Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Civil Engineering
Modelling an energetic tidal strait: investigating implications of common numerical configuration choices
Published: 2020-07-16
Subjects: Applied Mathematics, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Civil Engineering, Engineering, Numerical Analysis and Computation, Oceanography, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Characterising tidal hydrodynamics in the vicinity of submerged features can be demanding given the hostility of the marine environment. Logistical challenges in the measurement of such flows has promoted research on wake studies through physical and numerical modelling. In this study, site measurements and modelled data are combined to provide an insight into the regional hydrodynamics within a [...]
An Ethical Decision-Making Framework with Serious Gaming: Smart Water Case Study on Flooding
Published: 2020-06-22
Subjects: Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Civil Engineering, Computer Sciences, Databases and Information Systems, Engineering, Engineering Education, Environmental Engineering, Hydraulic Engineering, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Theory and Algorithms
Sensors and control technologies are being deployed extensively in both urban water networks and rural river systems, leading to unprecedented ability to sense and control our water environment. Because these sensor networks and control systems allow for higher resolution monitoring and decision making in both time and space, greater discretization of control will allow for an unprecedented [...]
Evaluating Controller Performance and Placement on System-level Urban Flooding Reduction and Water Quality Improvement
Published: 2020-05-06
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Civil Engineering, Engineering, Environmental Engineering
Increases in urbanization and climate change are forcing urban drainage engineers to more effectively leverage stormwater storage facilities to minimize flooding and water quality impacts. This process becomes increasingly challenging due to the operations of storage coordination across the system-level watershed. This study presents a system-level real-time control simulation for assessing [...]
A Data-driven Improved Fuzzy Logic Control Optimization-simulation Tool for Reducing Flooding Volume at Downstream Urban Drainage Systems
Published: 2020-04-29
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Civil Engineering, Engineering, Environmental Engineering
The uncertainty of climate change and urbanization imposed additional stress for urban drainage systems (UDSs) by intensifying rainfall frequency and magnifying peak runoff rate. UDSs are among the stormwater infrastructures that can be controlled in real-time for mitigating downstream urban flooding. In this paper, a data-driven improved real-time control optimization-simulation tool called [...]
A Performance Comparison of Unsupervised Machine Learning Algorithms for Clustering Water Depth Datasets at Urban Drainage Systems
Published: 2020-04-29
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Civil Engineering, Engineering, Environmental Engineering
As sensor measurements emerge in urban water systems, data-driven unsupervised machine learning algorithms have been drawn tremendous interest in infrastructure monitoring, flow prediction, and pollutant warning recently. However, most of them are applied in water distribution systems, and few studies consider using unsupervised clustering analysis to group the time-series hydraulic-hydrologic [...]
Distributed long-term hourly streamflow predictions using deep learning – A case study for State of Iowa
Published: 2020-03-21
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Civil Engineering, Engineering, Environmental Engineering
Accurate streamflow forecasting has always been a challenge. Although there were many novel approaches using deep learning models, accuracy of these models is often limited to a short lead time. This study proposes a new deep recurrent neural network approach, Neural Runoff Model (NRM), which has been applied on 125 USGS streamflow gages in the State of Iowa for predicting the next 120 hours. We [...]
Urban Near-surface Seismic Monitoring using Distributed Acoustic Sensing
Published: 2019-11-26
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Civil Engineering, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Geophysics and Seismology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Urban subsurface monitoring requires high temporal-spatial resolution, low maintenance cost, and minimal intrusion to nearby life. Distributed acoustic sensing (DAS), in contrast to conventional station-based sensing technology, has the potential to provide a passive seismic solution to urban monitoring requirements. Based on data recorded by the Stanford Fiber Optic Seismic Observatory, we [...]
SediNet: A configurable deep learning model for mixed qualitative and quantitative optical granulometry
Published: 2019-07-31
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Civil Engineering, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Geomorphology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
I describe a configurable machine-learning framework to estimate a suite of continuous and categorical sedimentological properties from photographic imagery of sediment, and to exemplify how machine learning can be a powerful and flexible tool for automated quantitative and qualitative measurements from remotely sensed imagery. The model is tested on a large dataset consisting of 400 images and [...]
Can barrier islands survive sea-level rise? Quantifying the relative role of tidal deltas and overwash deposition
Published: 2019-07-18
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Civil Engineering, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Geology, Geomorphology, Oceanography, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Sedimentology
Accepted open-access publication available at: https://doi.org/10.1029/2019GL085524 Barrier island response to sea-level rise depends on their ability to transgress and move sediment onto and behind the barrier, either through flood-tidal delta deposition, or via overwash. Our understanding of these processes over decadal or longer timescales, however, is limited. Here we [...]
Information-theoretic Portfolio Decision Model for Optimal Flood Management
Published: 2019-06-26
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Civil Engineering, Computational Engineering, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Environmental Health and Protection, Environmental Sciences, Geomorphology, Hydraulic Engineering, Hydrology, Life Sciences, Natural Resources and Conservation, Natural Resources Management and Policy, Operations Research, Systems Engineering and Industrial Engineering, Other Civil and Environmental Engineering, Other Engineering, Other Environmental Sciences, Other Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Probability, Risk Analysis, Statistics and Probability, Sustainability, Systems Engineering, Water Resource Management
The increasing impact of flooding urges more effective flood management strategies to guarantee sustainable ecosystem development. Recent catastrophes underline the importance of avoiding local flood management, but characterizing large scale basin wide approaches for systemic flood risk management. Here we introduce an information-theoretic Portfolio Decision Model (iPDM) for the optimization of [...]
Bayesian parameter estimation for space and time interacting earthquake rupture model using historical and physics-based simulated earthquake catalogs
Published: 2019-04-25
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Civil Engineering, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Geophysics and Seismology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Risk Analysis
This paper presents a robust parameter estimation technique for a probabilistic earthquake hazard model that captures time and space interactions between earthquake mainshocks. The approach addresses the existing limitations of parameter estimation techniques by developing a Bayesian formulation and leveraging physics-based simulated synthetic catalogs to expand the limited datasets of historical [...]
Influence of dissolution on frictional properties of carbonate faults
Published: 2019-04-25
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Civil Engineering, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Geophysics and Seismology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Velocity stepping experiments have been performed on a simulated calcite gouge using an annular shear apparatus to investigate the effect of dissolution on the frictional properties of a carbonate fault. The tested material was put in contact with hydrochloric acid at different concentration in order to dissolve the grains. Particle size analysis shows that the small grains tend to disappear due [...]
Rapid and accurate estimates of streamflow depletion caused by groundwater pumping using analytical depletion functions
Published: 2018-11-12
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Civil Engineering, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Environmental Sciences, Hydrology, Natural Resources Management and Policy, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Water Resource Management
Reductions in streamflow due to groundwater pumping (‘streamflow depletion’) can negatively impact water users and aquatic ecosystems but are challenging to estimate due to the time and expertise required to develop numerical models often used for water management. Here, we develop analytical depletion functions, which are simpler approaches consisting of (i) stream proximity criteria which [...]
Learning about climate change uncertainty enables flexible water infrastructure planning
Published: 2018-09-29
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Civil Engineering, Climate, Computer Sciences, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Environmental Sciences, Hydrology, Numerical Analysis and Scientific Computing, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Statistics and Probability, Water Resource Management
Water resources planning requires making decisions about infrastructure development under substantial uncertainty in future regional climate conditions. However, uncertainty in climate change projections will evolve over the 100-year lifetime of a dam as new climate observations become available. Flexible strategies in which infrastructure is proactively designed to be changed in the future have [...]
Optimising tidal range power plant operation
Published: 2017-12-11
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Civil Engineering, Computational Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Engineering, Hydraulic Engineering, Oceanography, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Power and Energy
Tidal range power plants represent an attractive approach for the large-scale generation of electricity from the marine environment. Even though the tides and by extension the available energy resource are predictable, they are also variable in time. This variability poses a challenge regarding the optimal transient control of power plants. Here we consider simulation methods which include the [...]