Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Other Civil and Environmental Engineering
A Critical Review of Nature-Based Solutions for Enhancing Climate Resilience and Water Security in Mountain Ecosystems
Published: 2025-09-24
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Engineering, Hydraulic Engineering, Other Civil and Environmental Engineering
Mountain ecosystems, functioning as indispensable "water towers," face escalating threats from climate change, land degradation, and water insecurity, jeopardizing the livelihoods of downstream populations. This paper presents a comprehensive critical review of integrated strategies designed to enhance the resilience of these vital socio-ecological systems. It synthesizes the theoretical [...]
Detection of coastal flooding with TinyCamML: a low-cost, privacy-preserving cellular-connected camera with onboard ML
Published: 2025-09-19
Subjects: Environmental Monitoring, Other Civil and Environmental Engineering, Other Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Systems and Communications
Chronic flooding is an issue for low-lying coastal communities globally, and it is expected to worsen with rising sea levels. In contrast to floods driven by extreme storms, predicting when and where these floods occur can be difficult as they can be hyper-local and short-lived, depending on the flood drivers (e.g., tides, rain). These factors make it difficult to measure the full spatial and [...]
Spatiotemporal Urban Flood Expansion and Propagation by Percentage of Node in Flood Assessment (PNFA)
Published: 2025-09-18
Subjects: Environmental Engineering, Hydraulic Engineering, Other Civil and Environmental Engineering
Urban pluvial flooding is a complex process shaped by rainfall intensity, drainage system capacity, and urban infrastructure. While previous studies have mapped flood extents, the spatiotemporal evolution of drainage saturation and overflow propagation remain insufficiently explored. This study introduces the Percentage of Node in Flood Assessment (PNFA), integrating the Flood Expansion Rate [...]
DOZER: a toy model of coastal hazard mitigation during a storm
Published: 2025-09-18
Subjects: Dynamical Systems, Geomorphology, Nature and Society Relations, Other Civil and Environmental Engineering, Other Environmental Sciences, Physical and Environmental Geography, Science and Mathematics Education, Sustainability
Motivated by observations of emergency road-maintenance crews in coastal settings, DOZER is a video game in which the player uses a bulldozer to clear sand from a beachfront road during a storm. DOZER is also a toy model in a formal sense: a heuristic tool for insight into the dynamics of real-time intervention in the physical processes of a natural hazard. Here, I introduce DOZER as both a game [...]
A comprehensive calibration framework for the Northwest River Forecast Center
Published: 2025-04-19
Subjects: Civil Engineering, Hydrology, Other Civil and Environmental Engineering
In this paper we present a comprehensive framework developed by the Northwest River Forecast Center (NWRFC) for calibration of arbitrary hydrologic basins. The framework includes hydrology, snow, routing, channel loss, and consumptive use models. Data inputs include a wide range of open access datasets for land use, land cover, and meteorology. The framework can handle basins with diverse [...]
Cyclone Evacuation Route Identification Using ArcGIS, and recommended new cyclone shelter in Koyra Upazila, Khulna, Bangladesh.
Published: 2024-11-04
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Engineering, Other Civil and Environmental Engineering
Evacuation is a critical preparedness measure to safeguard people from the severe impacts of cyclones. Selecting the right evacuation route is vital for an effective evacuation during cyclones. In our study, we utilized Geographic Information System to plan evacuation routes for Koyra upazila in Khulna, Bangladesh, and to establish an evacuation route using shortest distance analysis. The aim is [...]
Uncertainty-aware sample mass determination for particle size analyses of gravel-dominated soil
Published: 2024-08-24
Subjects: Applied Statistics, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Civil Engineering, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Environmental Monitoring, Geology, Geomorphology, Geotechnical Engineering, Hydraulic Engineering, Hydrology, Other Civil and Environmental Engineering, Other Earth Sciences, Probability, Sedimentology, Soil Science, Statistical Models, Statistics and Probability, Stratigraphy
Determining particle size distributions (PSD) of soils is a basic first step in many geotechnical analyses and guidance is given in different national standards. For ambiguous reasons, the recommended minimum sample mass (m_min) for the PSD-analyses of soils with a main component of gravel or greater is based on equations including the soil's maximum grain diameter (D_max). We claim that the [...]
Groundwaterscapes: A global classification and mapping of groundwater’s large-scale socioeconomic, ecological, and Earth system functions
Published: 2023-09-20
Subjects: Hydrology, Other Civil and Environmental Engineering, Physical and Environmental Geography, Spatial Science, Sustainability, Water Resource Management
Groundwater is a dynamic component of the global water cycle with important social, economic, ecological, and Earth system functions. We present a new global classification and mapping of groundwater systems, which we call groundwaterscapes, that represent predominant configurations of large-scale groundwater system functions. We identify 18 groundwaterscapes, which offer a new lens to [...]
FIND: A Synthetic weather generator to control drought Frequency, Intensity, and Duration
Published: 2023-08-04
Subjects: Engineering, Other Civil and Environmental Engineering
Water systems worldwide are experiencing climate change-induced shifts in drought properties like frequency, intensity, and duration, affecting water security and reliability. To develop and test effective drought preparedness plans, researchers often use synthetic weather generators to create hydrological scenarios that explore drought variability beyond historical records. Existing weather [...]
Single-blind test of nine methane-sensing satellite systems from three continents
Published: 2023-06-28
Subjects: Atmospheric Sciences, Other Civil and Environmental Engineering
Satellite-based remote sensing enables detection and mitigation of large point sources of climate-warming methane. These satellites will have the greatest impact if stakeholders have a clear-eyed assessment of their capabilities. We performed a single-blind test of nine methane-sensing satellites from three continents and five countries, including both commercial and government satellites. Over [...]
Data, knowledge and modeling challenges for science-informed management of river deltas
Published: 2023-03-16
Subjects: Environmental Engineering, Environmental Sciences, Natural Resources and Conservation, Natural Resources Management and Policy, Other Civil and Environmental Engineering, Other Environmental Sciences, Sustainability, Water Resource Management
450 million people live on river deltas and thus on land that is precariously low above the sea level and sinking because of human activities and natural processes. Although global debates around coastal risk typically focus on sea level rise, it is sinking lands and rising seas that together endanger lives and livelihoods in river deltas. However, the ability to quantify and address those risks [...]
Time Series Analysis of terrain and climatic parameters data retrieved from Terraclimate dataset: A case study in Ranchi and Khunti district, Jharkhand, India
Published: 2023-03-13
Subjects: Civil Engineering, Engineering, Other Civil and Environmental Engineering
Climatic and Terrain parameters which include the soil moisture, precipitation, evapotranspiration, maximum and minimum temperature are the most crucial factors which drives the future of earth. Soil Moisture regulates the movement of water and heat energy between the land surface and the atmosphere through evaporationn and plant transpiration. Precipitation controls the entire operation of the [...]
Analysis of nationwide groundwater monitoring networks using lumped-parameter models
Published: 2022-12-30
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Other Civil and Environmental Engineering
Many countries maintain nationwide groundwater networks to monitor the status of their groundwater resources. For effective groundwater resource management, it is fundamental to understand the groundwater dynamics measured in the individual monitoring wells. Nationwide monitoring networks typically cover multiple aquifer systems with different degrees of environmental complexity. The analysis of [...]
Interactive Hydrological Modelling and Simulation on Client-Side Web Systems: An Educational Case Study
Published: 2022-04-14
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Earth Sciences, Education, Engineering, Engineering Education, Environmental Education, Environmental Engineering, Hydraulic Engineering, Hydrology, Numerical Analysis and Scientific Computing, Other Civil and Environmental Engineering, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Science and Mathematics Education, Water Resource Management
Computational hydrological models and simulations are fundamental pieces of the workflow of contemporary hydroscience research, education, and professional engineering activities. In support of hydrological modelling efforts, web-enabled tools for data processing, storage, computation, and visualization have proliferated. Most of these efforts rely on server resources for computation and data [...]
A machine learning approach to water quality forecasts and sensor network expansion: Case study in the Wabash River Basin, USA
Published: 2022-04-06
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Engineering, Environmental Sciences, Other Civil and Environmental Engineering, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Water Resource Management
Midwestern cities require forecasts of surface nitrate loads to bring additional treatment processes online or activate alternative water supplies. Concurrently, networks of nitrate monitoring stations are being deployed in river basins, co-locating water quality observations with established stream gauges. However, tools to evaluate the future value of expanded networks to improve water quality [...]