Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Civil and Environmental Engineering
Geo-WC: Custom Web Components for Earth Science Organizations and Agencies
Published: 2024-04-16
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Civil Engineering, Computer Engineering, Engineering Education, Hydraulic Engineering
The development of web technologies and their integration into various fields has allowed a new era in data-driven decision-making and public information accessibility, especially through their adoption of monitoring and quantification environmental data resources provided by governmental institutions. While the use of web technologies has given way to the creation of democratized applications, [...]
Field survey of seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) usage for overcoming water scarcity on small islands in Indonesia
Published: 2024-04-11
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering
The dry season impacts clean water availability in Indonesia, particularly on small islands; however, there are few comprehensive studies of water availability on small islands. The aim of this study was to assess clean water sources and the obstacles to accessing clean water on small islands. We used a combination of structured questionnaires and interviews along with direct observations on two [...]
Detection of sea ice floe flooding in the Southern Ocean using Sentinel-1 SAR imagery.
Published: 2024-04-03
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering
During the summer months in the Antarctic, perennial and seasonal sea ice floes flood. Flooding is caused by snow at the surface weighing down the ice, causing a negative freeboard and flooding the basal snow layer with seawater. This creates a brine-slush layer. Alternatively, or simultaneously, meltwater can percolate through the snow and flood the surface of the ice floe. The appearance of [...]
A consistent terminology to communicate ground-related uncertainty
Published: 2024-03-26
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Risk Analysis, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Statistics and Probability
Engineering geology is highly affected by uncertainty related to the geology, geotechnical parameters, models used and methods. While the technical aspects of ground-related uncertainty are increasingly investigated, the terminology to communicate uncertainty (i.e. phrases such as “it is very likely that”) has not yet been unified and experts use it however they see fit. The problem arises that [...]
Geospatial Modeling and Mapping of Soil Erosion in India
Published: 2024-03-12
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Engineering
Soil erosion generally removes the topmost fertile layer of soil, affecting agricultural productivity on a larger scale. As a significant portion of the Indian economy depends on agricultural productivity, granular assessment of the impact of soil erosion becomes critical. However, a national-scale assessment of soil erosion and an impact classification system currently doesn’t exist over India. [...]
Fiber-based super-bridging agents improve flotation and settling during water treatment
Published: 2024-03-07
Subjects: Chemical Engineering, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Engineering
Increasing demand for water poses a major challenge to the water treatment industry. To maintain their floc removal efficiency, water treatment plants are expected to require larger separation units and use more chemicals, namely, coagulants and flocculants. Conventional physicochemical treatments produce flocs that are limited in size, which limits floc removal efficiency via gravitation-based [...]
Exponentially cascaded cross-sectional volume estimates from elevation data
Published: 2024-02-13
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Engineering
The relationship between discharges and flow heights is a critical component of hydraulic modelling, often carried out involving data on the elevation profiles of the river bed. However, obtaining and using cross-sectional profile data can be resource intensive. Methods for profile estimation from rasterized elevation and bathymetry can help overcome this. In this paper, an efficient algorithm [...]
Mechanisms and seismological signatures of rupture complexity induced by fault damage zones in fully-dynamic earthquake cycle models
Published: 2024-02-10
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Damage zones are common around faults, but their effects on earthquake mechanics are still incompletely understood. Here, we investigate how damage affects rupture patterns, source time functions and ground motions in 2D fully-dynamic cycle models. We find that back-propagating rupture fronts emerge in large faults and can be triggered by residual stresses left by previous ruptures or by [...]
Natural occurrence of asbestos in serpentinite quarries from Southern Spain.
Published: 2024-01-29
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Public Health
The nevado-filábride complex (NFC) (southern Spain) is well known for its widespread mining and quarrying activities. Serpentinite and metabasite rocks are extracted, processed and traded as building and ornamental stones. Due to the possible presence of natural occurrence of asbestos (NOA) in these rocks, the aim of this paper is to conduct an in-depth characterisation of fibrous minerals. To [...]
The numerical evaluation of the effect of Geotextile sample size on the behavior of reinforced cohesive soil
Published: 2024-01-20
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Civil Engineering, Engineering, Geotechnical Engineering
The effect of sample size is a phenomenon that involves the dependence of resistance on the size of the tested sample, where smaller samples exhibit higher resistance compared to larger ones. Due to the importance and sensitivity of determining the resistances of laboratory samples for use in design, codes, and standards, efforts are made to minimize the effects of sample size. This issue holds [...]
A Novel Methodology for Enhancing Flood Risk Communication: The Nines of Safety
Published: 2024-01-12
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Environmental Studies, Risk Analysis
Flood risk communication helps people plan for and recover from disasters, especially in flood-prone areas. The Nines of Safety (NoS) concept described in this study provides a new perspective for flood risk communication and assessment. The NoS method can help analyze flood risk comprehensively and support decision-makers and the public understand their vulnerability under various conditions. [...]
A Hybrid Pore-Network-Continuum Modeling Framework for Flow and Transport in 3D Digital Images of Porous Media
Published: 2023-12-18
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Oil, Gas, and Energy
Understanding flow and transport in multiscale porous media is challenging due to the presence of a wide range of pore sizes. Recent imaging advances offer high-resolution characterization of the multiscale pore structures. However, simulating flow and transport in 3D digital images requires models to represent both the resolved and sub-resolution pore structures. Here, we develop a hybrid [...]
On the economic feasibility of tidal range power plants
Published: 2023-12-17
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Computational Engineering, Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Hydraulic Engineering
The wave potential energy associated with tides presents a promising sustainable energy resource. Uncertainties on the economic case of tidal range power plants are a known bottleneck hindering the development of the industry. Significant costs depend on each design's general arrangement, which includes both mechanical components and the associated civil works. Research on tidal range structures [...]
Indoor and Ambient Influences on PM2.5 Exposure and Well-being for a Rail Impacted Community and Implications for Personal Protections
Published: 2023-11-30
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Environmental Public Health
Background. Higher air pollution emissions can be observed near rail networks, local and highway automobile corridors, and shipyards. Communities near such sources are often disproportionately exposed to emissions from these stationary and mobile sources. One such community is West San Bernardino in California, where households are feet away from the Burlington Northern Santa Fe intermodal [...]
Graphics Processing Unit Assisted Computation for a Gas-Phase Chemical Solver in a Regulatory Chemical Transport Model
Published: 2023-11-28
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Computational Engineering
The Earth’s atmosphere is extremely complex due to the presence of several dynamic processes, such as dispersion, diffusion, deposition, and chemical reactions. There is a pressing need to improve the predictability of air quality models by integrating more of these scientific processes with an increasing number of chemical species into the mechanisms. These enhancements degrade the computational [...]