Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Civil and Environmental Engineering
HydroBlox: AI-Assisted Visual Programming Framework for Enhanced Scientific Reproducibility in Hydrology
Published: 2025-06-21
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Computational Engineering, Education, Environmental Engineering, Hydraulic Engineering, Science and Mathematics Education
Scientific workflow reproducibility for hydrological and environmental analyses remains a challenge due to the heterogeneity of data sources, analysis protocols, and evolving visualization needs. This study introduces HydroBlox, a client-side browser-based framework that supports the creation, execution, and export of hydrological workflows using a visual programming interface. The platform [...]
Quantifying lead (Pb) leaching from galvanized handpump spouts, leaded brass taps, and stainless-steel alternatives using the NSF 61 test protocol: Implications for safe rural water supply
Published: 2025-06-19
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering
Lead (Pb) is a neurotoxin with no known safe level of exposure. Widespread lead contamination has been found in rural groundwater-supplied drinking water systems in low- and middle-income countries, potentially from corrosion of lead-containing materials such as galvanized steel and brass. National Sanitation Foundation (NSF) 61 is an international standard for certifying the safety of water [...]
Lead (Pb) contamination in drinking water in low- and middle-income countries: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Published: 2025-06-19
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering
Lead (Pb) in drinking water causes organ damage, cardiovascular disease, cancers, and lifelong neurological and developmental impairment, disproportionately harming infants and developing fetuses. However, evidence on lead in drinking water in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) is limited and lacks robust synthesis, impeding action. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of [...]
Mitigating Methane in Jordan: National Inventory, Emission Projections, and Policy Pathways
Published: 2025-06-12
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering
BACKGROUND Jordan lacks a comprehensive national methane inventory integrating multi-sectoral sources, projections, and policy pathways. Despite methane’s outsized climate impact (28× CO2e over 100 years) and contribution to health-harming ozone, existing local studies focus narrowly on waste sector point sources, neglecting agriculture (19% of emissions) and energy (10%). This gap impedes [...]
Greywater Quantities and Qualities in Low-Income Kumasi, Ghana: Implications for Sustainable Water Management.
Published: 2025-06-12
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering
Household greywater, comprising wastewater from laundry, kitchen, and bathroom activities, poses significant environmental and public health challenges in peri-urban communities with limited sanitation infrastructure. This study quantified and characterized greywater from 10 households in Kotei, a peri-urban community in Kumasi, Ghana, over a 10-week period in 2023. Using a cross-sectional [...]
Assessing the Efficacy and Climate Resilience of Traditional Water Harvesting Systems in Jodhpur District, Rajasthan: A Geospatial and Hydrological Modeling Approach
Published: 2025-06-09
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Environmental Sciences, Life Sciences
Traditional Water Harvesting Systems (TWHS) are critical for water security in arid regions like Jodhpur district, Rajasthan, India, yet their contemporary efficacy and climate resilience remain inadequately quantified. This study comprehensively assesses selected TWHS, primarily nadis and johads, by integrating geospatial analysis for inventory and characterization, hydrological modeling (SCS-CN [...]
Environmental pathogen hazards reveal need for improved sanitation infrastructure in Alabama's Black Belt
Published: 2025-05-30
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering
Many rural communities in Alabama’s Black Belt region lack adequate sanitation resulting in wastewater discharges that may pose risks to residents. To understand the scope of the problem in one community, we conducted three cross-sectional surveys in a small town with limited sanitation in 2023. We measured a range of enteric pathogens in environmental samples by multi-parallel qPCR as well as [...]
Integrated Geographic Information System and Remote Sensing approach to Groundwater Potential modelling in Trans Mara West and Narok West, Narok County, Kenya
Published: 2025-05-24
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering
Narok County is one of the arid and semi-arid counties in Kenya characterized by variable rainfall patterns and limited surface water resource. Therefore, groundwater is a critical source of water for the sustenance of lives and livelihoods in Narok. This study aimed to model groundwater potential in Narok West and Trans Mara West sub-counties using an integrated approach that combined Geographic [...]
Biorestorer: Synthetic Succession for Soil Restoration in Arid and Degraded Regions
Published: 2025-05-21
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Desert Ecology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Life Sciences
Soil degradation in arid and semi-arid regions poses a critical threat to global ecological stability and food security. This paper introduces Biorestorer, a systems-based framework for initiating synthetic succession and synthetic pedogenesis in highly degraded or sterile substrates where natural recovery is infeasible. The Biorestorer concept integrates dual-temperature biochar, [...]
WASHed in stereotypes: A rigorous review of water-gender narratives in LMICs
Published: 2025-05-09
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering
Over the past few decades, water programs have positioned women as primary beneficiaries, aiming to empower them through improved access and participation. In doing so, several gendered narratives have emerged, widely circulated but seldom interrogated, that continue to shape water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) policy and practice. Despite a growing body of literature on WASH and gender, there [...]
Reliability of Contrast-Based Automated Fracture Detection from Decimeter Resolution Aerial Imagery
Published: 2025-05-01
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Civil Engineering, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Geology, Geotechnical Engineering, Other Engineering, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Tectonics and Structure
Aerial imagery that captures outcrop exposures of rocks enables the characterization of structural discontinuities such as faults and fractures across large and difficult-to-access areas. These datasets provide an opportunity to analyze the characteristics of fault and fracture networks as analogues for the subsurface. The application of automated interpretation methods to imagery has the [...]
Streamflow Hysteresis Analysis through a Deep Dive Budget of the St Venant Momentum Terms
Published: 2025-04-26
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Engineering
Hysteretic conditions entail non-unique time-independent relationships in flow variables and are prevalent in the unsteady flow regime of most rivers worldwide. Estimation errors associated with the inability of current monitoring techniques to resolve hysteresis effects could have profound implications when the recorded data is used for water resources management and flood forecasting. A deep [...]
Back to Basics: On the Proper Determination of Free-Surface Slope (FSS) in Gradually Varied Open Channel Flows
Published: 2025-04-26
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Engineering
This study is a fundamental evaluation of the fluvial wave propagation in river reaches affected by hysteresis, one of the most complex open-channel topics, materialized in loops and lags among hydraulic variables. Hysteresis processes are still understudied as measurements in natural streams for the whole wave propagation duration are hardly available, while the data from existing gaging sites [...]
Comprehensive Flood Impact Assessment for Iowa Bridge Infrastructure Using Integrated AHP and Fuzzy AHP Analysis
Published: 2025-04-11
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering
Flooding poses a significant threat to transportation infrastructure like bridges and culverts in regions like Iowa, where infrastructure deficiencies, unpredictable climate patterns, and geographic factors all contribute to vulnerability. This study evaluates the susceptibility of over 24,000 bridges in Iowa to flood-induced damage by considering both the likelihood of flooding and its potential [...]
Nuclear Winter Could Sever Urban Water Access Across the Northern Hemisphere
Published: 2025-04-03
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Earth Sciences, Risk Analysis, Water Resource Management
The continuous functioning of the underground water supply networks is essential for many aspects of modern civilization. Therefore, it is essential to keep such critical infrastructure safe from disasters. However, existing risk assessment studies often assume relatively stable climate conditions. Abrupt sunlight reduction scenarios, such as those caused by a nuclear war, a large volcanic [...]