Other Civil and Environmental Engineering Commons^™

Methane Production By A Packed-Bed Anaerobic Digester Fed Dairy Barn Flush Water, Sean Richard Thomson

Master's Theses

Packed-bed digesters are an alternative to covered lagoon digesters for methane production and anaerobic treatment of dilute wastewaters such as dairy barn flush water. The physical media of packed-beds retain biofilms, often allowing increased treatment rates. Previous studies have evaluated several types of media for digestion of dilute wastewaters, but cost and media fouling have setback commercial development. A major operational cost has been effluent recirculation pumping.

In the present effort, a novel approach to anaerobic digestion of flush dairy water was developed at pilot-scale: broken walnut shells were used as a low-cost packed-bed medium and effluent recirculation was replaced …

Identification Of Groundwater Sources For Municipal Wells Using Geochemical Data On The Platte Alluvial Aquifer And Underlying Limestone At The Lincoln Water Well Field Near Ashland Nebraska, Juanita Cruz Torres

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Alluvial aquifer systems where pumping of municipal wells induces recharge from the adjacent river are the primary source of water for many cities. The city of Lincoln, NE has a primary water source in an alluvial aquifer adjacent to the Platte River. The Lincoln Water System manages the stream/aquifer system by using integrated models for a better understanding during periods of high stress such as a drought. The integrated models set the limestone aquifer as an impermeable boundary to understand the alluvial aquifer system without having a secondary water source. The limestone aquifer is permeable and the purpose of this …

Traffic Safety Primer For Local Agencies, Indiana Ltap, Michigan Ltap

Indiana Local Technical Assistance Program (LTAP) Publications

The purpose of this booklet is to empower local agency personnel to make informed decisions that can improve roadway safety in your community. By identifying and addressing potential roadway hazards, you can reduce the likelihood of a future traffic crash for your community and your family. Adapted by permission from the Michigan LTAP’s 2008 Publication What Elected Officials Need to Know About Traffic Safety (And What YOUR Constituents Expect YOU to Know!)

United States Patent Application Publication, John H. Posselius, Christopher A. Foster, Santosh 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.

Best Practices In Trail Maintenance, Indiana Ltap, Ohio River Greenway Development Commission

Indiana Local Technical Assistance Program (LTAP) Publications

This manual is intended for practical use by trail maintenance managers. It will also be useful for policy makers who are tasked with anticipating and planning for maintenance budget and personnel needs. The recommendations included in this manual were chosen, in part, to facilitate widespread adoption by other trail operators. They are cost-effective solutions that require minimal technological or financial commitments.

This manual does not provide guidance for trail construction and design, except where a maintenance issue can best be resolved by constructing new trail segments. For best practices in design and construction, consult the thorough list of resources provided …

Soil Carbon Accumulation Under Switchgrass Barriers, Humberto Blanco-Canqui, John E. Gilley, Dean E. Eisenhauer, Paul J. Jasa, Alan L. Boldt

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

The benefits of grass barriers or hedges for reducing offsite transport of non-point-source water pollutants from croplands are well recognized, but their ancillary benefits on soil properties have received less attention. We studied the 15-yr cumulative effects of narrow and perennial switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) barriers on soil organic C (SOC), total N, particulate organic matter (POM), and associated soil structural properties as compared with the cropped area on an Aksarben silty clay loam (fine, smectitic, mesic Typic Argiudoll) with 5.4% slope in eastern Nebraska. Five switchgrass barriers were established in 1998 at ~38-m intervals parallel to the crop rows …

Bio-Inspired Helicoidal Composites: 3d Printing And Experiments, Michael E. Jones, Pablo Zavattieri, Nobphadon Suksangpanya

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Materials that are impact resistant enough for personal protection in sports, transport, and combat are not also lightweight, strong, tough, and impact tolerant. Nature can provide inspiration for novel materials that can meet these needs. The hierarchical composite of the stomatopod’s, or mantis shrimp’s, dactyl club has been shown to have high impact resistance and damage tolerance due to its helicoidal fiber reinforcement(1,2). Analyzing helicoidal composites of different pitch angles (angles between adjacent rows of fibers) under quasi-static, displacement-controlled loading has provided insights into the fracture mechanisms of the composite structure and how they affect the macroscopic properties of the …

Roundabout Maintenance Manual, Emily A. Bonini, Pat Conner P.E., John Haddock Phd, P.E., Yu Tian

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

In recent years, roundabouts have been rapidly growing in popularity. As a result, many communities are installing them in their roadways; however, they are encountering difficulties in maintaining them. Uneducated workers can cause damage to roundabouts and to themselves, costing cities time and money. This project aims to create a guide for communities new to roundabouts in order to reduce damages and unnecessary maintenance costs. Data was gathered by determining the most common maintenance questions and problems along with what information was already available on roundabout maintenance. Next, agencies most experienced with roundabouts were surveyed on the best maintenance practices. …

Emission Of Volatile Organic Compounds After Land Application Of Cattle Manure, Bryan Woodbury, John E. Gilley, David B. Parker, David B. Marx, Daniel N. Miller, Roger A. Eigenberg

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Beef cattle manure can serve as a valuable source of nutrients for crop production. However, emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) after land application may pose an odor nuisance to downwind populations. This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of land application method, diet, soil moisture content, and time since manure application on VOC emissions. Manure was collected from feedlot pens where cattle were fed diets containing 0, 10, or 30% wet distillers grains with solubles (WDGS). Land application methods included surface-applying manure (i.e., no-tillage) or incorporating manure using disk tillage. The effects of soil moisture content on VOC …

Interpolating Beach Profile Data Using Linear And Non-Linear Functions, Lance Calloway Croft

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

Beach and nearshore surveys are conducted in a variety of ways, the most commonly used being the level-and-transit method; because it is inexpensive, time conducive and highly accurate. Specifically, beach surveys are conducted to better understand cross-shore, long-shore sediment transport processes, as well as to quantify volume changes, which are used to evaluate beach performance. In this study, a section of the beach on Sand Key, FL was surveyed using rod-and-transit. In addition to the commonly used linear data analysis, a non-linear analysis was conducted using NURBS (Non-Uniform Rational B-Splines).

Survey data was collected within a short time window …

2013 Summary Of Highway Revenues, Distributions & Expenses, Indiana Ltap

Indiana Local Technical Assistance Program (LTAP) Publications

This report provides information on revenues, distributions, and expenses of state and local governments for highway, road, and street work. Since the Motor Vehicle Highway (MVH) and Local Road and Street (LRS) Accounts are the principal source of funds for local road or street construction and maintenance operations, this summary may be used to see the trends in income sources and in the expenses charged to the funds prior to their being distributed to the highway, road, and street agencies.

Integration Of Models For Low Carbon Economy, Getachew F. Belete, Alexey Voinov

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Designing the transition to low carbon economy is a very complex task that touches upon a wide variety of climate-energy-economic systems. We need to explore the various possible climate mitigation scenarios at different temporal and spatial scales. However, due to the diversity of the involved disciplines it is difficult to find one complete and unified modeling approach that works equally well in all those different domains. As a result we have to select 'appropriate' models, which represent only specific aspects of the scenarios and assemble them 'coherently'. In this research we have identified some challenges in integrating multidisciplinary models; and …

A Decision Support System Approach For Identifying Poliutant Source For Optimization Of Beneficial Management Practices Scenario Modelling In Lake Winnipeg Watersheds, Isaac Wong, Luis Leon, Jason Vanrobaeys, Craig Mccrimmon, Phil Fong

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) results can be used to source trace loading "hotspots• for optimally locating beneficial management practices (BMP). It is possible to trace upstream and compute the relative contribution of each sub-basin to a point of interest, accounting for in-stream processes, reservoirs and point sources. A decision support system (DSS) framework was developed to run SWAT, perform the otherwise tedious process of source tracing "hotspots" and to optimize BMP locations. The "Crop to Hay- land use change BMP scenario was applied in an attempt to reduce annual loadings of total phosphorus (TP) for three Lake …

Agroecosystem-Watershed (Ages-W) Model Delineation And Scaling, Timothy R. Green, Robert H. Erskine, James C. Ascough Ii, Bruce Vandenberg, Björn Pfennig, Holm Kipka, Olaf David, Micheal L. Coleman

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Water movement and storage within an agricultural watershed can be simulated at different spatial resolutions of land areas or hydrological response units (HRUs). Interactions between HRUs in space and time vary with the HRU sizes, such that natural scaling relationships are confounded with the simulation scales. Scaling concepts can be tested using the AgroEcoSystem­ Watershed (AgES-W) model with different resolutions of HRUs. Here, we delineated a 56-ha agricultural watershed in northern Colorado, USA farmed primarily under a wheat-fallow rotation. Factors used to distinguish HRUs included topography (surface flow paths), land use (crop strips and native grass), and mapped soil units …

Global Sensitivity Analysis Of Key Parameters In A Process-Based Sugarcane Growth Model - A Bayesian Approach, Justin Sexton, Yvette Everingham

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

While several statistical methods are available to analyse model sensitivity, their application to complex process-based models is often impractical due to the large number of simulation runs required. A Bayesian approach to global sensitivity analysis can greatly reduce the number of simulation runs required by building an emulator of the model which is less computationally demanding. A Gaussian Emulation Machine (GEM) was used to efficiently assess the sensitivity of key agronomic outputs from the APSIM-Sugar crop model to influential input parameters. The sensitivity of simulated biomass and sucrose at harvest was assessed on 14 parameters representing varietal differences and growth …

Dynamic Feedback Between Land Use And Hydrology For Ecosystem Services Assessment, Seleshi Getahun Yalew, Tobias Pilz, Christian Schweitzer, Stefan Liersch, Johannes Van Der Kwast, Marloes L. Mul, Ann Van Griensven, Pieter Van Der Zaag

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Ecosystem services assessment requires an integrated approach, as it is influenced by elements such as climate, hydrology and socio-economics, which in turn influence each other. However, there are few studies that integrate these elements in order to assess ecosystem services. Absence of integrated approach to modelling hydrological and land-use changes, for instance, often oversights the dynamic feedback between the two processes. Dynamic changes in land-use should be fed into hydrological models and vice-versa at each time-step for a more realistic representation. In this study, this approach is demonstrated with a case study of the uThukela catchment, South Africa. There is …

Ontology Mapping In Semantic Time Series Processing In Climate Change Prediction, Bojan Božić, Jan Peters-Anders, Gerald Schimak

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

In today's time series processing there is more and more a need for addressing diverse user groups interested in a specific domain with appropriate user tailored time series data. The complexity of time series (e.g. involved data from different data sources and/or domains, visualization and representation, etc.) is growing rapidly. As a consequence, it means that users need to find a path through the jungle of time series data. After we have presented our concepts for semantic time series filtering and enrichment of time series with meta-information and annotations (Božić et al., 2012), we are now going to present a …

Metadata Extraction Using Semantic And Natural Language Processing Techniques, Rob Knapen, Thomas Hüsing, Klaus Jacob, Yke Van Randen, Stefan Reis, Onno Roosenschoon, Sander Janssen

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The World Wide Web and related technologies are playing an increasing role in the field of Integrated Environmental Modelling (IEM). Model integration software frameworks are more and more becoming web-enabled. The technologies and standards of the Web are used to access and run simulation models remotely (known as the Web of models) and are considered for enabling interoperability across model integration frameworks. Furthermore there is a growing number of local and global initiatives to provide open access to environmental data (Web of data) that can potentially be used as input for the scientific models. The availability of descriptive information of …

Improved Implicit Stochastic Optimization Technique For Multireservoir Water Systems Under Drought Conditions, Andrea Sulis

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Drought is a creeping phenomenon, making its onset and end difficult to determine. Damages from droughts can exceed those resulting from any other natural hazard, although it is difficult to assign a monetary value to them. In the Mediterranean area a severe drought period occurred over the years 2000-2002 and economic losses from that drought exceeded 250 million euros in Sardinia (Italy) (source: ENAS Regional Water Authority). Currently, technological developments and environmental modelling tools are improving our ability to more effectively manage water supply systems. Models can provide decision makers with better and more timely data and information. In this …

Challenges/Advances In Distributed Watershed Modeling: A Review And Application Of The Agroecosystem-Watershed (Ages-W) Model, James C. Ascough Ii, Timothy R. Green, Olaf David, Holm Kipka, Gregory S. Mcmaster, Manfred Fink, Peter Krause, Sven Kralisch

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Progress in the understanding of physical, chemical, and biological processes influencing water quality, coupled with advances in the collection and analysis of hydrologic data, provide opportunities for significant innovations in the manner and level with which watershed-scale processes may be quantified and modeled. This paper first provides a brief review of current challenges and advances in distributed watershed modeling including quantifying and coping with the uncertainty, data availability, influence of data resolution and scaling issues, and the use of environmental modeling frameworks that help maintain model modularity, reusability, and interoperability (or compatibility). Important findings and observed trends from this work …

Linking A Modified Epic-Based Plant Growth Model (Upgm) With A Component-Based Watershed Model (Ages-W), Gregory S. Mcmaster, James C. Ascough Ii, Debora A. Edmunds, Olaf David, Larry E. Wagner, Fred A. Fox, Robert H. Erskine, Holm Kipka, Timothy R. Green

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Agricultural models and decision support systems (DSS) for assessing water use and management are increasingly being applied to diverse geographic regions at different scales. This requires models that can simulate different crops, however, very few plant growth models are available that "easily" can simulate the growth of many common and alternative crops. One option available is a suite of plant growth models based on the original plant growth model used in EPIC (Erosion Productivity Index Calculator). Various versions of the original EPIC plant growth model have been used in other agroecosystem models such as the Wind Erosion Prediction System (WEPS), …

Assessing The Transition To A Low-Carbon Economy Using Actor-Based System-Dynamic Models, Dmitry V. Kovalevsky, Klaus Hasselmann

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

For a comprehensive analysis of climate mitigation policies, Integrated Assessment models (IAMs) of the coupled climate-socioeconomic system are needed. However, while there is general agreement on the physics of the climate system, the dynamics of the socioeconomic system is still the subject of considerable controversy. This has become particularly apparent since the recent global financial crisis. To explore the dynamics of the socio-economic system, a family of socio-economic models is proposed that incorporates the various alternative assumptions regarding the behaviour of the different economic actors that govern the evolution of the socio-economic system. The model family needs to be developed …

Enhancing The Policy Relevance Of Scenarios Through A Dynamic Analytical Approach, Céline Guivarch, Vanessa Schweizer, Julia Rozenberg

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

We present a new dynamic analytical approach for studying scenarios produced by an integrated assessment {IA) model. Our approach involves the analysis of a large number of scenarios, which can better address three principal shortcomings of how uncertainty is traditionally handled in IA scenario studies. The shortcomings are all a result of the prevailing practice of investigating a small number of scenarios and include (1) the ad hoc nature of exploring vast socioeconomic uncertainties with only a small number of scenarios; (2) the conventional representation of alternative scenario typologies as "parallel universes• or "diverging universes•, which provide little insight on …

Development Of A Decision Support Tool To Allocate Irrigation Water On Competitive Basis: Application To Kathiraveli Village, Sri Lanka, Tom Le Cerf, Muhammed A. Bhuiyan

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

This paper focuses specifically on the irrigation field and water supply tanks for ways to improve efficiency of water use and increase the resilience to climatic variability. The purpose of this paper is to develop an excel-based water balance model that will allow the maximum cropping area be planted in the upcoming agricultural season. The model consists of three modules: a crop water requirement calculator that allows the water requirements of specific crops to be compared, a water tank balance model, and a model which simulates the storage in the permanent wetland attached to the irrigation tank. The hydrological computation …

Modelling Biofilm Based Technologies With Activated Sludge Unit Processes: A Short Cut To Performance Simulation?, Noella Jones, Maebh Grace, Eoghan Clifford

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Biofilm-based passive aeration systems (PAS) have attracted recent attention as alternative, energy efficient and low maintenance technologies in the wastewater sector. However the modelling of biofilm-based PAS offers unique challenges for modellers, particularly where new technologies are not easily simulated using existing commercial modelling software. However, if the modeller is concerned only with simulating "macro" plant performance (e.g. key effluent concentrations and cycle analysis) it may be possible to efficiently model these technologies using "surrogate" unit process systems (e.g. using an activated sludge process to model a biofilm process). The pumped flow biofilm reactor (PFBR); a batch biofilm technology, is …

A Best-Worst Scaling Model Of Climate Change Abatement By Australian Farmers, Marit E. Kragt, Nikki Dumbrell, Fiona Gibson

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Storing carbon from the atmosphere in terrestrial sinks has been proposed as an important way to mitigate climate change and is a major focus in Australia's climate change policies. Mitigation by changing agricultural practices is seen as a promising way to achieve significant reductions in C02 concentrations. Several policies therefore aim to stimulate farmers to adopt so-called 'carbon farming' practices. However, there is little information about farmers' ability and willingness to adopt carbon farming. We present a best-worst scaling model to analyse farmers' decisions about adopting climate change mitigating practices. Best-worst scaling data was collected through a survey amongst mixed …

Hypothesis Testing For Management: Evolving And Answering Closed Questions Using Multiobjective Visualization, Joseph Kasprzyk, Joseph Guillaume, Joshua Kollat, Chris Danilo

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

In order to use models to understand deeply uncertain future conditions, managers must be able to pose and test hypotheses about their management problems. In Iterative Closed Question Methodology (ICQM), a series of closed questions are used to structure thinking about hypotheses while looking beyond a problem's existing modeling representation. Our research is exploring how ICQM can contribute to a framework called Many Objective Robust Decision Making (MORDM), which uses multiobjective optimization and ensembles of uncertain future states of the world to create and evaluate robust solutions for environmental management. A visualization software tool; AeroVis, has greatly aided implementation of …

The Virtual Learning Commons (Vlc): Enabling Sharing And Innovation For Flexible, Responsive Solutions, Deana D. Pennington, Alida Gándara, Nick Del Rio, Omar Ochoa

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

A key challenge in modeling of complex natural systems is identifying and integrating models and tools that are relevant, but were not developed for the targeted purpose. Modeling resources are proliferating, along with emerging technologies designed to enable discovery and integration of data and models. The goal of the Virtual Learning Commons (VLC) is to improve awareness and understanding of emerging methodologies and technologies, facilitate individual and group evaluation of these for innovative uses, and trace the impact of innovations across research communities. The VLC is funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation, and will be released in 2014. The …

Designing Innovative Linked Open Data And Semantic Technologies In Agro-Environmental Modelling, Rob Lokers, Stasinos Konstantopoulos, Armando Stellato, Rob Knapen, Sander Janssen

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

In recent years, innovative applications exploiting Linked Open Data (LOD) and the Semantic Web have opened up, combined and cross referenced high volumes of high-quality data and created tremendous new opportunities for data users as well as data providers. However, in order to serve the broadest community of users, technologies need to be developed that can manage large, constantly updated datasets and streams that are published in formats that were not designed with cross source linking in mind.

The EU-FP7 project SemaGrow aims to tackle this challenge by developing novel algorithms and methods for querying distributed triple stores, scalable and …

Testing Site-Specific Parameterizations Of Longwave Radiation Integrated In A Gis-Based Hydrological Model, Giuseppe Formetta, Olaf David, Riccardo Rigon

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Incoming (Rli) and outgoing (Rlo) longwave atmospheric radiation are very important components of the global radiation balance. They influence many hydrological processes such as evapotranspiration, soil-surface temperature, energy balance, and snowmelt. Field measures of Rli and Rlo are extremely rare except for a few sites and experimental watersheds. Many parameterization schemes were proposed in order to model Rli and Rlo by using easily available meteorological observations such as air temperature, relative humidity, incoming solar radiation and cloud cover.

In this work 10 methods of parameterizing clear sky radiation for the estimation of Rli and Rlo were integrated in the GIS …