Hydraulic Engineering Commons^™

An Architecture For Integration Of Multidisciplinary Models, Getachew F. Belete, Alexey Voinov, Niels Holst

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Integrating multidisciplinary models requires linking models: that may operate at different temporal and spatial scales; developed using different methodologies, tools and techniques; different levels of complexity; calibrated for different ranges of inputs and outputs, etc. On the other hand, integration of models requires us to address technical, semantic, and dataset aspects of interoperability. So we need a genuine techniques that enable us to integrate various domain specific models for interdisciplinary study. In this research work, we investigated best practices of System Integration, Enterprise Application Integration, and Integration Design Patterns. We developed an architecture of a multidisciplinary model integration framework that …

Optimal Surveillance System Design For Outbreak Source Detection Maximization: A Vol Model, M. Convertino, C. Hedberg

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Foodborne diseases cause an estimated 48 million illnesses each year in the United States, including 9.4 million caused by known pathogens. Real time detection of cases and outbreak sources are important epidemic intelligence services that can decrease morbidity and mortality of foodborne illnesses, and allow optimal response to identify the causal pathways leading to contamination. For most outbreaks associated with fresh produce items, outbreak source detection typically occurs after the contaminated produce items have been consumed and are no longer in the marketplace.

We developed a probabilistic model for real time outbreak source detection, prediction of outbreaks, and contamination-prone area …

The Pocketlai Smartphone App: An Alternative Method For Leaf Area Index Estimation, Roberto Confalonieri, Caterina Francone, Marco Foi

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The possibility of adopting the technology implemented in low-costs devices for the monitoring of biophysical processes is being increasingly explored by the scientific community. In the context of environmental studies, leaf area index (LAI) is one of the variables scientists and technicians are more interested in, since directly involved in radiation interception, and in crop response to water availability. An indirect method for leaf area index estimation was recently proposed and implemented in the smartphone app PocketLAI. The application uses the smartphone camera and the accelerometer to acquire images at 57.5° below the canopy while the user is rotating …

Environmental Software Development With Uml, Peter A. Khaiter, Marina G. Erechtchoukova

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The issues of rational use of the environmental objects continue to attract public attention world-wide. There are even growing concerns on the part of various stakeholders and general public in relation to the on-going global climate change and a common demand for a harmonized type of relationships between the societal development and the environment crystalized in the concept of environmentally-friendly sustainable development. The interplay of a broad range of fields, such as economics, ecology, psychology, sociology, hydrology and agronomy, makes the area of sustainability inherently complex. Decision-making in the field requires a due support by the sophisticated environmental information systems …

Ecosmart Landscapes: A Versatile Saas Platform For Green Infrastructure Applications In Urban Environments, E. Gregory Mcpherson, Quingfu Xiao, Joe Purohit, Mark Dietenberger, Charles R. Boardman, Jim Simpson, Paula Peper

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The urban environment offers significant opportunities to improve sustainability and optimize water resources. Historically, research and software applications have been focused on the built environment (buildings). Cost-effective, practical tools that can assess the impact of different landscape configurations and their interactions with buildings have not been widely deployed. ecoSmart Landscapes (eSL) is a unique SaaS-based platform that helps to bridge this gap. It incorporates modelling and planning tools for the integrated assessment of carbon, water, energy, and fire impacts of individual landscapes at the residential parcel scale. Analytical and empirical models running concurrently, for each user’s landscape configuration, simulate tree …

Using Surrogate Modelling For Fast Estimation Of Water Budget Component In A Regional Watershed, Aurelien Hazart, Koji Mori, Kazuhiro Tada, Hiroyuki Tosaka

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

We developed a method based on surrogate modelling to estimate the water flow in both surface and subsurface sections of a basin watershed. The real case of a regional watershed near Tokyo with a catchment area of 100km² was targeted with observations on a period of about 16 years. Our purpose was to propose a tool of water resources management that can be operated daily by the person in charge of a watershed without expert knowledge of the numerical modelling process. Replacement of complex physical models by surrogate models like artificial neural networks (ANN) has been proved useful in …

Improved Simulation Of Evapotranspiration For Land Use And Climate Change Impact Analysis At Catchment Scale, Ann Van Griensven, Samita Maharjan, Tadesse Alemayehu

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Evapotranspiration is not only one of the major components of the hydrological cycle, it also controls impacts of drivers such as climate and land use changes. One of the widely used simulation tools for climate and impact studies is the Soil and Water Assessment Tool {SWAT). This study evaluates the evapotranspiration processes in SWAT in the Kenyan Mau forest within the Mara basin that drains to Lake Victoria. The study reveals that typical SWAT applications have flaws as in the implementation or parameterisation of tropical forests.

To improve the use of SWAT for land use and climate change studies, the …

Central Valley Water Management Screening Model For Water Management Alternatives, Nazrul Islam, Nancy Parker, Holly Canada, Erik Reyes, Tom Fitzhugh, Francis Chung, Nicky Sandhu, Z. Q. Richard Chen, Hao Xie, Kevin Kao, Raymond Hoang, Dan Easton, Tad Slawecki

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The California Department of Water Resources (DWR) and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Mid-Pacific Region (Reclamation) have developed CalLite as an interactive screening model for evaluating various Central Valley water management alternatives. The CalLite model has been used as a negotiations tool in a variety of stakeholder processes for improved understanding of water system operations and for consensus based decision-making. The model has been applied to studies related to: the Bay Delta Conservation Plan, delta regulations, system reoperation, and other planning processes. CalLite was developed using the Water Resources Integrated Modeling System (WRIMS) software that uses a linear programming solver …

The Challenge Of Model Implementation Of Regulatory Models In Integrated Environmental Modeling Systems, James G. Droppo, Mitch A. Pelton, Jeremy P. Rishel

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

This paper addresses an effort to develop a model for use both as a standalone regulatory model and as an operational module in an integrated modeling framework. As the state of the art of integrated environmental modeling advances, regulators have the opportunity to develop integrated modeling systems that have the capability of providing holistic overviews of potential environmental consequences. However because they are still bound by regulatory requirements, the implementation of regulatory models in integrated environmental modeling systems poses a number of special challenges. The component regulatory model must be able to be 1) documented as a separate entity, 2) …

Using Bayesian Networks To Link Environmental Flows To Ecosystem Services In The Murray-Darling Basin, Australia, Sina K. Frank, Carmel A. Pollino, Petra Döll

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

In water resources management and planning, it is important to understand both (1.) the linkages between environmental flows and ecosystem condition as well as (2.) the linkages between ecosystem condition and ecosystem services. Bayesian Networks (BNs) are an integration-based modeling tool that could be suitable for representing and quantifying these linkages. To evaluate this, we developed a BN, using the Murray-Darling Basin (Australia) as a case study. The Murray-Darling Basin has both agricultural and ecological values, and has more than a century of water resource development and planning. Recently, ecosystem services have been proposed as a means to progressing water …

Use Of The Warmf Model To Identify Sources Of Oxygen Impairment And Potential Management Strategies For The San Joaquin River Watershed, William T. Stringfellow, Joel Herr, Scott Sheeder, Shelly Gulati, Gregory Weissmann, Mary Kay Camarillo, Micheal Jue

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Eutrophication of the San Joaquin River (SJR) has resulted in low dissolved oxygen (DO) conditions, which has led to a regulatory response and development of total maximum daily load (TMDL) allocations. Due to the dynamic nature of processes governing oxygen depletion in the SJR, a model was needed to help stakeholders understand the fate and transport of nutrients and oxygen-demanding substances that cause the low DO conditions. Here, the Watershed Analysis Risk Management Framework (WARMF) model was used to simulate nutrient removal and control strategies, accounting for the secondary effects of growth and transformation between sources and discharge. Using the …

An Information Platform Fostering Re-Use Of Water Data, Ralf Denzer, Sascha Schlobinski, Gerben Boot, Frank Keppel, Erik De Rooij

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The re-use of publicly funded governmental data has received a lot of attention recently. In the environmental domain, it is clear that improved public services need exchange of data across governments at all levels. Governments keep producing information products at all levels, and some of them are more or less readily available. Reporting obligations in the EC, for instance demanded by the Water Framework Directive (WFD), are direct inputs to European datasets. The technology base for advanced systems is supported by the OGC suite of standards and by encodings for water information.

Still re-use of data is not happening at …

Analysis Of Vegetation Heterogeneity As Sensor For Soil Moisture Patterns Using Remote Sensing, Angela Lausch, Claudia Schütze, Bernhard Siemon, Steffen Zacharias, Ulrike Werban

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Soil moisture patterns are key parameters when it comes to controlling and managing process-pattern interactions in processes relating to soil, vegetation, landscape, climate and the ecosystem. Soil pattern heterogeneity is hard to determine in European landscapes using direct procedures, which are used on soil with little or no vegetation, because the soil is often covered with vegetation all year round. The goal of this study is therefore to develop indirect procedures to analyze soil moisture patterns, which "use the biochemical-biophysical characteristics of plants as sensors and indicators" for soil moisture heterogeneity. For this research, geoelectrical methods which include electromagnetic induction …

Use Of A One-Dimensional Link-Node Model To Develop Total Maximum Daily Load Strategies For The San Joaquin River Estuary, Mary Kay Camarillo, William Stringfellow, Joel Herr, Scott Sheeder, Gregory Weissmann, Shelly Gulati, Ashley Stubblefield

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

A one-dimensional link-node model was used to simulate water quality conditions in the tidally­-influenced, deep water ship channel (DWSC) of the San Joaquin River located in Central California. The DWSC has been plagued with low dissolved oxygen (DO) conditions for decades and is currently a focus of restoration efforts. The model was calibrated using a six-year flow and water quality data set. Model simulations were run by removing the mass loads of each of the following major sources of oxygen depletion to determine the effects: elimination of the deepened ship channel (i.e., restore to its pre­ existing depth), elimination of …

Integra: From Global Scale Contamination To Tissue Dose, Dimosthenis Sarigiannis, Spyros Karakitsios, Alberto Gotti, George Loizou, John Cherrie, Roel Smolders, Kathleen De Brouwere, Karen Galea, Kate Jones, Evangelos Handakas, Krystalia Papadaki, Anne Sleeuwenhoek

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The objective of the INTEGRA project is to bring together all information necessary for assessing the source-to-dose continuum over the entire life cycle of substances covering an extensive chemical space through the use of QSARs. The major outcome of INTEGRA is a comprehensive computational platform that integrates multimedia environmental and micro-environmental fate, exposure and internal dose within a dynamic framework in time. The platform allows multimedia interactions across different spatial scales, taking into account environmental releases and related processes at global, regional and local scale, up to the level of personal microenvironment. Coupling seamlessly exposure models with refined computational tools …

Abstractions From Sensor Data With Complex Event Processing And Machine Learning, Markus Stocker, Mauno Rönkkö, Mikko Kolehmainen

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Environmental knowledge systems that build on sensor-based environmental monitoring rely on techniques in knowledge acquisition and representation to interpret the numbers obtained in measurement for what they tell about the monitored environment. Languages and systems in knowledge representation and reasoning, specifically Semantic Web technologies, support the formulation and execution of rules, a technique that enables deductive inference in a knowledge base. This technique has been used to demonstrate inference on sensor data. While the approach certainly has its merits, it is often demonstrated for numerical thresholds and, thus, for relatively trivial “semantic enrichment.” In reality, knowledge acquisition tasks of interest …

An Ontology-Based Approach For The Instrumentation, Control And Automation Infrastructure Of A Wwtp, Davide Sottara, Jean Claude Coreale, Thierry Spetebroot, Dalila Pulcini, Daniele Giunchi, Fabrizio Paolucci, Luca Luccarini

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The instrumentation, control and automation of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) is a key aspect to ensure good performance and lower operational costs. However, control systems are seldom interoperable and standard-compliant. In this paper, we propose a knowledge-based approach which decouples the description of the plants and their control strategies from their physical structure and instrumentation. In particular, we propose a semantic model based on ontologies, formalized using the W3C OWL2 standard. We have extended the Semantic Sensor Network and created a specialized representation of the WWTP domain, to provide a consistent description of instrumentation (sensors and probes), actuators and data …

Integrating Raster And Vector Spatial Representations With Interaction Graphs For Multi-Scale Environmental Simulations, Mathieu Castets, Pascal Degenne, Pascal Poncelet, Danny Lo Seen

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Nowadays, developing tools for modelling complex system is a mandatory issue in environmental research. Environmental modelling implies taking into account processes at different scales of space and time. Ocelet is a domain specific environmental modelling language that uses graphs to describe how spatial entities in the system interact, with functions attached to the arcs of the graphs that are activated within scenarios to represent the dynamics of the system. The language has a strong focus on spatial interactions where the vector format is used for attributing geometries to entities, thus allowing a precise description of their shapes. However, the vector …

Back-End Science Model Integration For Ecological Risk Assessment, Tao Hong, Chancellor Pascale, Jonathan Flaishans, Marcia Snyder, S. Thomas Purucker

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) relies on a number of ecological risk assessment models that have been developed over 30-plus years of regulating pesticide exposure and risks under Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) and the Endangered Species Act. Since computing technology have changed dramatically over this time period, constituent legacy models often contain algorithms based on source code with defunct dependencies and/or have been integrated with graphical user interface elements no longer compatible with current operating systems. Model migration to modern web applications creates integration challenges for back-end science model code residing on a server. An example …

Epidemia - An Ecohealth Informatics System For Integrated Forecasting Of Malaria Epidemics, Micheal C. Wimberly, Geoffrey M. Henebry, Yi Liu, Gabriel B. Senay

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Advance information about the timing and locations of malaria epidemics allows more effective targeting of resources for prevention, control, and treatment. However, these predictions must be accurate to ensure that potential outbreaks are not missed and resources are not wasted responding to predicted outbreaks that do not occur. Early warning systems based on environmental monitoring can identify critical risk factors before an epidemic actually starts, but their accuracy is constrained by the complex interrelationships of climatic variability, mosquito population dynamics, malaria transmission, and the resulting risk of human infection. In contrast, early detection of malaria epidemics based on epidemiological surveillance …

A Chemical Properties Simulator To Support Iem, Gene Whelan, Eric Weber, Caroline Stevens, Mitch Pelton, Kurt Wolfe, Rajbir Parmar, Mike Galvin, Said Hilal, Justin Babendreier

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Users of Integrated Environmental Modeling (IEM) systems are responsible for defining individual chemicals and their properties, a process that is time-consuming at best and overwhelming at worst, especially for new chemicals with new structures. A software tool is needed to allow users to define a chemical structure, predict transformation products within an environmental setting, and calculate relevant physicochemical properties. Independent software provides relevant chemical and environmental descriptors to parameterize IEM systems that support fate/transport of organics by integrating cheminformatic applications and software technologies. These 1) encode process science using SMART reaction strings, an extension of SMILES notation; 2) generate transformation …

Interactive Web-Based Flood Modeling At Country Wide Scale And Plantar Size Resolution, Fedor Baart, Jack Ha, Arthur Van Dam, Gennadii Donchyts, Martijn Siemerink

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The flooding of rural and urban areas is an increasing hazard to society. Accurate and timely predictions are essential for the water manager to prepare and respond to these hazards. Predicting flooding requires a numerical model that represents the physical processes (rain, evaporation, infiltration, overland flow, groundwater flow). This model, fed with measurements, and possible measures, calculates the expected flooding. The traditional working method consists of a three step process: schematization setup, running and post-processing, with a total feedback time of hours. This process is suitable for confirmatory modeling. Most of the time, models are applied exploratory, requiring a different …

Mobile Device App For Small Open-Channel Flow Measurement, Lüthi Beat, Thomas Philippe, Salvador Peña-Haro

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

For effective water management, particularly in irrigated agriculture, it is essential to have reliable open-channel flow data. With present methods, such data is not readily obtained as they require measurement stations, what often results in sparse data. We present a mobile device app to measure runoff in open channels. With this tool flow data can be collected reliably and cheaply.

The technology, on which the app is based, is derived from an already implemented and tested similar webcam application. The smartphone app calculates the runoff by analyzing a few seconds of a movie sequence that is recorded by the same …

Modelling Similarities Of Endocrine Disruptors In Pine Needles And Human Breast Milk, Kristina Voigt, Rainer Bruggemann, Hagen Scherb, Ismet Cok, Karl-Werner Schramm

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

In a recently performed monitoring project, 18 OCPs (Organochlorine pesticides) in paired samples of pine needles and human breast milk samples were analysed in different regions in the Taurus Mountains in Turkey. The aim of our data evaluation approach is to find out whether there are conformities between the paired human breast milk and pine needle samples. An appropriate data analysis method to identify such conformities and differences is the discrete mathematical method named Hasse diagram technique. The software package used is the PyHasse software. It comprises several modules, which are of great support in the evaluation of environmental data. …

Implementation Of Integrated Modelling Approach To Impact Assessment Applications For Lng Operations Using 3-D Comprehensive Modelling Framework, Shwet Prakash, Venkat S. Kolluru

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Natural gas is a premium fuel for both its energy value and environmental friendliness. Worldwide reliance on natural gas and continual discovery of new reserves around the world has spurred increased exploration and production. Offshore liquefied natural gas (LNG) developments of a large scale are being operated an built across the world requiring continual assessment of environmental impacts from operational and accidental releases. Physical and chemical environmental impacts on surface waters from these releases should preferably be assessed using a comprehensive modelling approach. In a comprehensive modelling approach, a single model is used to develop the ambient hydrodynamic conditions and …

Multi-Level Automated Sub-Zoning Of Water Distribution Systems, Lina Sela Perelman, Micheal Allen, Ami Preis, Mudasser Iqbal, Andrew J. Whittle

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Water distribution systems (WDS) are complex pipe networks with looped and branching topologies that often comprise of thousands of links and nodes. This work presents a generic framework for improved analysis and management of WDS by partitioning the system into smaller (almost) independent sub-systems with balanced loads and minimal number of interconnections. This paper compares the performance of three classes of unsupervised learning algorithms from graph theory for practical sub-zoning of WDS: (1) Graph clustering – a bottom-up algorithm for clustering n objects with respect to a similarity function, (2) Community structure – a bottom-up algorithm based on network modularity …

A Hybrid, Integrated Iedds For The Management Of Sequencing Batch Reactors, Davide Sottara, Stefano Bragaglia, Dalila Pulcini, Paola Mello, Luca Luccarini

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

A Sequencing Batch Reactor (SBR) is a particular kind of wastewater treatment plant (WWTP), where all treatment processes take place in a single reactor tank, according to a fixed temporal sequence. SBR offers several advantages in terms of reduced costs, minor impact and greater flexibility with respect to traditional WWTPs. However, an optimal cost/performance ratio can only be achieved if the treatment processes are continuously monitored and controlled. In this paper, we present a hybrid, distributed, knowledge-based (Intelligent) Environmental Decision Support System (IEDSS) specifically dedicated to the management of SBRs. The IEDSS is responsible for verifying, ensuring and enforcing the …

Interoperable Intelligent Environmental Decision Support Systems: A Framework Proposal, Miquel Sànchez-Marrè

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

In this paper, an approach for the development of Interoperable Intelligent Environmental Decision Support Systems (IEDSS) is proposed. The framework is based upon the cognitive-oriented approach for the development of IEDSS proposed in (Sànchez-Marrè et al., 2008), where three kinds of tasks must be built: analysis tasks, synthesis tasks and prognosis tasks. Now, a fourth level will be proposed: the model construction layer, which is normally an off-line task. At each level, interoperability should be possible and inter-level interoperability must also be achieved. This interoperability is proposed to be obtained using data interchange protocols like Predictive Model Markup Language (PMML), …

Towards An Ontology For Situation Assessment In Environmental Monitoring, Markus Stocker, Mauno Rönkkö, Mikko Kolehmainen

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Situation assessment, i.e. the process of achieving situation awareness, is common in environmental monitoring, where assessment occurs predominantly on sensor data and awareness is for the state of environmental phenomena. For a particular location, an environmental monitoring system may measure and compute mean hourly PM2.5 concentration to acquire knowledge for situations of unhealthy exposure by humans to ambient air; it may measure aerosol particle size distribution to acquire knowledge for situations of atmospheric new particle formation; it may measure road-pavement vibration to acquire knowledge for traffic. The process can be divided in four generic sub processes, namely data acquisition, data …

Modeling And Implementation Of A Geospatial Database For Environmental Niches And Potential Geographic Distributions, Gerardo José Zárate, Jugurta Lisboa-Filho, Carlos Frankl Sperber, Flavia Maria Da Silva Carmo

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The ecological niche of a species is defined by an array of biotic and abiotic requirements that allow organisms to live and reproduce in a geographic region. Abiotic data from the ecological niche in combination with occurrence data can be used to predict the potential geographic distribution of a species in different regions. Potential geographic distributions are useful in predicting the extent of invasive species, predict distributions as preparation for climate change and find appropriate regions for endangered species, among others. Geographic entities and environmental variables can be represented with a high-level abstraction in diagrams using formalism dedicated to model …