Filtering by Subject: Civil and Environmental Engineering
Published: 2021-07-30
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Civil Engineering, Engineering, Hydraulic Engineering, Oceanography
Array optimisation is critical for improving power performance and reducing infrastructure costs thereby helping enable tidal-stream energy to become a competitive renewable energy source. However, ascertaining an optimal array layout is a highly complex problem, subject to the specific site hydrodynamics characterisation and multiple inter-disciplinary constrains. In this work, we present a [...]
Published: 2021-07-28
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Geophysics and Seismology, Other Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology
Understanding a tsunami source and its impact is vital to assess a tsunami hazard. Thanks to the efforts of the tsunami survey teams, high-quality tsunami run-up data exists for contemporary events. Still, it has not been widely used to infer a tsunami source and its impact mainly due to the computational burden of the tsunami forward model. In this study, we propose a TRRF-INV (Tsunami Run-up [...]
Published: 2021-07-24
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Engineering, Environmental Engineering
Decision Trees (DT) is a machine learning method that has been widely used in the environmental sciences to automatically extract patterns from complex and high dimensional data. However, like any data-based method, is hindered by data limitations and potentially physically unrealistic results. We develop interactive DT (iDT) that put the human in the loop and integrate the power of experts’ [...]
Published: 2021-07-16
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Planetary Sciences
The river beds of the Mekong Delta are some of the most intensively sand mined places in the world, however sand mining budgets are limited to rough and indirect estimates. Here, we provide a systematic, semi-physically based estimation of the Mekong Delta’s sand mining budget. We provide a quantified budget that overcomes limitations resulting from previous reliance on officially declared [...]
Published: 2021-06-25
Subjects: Aerospace Engineering, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Earth Sciences, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Engineering, Environmental Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Compact and low-cost radar transponders are an attractive alternative to corner reflectors (CR) for SAR interferometric (InSAR) deformation monitoring, datum connection, and geodetic data integration. Recently, such transponders have become commercially available for C-band sensors, which poses relevant questions on their characteristics in terms of radiometric, geometric, and phase stability. [...]
Published: 2021-04-23
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Engineering
The resources of the earth are under immense pressure due to the multiple anthropogenic influences. The land resources which largely attribute to the quality as well as quantity of the water, is facing extreme stress due to the rapid urbanization resulting from population growth as well as socio-economic development. It is imperative that the response of hydrological processes to the change in [...]
Published: 2021-04-14
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Civil Engineering, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Geophysics and Seismology, Geotechnical Engineering, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Sedimentology
The orientation of and contacts between grains of sand reflect the processes that deposit the sands. Grain orientation and contact geometry also influence mechanical properties. Quantifying and understanding sand microstructure thus provide an opportunity to understand depositional processes better and connect microstructure and macroscopic properties. We compare naturally-deposited beach sands [...]
Published: 2021-03-08
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Engineering, Environmental Studies, Hydrology
Recent studies have shown that deep learning models in hydrological applications significantly improved streamflow predictions at multiple stations compared to traditional machine learning approaches. However, most studies lack generalization; i.e. researchers are training separate models for each location. The spatial and temporal generalization ability of deep learning models in hydrology that [...]
Published: 2021-02-28
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Risk Analysis
Winter storm Uri brought severe cold to the southern United States in February 2021, causing a cascading failure of interdependent systems in Texas where infrastructure was not adequately prepared for such cold. In particular, the failure of interconnected energy systems restricted electricity supply just as demand for heating spiked, leaving millions of Texans without heat or electricity, many [...]
Published: 2021-02-24
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Construction Engineering and Management, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Environmental Health and Protection, Environmental Sciences, Hydrology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Sustainability, Water Resource Management
Heat-related mortality and flooding are pressing challenges for the >4 billion urban population worldwide, exacerbated by increasing urbanization and climate change. Urban greening, such as green roofs and parks, can potentially help address both problems, but the geographical variation of the relative hydrological and thermal performance benefits of such interventions are unknown. Here we [...]
Published: 2021-02-23
Subjects: Bioresource and Agricultural Engineering, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Engineering, Environmental Engineering
Methane emitted and flared from industrial sources across the United States is a major contributor to global climate change. Methanotrophic bacteria can transform this methane into useful protein-rich biomass for animal feed. In the rapidly growing aquaculture industry, this can replace ocean-caught fishmeal, reducing demands on over-harvested fisheries. Here, we analyze the economic potential of [...]
Published: 2021-02-19
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Computational Engineering, Engineering
The height above nearest drainage (HAND) model is frequently used to calculate properties of the soil as well as predict flood inundation extents. HAND is extremely useful due to its lack of reliance on prior data, as only the digital elevation model (DEM) is needed. It is close to optimal, running in linear or linearithmic time in the number of cells depending on the values of the heights. It [...]
Published: 2021-02-14
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Computer Sciences, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Environmental Sciences, Geology, Geomorphology, Glaciology, Hydrology, Numerical Analysis and Scientific Computing, Other Environmental Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Sedimentology, Soil Science, Stratigraphy
Computational modelling occupies a unique niche in Earth environmental sciences. Models serve not just as scientific technology and infrastructure, but also as digital containers of the scientific community's understanding of the natural world. As this understanding improves, so too must the associated software. This dual nature---models as both infrastructure and hypotheses---means that [...]
Published: 2021-01-29
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Civil Engineering, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Geomorphology, Hydraulic Engineering, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Sedimentology
Upper Mississippi River flow and sediment characteristics downstream of St. Louis are presented in this study. Available and measured data were used to assess a harbor siltation case and dredging needs. Such data are also useful to researchers and engineers conducting work in the Mississippi River and large rivers in general. Flows were characterized in terms of the mean annual hydrograph, flow [...]
Published: 2021-01-06
Subjects: Applied Mathematics, Bioresource and Agricultural Engineering, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Computer Sciences, Engineering, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Planetary Sciences
This work presents the implementation of the LOTOS-EUROS regional atmospheric Chemical Transport Model (CTM) on Northwestern South America. The impact of land use and orography update in the model was analyzed to identify potential vulnerable natural areas by quantifying atmospheric deposition pollutants. CTMs allow simulating the physical dynamics of trace gasses and aerosols, including [...]