Environmental Engineering Commons^™

Sustainable Underground Reactive Barrier To Attenuate Contaminants From Agricultural Drainage, Yuchuan Fan

Doctoral Dissertations

Denitrifying bioreactor (DNBR) has become a popular edge-of-field practice applied to reduce nitrate over the Mississippi river and to prevent a downstream hypoxic zone occurring at the Gulf of Mexico. Despite widespread field and laboratory studies, fewer investigations have been directed toward a systematic means of evaluating the nitrate removal performance achieved by various filling materials, abiotic factors, and other critical parameters. Our ultimate goal is to improve the nitrate removal by choosing the optimum fill materials and operate under optimal conditions, meanwhile, modeling the DNBR by critical variables. This study begins by establishing a global database. Forty filling materials …

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

All Theses

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

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

Modeling And Monitoring Of Water Quantity And Quality In Permeable Pavement Systems Using Geophysical Equipment, Abby Klimowicz

Honors Scholar Theses

Permeable pavements are a type of low impact development (LID) that reduces runoff by increasing the permeability of developed surfaces. Less runoff helps protect the surrounding ecosystems from erosion and pollution. Without pools of accumulating runoff, the potential for the development of ice on roads and parking lots is also decreased. However, sufficient research on the movement of water and the ions dissolved in it through the permeable pavement system has not been completed. In this study, geophysical equipment was used to observe how moisture, measured as volumetric water content (VWC), and ions, approximated by electrical conductivity, pass through constructed …

A Review Of Harmful Algal Bloom Prediction Models For Lakes And Reservoirs, Jade Snyder Echard

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Anthropogenic activity has led to eutrophication in water bodies across the world. This eutrophication promotes blooms, cyanobacteria being among the most notorious bloom organisms. Cyanobacterial blooms (more commonly referred to as harmful algal blooms (HABs)) can devastate an ecosystem. Cyanobacteria are resilient microorganisms that have adapted to survive under a variety of conditions, often outcompeting other phytoplankton. Some species of cyanobacteria produce toxins that ward off predators. These toxins can negatively affect the health of the aquatic life, but also can impact animals and humans that drink or come in contact with these noxious waters. Although cyanotoxin’s effects on humans …

Understanding The Weather- And Soil-Related Variability In Agricultural Water Footprints: Case Study Of Maize And Soybeans Grown In The St. Joseph Watershed, Karleigh M. Krieg

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Introduced in 2002, the water footprint is a valuable tool for understanding the consumption of freshwater resources. The traditional approach to quantifying the water footprint is to sum the green, blue, and gray water footprint components. The green water footprint is the volume of water that comes from precipitation, is stored in the soil, and used by vegetation. The blue water footprint is the volume of surface or ground water that is withdrawn and applied to cultivated lands via irrigation. These components are based on the evapotranspiration of green and blue water resources, respectively. The gray water footprint is the …

Exposure Assessment Of Emerging Contaminants: Rapid Screening And Modeling Of Plant Uptake, Majid Bagheri

Doctoral Dissertations

"With the advent of new chemicals and their increasing uses in every aspect of our life, considerable number of emerging contaminants are introduced to environment yearly. Emerging contaminants in forms of pharmaceuticals, detergents, biosolids, and reclaimed wastewater can cross plant roots and translocate to various parts of the plants. Long-term human exposure to emerging contaminants through food consumption is assumed to be a pathway of interest. Thus, uptake and translocation of emerging contaminants in plants are important for the assessment of health risks associated with human exposure to emerging contaminants. To have a better understanding over fate of emerging contaminants …