Environmental Engineering Commons^™

Evaluation And Enhancement Of Carbon Sequestration Potential Of Existing Vegetation Along Roadsides, Vikram Kapoor, Jeffrey Hutchinson, Samer Dessouky

Publications

The objectives of this study were to evaluate the vegetative composition and carbon sequestration potential of vegetation along a major roadway in Texas. Soil and vegetation were evaluated along IH-35 within Bexar County for composition and carbon content. Three 20 m transects were placed at each site and percent vegetative cover was estimated and above ground plant biomass, and soil was collected from three 0.25 m2 subplots along each transect. Plant and soil samples were analyzed for carbon content. Two non-native grasses, bermudagrass and King Ranch bluestem, were the dominant cover at all sites accounting for > 90% coverage at several …

Investigation Of Efficiency Loss Of Distributed Solar Power Due To Soiling And Efficiency Recovery By Rainfall, Amanda Mayumi Tanaka

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

As the concern with global warming increases causing the need for CO2 reduction, renewable energy is of great interest as it has lower carbon footprint when compared to conventional sources (natural gas, coal, oil and nuclear). Solar energy has been drawing worldwide attention since it can transform sunlight directly into electricity with the use of photovoltaic (PV) cells. However, this technology has some drawbacks that need to be addressed including dust deposition on solar panels, also known as soiling. Soiling can decrease PV panel’s efficiency thereby resulting in less energy production. The soiling rates are very site specific and depend …

Current And Future Deposition Of Nitrogen And Sulfur In Louisiana, Jessica Nguyen

LSU Master's Theses

Nitrogen (N) and sulfur (S) are essential nutrients, however excess quantities can stress ecosystems. Atmospheric nitrogen and sulfur deposition lead to changes in water and soil chemistry, consequently resulting in ensuing detriment to multiple ecosystems such as acidification of water bodies. This affects a multitude of plants and animals such as trees, insects, and fish. Louisiana has copious natural water resources. Therefore, it is essential to safeguard its valuable resources from excess atmospheric N and S deposition. However, knowledge of N and S deposition and its unfavorable effects in the Southeast U.S., particularly Louisiana, is limited.

In this research, a …

Quality Evaluation Of The Dewatering Subsurface Water In Urban Areas For Irrigation Purposes, Kuwait, Fawzia Al-Ruwaih, Mohamed El Anbaawy, Ahmad Abdelhalim, Abdulaziz Al-Shammari

Emirates Journal for Engineering Research

The objective of this study is to assess the quality of the dewatered groundwater and identify its suitability for irrigation purposes in an urban study area by analyzing its chemical composition. The water quality for irrigation has been assessed by the determination of the residual sodium bicarbonate (RSBC), potential salinity (P.S), sodium adsorption ration, (SAR), Mg ratio (MgR), sodium percentage (%Na⁺), Kelly’s ratio (KR), permeability index (P.I), electrical conductivity, EC, total dissolved solids TDS, total hardness (TH), and pH. The WATEQ4F computer program has been used to compute the saturation indices of some minerals with respect to water …

Application Of Cation Exchange And Nanofiltration To Treat Flue Gas Desulfurization Wastewater, Ayush R. Shahi

Civil Engineering ETDs

Flue gas emitted from coal-fired power plants is one of the major sources of sulfur and nitrogen oxides emissions to the atmosphere in the world today. Although coal use has decreased, it is still a major contributor to such emissions. The Clean Air Act in the United States established regulations for coal-fired power plants to limit SO_x and NO_x emissions into the atmosphere. To meet regulatory requirements, power plants have been using scrubbers to limit their air emissions. Flue-gas desulfurization (FGD) is a pollution prevention method that is employed to limit sulfur dioxide emissions directly in the environment …

Development Of Threshold Levels And A Climate-Sensitivity Model Of The Hydrological Regime Of The High-Altitude Catchment Of The Western Himalayas, Pakistan, Muhammad Saifullah, Shiyin Liu, Adnan Ahmad Tahir, Muhammad Zaman, Sajjad Ahmad, Muhammad Adnan, Dianyu Chen, Muhammad Ashraf, Asif Mehmood

Civil and Environmental Engineering and Construction Faculty Research

Water shortages in Pakistan are among the most severe in the world, and its water resources are decreasing significantly due to the prevailing hydro-meteorological conditions. We assessed variations in meteorological and hydrological variables using innovative trend analysis (ITA) and traditional trend analysis methods at a practical significance level, which is also of practical interest. We developed threshold levels of hydrological variables and developed a non-parametric climate-sensitivity model of the high-altitude catchment of the western Himalayas. The runoff of Zone I decreased, while the temperature increased and the precipitation increased significantly. In Zone II, the runoff and temperature increased but the …

Is Transportation Planning Effective? A Critical Review Of Long-Range Regional Transportation Planning In The United States, Razieh Nadafianshahamabadi

Civil Engineering ETDs

The Federal-Aid Highway Act requires urban areas with a population greater than 50,000 to create Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) to ensure that funding for transportation projects and programs are based on a continuing, cooperative, and comprehensive planning process. A major responsibility of each MPO is the creation of a long-range transportation plan (LRTP) that addresses the transportation needs of a metropolitan region over the next twenty years or more. While long-range regional transportation planning goals have grown to include a wide range of concerns and technical methods for evaluating planning scenarios have advanced substantially over the past 50 years, there …

Low Loading Gold Vapor Deposited Electrode For High Sensitivity As (Iii) Detection, Tybur Casuse

Civil Engineering ETDs

The objective of this thesis is to develop a method for detection of arsenite, As (III), using a thin film of gold (Au) vapor deposited onto carbon paper as an electrode. Currently, availability of drinking water arsenic (As) concentration information for rural communities is diminished due to high cost per sample analysis and limited access to analytical laboratories which can accurately determine concentrations near the 10 maximum contaminant level (MCL) set by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The use of a minimal amount of gold aids in decreasing the cost of an electrode. …

Bamboo As A Sustainable Engineering Material: Mechanical Properties, Safety Factors, And Experimental Testing, Lorena Sánchez Vivas

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

With exponential global population growth occurring and associated environmentally destructive consumption of natural resources, alternative materials that are fast growing and sustainable are being sought out to satisfy human needs. One material that is fast growing and sustainable that can be used to meet most basic needs of humans (i.e. shelter, food, tools) is the plant bamboo, of the grass family Poaceae. Bamboo was used in the past by native peoples who lived in the environment where bamboo natively grows (all continents except Europe and Antarctica) with proven success for uses such as shelter, piping, tools, wells, food, fencing, baskets …

Sodium-Ion Concentration Flow Cell Stacks For Salinity Gradient Energy Recovery: Power Generation Of Series And Parallel Configurations, Elizabeth Whiddon

LSU Master's Theses

Salinity gradient (SG) energy is a renewable and clean energy resource that exists worldwide from the change in Gibbs free energy when two solutions with different salinities are mixed. More recently, concentration flow cells (CFCs) have been introduced as a new technology for SG energy recovery with the highest reported power density output to date, as a result of the utilization of both the electrode potential and Donnan potential. In this study, multiple CFCs were connected to form a consecutive number of stacks, and systematic analysis was conducted to investigate the influence of both parallel and series electrical wire connections …

Microbial Transport As Affected By Residue Cover And Manure Application Rate, Lisa M. Durso, John E. Gilley, Dave B. Marx, Chance A. Thayer, Brian L. Woodbury

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Manure is applied to cropland areas with varying surface cover to meet single- or multiple-year crop nutrient requirements. The objectives of this field study were to (1) examine microbial transport following land application of manure to sites with and without wheat residue, (2) compare microbial loads following land application to meet the 0, 1, 2, 4, and 8-year P-based requirements for corn, and (3) evaluate the effects of rainfall simulation run on microbial transport. Manure was added and incorporated by disking plots that were 0.75 m wide by 2.0 m long. Three 30 min simulated rainfall events, separated by 24 …

Integrated Aeration For Enhanced Nitrogen Conversion And Removal And The Effect Of Sampling Frequency On Productivity Estimates In Algae-Based Wastewater Treatment Systems, Lauren Parker

Master's Theses

Raceway ponds can be used to cultivate microalgae for purposes such as wastewater treatment and feedstock for animal feeds and biofuels. Besides nitrogen assimilation in biomass, nitrification can be a wastewater treatment mechanism but one that is hindered by the low nighttime dissolved oxygen concentrations (DO) common in wastewater treatment raceways. The large diel difference in pond conditions and changing influent wastewater quality also raises the question of the optimal frequency and timing of grab sample collection, to obtain representative water quality data. Three sets of triplicate pilot raceways (1,000-L, 0.30-m deep, fed primary clarifier effluent) were operated at an …

A Decision-Making Framework For Hybrid Resource Recovery Oriented Wastewater Systems, Nader Rezaei

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Water shortage, water contamination, and the emerging challenges in sustainable water resources management (e.g., the likely impacts of climate change and population growth) necessitate adopting a reverse logistics approach, which is the process of moving wastewater from its typical final destination back to the water supply chain for reuse purposes. This practice not only reduces the negative impacts of wastewater on the environment, but also provides an alternative to withdrawal from natural water resources, forming a closed-loop water supply chain. However, the design of such a supply chain requires an appropriate sustainability assessment, which simultaneously accounts for economic, environmental, and …

High‑Throughput Analysis Of Leaf Physiological And Chemical Traits With Vis–Nir–Swir Spectroscopy: A Case Study With A Maize Diversity Panel, Yufeng Ge, Abbas Atefi, Huichun Zhang, Chenyong Miao, Raghuprakash Kastoori Ramamurthy, Brandi Sigmon, Jinliang Yang, James C. Schnable

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Hyperspectral reflectance data in the visible, near infrared and shortwave infrared range (VIS–NIR– SWIR, 400–2500 nm) are commonly used to nondestructively measure plant leaf properties. We investigated the usefulness of VIS–NIR–SWIR as a high-throughput tool to measure six leaf properties of maize plants including chlorophyll content (CHL), leaf water content (LWC), specific leaf area (SLA), nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K). This assessment was performed using the lines of the maize diversity panel. Data were collected from plants grown in greenhouse condition, as well as in the field under two nitrogen application regimes. Leaf-level hyperspectral data were collected with …

Development Of A Framework To Support The Effective Adoption Of Bim In The Public Sector: Lessons For Ireland, Shiyao Kuang, Alan Hore, Barry Mcauley, Roger West

Conference papers

Building Information Modelling (BIM) has been formally adopted by many countries with the promise of creating greater economic, social and sustainability benefits. Several authors and institutions have presented alternative BIM policies and tactics which have been adopted by developed countries. However, there is evidence to indicate that BIM adoption theories are not well established and, in particular, the linkage between BIM public sector adoption strategy outcomes and their contribution to achieving Government policy objectives are underdeveloped. This paper will present the outcome of the first phase of a systematic literature review of published studies (including journal papers and noteworthy international …

Biomethane Production From Distillery Wastewater, Zachary Christman

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Distillery wastewater treatment is a great ecological problem, for example, India produces 2.7 billion liters of alcohol that results in 40 billion liters of wastewater. However, this material can be seen as a resource since 11 million cubic meters of biogas at 60% methane could be produced in addition to cleaning the water. The distillery has two options of what to do with the biogas. The first is to use the biogas to fuel the distillery making the production plant more energy efficient and removing some of the need to buy natural gas. The other is to upgrade the biogas …

A Spatially Enhanced Data‐Driven Multimodel To Improve Semiseasonal Groundwater Forecasts In The High Plains Aquifer, Usa, A. Amaranto, Francisco Munoz-Arriola, D. P. Solomatine, G. Corzo

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

The aim of this paper is to improve semiseasonal forecast of groundwater availability in response to climate variables, surface water availability, groundwater level variations, and human water management using a two‐step data‐driven modeling approach. First, we implement an ensemble of artificial neural networks (ANNs) for the 300 wells across the High Plains aquifer (USA). The modeling framework includes a method to choose the most relevant input variables and time lags; an assessment of the effect of exogenous variables on the predictive capabilities of models; and the estimation of the forecast skill based on the Nash‐Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE) index, the normalized …

Atmospheric Deposition Of Nitrogen And Sulfur In China: Current Status And Future Changes, Cheng Shi

LSU Master's Theses

Dry and wet deposition of nitrogen (N) and sulfur (S) has detrimental impacts on the health of both human and ecosystems. Intensive human activities are responsible for elevating emissions and deposition of N and S species. Large population and fast industrial development led China to one of the countries with highest acid deposition. The large fluxes of N and S deposition have caused acidification of surface water and soil, which damages plant growth and biodiversity in China. N and S deposition has been investigated using ground-based monitoring networks and satellite-based sensors. The limitation of location of monitoring sites and performance …

Living Shorelines As Alternative Methods Of Shoreline Protection, Hunter Shows

LSU Master's Theses

Louisiana’s marshes and coastal estuaries are losing habitat at an alarming rate. High rates of sea level rise coupled with coastal subsidence are turning once thriving marsh land into open water. The sediment starved Mississippi River Delta is drowning, making families homes, property, and livelihoods increasingly vulnerable every year. Significant funding is being allocated for projects to offset the increasing erosion including but not limited to diversions, marsh creation, ridge restoration, and shoreline protection projects.

Living shorelines, for the sake of this study, can be defined as a form of shoreline protection which helps shoreline stabilization and erosion reduction while …

Development Of An Rfid Tracking System For Coarse Sediment Transport In A Flume Setting, Peter Mahoney Jr.

ENGS 88 Honors Thesis (AB Students)

Development of an RFID Tracking System for Coarse Sediment Transport in a Flume Setting

Peter E. Mahoney

Professor Carl Renshaw

Understanding how sediment moves through a fluvial system has important implications for the study of river systems, sediment flux, and flood events. Over the past decade, RFID (radio frequency identification) technology has emerged as a useful method for tracking the movement and transport of coarse sediment clasts. This approach has been used to measure the transport of large clasts in mid-sized streams, ephemeral channels, and laboratory flume settings. However, this research utilized finite transport of sediment and focused on accurately …

Environmental And Occupational Impacts From U.S. Beef Slaughtering Are Of Same Magnitude Of Beef Foodborne Illnesses On Human Health, Shaobin Li, Jeyamkondan Subbiah, Bruce Dvorak

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Foodborne pathogens and occupational hazards are two primary safety concerns for U.S. beef slaughterhouses. The anthropogenic environmental impacts due to intensive resource use and pollution also exert threats to human health. Quantifying human health impacts from various sources remain a grand sustainability challenge for U.S. beef industry. We develop a framework to systematically estimate and compare human health impacts associated with U.S. beef foodborne illnesses from major pathogens and environmental impacts and occupational hazards from U.S. beef slaughtering on a common metric, disability-adjusted life year (DALY). Foodborne illnesses and occupational hazards are estimated by synthesizing published data and methodologies while …

Degradation Of Emerging Contaminants By Advanced Oxidation Using Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes And Continuous Ozone Injection, Emily N. Miller

Master's Theses

With a growing population and continuous accumulation of pollutants, water resources worldwide are quickly being depleted. Drastic improvements need to be made in both water conservation and treatment. Advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) have been developed to go above and beyond the capabilities of traditional wastewater treatment facilities to eliminate emerging contaminants from our water systems. AOPs increase the generation of hydroxyl radicals (•OH) in oxidation reactions, which are less selective and more reactive than other oxidants, such as ozone, so they are more effective at degrading persistent compounds. This study explored an AOP that utilizes ozonated multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) …

Williston Basin Water Treatment Technology Test Bed, University Of North Dakota. Energy And Environmental Research Center

EERC Brochures and Fact Sheets

Fact sheet about Energy & Environmental Research Center plan to pilot-test technology to treat high-TDS (total dissolved solids) water. Includes a description of proposed water treatment technology and plan for the testing process. [This item is an outdated or superseded version and retained for historical purposes only. It may no longer reflect current information, policies, or practices.]

Carbonate Chemistry Characterization In A Low-Inflow Estuary With Recent Seagrass Loss, Jolie Higgins

Master's Theses

Estuaries are dynamic environments that are strongly affected by natural variability, as well as direct and indirect anthropogenic impacts. A better understanding of the drivers of carbon fluxes and biogeochemical variability in estuarine systems is needed, particularly with the increasing threat of ocean acidification. Morro Bay in Central California is a small nationally protected estuary, with seasonally low freshwater inputs. Since 2007, the bay has experienced a significant loss of native seagrass, Zostera marina, which is an important component of the marine ecosystem. Because seagrass photosynthesis decreases carbon dioxide and increases oxygen in the water column, the loss of seagrass …

Hydrodynamic Modeling Coupled With Long-Term Field Data Provide Evidence For Suppression Of Phytoplankton By Invasive Clams And Freshwater Exports In The San Francisco Estuary, Bruce G. Hammock

Faculty Publications

The San Francisco Estuary (California, USA) had abundant pelagic fish in the late 1960s, but has few pelagic fish today. A primary cause for this decline in fish is thought to be a trophic cascade, triggered by declining phytoplankton. Here, we describe the changes in pelagic community structure of the San Francisco Estuary. Then, we examine whether changes in hydrodynamics due to freshwater exports, which increased exponentially beginning in 1967, in addition to the 1986 invasion by the clam Potamocorbula amurensis, explain the phytoplankton loss. Hydrodynamic variables were reconstructed back to 1956 using statistical models fit to, and cross-validated against, …

Case Study: Using Geofoam On A School Project In Encinitas, Ca, Matthew D. Gaebe

Construction Management

This paper is a case study that identifies why Geofoam was used as in-fill material for a construction project located at a high school in Encinitas, CA. The Geofoam was installed under a stairway that connects to a structural retaining wall. The concrete formwork was connected directly to the foam and the stairs were poured in place onsite. The foam acted as the on-grade material, so the concrete stairs did not have to be self-supporting. The purpose of this study is to understand the benefits of using Geofoam, as the in-fill material, as opposed to other traditional materials. An analysis …

Next-Generation Rainfall Idf Curves For The Virginian Drainage Area Of Chesapeake Bay, Xixi Wang, Xiaomin Yang, Zhaoyi Cai

Civil & Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Probability-based intensity-duration-frequency IDF curves are needed but currently lacking for Department of Defense DoD to construct and manage its infrastructure in changing climate. The objectives of this project were to 1 develop an innovative approach for considering rainfall non-stationarity in developing such IDF curves and 2 apply this approach to the state of Virginia. In this regard, the observed data on 15-min rainfall at 57 gauges and the precipitations projected by twelve pairs of Regional Climate Model RCM and Global Circulation Model GCM were used. For a given gauge or watershed, in terms of fitting the empirical exceedance probabilities, a …

Electrochemically Reactive Membranes For Efficient Biomass Recovery, Pollutant Degradation And Commercialization, Likun Hua

Dissertations

Micropollution in natural waters such as rivers and groundwater aquifers is a widespread problem that prevents these potentially potable sources from being used as drinking water. In the United States, approximately two-thirds of the over 1,200 most serious hazardous waste sites in the nation are contaminated with trichloroethylene (TCE), a potentially carcinogenic compound. Other emerging and environmentally persistent organic micropollutants include polyromantic hydrocarbons (PAHs), organophosphate flame retardants, endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs), pesticides, herbicides, pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs). Membrane filtration is one of the most efficient separation processes widely used for water treatment and pollutant removal. However, traditional membrane …

Fouling And Aging In Membrane Filtration : Hybrid Afm-Based Characterization, Modelling And Reactive Membrane Design, Wanyi Fu

Dissertations

Membrane filtration has been extensively used in water and wastewater treatment, desalination, dairy making, and biomass/water separation. However, membrane fouling, aging and insufficient removal efficiency for dissolved organic matters remain major challenges for wider industrial applications. In order to tackle these challenges, this doctoral dissertation investigates mechanisms of membrane fouling and development of antifouling membrane filtration technologies. Specifically, four major research areas are explored: (i) nanoscale physicochemical characterization of the chemically modified polymeric membranes; (ii) quantitative modelling between membrane properties and membrane fouling and defouling kinetics; (iii) development of quantitative structure-activity relationships for membranes that undergo thermal and chemical aging …

Mascoma River Greenway Extension, Isalys Quiñones

ENGS 86 Independent Projects (AB Students)

In July of 2018, the Mascoma River Greenway (MRG), a 2.2-mile rail trail extending from Downtown Lebanon, NH to Glen Road in West Lebanon, NH, was completed with the help of the MRG Coalition, the Friends of the Northern Rail Trail, Lebanon Recreation and Parks, and members of the City of Lebanon. Initially, this trail was proposed to extend from Downtown Lebanon to Downtown West Lebanon and White River Junction (WRJ). With pushback from the State of New Hampshire to lease the City of Lebanon recreational usage to the New Hampshire State Department of Transportation (NHDOT) owned rail corridor, the …