Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Engineering
Better Localized Predictions with Out-of-Scope Information and Explainable AI: One-Shot SAR Backscatter Nowcast Framework with Data from Neighboring Region
Published: 2023-06-10
Subjects: Civil Engineering, Engineering, Geotechnical Engineering, Hydraulic Engineering
Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) provides 10-m weather-independent global Earth surface observations for various tasks such as land cover land use mapping, water body delineation, and vegetation change monitoring. However, the application of SAR imagery has been limited to retrospective tasks by a “first event then observation” rule. Recent studies have proven the feasibility of a one-shot forecast [...]
Multivariate Analysis and Anomaly Detection of U.S. Reservoir Sedimentation Dataset
Published: 2023-06-07
Subjects: Engineering
Sedimentation processes in reservoirs can jeopardize their functionality and compromise dam safety. Climate change and associated hydrologic uncertainty are introducing additional stressors to US reservoirs, and data-driven indicators of climate impacts on upstream soil erosion and reservoir’s sedimentation processes are crucial to evaluate their aggradation and life expectancy. The US Army [...]
Non-structural Flood Mitigation Optimization at Community Scale: Middle Cedar Case Study
Published: 2023-06-07
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Civil Engineering, Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Risk Analysis
Flooding is the leading natural hazard in Iowa and has resulted in billions of dollars of damage to properties and critical infrastructure over the past couple of decades. Land alterations, urbanization, and changing precipitation regimes increase the magnitude and frequency of flood events. Considering the increasing risk, flood mitigation efforts are significant to reduce future losses. In this [...]
Considerations for Regional Simulations of Seaweed Carbon Dioxide Removal
Published: 2023-06-01
Subjects: Engineering, Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
There is a growing interest in sequestering carbon dioxide via cultivation and sinking of seaweed in the ocean. Robust quantification of the viability of this marine carbon dioxide removal (mCDR) strategy requires deployment and interrogation of computer simulations that resolve coupling between turbulent oceanic circulation, biogeochemical fluxes, and cultivated seaweed with regional [...]
Artificial Energy General Intelligence AEGI
Published: 2023-06-01
Subjects: Engineering, Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Artificial Energy General Intelligence (AEGI) is a natural progression of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) that caters to the energy industry. It is crucial to optimize the entire value chain involved in generating, transporting, and storing energy for the betterment of humanity, the environment, industry, and the scientific community. Most research efforts focus on a specific area of the [...]
Mind the gap: will slow progress on CO2 storage undermine net zero by 2050?
Published: 2023-05-19
Subjects: Engineering
A global path to net zero requires the permanent storage of carbon dioxide to reduce and remove atmospheric greenhouse gas emissions. We present an analysis of the gap between the CO2 storage required to meet net zero targets and the slow maturation of regional storage resources. We estimate that European storage rates need to increase 30-to-100x by 2030 to meet net zero by 2050. China and North [...]
Dynamics of episodic supershear in the 2023 M7.8 Kahramanmaraş/Pazarcik Earthquake, revealed by near-field records and computational modeling
Published: 2023-05-03
Subjects: Engineering, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The 2023 M7.8 Kahramanmaraş/Pazarcik earthquake was larger and more destructive than what had been expected. Here we analyzed near-field seismic records and developed a dynamic rupture model that reconciles different currently conflicting inversion results and reveals spatially non-uniform propagation speeds in this earthquake, with predominantly supershear speeds observed along the Narli fault [...]
How particle shape affects granular segregation in industrial and geophysical flows
Published: 2023-04-28
Subjects: Engineering, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Industrial and environmental granular flows commonly exhibit a phenomenon known as ``granular segregation," in which grains separate according to physical characteristics (size, shape, density), interfering with industrial applications (cement mixing, medicine and food production) and fundamentally altering the behavior of geophysical flows (landslides, debris flows, pyroclastic flows, [...]
Contextual learning improves forest above-ground biomass estimates from UAV-LiDAR: use of tree trait associations.
Published: 2023-04-19
Subjects: Engineering, Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Forest structure analysis and biomass prediction systems are key tools for advancing forest trait-based ecology and ecosystem stewardship. The combination of near-field remote sensing techniques---e.g. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) and Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) systems---with machine learning (ML) methods enhances the accuracy of tree trait prediction and above ground-biomass~(AGB) [...]
Mapping Soil Erodibility over India
Published: 2023-04-13
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Engineering
Soil erosion is a major environmental problem worldwide, and almost half of India’s total geographical area is susceptible to it. The Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) has been widely used globally to estimate soil erosion, and Soil erodibility factor, denoted by K-factor, is an essential component of RUSLE. Although previous studies have assessed soil erodibility in India, they have [...]
EfficientRainNet: Smaller Neural Networks Based on EfficientNetV2 for Rainfall Nowcasting
Published: 2023-04-05
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Engineering
Rainfall nowcasting provides short-term, high-resolution information on the location, intensity, and timing of rainfall, which is crucial for weather forecasting, flood warning, and emergency response. This can help people and organizations make informed decisions to mitigate the impact of severe weather events and reduce the risk of damage and loss of life. There are many attempts at tackling [...]
The Economic Burden of Air Pollution’s Health Impact. Evaluating Single Businesses Value Chains on a Global Scale
Published: 2023-03-31
Subjects: Engineering
Air pollution is a major cause of morbidity and mortality. Since air pollution tends to concentrate around the emission point, its precise geographical assessment is particularly important. With the present work, we propose a new method to assess the impacts of any company’s emissions on human health and the economy. We address the challenge of discovering, measuring, and managing the risks [...]
Spatial Downscaling of Streamflow Data with Attention Based Spatio-Temporal Graph Convolutional Networks
Published: 2023-03-31
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Computer Engineering, Engineering
Accurate streamflow data is vital for various climate modeling applications, including flood forecasting. However, many streams lack sufficient monitoring due to the high operational costs involved. To address this issue and promote enhanced disaster preparedness, management, and response, our study introduces a neural network-based method for estimating historical hourly streamflow in two [...]
The Application of CNN-Based Image Segmentation for Tracking Coastal Erosion and Post-Storm Recovery
Published: 2023-03-31
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Geomorphology
Coastal erosion due to extreme events can cause significant damage to coastal communities and deplete beaches. Post-storm beach recovery is a crucial natural process that rebuilds coastal morphology and reintroduces eroded sediment to the subaerial beach. However, monitoring the beach recovery, which occurs at various spatiotemporal scales, presents a significant challenge. This is due to, [...]
Stochastic properties of coastal flooding events -- Part 2: Probabilistic analysis
Published: 2023-03-23
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Earth Sciences, Engineering
Low-intensity but high-frequency coastal flooding, also known as nuisance flooding, can negatively affect low-lying coastal communities with potentially large socioeconomic effects. Partially driven by wave runup, this type of flooding is difficult to predict due to the complexity of the processes involved. Here, we present the results of a probabilistic analysis of flooding events measured on an [...]