Environmental Engineering Commons^™

Hydrological Water Resources Assessment Of Cega-Eresma-Adaja Watershed System Using Swat Model, David A. Rivas, Angel De Miguel, Bárbara Willarts

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

In the hydrological assessment of water bodies, modeling is a key fact in water management strategies of watersheds and serves as a tool for decision making considering environmental issues as the core of sustainable development in the region. In this direction, SWAT model (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) was used to assess the water availability related with agricultural management in the watersheds of the tributary rivers Cega, Eresma and Adaja of Duero’s River in Spain both in the current and future climate change scenarios. To define the HRUs, land use maps from remote-sensing processes were used, extracting the agricultural uses …

A Conceptual Framework For An Agricultural Agent- Based Model With A Two-Level Social Component: Modeling Farmer Groups, Tatjana Kuznecova, Alexey A. Voinov

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

In the last decade, collective actions within smallholder groups and cooperatives have been promoted by various development programs and projects. However, to develop appropriate programs and policies aimed at supporting cooperation among farmers, an approach may be required able to reflect the dynamics of an agricultural system resulting from decision-making and interactions between elements at different levels and scales.

In this study, we are focusing on the groups of smallholders organizing for collective crop production and/or marketing. Our aim is to provide an approach and a tool to gain a deeper insight in how cooperative groups emerge and perform under …

Design And Implementation Of Integrated Surveillance And Modelling Systems For Climate- Sensitive Diseases, Michael C. Wimberly, Justin Davis, Geoffrey M. Henebry, Michael B. Hildreth, Yi Liu, Christopher L. Merkord

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Climatic variations can have a multitude of impacts on human health, ranging from the direct impacts of extreme heat events to indirect effects on the vectors and hosts that transmit a multitude of infectious diseases. Infectious disease surveillance has traditionally focused on monitoring human cases, and in some instances tracking population sizes and infection rates of arthropod vectors and zoonotic hosts. For climate-sensitive diseases, there is potential to strengthen surveillance and obtain early indicators of future outbreaks by monitoring environmental risk factors using broad-scale sensor networks that include earth-observing satellites as well as ground stations. We highlight the opportunities and …

Simulating Structural Change In Agriculture: Modelling Farming Households And Farm Succession, Christian Troost, Thomas Berger

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The majority of European farms are family farms. Farm succession, i.e. passing over the responsibility from farm owner and manager to their heir, is an important element of structural change in agriculture. We present a model implementation capturing farming household evolution in an agent- based model and explore the consequences of farm household composition and farm succession on agricultural production, investment and participation in agri-environmental policy schemes.

A Dynamic Water Supply Portfolio Optimisation Approach, Michael G. Porter, Oz Sahin

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

This paper examines the future water supply situation in Adelaide, a relatively dry city in South Australia, in the driest populated continent on earth. Using the Systems Approach, we analyse a diversified strategy with a new portfolio mix of core bulk water: (i) rainfall independent desalinated water from the ocean and (ii) rainfall dependent water from catchments including the Mount Lofty Ranges (MLR) and water piped from the Murray‐Darling Basin (MDB) including via the Mannum‐Adelaide Pipeline. Our focus is on the quantity, indicative costs and risks of water supply, and associated augmentation choices and trade‐offs, over the next century to …

Modelling Urban Transition: A Case Of Rainwater Harvesting, Adam C. Castonguay, Christian Urich, Md Sayed Iftekhar, Ana Deletic

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Cities are increasingly exposed to extreme climate events such as floods and droughts. Land use change is also expected to reduce the availability of green spaces and intensify extreme heat events. Given these pressures on the quality of life of urban dwellers, there is a great need to improve the integrated management of water to enable sustainable development of rapidly growing cities and improve human well-being. A promising way to make urban communities more liveable is to invest in green water technologies, that is, decentralised and low-energy water supply, wastewater and stormwater solutions, to foster the transition to more sustainable …

An Optimization Approach To Define Effective Air Quality Policies At Urban Scale, Helder Relvas, Ana Isabel Miranda, Joana Ferreira, Alexandra Monteiro, Enrico Turrini, Claudio Carnevale, Marialuisa Volta

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The use of modeling to support environmental authorities to plan air quality control policies is now quite widespread in Europe. At the sub-national level, the most common approach is based on a scenario analysis which uses Chemical Transport Models (CTM) to assess the impact of emission reductions on air pollution concentrations. In this work, a multi-objective approach based on RIAT+ (Regional Integrated Assessment Tool) is used to cost-efficiently define air quality improvement policies. Internal costs (due to the implementation of emission reduction measures) and external benefit gains (due to the reduction of population exposure to air pollution levels) are worked …

A Better Way To Build Plant Models, Dean Holzworth, Hamish Brown, Neil Huth

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The plant modelling framework (PMF) in the next generation of APSIM enables plant models to be constructed in a novel, more reliable and robust manner. It provides a library of small processes that can be aggregated into bigger processes which in turn can be combined into larger constructs, ultimately forming a plant model. The user interface supports a workflow that allows the model builder to collate and store experimental data, construct the model (by process aggregation), create and run simulations of the experimental data and graphically view the performance of the model. The model builder can then iteratively modify the …

Towards Standard Variable Names For Environmental Chemistry: Semantic Mediation And Extensions To The Csdms Standard Names, Scott Dale Peckham

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

When a model needs to obtain the values of its input variables from another model or from a data file, it is necessary to reliably match the internal vocabularies of the coupled resources (e.g. models or data sets). In addition, spatial regridding, time interpolation and unit conversion may be required. In order to automate this semantic matching and variable exchange process in a model coupling framework, the internal vocabularies of the resources to be coupled must be mapped to a controlled vocabulary in a hub-and-spoke manner. The CSDMS Standard Names provide a domain-independent set of conventions and rules for constructing …

How Modellers Frame Uncertainty In Scientific Publications: Review And Reflections, Joseph H.A. Guillaume, Casey Helgeson, Sondoss Elsawah, Anthony J. Jakeman, Matti Kummu

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Uncertainty is recognised as an essential issue in environmental modelling. As modellers, we notably use a variety of tools and techniques within an analysis, for example related to uncertainty quantification and model validation. We also address uncertainty by how we present results. For example, experienced modellers are careful to distinguish robust conclusions from those that need further work, and the precision of quantitative results is tailored to their accuracy. In doing so, the modeller frames how uncertainty should be interpreted by their audience. This is an area which extends beyond modelling to fields such as philosophy of science, semantics, discourse …

Modelling Combinations Of Economic Instruments To Eliminate Depletion In The Alto Guadalentín Aquifer (Se Spain), David Martínez-Granados, Javier Calatrava

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

This paper analyses the cost-effectiveness of combining several policy instruments to address the problem of non-renewable pumping in the Alto Guadalentín aquifer in Southeast Spain, one of the most extreme cases of aquifer depletion in Europe. Their economic impact is assessed using a partial equilibrium non-linear mathematical programming model that maximises the farm net margin resulting from the use of the available water resources for irrigation in the area. Our results show that all the alternatives have significant economic impacts, although the future availability of desalinised resources would notably mitigate them, as farmers can substitute groundwater with desalinised water. …

High-Throughput Screening Of Clinically Approved Drugs That Prime Polyethylenimine Transfection Reveals Modulation Of Mitochondria Dysfunction Response Improves Gene Transfer Efficiencies, Albert Nguyen, Jared P. Beyersdorf, Jean-Jack Riethoven, Angela K. Pannier

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Nonviral gene delivery methods are advantageous over viral vectors in terms of safety, cost, and flexibility in design and application, but suffer from lower gene transfer efficiency. In addition to modifications to nucleic acid design and nonviral carriers, new tools are sought to enhance transfection. Priming is the pharmacological modulation of transfection efficiency and transgene expression, and has demonstrated transfection increase in several compounds, for example, chloroquine and glucocorticoids. To develop a library of transfection priming compounds, a highthroughput screen was performed of the NIH Clinical Collection (NCC) to identify clinical compounds that prime polyethylenimine (PEI) transfection. HEK293T cells were …

Efficiency Of Chlorophyll In Gross Primary Productivity: A Proof Of Concept And Application In Crops, Anatoly A. Gitelson, Yi Peng, Andrés Viña, Timothy J. Arkebauer, James S. Schepers

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

One of the main factors affecting vegetation productivity is absorbed light, which is largely governed by chlorophyll. In this paper, we introduce the concept of chlorophyll efficiency, representing the amount of gross primary production per unit of canopy chlorophyll content (Chl) and incident PAR. We analyzed chlorophyll efficiency in two contrasting crops (soybean and maize). Given that they have different photosynthetic pathways (C3 vs. C4), leaf structures (dicot vs. monocot) and canopy architectures (a heliotrophic leaf angle distribution vs. a spherical leaf angle distribution), they cover a large spectrum of biophysical conditions. Our results show that chlorophyll efficiency in primary …

Removal Of Endocrine Disrupting Compounds From Secondary Municipal Wastewater, Dustin R. Resz

Chemical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Approximately 1.2 billion people around the world live in areas of physical water scarcity. This could increase to half of the world’s population by 2030 and could displace 24 to 700 million people unless steps are taken to ensure adequate water supply.1 Water scarcity is an escalating issue within the United States, specifically in Western inland states with arid climates. This scarcity is encouraging communities to investigate tertiary level municipal wastewater treatment, allowing for reuse of wastewater. Unfortunately, wastewater contains numerous contaminants that are not regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA). Many …

Micro- And Nanoparticulates For Dna Vaccine Delivery, Eric Farris, Deborah M. Brown, Amanda Ramer-Tait, Angela K. Pannier

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

DNA vaccination has emerged as a promising alternative to traditional protein-based vaccines for the induction of protective immune responses. DNA vaccines offer several advantages over traditional vaccines, including increased stability, rapid and inexpensive production, and flexibility to produce vaccines for a wide variety of infectious diseases. However, the immunogenicity of DNA vaccines delivered as naked plasmid DNA is often weak due to degradation of the DNA by nucleases and inefficient delivery to immune cells. Therefore, biomaterial-based delivery systems based on micro- and nanoparticles that encapsulate plasmid DNA represent the most promising strategy for DNA vaccine delivery. Microparticulate delivery systems allow …

Storm Damage - Murphy's Law, Dale Sedler, Mark Bailey

Purdue Road School

Examination of a disastrous event that required 4 coinciding occurrences happening that individually would likely have resulted in minor or no damage.

A Five-Year Performance Review Of Field-Scale, Slow-Release Permanganate Candles With Recommendations For Second-Generation Improvements, Mark Christenson, Ann Kambhu, James Reece, Steve D. Comfort, Laurie Brunner

Nebraska Water Center: Faculty Publications

In 2009, we identified a TCE plume at an abandoned landfill that was located in a low permeable siltyclay aquifer. To treat the TCE, we manufactured slow-release potassium permanganate cylinders (oxidant candles) that had diameters of either 5.1 or 7.6 cm and were 91.4 cm long. In 2010, we compared two methods of candle installation by inserting equal masses of the oxidant candles (7.6-cm vs 5.1-cm dia). The 5.1-cm dia candles were inserted with direct-push rods while the 7.6-cm candles were housed in screens and lowered into 10 permanent wells. Since installation, the 7.6-cm oxidant candles have been refurbished approximately …

Ecosystem Evapotranspiration: Challenges In Measurements, Estimates, And Modeling, D.M. Amatya, Suat Irmak, P. Gowda, G. Sun, J.E. Nettles, K.R. Douglas-Mankin

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Evapotranspiration (ET) processes at the leaf to landscape scales in multiple land uses have important controls and feed backs for local, regional, and global climate and water resource systems. Innovative methods, tools, and technologies for improved understanding and quantification of ET and crop water use are critical for adapting more effective management strategies to cope with increasing demand for freshwater resources under global climate change. This article introduces an ASABE Special Collection of 12 articles on ET monitoring and modeling research for multiple land uses and scales. The collection focuses on recent advances in four critical topical areas: (1) reference …

Glucocorticoid Cell Priming Enhances Transfection Outcomes In Adult Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells, Abby M. Kelly, Sarah A. Plautz, Janos Zempleni, Angela K. Pannier

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) are one of the most widely researched stem cell types with broad applications from basic research to therapeutics, the majority of which require introduction of exogenous DNA. However, safety and scalability issues hinder viral delivery, while poor efficiency hinders nonviral gene delivery, particularly to hMSCs. Here, we present the use of a pharmacologic agent (glucocorticoid) to overcome barriers to hMSC DNA transfer to enhance transfection using three common nonviral vectors. Glucocorticoid priming significantly enhances transfection in hMSCs, demonstrated by a 3-fold increase in efficiency, 4–15-fold increase in transgene expression, and prolonged transgene expression when compared …

Reviews And Syntheses: Ocean Acidification And Its Potential Impacts On Marine Ecosystems, Khan M.G. Mostofa, Cong-Qiang Liu, Weidong Zhai, Marco Minella, David Vione, Kunshan Gao, Daisuke Minakata, Et.Al

Department of Civil, Environmental, and Geospatial Engineering Publications

Ocean acidification, a complex phenomenon that lowers seawater pH, is the net outcome of several contributions. They include the dissolution of increasing atmospheric CO2 that adds up with dissolved inorganic carbon (dissolved CO2, H2CO3, HCO3−, and CO32−) generated upon mineralization of primary producers (PP) and dissolved organic matter (DOM). The aquatic processes leading to inorganic carbon are substantially affected by increased DOM and nutrients via terrestrial runoff, acidic rainfall, increased PP and algal blooms, nitrification, denitrification, sulfate reduction, global warming (GW), and by atmospheric CO2 itself through enhanced photosynthesis. They are consecutively associated with enhanced ocean acidification, hypoxia in acidified …

Case Studies Of Cavity And External Wall Insulation Retrofitted Under The Irish Home Energy Saving Scheme: Technical Analysis And Occupant Perspectives, Aimee Byrne, Gerard Byrne, Garrett O'Donnell, Anthony Robinson

Articles

The residential sector represents 27% of primary energy consumption in Ireland. This paper examines the case study of the Irish government’s national grant scheme to encourage energy efficiency retrofit in private housing. That is the Home Energy Saving (HES) Scheme, later rebranded the Better Energy: Homes (BEH) Scheme. The methodology involved monitoring several homes immediately before and after retrofit alongside discussions with occupants. The examination focused on specific measures commonly introduced through the HES/BEH programme − cavity and external wall insulation. It has been found that a significant decrease in heat loss through the walls was measured in all cases. …

Analyses, Calibration And Validation Of Evapotranspirationmodels To Predict Grass-Reference Evapotranspiration In Thesenegal River Delta, Koffi Djaman, Hossein Tabari, Alpha B. Balde, Lamine Diop, Koichi Futakuchi, Suat Irmak

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Study region: Grass-reference evapotranspiration estimation by the Penman-Monteithmethod (PM-ETo) requires a number of climate variables which are not always availableat all weather stations. Different alternative ETo equations have been developed and theirutilization for various local climate conditions requires analyses of their accuracy as com-pared to the standardized Penman-Monteith method. There is a significant lack of data andinformation on this topic in the Senegal River Delta (SRD). Study focus: The objective of this study was to evaluate, calibrate and validate six EToequations ((Trabert, Mahringer, Penman1948, Albrecht, Valiantzas1 and Valiantzas2) forthe SRD. Although all six equations showed good agreement with the PM-ETo …

Control Architecture For Multi-Robot System, John H. Posselius, Christopher A. Foster, Santosh K. Pitla, Scott A. Shearer, Joe D. Luck, Michael P. Sama, Rodrigo S. Zandonadi

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

A multiple robot control architecture including a plurality of robotic agricultural machines including a first and second robotic agricultural machine. Each robotic agricultural machine including at least one controller configured to implement a plurality of finite state machines within an individual robot control architecture (IRCA) and a global information module (GIM) communicatively coupled to the IRCA. The GIMs of the first and second robotic agricultural machines being configured to cooperate to cause said first robotic agricultural machine and said second agricultural machine to perform at least one agricultural task.

Direct And Indirect Effects Of Climatic Variations On The Interannual Variability In Net Ecosystem Exchange Across Terrestrial Ecosystems, Junjiong Shao, Xuhui Zhou, Yiqi Luo, Bo Li, Mika Aurela, David Billesbach, Peter D. Blanken, Rosvel Bracho, Jiquan Chen, Marc Fischer, Yuling Fu, Lianhong Gu, Shijie Han, Yongtao He, Thomas Kolb, Yingnian Li, Zoltan Nagy, Shuli Niu, Walter C. Oechel, Krisztina Pinter, Peili Shi, Andrew Suyker, Margaret Torn, Andrej Varlagin, Huimin Wang, Junhua Yan, Guirui Yu, Junhui Zhang

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Climatic variables not only directly affect the interannual variability (IAV) in net ecosystem exchange of CO2 (NEE) but also indirectly drive it by changing the physiological parameters. Identifying these direct and indirect paths can reveal the underlying mechanisms of carbon (C) dynamics. In this study, we applied a path analysis using flux data from 65 sites to quantify the direct and indirect climatic effects on IAV in NEE and to evaluate the potential relationships among the climatic variables and physiological parameters that represent physiology and phenology of ecosystems. We found that the maximum photosynthetic rate was the most important factor …

A Generalized Spatial Measure For Resilience Of Microbial Systems, Ryan S. Renslow, Stephen R. Lindemann, Hyun-Seob Song

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

The emergent property of resilience is the ability of a system to return to an original state after a disturbance. Resilience may be used as an early warning system for significant or irreversible community transition; that is, a community with diminishing or low resilience may be close to catastrophic shift in function or an irreversible collapse. Typically, resilience is quantified using recovery time, which may be difficult or impossible to directly measure in microbial systems. A recent study in the literature showed that under certain conditions, a set of spatial-based metrics termed recovery length, can be correlated to recovery time, …

Switchgrass Storage Effects On The Recovery Of Carbohydrates After Liquid Hot Water Pretreatment And Enzymatic Hydrolysis, Noaa Frederick, Mengxing Li, Danielle Julie Carrier, Michael D. Buser, Mark R. Wilkins

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Perennial grasses that would be used for bioenergy and bioproducts production will need to be stored for various periods of time to ensure a continual feedstock supply to a bioprocessing facility. The effects of storage practices on grass composition and the response of grasses to subsequent bioprocesses such as pretreatment and enzymatic hydrolysis needs to be understood to develop the most efficient storage protocols. This study examined the effect of outdoor storage of round switchgrass bales on composition before and after liquid hot water pretreatment (LHW) and enzymatic hydrolysis. This study also examined the effect of washing LHW pretreated biomass …

Ecosystem Evapotranspiration: Challenges In Measurements, Estimates, And Modeling, D.M. Amatya, Sibel Irmak, P. Gowda, G. Sun, J.E. Nettles, K.R. Douglas-Mankin

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Evapotranspiration (ET) processes at the leaf to landscape scales in multiple land uses have important con- trols and feedbacks for local, regional, and global climate and water resource systems. Innovative methods, tools, and technologies for improved understanding and quantification of ET and crop water use are critical for adapting more effective management strategies to cope with increasing demand for freshwater resources under global climate change. This article introduces an ASABE Special Collection of 12 articles on ET monitoring and modeling research for multiple land uses and scales. The collection focuses on recent advances in four critical topical areas: (1) reference …

Objective Climatological Analysis Of Extreme Weather Events In Arizona During The North American Monsoon, Jeremy J. Mazon, Christopher L. Castro, David K. Adams, Hsin-I Chang, Carlos M. Carrillo, John J. Brost

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Almost one-half of the annual precipitation in the southwestern United States occurs during the North American monsoon (NAM). Given favorable synoptic-scale conditions, organized monsoon thunderstorms may affect relatively large geographic areas. Through an objective analysis of atmospheric reanalysis and observational data, the dominant synoptic patterns associated with NAM extreme events are determined for the period from 1993 to 2010. Thermodynamically favorable extreme-weather-event days are selected on the basis of atmospheric instability and precipitable water vapor from Tucson, Arizona, rawinsonde data. The atmospheric circulation patterns at 500 hPa associated with the extreme events are objectively characterized using principal component analysis. The …

Critical Factors Affecting The Integration Of Biomass Gasification And Syngas Fermentation Technology, Karthikeyan D. Ramachandriya, Dimple K. Kundiyana, Ashokkumar M. Sharma, Ajay Kumar, Hasan K. Atiyeh, Raymond L. Huhnke, Mark R. Wilkins

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Gasification-fermentation is a thermochemical-biological platform for the production of fuels and chemicals. Biomass is gasified at high temperatures to make syngas, a gas composed of CO, CO2, H2, N2 and other minor components. Syngas is then fed to anaerobic microorganisms that convert CO, CO2 and H2 to alcohols by fermentation. This platform offers numerous advantages such as flexibility of feedstock and syngas composition and lower operating temperature and pressure compared to other catalytic syngas conversion processes. In comparison to hydrolysis-fermentation, gasification-fermentation has a major advantage of utilizing all organic components of biomass, including lignin, to yield higher fuel production. Furthermore, …

Long-Term Patterns Of Air Temperatures, Daily Temperature Range, Precipitation, Grass-Reference Evapotranspiration And Aridity Index In The Usa Great Plains: Part Ii. Temporal Trends, Meetpal S. Kukal, Suat Irmak

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Detection of long-term changes in climate variables over large spatial scales is a very important prerequisite to the development of effective mitigation and adaption measures for the future potential climate change and for developing strategies for future hydrologic balance analyses under changing climate. Moreover, there is a need for effective approaches of providing information about these changes to decision makers, water managers and stakeholders to aid in efficient implementation of the developed strategies. This study involves computation, mapping and analyses of long-term (1968-2013) county-specific trends in annual, growing-season (1st May- 30th Sept.) and monthly air temperatures [(maximum (T_max), …