Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Civil and Environmental Engineering
Environmental pathogen hazards reveal need for improved sanitation infrastructure in Alabama's Black Belt
Published: 2025-05-29
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: 2025-05-08
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: 2025-04-30
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: 2025-04-25
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: 2025-04-25
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: 2025-04-10
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 [...]
Understanding Flood Risk in Public Transit Systems: Insights from Accessibility and Vulnerability Analysis in Iowa
Published: 2025-03-14
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Civil Engineering, Engineering, Geographic Information Sciences, Geography, Operations Research, Systems Engineering and Industrial Engineering, Risk Analysis, Spatial Science, Transportation Engineering
Flooding is a major challenge for urban transportation systems, hindering access to essential services and jobs, especially for vulnerable populations. This study examines the impact of large flood extents on public transportation in Johnson and Linn counties, Iowa, United States, focusing on flood-prone bus routes, reduced service frequency, and access to job locations. Using Geographic [...]
A composite index-based insurance instrument for managing the financial risk of variable hydrometeorology for electric utilities
Published: 2025-02-27
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Engineering
Variable hydrometeorological conditions can impact electric utilities' financial stability. Extreme temperatures often increase electricity demand, raising utility costs, while drought reduces hydropower generation and often reduces revenues, with financial impacts potentially exacerbated by spikes in fuel prices, particularly natural gas. In this study, a model of the U.S. West Coast power [...]
Philadelphia and the Schuylkill under extreme hydrometeorological events
Published: 2025-02-06
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Climate, Environmental Monitoring, Hydrology
The Schuylkill River, a lifeline for Philadelphia, faces intensifying stress from urbanization and increasingly severe extreme hydrometeorological events (EHMEs) driven by climate change. Understanding how urban estuarine rivers respond to EHMEs remains challenging due to limited high-resolution data and the complexness of human-modified landscapes. Here, we combine long-term hydrological [...]
A Comprehensive Bibliometric Analysis of Large Language Models in Hydrology and Environmental Sciences
Published: 2025-02-05
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Engineering, Environmental Engineering
The application of large language models (LLMs) in hydrology and environmental sciences is expanding rapidly, but a comprehensive understanding of their potential, best practices and application areas are studied extensively. This study conducts a bibliometric analysis of recent scientific literature to evaluate publication trends, citation impact, and the key contributors in LLM-related research [...]
Comprehensive Assessment of Flood Risk and Community Impact of Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations in Iowa
Published: 2025-02-05
Subjects: Agriculture, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Civil Engineering, Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Hydraulic Engineering, Life Sciences
Flooding presents a significant risk to Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs), especially in regions increasingly affected by extreme weather events. This study uses advanced geospatial analysis techniques to assess the environmental and economic vulnerabilities of 12,703 CAFOs across Iowa, United States. We focused on the exposure of CAFOS to 100-year and 500-year floodplains, [...]
Computer vision-based measurement of stormwater discharge: proof-of-concept
Published: 2025-01-29
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering
Stormwater systems, as infrastructure draining urban water runoff into water bodies, are pivotal in preserving municipal functionality while they play an important hydrological and environmental role. As such, the ability to reliably monitor stormwater outflow in many locations could provide valuable information for water managers. However, in most cases stormwater outlets have not been designed [...]