Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Civil Engineering
Who has rådighet? An agency-centred perspective on water conservation
Published: 2026-06-15
Subjects: Civil Engineering, Water Resource Management
Water conservation is usually catalogued by technology, efficient fixtures, leak control, reuse, metering, process integration. That framing hides a stubborn fact: realised savings consistently fall short of engineering potential and often fade with time. Rebound, poor maintenance and behavioural decay explain part of the gap, but not all. We argue that a large share is an agency mismatch: the [...]
High-resolution monthly sectoral water demands for the U.S. over 1980-2100
Published: 2026-06-11
Subjects: Civil Engineering, Hydrology, Water Resource Management
U.S. water demand varies sharply by sector and region as land use, population, weather patterns, and economic activity co-evolve. High-resolution water demand data are required to capture these dynamics and to support integrated energy-water-land modeling and local-to-regional water scarcity assessments. We present a gridded (1/8$^{\circ}$), monthly, multi-sector water demand dataset for the [...]
A Bayesian ground-motion model for volcano-tectonic earthquakes in southwest Iceland
Published: 2026-06-04
Subjects: Civil Engineering, Geotechnical Engineering, Tectonics and Structure
Volcano-tectonic earthquakes in Iceland and other volcanic regions produce ground motions that differ systematically from those of ordinary shallow crustal tectonic earthquakes. The recent unrest on the Reykjanes Peninsula has provided an exceptional opportunity to quantify these differences, with multiple intense swarms preceding and accompanying eruptive episodes. Building on Hernández-Aguirre [...]
A kinematic rupture generator for ground-motion simulations: Validation and scenarios in South Iceland
Published: 2026-06-04
Subjects: Civil Engineering, Tectonics and Structure
Physics-based ground-motion simulation can reduce epistemic uncertainty in regions with sparse strong-motion data, but hazard applications require rupture ensembles that are physically plausible, statistically controlled, and computationally efficient. We present a modular kinematic rupture generator for physics-based simulations (PBS) in which final slip, rupture speed ratio (VR/VS), and peak [...]
When rotation-invariant spectra enter structural design: interpreting RotD100 and related measures
Published: 2026-05-08
Subjects: Civil Engineering, Structural Engineering
In many design procedures, a scalar response spectrum like RotD50 or RotD100 is interpreted as a component spectrum applied independently along two orthogonal structural directions. When a maximum-direction measure such as RotD100 is used in this way, an implicit assumption is introduced: both structural axes experience the worst possible orientation of ground motion. This has contributed to the [...]
Towards Prospective Disaster Risk Management: Mapping Multi-hazard Urban Risk Dynamics Driven by Evolving Exposure and Vulnerability via Earth Observation
Published: 2026-05-01
Subjects: Categorical Data Analysis, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Civil Engineering, Engineering, Environmental Monitoring, Geographic Information Sciences, Human Geography, Other Computer Sciences, Physical and Environmental Geography, Remote Sensing, Risk Analysis, Spatial Science, Structural Engineering
As local governments increasingly adopt geospatial Climate and Disaster Risk Assessment (CDRA) to inform prospective public policy, the reliability of existing static risk intelligence is challenged by the continuous evolution of building exposure, population distribution, and physical vulnerability. Recent multi-temporal datasets of the built environment, derived from Earth Observation, have [...]
Quantifying the Regional Dynamics and Redistribution of Physical Vulnerability in Least Developed Countries
Published: 2026-04-09
Subjects: Categorical Data Analysis, Civil Engineering, Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment, Environmental Monitoring, Geographic Information Sciences, Other Computer Sciences, Physical and Environmental Geography, Remote Sensing, Spatial Science, Structural Engineering
In the margins of the accelerating development of digital technology worldwide are the Least Developed Countries (LDCs), which continually face an exacerbated risk crisis at the intersection of rapid rural-urban growth, underlying physical vulnerability, and intensifying climate hazards. Despite decades of international development commitments, the rate of built-up expansion across LDCs has [...]
Agentic Modelling Pipeline: Reproducible Rapid Stormwater Modelling Management System with OpenClaw
Published: 2026-03-18
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Civil Engineering, Computational Engineering, Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Hydraulic Engineering
Configuring urban hydrological models, such as SWMM, for operational or real-time modelling remains onerous for many models. We propose an Agentic SWMM workflow, which embeds ‘Skills’ and model context protocols to automate model configuration, execution, and extract and plot quantities of interest. To ensure that the entire Agentic SWMM workflow is auditable and reproducible, each run will [...]
Directional Peak Factors of Strong-Motion Response Spectra: A Stochastic Field Representation on the Circle
Published: 2026-02-20
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Civil Engineering, Engineering, Structural Engineering
Directional variability in horizontal earthquake ground motions is often addressed using orientation-independent intensity measures obtained by rotating the two horizontal components and summarizing the resulting response spectra. In contrast, the stochastic structure of directional peak factors, which connect second-order response measures to extreme response levels, has received limited [...]
Rotation-Invariant Ground-Motion as Directional Selection Operators: A Closed-Form Framework for RotD Response Spectra
Published: 2026-02-20
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Civil Engineering, Structural Engineering
Horizontal earthquake ground motion is inherently two-dimensional, yet most engineering applications rely on scalar intensity measures. Rotation-invariant response spectra such as RotD50, MaxRotD50, and RotD100 are widely used to remove dependence on sensor orientation. They are often treated as direction-free scalars, which they are not. In this study, directional pseudo-spectral acceleration is [...]
Spontaneous liquefaction in saturated granular deposits: State controlled boundary and surface reconfiguration
Published: 2026-01-27
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Civil Engineering, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Engineering Science and Materials, Environmental Engineering, Environmental Sciences, Geotechnical Engineering, Hydraulic Engineering, Mechanics of Materials, Mining Engineering, Other Civil and Environmental Engineering, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Risk Analysis
In the case of water-saturated, granular deposits that are at risk of liquefaction, engineers need reliable information about the spatial extent of soil deformation in the event of liquefaction. It is not so important for them to know the exact location of the first failure. However, existing anal-yses primarily deal with the triggering of liquefaction and offer only limited information on how [...]
Use of Low Impact Development Systems to Enhance Recharge using Stormwater in a Heavily Groundwater-Depleted Region of the Gulf Coast Aquifer
Published: 2026-01-17
Subjects: Civil Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Hydrology, Sustainability, Water Resource Management
Water resources in the Houston Metropolitan Area, otherwise known as Greater Houston, have been under enormous stress for decades due to an increase in population and uncertain climate conditions. Rapid urbanization has also increased impervious cover, leading to excess stormwater runoff. Implementing managed aquifer recharge (MAR) through the use of low impact development (LID) strategies can [...]
Liquefaction as an energetic instability of saturated granular systems – Density control and static enthalpy equilibrium
Published: 2025-12-28
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Civil Engineering, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Geophysics and Seismology, Geotechnical Engineering, Hydraulic Engineering, Hydrology, Materials Science and Engineering, Mining Engineering, Other Materials Science and Engineering, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Sedimentology
Liquefaction of saturated granular materials is commonly interpreted within stress-based frameworks that rely on the existence of an intact grain skeleton. At the onset of liquefaction, however, the contact network collapses and effective stress ceases to be a meaningful state variable. This work reformulates liquefaction as an enthalpy-driven instability of the coupled grain–water system and [...]
Comprehensive Assessment of Flood Risk and Community Impact of Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations in Iowa
Published: 2025-12-27
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, [...]
Community-Oriented Data Integration and Communication Framework for Streamflow Forecast Models and Flood Inundation Map Products
Published: 2025-12-24
Subjects: Civil Engineering, Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Hydraulic Engineering, Water Resource Management
Access to critical flood risk information is often limited by expert-driven workflows that require specialized software, creating a barrier to stakeholder engagement and effective science communication. This study presents a generalized web-based framework that integrates federal datasets to support real-time, scenario-based flood forecasting and mapping across the continental United States. By [...]