimedia environmental and micro-environmental fate, exposure and internal dose within a dynamic framework in time. The platform allows multimedia interactions across different spatial scales, taking into account environmental releases and related processes at global, regional and local scale, up to the level of personal microenvironment. Coupling seamlessly exposure models with refined computational tools …

Abstractions From Sensor Data With Complex Event Processing And Machine Learning, Markus Stocker, Mauno Rönkkö, Mikko Kolehmainen

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Environmental knowledge systems that build on sensor-based environmental monitoring rely on techniques in knowledge acquisition and representation to interpret the numbers obtained in measurement for what they tell about the monitored environment. Languages and systems in knowledge representation and reasoning, specifically Semantic Web technologies, support the formulation and execution of rules, a technique that enables deductive inference in a knowledge base. This technique has been used to demonstrate inference on sensor data. While the approach certainly has its merits, it is often demonstrated for numerical thresholds and, thus, for relatively trivial “semantic enrichment.” In reality, knowledge acquisition tasks of interest …

An Ontology-Based Approach For The Instrumentation, Control And Automation Infrastructure Of A Wwtp, Davide Sottara, Jean Claude Coreale, Thierry Spetebroot, Dalila Pulcini, Daniele Giunchi, Fabrizio Paolucci, Luca Luccarini

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The instrumentation, control and automation of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) is a key aspect to ensure good performance and lower operational costs. However, control systems are seldom interoperable and standard-compliant. In this paper, we propose a knowledge-based approach which decouples the description of the plants and their control strategies from their physical structure and instrumentation. In particular, we propose a semantic model based on ontologies, formalized using the W3C OWL2 standard. We have extended the Semantic Sensor Network and created a specialized representation of the WWTP domain, to provide a consistent description of instrumentation (sensors and probes), actuators and data …

Integrating Raster And Vector Spatial Representations With Interaction Graphs For Multi-Scale Environmental Simulations, Mathieu Castets, Pascal Degenne, Pascal Poncelet, Danny Lo Seen

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Nowadays, developing tools for modelling complex system is a mandatory issue in environmental research. Environmental modelling implies taking into account processes at different scales of space and time. Ocelet is a domain specific environmental modelling language that uses graphs to describe how spatial entities in the system interact, with functions attached to the arcs of the graphs that are activated within scenarios to represent the dynamics of the system. The language has a strong focus on spatial interactions where the vector format is used for attributing geometries to entities, thus allowing a precise description of their shapes. However, the vector …

Back-End Science Model Integration For Ecological Risk Assessment, Tao Hong, Chancellor Pascale, Jonathan Flaishans, Marcia Snyder, S. Thomas Purucker

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) relies on a number of ecological risk assessment models that have been developed over 30-plus years of regulating pesticide exposure and risks under Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) and the Endangered Species Act. Since computing technology have changed dramatically over this time period, constituent legacy models often contain algorithms based on source code with defunct dependencies and/or have been integrated with graphical user interface elements no longer compatible with current operating systems. Model migration to modern web applications creates integration challenges for back-end science model code residing on a server. An example …

Epidemia - An Ecohealth Informatics System For Integrated Forecasting Of Malaria Epidemics, Micheal C. Wimberly, Geoffrey M. Henebry, Yi Liu, Gabriel B. Senay

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Advance information about the timing and locations of malaria epidemics allows more effective targeting of resources for prevention, control, and treatment. However, these predictions must be accurate to ensure that potential outbreaks are not missed and resources are not wasted responding to predicted outbreaks that do not occur. Early warning systems based on environmental monitoring can identify critical risk factors before an epidemic actually starts, but their accuracy is constrained by the complex interrelationships of climatic variability, mosquito population dynamics, malaria transmission, and the resulting risk of human infection. In contrast, early detection of malaria epidemics based on epidemiological surveillance …

Swanp: Software For Automatic Smart Water Network Partitioning, Armando Di Nardo, Michele Di Natale, Giovanni Francesco Santonastaso, Francesco Paolo Tuccinardi, Giancarlo Zaccone

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The application of Information and Communication Technology in different assets of urban life has contributed to generating the notion of Smart City in which Smart WAter Network (SWAN) can be assumed as subsystems. The possibility of inserting remote control valves and flow meters in a WDS allows the implementation of the paradigm of "divide and conquer", that consists into divide a large water network into k smaller subsystems, in order to simplify and improve the management and protection of SWAN. Traditional approaches for water network partitioning, based on empirical guiding principles (such as the maximum number of properties or total …

A Chemical Properties Simulator To Support Iem, Gene Whelan, Eric Weber, Caroline Stevens, Mitch Pelton, Kurt Wolfe, Rajbir Parmar, Mike Galvin, Said Hilal, Justin Babendreier

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Users of Integrated Environmental Modeling (IEM) systems are responsible for defining individual chemicals and their properties, a process that is time-consuming at best and overwhelming at worst, especially for new chemicals with new structures. A software tool is needed to allow users to define a chemical structure, predict transformation products within an environmental setting, and calculate relevant physicochemical properties. Independent software provides relevant chemical and environmental descriptors to parameterize IEM systems that support fate/transport of organics by integrating cheminformatic applications and software technologies. These 1) encode process science using SMART reaction strings, an extension of SMILES notation; 2) generate transformation …

Interactive Web-Based Flood Modeling At Country Wide Scale And Plantar Size Resolution, Fedor Baart, Jack Ha, Arthur Van Dam, Gennadii Donchyts, Martijn Siemerink

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The flooding of rural and urban areas is an increasing hazard to society. Accurate and timely predictions are essential for the water manager to prepare and respond to these hazards. Predicting flooding requires a numerical model that represents the physical processes (rain, evaporation, infiltration, overland flow, groundwater flow). This model, fed with measurements, and possible measures, calculates the expected flooding. The traditional working method consists of a three step process: schematization setup, running and post-processing, with a total feedback time of hours. This process is suitable for confirmatory modeling. Most of the time, models are applied exploratory, requiring a different …

Mobile Device App For Small Open-Channel Flow Measurement, Lüthi Beat, Thomas Philippe, Salvador Peña-Haro

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

For effective water management, particularly in irrigated agriculture, it is essential to have reliable open-channel flow data. With present methods, such data is not readily obtained as they require measurement stations, what often results in sparse data. We present a mobile device app to measure runoff in open channels. With this tool flow data can be collected reliably and cheaply.

The technology, on which the app is based, is derived from an already implemented and tested similar webcam application. The smartphone app calculates the runoff by analyzing a few seconds of a movie sequence that is recorded by the same …

Modelling Similarities Of Endocrine Disruptors In Pine Needles And Human Breast Milk, Kristina Voigt, Rainer Bruggemann, Hagen Scherb, Ismet Cok, Karl-Werner Schramm

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

In a recently performed monitoring project, 18 OCPs (Organochlorine pesticides) in paired samples of pine needles and human breast milk samples were analysed in different regions in the Taurus Mountains in Turkey. The aim of our data evaluation approach is to find out whether there are conformities between the paired human breast milk and pine needle samples. An appropriate data analysis method to identify such conformities and differences is the discrete mathematical method named Hasse diagram technique. The software package used is the PyHasse software. It comprises several modules, which are of great support in the evaluation of environmental data. …

Developing An Aquasim Biofilm Model To Simulate A Novel Batch Biofilm Passive Aeration Technology, Noelle Jones, Maebh Grace, Eoghan Clifford

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Mathematical modelling of biofilm reactors can be complicated and time-consuming due to the complexity of the biofilms and a wide range of models have been developed to simulate biofilm reactors.

The Pumped Flow Biofilm Reactor (PFBR) is a new biofilm-based passive aeration system (PAS) that is an example of a complex biofilm system. The PFBR is a two reactor technology that employs a unique hydraulic regime and enables aerobic, anoxic and anaerobic conditions to be sequenced . Biofilm, growing on plastic media modules within the two reactors, is aerated passively as wastewater is moved alternately between the reactors during an …

Implementation Of Integrated Modelling Approach To Impact Assessment Applications For Lng Operations Using 3-D Comprehensive Modelling Framework, Shwet Prakash, Venkat S. Kolluru

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Natural gas is a premium fuel for both its energy value and environmental friendliness. Worldwide reliance on natural gas and continual discovery of new reserves around the world has spurred increased exploration and production. Offshore liquefied natural gas (LNG) developments of a large scale are being operated an built across the world requiring continual assessment of environmental impacts from operational and accidental releases. Physical and chemical environmental impacts on surface waters from these releases should preferably be assessed using a comprehensive modelling approach. In a comprehensive modelling approach, a single model is used to develop the ambient hydrodynamic conditions and …

Data Provisioning For The Object Modeling System (Oms), Jack R. Carlson, Olaf David, Wes J. Lloyd, George H. Leavesley, Ken W. Rojas, Timothy R. Green, Mazdak Arabi, Lucas Yaege, Hom Kipka

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The Object Modelling System (OMS) platform supports initiatives to build or re-factor agro-environmental models and deploy them in different business contexts as model services on cloud computing platforms. Whether traditional desktop, client-server, or emerging cloud deployments, success especially at the enterprise level relies on stable and efficient data provisioning to the models. In this paper we describe recent experience and trends with tools and services deployed to cloud platforms. Also, systematic, sustained data stewardship and alignment with standards organizations impart stability to data provisioning efforts.

Multi-Level Automated Sub-Zoning Of Water Distribution Systems, Lina Sela Perelman, Micheal Allen, Ami Preis, Mudasser Iqbal, Andrew J. Whittle

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Water distribution systems (WDS) are complex pipe networks with looped and branching topologies that often comprise of thousands of links and nodes. This work presents a generic framework for improved analysis and management of WDS by partitioning the system into smaller (almost) independent sub-systems with balanced loads and minimal number of interconnections. This paper compares the performance of three classes of unsupervised learning algorithms from graph theory for practical sub-zoning of WDS: (1) Graph clustering – a bottom-up algorithm for clustering n objects with respect to a similarity function, (2) Community structure – a bottom-up algorithm based on network modularity …

Large Wood Flow Hydraulics: A 3d Modelling Approach, Yong G. Lai, David J. Bandrowski

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Large Wood (LW) has been widely used in stream and watershed restoration projects due to the many ecological benefits it offers. Its use in streams, however, has unresolved challenges with regard to its impact on stream morphology, safety and lack of design guidelines. Laboratory or field study of LW is difficult due to irregular nature of LW structures. Computational fluid dynamics (CFO) modelling, therefore, becomes an attractive alternative. However, CFO modelling of LW has its own challenges: the difficulty of mesh representation and lack of reliable and practical 3O flow and mobile-bed models. In this paper, an LW research and …

A New Evaluation Framework For Input Variable Selection Algorithms Used In Environmental Modelling, Greer B. Humphrey, Stefano Galelli, Andrea Castelleti, Holger R. Maier, Graeme C. Dandy, Matthew S. Gibbs

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Input variable selection is an essential step in the development of statistical models and is particularly relevant in environmental modelling, where potential model inputs often consist of time lagged values of each different potential input variable. While new methods for identifying important model inputs continue to emerge, each has its own advantages and limitations and no method is best suited to all datasets and purposes. Nevertheless, rigorous evaluation of new and existing input variable selection methods, is largely neglected due to the lack of guidelines or precedent to facilitate consistent and standardised assessment. This rigorous evaluation would allow the effectiveness …

A Hybrid, Integrated Iedds For The Management Of Sequencing Batch Reactors, Davide Sottara, Stefano Bragaglia, Dalila Pulcini, Paola Mello, Luca Luccarini

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

A Sequencing Batch Reactor (SBR) is a particular kind of wastewater treatment plant (WWTP), where all treatment processes take place in a single reactor tank, according to a fixed temporal sequence. SBR offers several advantages in terms of reduced costs, minor impact and greater flexibility with respect to traditional WWTPs. However, an optimal cost/performance ratio can only be achieved if the treatment processes are continuously monitored and controlled. In this paper, we present a hybrid, distributed, knowledge-based (Intelligent) Environmental Decision Support System (IEDSS) specifically dedicated to the management of SBRs. The IEDSS is responsible for verifying, ensuring and enforcing the …

Interoperable Intelligent Environmental Decision Support Systems: A Framework Proposal, Miquel Sànchez-Marrè

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

In this paper, an approach for the development of Interoperable Intelligent Environmental Decision Support Systems (IEDSS) is proposed. The framework is based upon the cognitive-oriented approach for the development of IEDSS proposed in (Sànchez-Marrè et al., 2008), where three kinds of tasks must be built: analysis tasks, synthesis tasks and prognosis tasks. Now, a fourth level will be proposed: the model construction layer, which is normally an off-line task. At each level, interoperability should be possible and inter-level interoperability must also be achieved. This interoperability is proposed to be obtained using data interchange protocols like Predictive Model Markup Language (PMML), …

The Smarth2o Project And The Role Of Social Computing In Promoting Efficient Residential Water Use: A First Analysis, A. E. Rizzoli, A. Castelleti, A. Cominola, P. Fraternali, A. Diniz Dos Santos, B. Storni, R. Wissmann-Alves, M. Bertocchi, J. Novak, I. Micheal

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

SmartH2O is an EU funded project which aims at creating a virtuous feedback cycle between water users and the utilities, providing users information on their consumption in quasi real time, and thus enabling water utilities to plan and implement strategies to reduce/reallocate water consumption. Traditional metering data, usually gathered twice a year, can be used to model consumers' behaviour at an aggregate level, but the motivations and individual attitudes of consumers are hidden. The advent of smart water meters allows gathering high frequency consumption data that can be used to provide instantaneous information to water utilities on the state of …

Towards An Ontology For Situation Assessment In Environmental Monitoring, Markus Stocker, Mauno Rönkkö, Mikko Kolehmainen

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Situation assessment, i.e. the process of achieving situation awareness, is common in environmental monitoring, where assessment occurs predominantly on sensor data and awareness is for the state of environmental phenomena. For a particular location, an environmental monitoring system may measure and compute mean hourly PM2.5 concentration to acquire knowledge for situations of unhealthy exposure by humans to ambient air; it may measure aerosol particle size distribution to acquire knowledge for situations of atmospheric new particle formation; it may measure road-pavement vibration to acquire knowledge for traffic. The process can be divided in four generic sub processes, namely data acquisition, data …

Modeling And Implementation Of A Geospatial Database For Environmental Niches And Potential Geographic Distributions, Gerardo José Zárate, Jugurta Lisboa-Filho, Carlos Frankl Sperber, Flavia Maria Da Silva Carmo

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The ecological niche of a species is defined by an array of biotic and abiotic requirements that allow organisms to live and reproduce in a geographic region. Abiotic data from the ecological niche in combination with occurrence data can be used to predict the potential geographic distribution of a species in different regions. Potential geographic distributions are useful in predicting the extent of invasive species, predict distributions as preparation for climate change and find appropriate regions for endangered species, among others. Geographic entities and environmental variables can be represented with a high-level abstraction in diagrams using formalism dedicated to model …

Eliciting Stakeholder Preferences Through Nonmarket Valuation Techniques, Marit E. Kragt

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

To successfully predict the impacts of environmental change, modellers need to incorporate analyses of human behaviour into their predictions. The engagement of stakeholders, including participatory model development, is now widely advocated as an approach to account for stakeholder preferences. While participatory approaches are suitable to involve targeted stakeholder groups and technical experts, it is typically prohibitively expensive to engage a wide range of communities in the model development process. Many environmental modellers may be aware of social science research methods to participatory research. Socio-economic approaches to elicit stakeholder preferences are, however, less commonly used. This paper presents three stated preference …

Essential Elements For Participatory Modelling: Using Deliberative Engagement And Gesture-Enabled Interfaces To Implement Energy-Mineral-Water Solutions In The Atacama Desert, Chile, Suzanne A. Pierce, Eugenio Figueroa B.

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Sound science and adequate models of systems are necessary for environmental decisions, yet frequently it is insufficient. The ENCOMPASS and ECOGES projects aim to create science-based deliberation among diverse stakeholders about water-energy-mineral use and choices in the Atacama Desert region of Chile. The projects seek to improve levels of understanding and open possibilities for collaborative problem solving by engaging industry, academics, and indigenous communities in a long- term participatory modeling process.

Since 2009 the initiative has brought people into collaborative discussions, building technical knowledge and bridging across sectors that are often at odds over management of earth resources. Today, participants …

Life Cycle Fragments: Development Of An Online Tool For Curating And Sharing Life, Brandon Kuczenski

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Increasingly, policy makers and consumers demand information on the environmental implications of industrial activities. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a standardized methodology to relate the delivery of products and services to the potential environmental impacts from that delivery, both directly and throughout the industrial supply chain. LCA requires extensive information about industrial processes throughout the global economy, and is subject to substantial parametric and epistemic uncertainty. Moreover, results often hinge on modeling decisions, such as the selection of system outcomes. Comparative results from a single study can give policy-relevant insights only if it is possible to review the sensitivity of …