Environmental Engineering Commons^™

Coupled Oceanic-Atmospheric Variability And U.S. Streamflow, Glenn A. Tootle, Thomas C. Piechota, Ashok Singh

Civil and Environmental Engineering and Construction Faculty Research

A study of the influence of interdecadal, decadal, and interannual oceanic-atmospheric influences on streamflow in the United States is presented. Unimpaired streamflow was identified for 639 stations in the United States for the period 1951–2002. The phases (cold/negative or warm/positive) of Pacific Ocean (El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO)) and Atlantic Ocean (Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO) and North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO)) oceanic-atmospheric influences were identified for the year prior to the streamflow year (i.e., long lead time). Statistical significance testing of streamflow, based on the interdecadal, decadal, and interannual oceanic-atmospheric phase (warm/positive or cold/negative), was performed by …

Long Term Monitoring Of Trichloroethylene Degradation Indicator Parameters Using Sensors, Ravi Krishna Prasanth Gudavalli

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Past operations at Savannah River Site (SRS) have resulted in significant amount of groundwater contamination with trichloroethylene. Natural attenuation of chlorinated solvents via reductive dechlorination is one of the most important processes occurring at SRS, which requires monitoring. Many traditional monitoring techniques require manual sampling and analysis at an onsite or offsite laboratory, which is costly and time consuming. Therefore the need for a system, which can accurately and cost-effectively conduct real-time analysis using automated sensors, is important. There are several characteristics of groundwater like pH, ORP, conductivity and chloride that may be monitored to assess the TCE degradation. To …

Microbial Source Tracking: Tools For Refining Total Maximum Daily Load Assessments (2005), Stormwater Academy

BMP Trains Research and Publications

For over 100 years, indicator bacteria of fecal origin have been used to assess water quality and alert managers to increased risk of the presence of human pathogens. While these indicator organisms, including total coliforms and fecal coliforms, have helped protect public health for decades, they are now being utilized as surrogates for pathogens in total maximum daily load (TMDL) programs that are mandated by the US Environmental Protection Agency. The goal of TMDL assessment, which is carried out by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection in Florida, is ultimately to identify the sources of contaminant loading to Florida waters …

Tunnel Geology As Seen By Geologists: Manhattan, New York City, Nazrul I. Khandaker, Stanley Schleifer, Masud Ahmed, Alan R. Slaughter, Belal A. Sayeed, Dorean J. Flores, Mario Jo-Ramirez

Publications and Research

Current exploratory boring operations in and around Manhattan, New York City are providing geologists and geotechnical engineers with a plethora of new and interesting geological information, which has not been previously reported. The rocks encountered, mostly medium to high-grade metamorphic rocks, with both mafic and felsic intrusives, are highly variable in competency and mechanical durability. One of the most frequently encountered rock types is a garnetiferous-muscovite-biotite schist which grades into schistose gneiss and displays a wide variety of structural, compositional, and textural attributes. Metamorphic minerals showing the variable degree of metamorphism include graphite, talc, garnet, kyanite, tourmaline, emory, and occasionally …

Natural Organic Matter: A Study Of Long-Term Variability And Anthropogenic Influence, Gregory D. Devine

Environmental & Water Resources Engineering Masters Projects

Disinfection byproducts may be carcinogenic compounds and are present within most drinking water supply systems. These hannful compounds result from an mteraction between natural organic matter and conventional disinfectants such as chlorine or chlorine-based solutions. The level of disinfection byproducts within a distribution system is controlled by federal and state regulations; pending federal regulations propose increasingly stringent allowable levels of disinfection byproducts. The goals of this investigation were to 1) identify long-term variability associated with natural organic matter across the country, 2) develop empirical relationships between anthropogenic activity, land use/land cover and natural organic matter and 3) construct a mechanistic …

Deicer Source Hindcasting In An Unconfined Roadside Aquifer, Ivonne Hall

Environmental & Water Resources Engineering Masters Projects

Deicing materials that include calcium magnesium acetate (CMA), road salt, and premix are applied over a 1.2 mile section of the highway on State Route 25 (SR25) in Plymouth, Massachusetts. This part of the highway was designed to route runoff to an infiltration basin. The main goal of this research was to evaluate when and where deicer contamination infiltrated to the groundwater table at the site, with a focus on the infiltration basin. This project evaluated the steady-state hydraulics of the site, as well as the fate and transport of the deicing materials. There are many sources of data available …

Characterization Of Storm Events Using An Automated Sampler, Shem Styger

Environmental & Water Resources Engineering Masters Projects

The goal of this research was to evaluate the use of an automated sampler in profiling concentrations of deicing agents in stonnmnoff at a research site in Plymouth, MA. The Massachusetts Highway Department applies a combination of deicing agents in the form of salt, premix and calcium magnesium acetate (CMA) to an 830 m long stretch of State Route 25 during the months of November to April when driving conditions are hazardous. Portions of the applied deicing agents applied are left behind in a depression storage layer which was found to be 2.67 mm. The depression storage layer govems the …

Quantifying The Effect Of A Vegetated Littoral Zone On Wet Detention Pond Pollutant Load Reduction (2005), Stormwater Academy

BMP Trains Research and Publications

This report describes an investigation sponsored by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP), in which DB Environmental, Inc., with assistance from Community Watershed Fund, evaluated the potential of littoral zone vegetation to enhance contaminant removal performance of a wet detention pond.

For this effort, we constructed an experimental facility at a 1 hectare wet detention pond in Brevard Co, Florida that contained pre-existing littoral vegetation (distinct stands of cattail (Typha sp.) and pickerelweed (Pontederia cordata)) in addition to an unvegetated shoreline. Ten compartments, 3.7 m by 9.0 m, were deployed within the facility, effectively isolating sections of the pond. …

Analysis Of Per Capita Expenditures Of Suburbanizing Communities In Maine, New England Environmental Finance Center

Economics and Finance

This study analyzes per capita expenditure trends among selected fast-growing Maine towns from 1970-2004. The ten communities studied are termed as “suburbanizing” towns. This term is used to describe towns that over the past 30-40 years have been in the process of transition from rural to suburban – in terms of their population and housing densities, their forms of government, and the services they provide, as well as other characteristics.1 Such towns are of particular interest because they have been absorbing a healthy percentage of the state’s population growth during this time period, often at the expense of Maine’s service …

Stormwater Intelligent Control System (2005), Martin Wanielista

BMP Trains Research and Publications

Water restrictions, pollution control, volume balances, and the emergence of stormwater utilities have lead to the development of an automated intelligent system (“I-Water”) for water use and control. With the use of this system, water stored in stormwater ponds or in the surficial aquifer is not discharged to surface waters because it is used to meet water demands, such as, lawn irrigation, environmental protection, agriculture, drinking and industrial uses.

The drop in groundwater levels and the increasing use of reclaimed water illustrates a need for alternative water supplies. Ground water depletion is occurring which is adding to the destruction of …

Waldo Lake Research In 2004, Mark D. Sytsma, John Rueter, Richard Petersen, Roy Koch, Scott A. Wells, Michelle Wood, Yangdong Pan, Robert Leslie Annear, Aaron Hook, Laura Johnson, Rich Miller, Amanda Murphy, Terry Stoltz

Center for Lakes and Reservoirs Publications and Presentations

The Willamette National Forest has worked with Portland State University, Center for Lakes and Reservoirs (PSU) and the University of Oregon (UO) to investigate ecosystem changes, provide guidance on long-term monitoring methods, assess monitoring data, develop predictive water quality models, and conduct research that will lead to better protection and understanding of the Waldo Lake ecosystem. This report summarizes the second year of collaborative PSU-UO research at Waldo Lake. Research has focused on understanding physical, chemical and biological characteristics of Waldo Lake across a range of spatial and temporal scales. Research tasks that continued from 2003 into 2004 included temperature …

Nonlinear Response Of Head Dependent Boundary Conditions In Modflow, Aparna S. Vemuri

Environmental & Water Resources Engineering Masters Projects

Engineering is the professional art of applying science to the optimum conversion of natural resources to the benefit of man. - Ralph J. Smith Groundwater mining reduces water levels in the subsurface and is found to have grave consequences like natural aquifer depletion. Groundwater management models that couple simulation models with optimization models have been used in the management of groundwater resources. The effect of head dependent boundary conditions on the head response due to pumping stresses is studied along with its impact on management strategies. Hypothetical aquifer models have been set up using MODFLOW 2000 and groundwater management (GWM) …

Development Of Multiple Growth Strategies For Use In Developing Traffic Forecasts: A Robustness Approach, Deogratias Eustace, Eugene R. Russell, E. Dean Landman

Civil and Environmental Engineering and Engineering Mechanics Faculty Publications

Decisions that may be based on misleading forecasts may lead to a misallocation of funds and to under-performing projects during construction and operation. Poor projections of demographic and socioeconomic data are usually cited as the major source of poor traffic assignment projections and hence, unfavorably conceived planning and construction of street and highway infrastructure facilities.

This report evaluated the accuracy of long range projections by using a transportation study done the in 1970s, projecting transportation demand 20 years into the future. The projected travel model inputs were compared with what actually happened after the horizon year had been reached and …

Water Conservation And Resuse Strategy For Ireland, Liam Mccarton, Sean O'Hogain

Articles

The traditional approach to meeting increased demand is to augment supply. However, mobilising new resources involves ever higher costs. Increasing water efficiency by reducing the amount of water required to accomplish a given task can significantly contribute towards balancing supply and demand. The water saved as a result of PCC reduction can be used to augment existing supplies. This can be the least cost option, particularly when the environmental and social costs of developing new resources are included in the analysis. Allied to this is the concept of sustainability, which can be defined as ‘development that meets the needs of …

Modeling Natural, Organic Matter In An Unfiltered Surface Water Supply, Daniel R. Buttrick

Environmental & Water Resources Engineering Masters Projects

Wachusett Reservoir, located in central Massachusetts, supplies water to the Boston, Massachusetts metropolitan area. The reservoir receives water from a watershed of 117 square miles, as well as water transferred from the Quabbin Reservoir to the west. Quabbin Reservoir water generally has lower levels of most water quality constituents than water received from the Wachusett Reservoir watershed. The Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) manages the watershed and monitors tributary and in-reservoir water quality, while the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA) is responsible for treatment and distribution. CE QUAL W2 is a two dimensional, laterally averaged water quantity and …

Detecting Anomalous Inclusions In Soil Profiles: Encouraging The Use Of Geophysics To Solve Engineering Problems, Barbara Luke, Carlos Calderon-Macias

Civil and Environmental Engineering and Construction Faculty Research

Geotechnical site investigations often do not take full advantage of geophysical methods. As examples, when delineating cemented strata and when detecting shallow cavities, investigations can be enhanced greatly for low additional cost by incorporating seismic surface-based measurements.

Evaluation Of Methods For Estimating Daily Reference Crop Evapotranspiration At A Site In The Humid Southeast United States, R. E. Yoder, Lameck O. Odhiambo, Wesley C. Wright

Department of Biological Systems Engineering: Papers and Publications

Estimated daily reference crop evapotranspiration (ET_o) is normally used to determine the water requirement of crops using the crop factor method. Many ET_o estimation methods have been developed for different types of climatic data, and the accuracy of these methods varies with climatic conditions. In this study, pair−wise comparisons were made between daily ET_o estimated from eight different ET_o equations and ET_o measured by lysimeter to provide information helpful in selecting an appropriate ET_o equation for the Cumberland Plateau located in the humid Southeast United States. Based on the standard error of the …

Remote Estimation Of Canopy Chlorophyll Content In Crops, Anatoly A. Gitelson, Andrés Viña, Veronica Ciganda, Donald Rundquist, Timothy J. Arkebauer

Department of Biological Systems Engineering: Papers and Publications

Accurate estimation of spatially distributed chlorophyll content (Chl) in crops is of great importance for regional and global studies of carbon balance and responses to fertilizer (e.g., nitrogen) application. In this paper a recently developed conceptual model was applied for remotely estimating Chl in maize and soybean canopies. We tuned the spectral regions to be included in the model, according to the optical characteristics of the crops studied, and showed that the developed technique allowed accurate estimation of total Chl in both crops, explaining more than 92% of Chl variation. This new technique shows great potential for remotely tracking the …

Modeling Sediment Trapping In A Vegetative Filter Accounting For Converging Overland Flow, M. J. Helmers, D. E. Eisenhauer, Thomas G. Franti, Michael G. Dosskey

Department of Biological Systems Engineering: Papers and Publications

Vegetative filters (VF) are used to remove sediment and other pollutants from overland flow. When modeling the hydrology of VF, it is often assumed that overland flow is planar, but our research indicates that it can be two-dimensional with converging and diverging pathways. Our hypothesis is that flow convergence will negatively influence the sediment trapping capability of VF. The objectives were to develop a two-dimensional modeling approach for estimating sediment trapping in VF and to investigate the impact of converging overland flow on sediment trapping by VF. In this study, the performance of a VF that has field-scale flow path …