Civil Engineering Commons^™

Multicriteria Decision-Making For Flood Management Based On Sustainable Development Criteria, Mohammad Ebrahim Banihabib, Abolfazl Laghabdoost-Arani

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Flood management alternatives are investigated based on sustainable development criteria (SDC) by using a non-compensatory multicriteria decision-making (MCDM) model, ELECTRE- III, to reduce flood damage in a study reach of the Gorganrood River in Golestan Province, north of Iran. The selection of optimal alternative of flood management is a multi-objective issue and thus using MCDM models becomes necessary. Considering the physical, social and economic conditions of the region, a set of structural and non-structural alternatives is proposed for the flood management in the study reach of the Gorganrood River. To model sustainable development, 11 criteria are proposed for decisions regarding …

Towards A Low-Cost, Full-Service Air Quality Data Archival System, Argyris Samourkasidis, Ioannis N. Athanasiadis

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

We present our explorations towards a low-cost solution for creating an autonomous environmental data archival system. AiRCHIVE is a software platform for providing open access to sensor data with different ways, that account for machine interoperability. It is built with Raspberry Pi, a low-cost, pocket-size computer, and Air Pi a low-cost amateur sensory kit for air quality monitoring. Raspberry Pi with AirPi allowed us to easily capture raw sensor data and store them in a local database, and with AiRCHIVE we deployed “on sensor” a web server that provides with a set of services for data preprocessing and dissemination, including …

Exploring Environmental Model Catalogs, Ilva Zaslavsky, Thomas Whitenack, David Valentine

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

As part of the NSF EarthCube cross-domain interoperability roadmap and the CINERGI (Community Inventory of EarthCube Resources for Geoscience Interoperability) projects, we assembled and analysed several catalogs of environmental models. The goals of this work included analysis of patterns of pre-model data flows from multiple domains and consistent cataloguing models across multiple model collections using a common set of metadata fields. This paper presents status updates and initial analytical results along these goals. We explored model registries assembled by NOAA and EPA, as well as model descriptions created within CSDMS, ESMF and TESS projects. These model metadata collections were visualized …

A Social Metamodel To Control The Participatory Process In Complex System Modelling, Michel Lample, Denis Bailly, Johanna Ballé-Béganton

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The metamodel framework is a new tool for co-construction of models involving societal or political participation. Rather than an attempt to model the social factor by numerical techniques which amounts to project the social paradigm in the model paradigm, the metamodel framework provides a way to overcome the difficulties of social behaviour by an inverse projection of the model paradigm into the social one. The framework asks for a strict methodology based on a suitable agenda, a quality process and the management by an Architect team. Furthermore, this framework accommodates lean modelling techniques that system platforms are able to provide.

Proposing A Framework For Crowd-Sourced Green Infrastructure Design, Samuel Rivera, Lawrence E. Band, Jong S. Lee, Kenton Mchenry, Arthur R. Schmidt, Jack Snoeyink, William C. Sullivan, Mary C. Whitton, Barbara Minsker

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Green stormwater infrastructure (GI) (e.g., rain gardens, bioswales, green roofs, etc.) are decentralized systems that have gained recent attention for their ability to reduce stormwater management problems while significantly benefiting human and ecosystem well-being. Available GI design methodologies lack a participatory framework that considers community-specific social, cultural, economic, and political constraints, critical components for widespread acceptance and effective implementation and maintenance of such systems. A project funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation seeks to develop a novel, computational, GI design framework that integrates interactive, neighborhood-scale, collaborative design by multiple stakeholders ("crowd-sourced" design) with multi- scale models of ecosystem and …

Bedform-Induced Hyporheic Exchange: Impact Of Porous Medium Permeability, Carto Gualtieri

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Stream and pore waters continuously interact and mix within streambeds due to spatial and temporal variations in channel characteristics. This mixing is termed hyporheic exchange and the zone where groundwater and stream water are mixing is called the hyporheic zone, which can greatly affect water quality in both surface and subsurface water systems.

The paper presents some results of a numerical study carried out to investigate the influence of porous medium permeability on hyporheic exchange. Laminar flow in the water column above triangular bedforms and Darcian flow in the underlying permeable sediments were considered. Numerical simulations were carried out in …

Evolutionary Computation And Case-Based Reasoning Interoperation In Iedss Through Gesconda, Miquel Sànchez-Marrè, Gibert Karina, Radha K. Vinayagam, Beatriz Sevilla-Villanueva

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Interoperability of Intelligent Environmental Decision Support Systems (IEDSS) is one open challenge in the IEDSS field. This paper shows the interoperability of Evolutionary Computation, concretely Genetic Algorithms (GA), and Case-Based Reasoning (CBR) in IEDSS through the GESCONDA tool. GESCONDA is a tool for the deployment of Intelligent Decision Support Systems. This interoperability has been tested with several domains with different purposes like classification tasks, predictive tasks, etc. In the paper, the application in one environmental domain is described and analysed. The experimentation results indicate that this interoperation of both methods can improve the results of the application of one single …

Using Semantic-Based Spatial Reclassification For Interoperable Data Management In Natura 2000 Monitoring, Simon Nieland, Niklas Moran, Birgit Kleinschmit, Michael Förster

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

In various fields of spatial research, semantic heterogeneity remains an unsolved problem in terms of data comparability. Interoperability of biodiversity monitoring information is especially difficult because of its thematic complexity and the high variability of acquisition methods and national differences in nomenclatures. Each EU member state must compile comprehensive information on protected areas every six years to comply with the reporting obligations of the habitats directive. Since data collection methods and interpretation manuals broadly vary by member state and manual delineation of protected areas can never be neutral, there is a need for automatized, objective methodologies for the generation of …

Business Intelligence In Environmental Reporting Powered By Xbrl, Jiří Hřebíček, Michal Hodinka, Michael Ŝtencl, Oldřich Trenz

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The paper discusses several critical points of the whole concept of Business lntelligence (Bl) approach to environmental reporting powered by XBRL. First, and most important, is the usage of structured data delivered via XBRL. The main profit on usage of XBRL is the optimization of the Extract, Transform and Load (ETL) process and its combination commonly used best practices on data warehouse models. The whole Bl workflow could be moved further by additional data quality health checks, extended mathematical and logical data test, basics of data discovery and drill-down techniques. The state of the art on the XBRL level and …

3d Model Construction Of Water Supply System Pipes Based On Gpr Images, David Ayala-Cabrera, Joaquín Izquierdo, Silvia J. Ocaña-Levario, Rafael Pérez-García

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

In this work, a GPR (ground penetrating radar) development is presented as a non-destructive technique. It allows the visualization of water supply system (WSS) pipelines buried into the ground. The main scope is in image (radargram) processing obtained from GPR, to ob tain improved data visualization. For the application of the technique, laboratory essays have been conducted. These essays were performed by burying a commonly used pipe in a tank that emu­ lates a small ground parcel. The images obtained were analysed and particular differences between them were observed. From this ensemble of images, a 3D model was generated to …

A Virtual Reality System To Monitor And Control Diseases In Strawberry With Drones: A Project, Rafael Rieder, Willingthon Pavan, José Maurício Carré Maciel, José Maurício Cunha Fernandes, Márcio Sarroglia Pinho

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa Duchesne) is an important fruit crop in Brazil. Strawberry cultivation interest occurs because of high profitability, consumer acceptance and crop production diversity. Notwithstanding, diseases caused by fungi are a major problem in strawberry fields. For this reason, growers adopt rigid phytosanitary management practices in order to prevent losses. In this context, growers rely on the use of pesticides for controlling diseases. However, pesticide usage increases the product costs, reduces fruit quality and increases rejection by consumers. This paper presents a Virtual Reality system project to assist integrated disease management in strawberry using image processing. High quality …

Educating Stakeholders About The Need For Water Balance Using A Participatory Modeling Framework, Nagesh Kolagani, Palaniappan Ramu, Alexey A. Voinov, Rajeshwar Gali, Lakshmana Rao

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Groundwater resources in many villages of the developing countries have been undergoing rapid decline over last few decades due to their unsustainable large scale exploitation. One of the main reasons for such overexploitation is the inability of village communities to collectively visualize and understand clearly the long term implications of such overexploitation. There is hence an urgent need to create awareness among stakeholders about the unsustainable nature of such overexploitation and to facilitate sustainable usage. Spatio-temporal participatory modeling of their water management practices can help greatly in promoting such awareness among village communities. These modeling tools can then be used …

Where Are We In Wastewater Treatment Plants Data Management? A Review And A Proposal, Manel Poch, Joaquim Comas, José Porro, Manel Garrido-Baserba, Lluis Corominas, Maite Pijuan

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) are comprised of complex processes that need to be optimally managed. To attain that, in the last years an impressive effort has been made to incorporate monitoring devices able to provide from several hundred to more than ten thousand signals. With the aim to take benefit of those data, different data mining techniques have been applied to transform them into information and knowledge in order to help WWTP's managers. Furthermore, several mathematical models have been developed intending to simulate process behaviour including biomass and pollutants transformation. However, it is recognized that this it is not enough …

Evaluation Of Metamodeling Techniques On A Co2 Injection Simulation Study, Jared Schuetter, Srikanta Mishra, Doug Mooney

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Full-physics models for geologic carbon sequestration applications can be time-consuming to run. As a result, optimization of a particular response over a range of predictor values can be difficult. A common approach is to use a small number of simulation runs to develop a metamodel that can approximate the system response with much less computing time; this metamodel can then be used for optimization. Choosing a metamodeling approach is not always straightforward, and it can also be difficult to determine how well a model is fitting after it is trained. Here, we present a case study for a CO_{2 …}

Tethys: A Software Framework For Web-Based Modeling And Decision Support Applications, Norm Jones, Jim Nelson, Nathan Swain, Scott Christensen, David Tarboton, Pabitra Dash

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

We have developed a software framework called Tethys to aid in the creation of web-based water resource modeling applications. This suite is a Python-based scripting environment that leverages open source tools for geoprocessing of spatial data, map rendering and visualization, distributed computing, and database management. The system makes it possible to deploy a calibrated, high-resolution watershed or surface water model as a web-based application for decision support. The framework provides data managements, access to computing resources, and pluggable components (e.g. plots, maps and user controls) that enable rapid development of modeling applications. We have used the system to develop prototype …

Assessing The Relative Value Of Stereoscopic 3d Versus Head Tracking In Large Scale Immersive Visualization, Derrick Turner, Daniel P. Ames

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The use of large-scale stereoscopic immersive visualization environments is growing globally as a supplement to field work in environmental science and engineering. Such systems typically include large-scale stereoscopic displays and head/hand tracking to facilitate an immersive user experience. These components can add significant cost and complication to such a system that may not be warranted if the components do not significantly improve the user experience. This paper presents a study conducted in a large-scale visualization environment called the VuePod, to help determine the relative value of head-tracking and stereoscopic technologies in terms of improved data interpretation. Forty-eight individuals were recruited …

2d Hydrodynamic Based Logic Modelling Tool For River Restoration Decision Analysis: A Quantitative Approach To Project Prioritization, David J. Bandrowski, Yong G. Lai, D. Nathan Bradley, Josh Murauskas, Dave Gauman

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

In the field of river restoration sciences there is a growing need for analytical modelling tools and quantitative processes to help identify and prioritize project sites. Two-dimensional (20) hydraulic models have become more common in recent years and with the availability of robust data sets and computing technology, it is now possible to evaluate large river systems at the reach scale. The Trinity River Restoration Program (TRRP) - Bureau of Reclamation in Northern California is now analyzing a 40 mile segment of the Trinity River to determine priority and implementation sequencing for its Phase II channel rehabilitation projects. A comprehensive …

Biofilm Susceptibility In A Drinking Water Distribution System Regarding 24 Hours Demand Curve, Eva Ramos-Martínez, Manuel Herrera, Joaquín Izquierdo, Rafael Pérez-García

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Biofilm leads to various undesirable problems in drinking water distribution systems (DWDSs), representing a critical paradigm in the management of these systems. Biofilm depends on a complex interaction of water quality, operational factors, and infrastructure associated to DWDSs. Although, it is known that all these factors do influence biofilm development, they have not been studied to the same extent. Those associated with the design and operation of DWDSs have been the most unconsidered. Besides, the joint influence of these factors has been scarcely investigated due to the complexity of the community and the environment under study. In order to bridge …

A Conceptual Model To Guide Exploration Of Global Food-Water Security, Joseph H. A. Guillaume, Matti Kummu, Miina Porkka, Olli Varis

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

While food security can be approached as a local issue, it is strongly influenced by factors at inter-regional and global scales related to production, transaction (e.g. trade and distribution) and consumption, and by drivers such as climate, population growth, diet change, as well as social, political and technological developments. Action on food security therefore benefits from being informed by current global patterns and potential future changes and taking an integrated approach to assessing impacts of proposed responses. Modelling can notably contribute by assessing the influence of various factors on food security. Due to the significant complexity and uncertainty involved, model …

Relationship Between Von Karman And Reynolds Number: A Critical Analysis Using The Wind Profile Method, Pelliccioni Armando

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The Von Karman constant k is important for the study of lower layer of atmosphere. This parameter can be calculated using two methods: the gradient methods and the profile methods. In this work the profile methods has been applied. A dataset, collected in a meteorological tower sited at the National Wind Technology Center in Boulder was used. Data were selected for high neutral turbulence conditions, vertical homogeneity for the wind direction and friction velocity. A near-neutral correction has been applied to the observed Von Karman constant. The profile method permits to calculate the roughness Reynolds number, a parameter link to …

Balancing Conflicting Management Objectives Using Interactive, Three-Dimensional Visual Analytics, Joseph Kasprzyk, Joshua Kollat, Chris Danilo

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

In the US, the recently introduced Principles and Requirements for Federal Investment in Water Resources captures an increasing trend for using multiple objective approaches to make funding decisions for water resources and environmental problems. Moreover, advanced search tools such as multi objective evolutionary algorithms can develop solutions to such problems, even when the problems are characterized by non-linearities, uncertainty, and false optima. However, our presentation argues that multi-objective decision support requires innovative methods for visualizing complex trade-offs between conflicting objectives, interrogating design possibilities, imposing preferences between objectives, and eventually negotiating a small set of final alternatives. Specifically we present a …

Problem-Specific Rule Extraction For Better Performance Of Evolutionary Algorithms, Joaquin Izquierdo, Idel Montalvo, Enrique Campbell, Rafael Pérez-García

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Evolutionary algorithms (EAs) are ubiquitous to many environmental issues. Typically, most evolutionary techniques use just a small part of the solutions evaluated at a time. Thus, many of the solutions evaluated during the search process are "forgotten" after one generation, and combined experience of several generations is typically not well exploited. Data mining (DM) techniques can enable deeper insight into the many "good" solutions that have been just simply glimpsed and have been rapidly disregarded because they were dominated by better solutions during an ephemeral moment in the evolution process. Based on a database obtained by suitably recording certain of …

Modeling With Citizen Scientists: Using Community- Based Modeling Tools To Develop Citizen Science Projects, Steven Gray, David Mellor, Rebecca Jordan, Alycia Crall, Greg Newman

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Although model-based reasoning is often at the center of environmental science and management, the process of constructing, refining and empirically validating scientific models is not often made explicit to participants in many citizen science programs. The lack of attention that modeling receives in citizen science programs is likely attributable to resource constraints, given that scientific modeling often requires considerable training and scientific software tools are not easily accessible to members of the general public. To address these constraints, we describe the development and use of a fuzzy-logic cognitive mapping software called Mental Modeler (http://www.mentalmodeler.org/), embedded within a citizen science …

Automated Data Quality Assessment: Dealing With Faulty On-Line Water Quality Sensors, Janelcy Alfreres, Peter A. Vanrolleghem

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Compared to traditional grab sampling modern measurement systems enable continuous water quality monitoring of water systems at high frequency. However, in real world applications on-line sensors are still subject to functional, technical and operational constraints. Challenges thus remain associated with the automation of data collection and especially data validation to ensure proper use and interpretation of the data and avoid the danger of building data graveyards. Poor quality data could drastically affect the results of their application, e.g. water quality models for river basin management, model-based control, WWTP control rules, decision making, etc. For practical fault detection purposes, in this …

Assessing Environmental Trade-Offs With Bayesian Decision Networks - Comparing Ecosystem Services And Irrigation Needs Of Urban And Peri-Urban Plant Species In Xinjiang, Nw China, Sina K. Frank, Petra Döll, Martin Welp, Ümüt Halik, Hamid Yimit

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Decisions in environmental management often have trade-offs attached: Either cost-benefit trade-offs, such as real costs and effectiveness of water treatment alternatives, or environmental trade-offs, such as environmental costs and benefits of land use alternatives which are more difficult to quantify. Vegetation managers in oasis towns of the Taklamakan desert in Xinjiang, NW China, were interested in a specific local environmental trade-off. They wanted to know which urban and peri- urban plant species were most effective in mitigating dust weather while needing the least irrigation. To assess this trade-off, we developed a Bayesian Network and two simple Bayesian Decision Networks (BDNs). …

Use Of Cfd In The Initial Design Of A Snow Fence, Sarah Jane Wakes

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The predominant reason for controlling snow deposition using fences is to keep roads and areas around buildings clear of snow during winter months. Empirical guidelines exist but little work has been done optimising fencing design for specific purpose and location. An alternative use of snow fences in New Zealand has been to control the position of drifting snow to simulate changing climatic conditions for plant research over 30 years. This has been of varied success due to lack of design guidelines and the difficulty of gathering field data for snow deposition for validation. Initial work uses Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) …

Investigating Operational Decision-Making In Agriculture, Charlotte Daydé, Stéphane Couture, Frédérick Garcia, Roger Martin-Clouaire

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Farmers, in their role as production managers, have to make daily management decisions about the technical operations to be performed on the biophysical components of their farms. These decisions have important implications in terms of the sustainability of the farm business and deserve in-depth examination with a scientific approach. The traditional decision research paradigm assumes an idealized decision situation in which the farm manager knows all the relevant alternatives, their consequences and probabilities, and has fixed preferences and possesses the cognitive capacity to efficiently process them. Many studies have shown that the farmer's decision-making context does not meet these assumptions. …

Three-Dimensional Numerical Model To Evaluate The Suspended Solid Removal In Surface Flow Constructed Wetland, Sangsoo Han, Zhi Chen, Fayi Zhou

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Surface flow constructed wetlands (SFCWs) have been widely used to treat various types of wastewater and stormwater due to the advantages such as low costs for operating and maintenance compared with conventional treatment systems. In SFCW, the flow pattern, which is determined by the geometric features including bed morphology and vegetation distribution, significantly influences the removal processes of suspended solids and other pollutants. In this study, a three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics model, that integrates hydrodynamic model and the Lagrangian particle tracking model, is applied to determine the effectiveness of a SFCW in removing suspended solids based on the predicted flow …

Benefits Of The Use Of Natural User Interfaces In Water Simulations, Gennadii Donchyts, Fedor Baart, Arthur Van Dam, Bert Jagers

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The use of natural user interfaces instead of conventional ones has become a reality with the emergence of 3D motion sensing technologies. However, some problems are still unsolved (for example, no haptic or tactile feedback); so this technology requires careful evaluation before the users can benefit from it. We argue that the best benefits can be achieved when these natural user interface technologies are combined with classical computer interaction devices such as mouse and keyboard. In our demonstration, we will show how the LEAP Motion controller can be applied in environmental modeling when combined with the shallow water flow model …

Calsim Modeling Of Proposed San Joaquin River Basin Flow Standards, Thomas W. Fitzhugh

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Water resources system modeling was conducted using the CalSim II San Joaquin River model to evaluate streamflow standards proposed during the current update to the 2006 Water Quality Control Plan for the San Francisco Bay/Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Estuary (Bay-Delta Plan Update). Phase I of the Bay-Delta Plan Update will select and implement State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) standards for San Joaquin River instream flows and salinity. CalSim II is a monthly model of reservoir and water system operations in the Central Valley of California. The first modeling effort was to analyze a proposed agreement between the Bureau of Reclamation …