Pedestrian and Bicycle Data Collection: Task 2 - Assessment

DTFH61-11-F-00031This document contains the results of a literature review and series of stakeholder conversations via webinar and individual calls undertaken for DTFH61-11-F-00031, "Pedestrian and Bicycle Data Collection." This document contains two sections: (1) Pedestrian Data Collection, and (2) Bicycle Data Collection. Each section contains a summary of the state-of-the-practice as it existed in Fall 2011 based on available literature and practitioner input

Radium contamination in the area around Dalgety Bay

In this report, the Committee on Medical Aspects of Radiation in the Environment (COMARE) presents a comprehensive review of the radium contamination in the area around Dalgety Bay. This report covers the history of the site, the type and extent of the contamination, the recent investigations and the cancer epidemiology for the area. The report also considers the implications for other similarly contaminated sites

Protecting Critical I Infrastructure Along Eroding Streams Using Bioengineering Techhniques and Stream Restoration Methoodolo

2014 S.C. Water Resources Conference - Informing Strategic Water Planning to Address Natural Resource, Community and Economic Challenge

Measurements of Atmospheric NH3, NOy/NOx, and NO2 and Deposition of Total Nitrogen at the Beaufort, NC CASTNET Site (BFT142)

Clean Air Status and Trends Network study on air pollution monitoring site

Submission to the inquiry on 'Future flood prevention' by the House of Commons Select Committee on Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

This is a submission by the ESRC Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy and the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics and Political Science to the inquiry on ‘Future flood prevention’ by the House of Commons Select Committee on Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. The submission draws on our research, which provides strong evidence that the UK needs to develop a comprehensive strategy for flood risk management. The strategy needs to adopt a holistic approach, and include better land-use and planning policy, increased resilience for existing housing stock, improved flood defences and affordable insurance. The National Flood Resilience Review, launched by the Government in December 2015, could be an important step towards the creation of a comprehensive flood risk management strategy for the UK

Sediment Based Turbidity Analyses for Representative South Carolina Soils

2012 S.C. Water Resources Conference - Exploring Opportunities for Collaborative Water Research, Policy and Managemen

Effect of land use and low impact development measures on urban flood hazard: a case study in the Black Creek watershed

The number of flooding events in Canadian urban environments continues to increase, causing major environmental, economic and social consequences. This research uses the Black Creek watershed, located in southern Ontario, to investigate the impacts of urbanization on flood hazard and evaluate the effectiveness of various low impact development practices at reducing this hazard. A land use analysis indicates extensive urban growth between the periods 1949 and 2015, with extremely high imperviousness percentages existing today in the majority of the watershed. Historical hydrological simulations in PCSWMM show a significant increase in peak flows since 1949, but have now stabilized due to the limited land available for further development. Stormwater management ponds in the northern region of the watershed have helped control runoff from densely developed areas. Minimal stormwater management exists in the southern region, with low potential for implementation of large stormwater management features. Low impact development practices such as bioretention cells, infiltration trenches, permeable pavement, rain barrels, and vegetative swales were simulated in various scenarios to investigate their effects at reducing flood hazard. Results demonstrate that low impact development measures can effectively reduce peak runoff reduction rates by as much as 76% in smaller subcatchments for a 2-year storm event. This thesis provides insight into the capabilities of low impact development measures to improve flood hazard management and decrease flood hazard in urban environments

Seismic Retrofit of Crane Valley Dam

Crane Valley Dam is located on the North Fork of Willow Creek in Madera County, California, and is owned by Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E). The results of seismic stability analyses performed in 2005 and 2006 showed that the dam’s hydraulic fill embankments would experience large deformations during and after the earthquake shaking postulated for the site. To improve the seismic stability and performance of the dam, PG&E initiated the Crane Valley Dam Seismic Retrofit Project (Project), which includes placing new rockfill buttresses on the upstream and downstream slopes of the dam, constructing internal drainage improvements, reinforcing portions of the dam’s concrete core wall, and raising the dam crest. Project components were designed to meet seepage control and seismic stability criteria and to accommodate existing facilities, limited site access, seasonal reservoir operations, and environmentally sensitive areas within and adjacent to the Project site. Engineering analyses included static, seepage, and dynamic finite element analyses to evaluate the potential for liquefaction of hydraulic fill materials and post-earthquake stability of the retrofitted dam embankment. Construction of the Project began in Octobe

Operations and maintenance planning for community-scale, off-grid wave energy devices

Conference paper from RENEW 2016: 2nd International Conference on Renewable Energies Offshore, 2016-10-24, 2016-10-26, Lisbon, Portugal. This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from the publisher via the DOI in this record.Marine Renewable Energy (MRE) has progressed towards commercialisation over the recent years but signifi-cant barriers still exist. This includes the currently high cost of energy, leaving MRE uncompetitive with re-spect to other more established renewable energy technologies. A significant proportion of this cost comes from Operation and Maintenance (O&M) activities. O&M activity can be reduced through the use of condi-tion-based maintenance scheduling. In offshore environments, the submerged location of most devices enables the use of underwater Acoustic Emission (AE), a new condition-monitoring technique. It combines acoustics (used for environmental monitoring of MRE influence on noise levels) with AE condition monitoring as used in air. This paper assesses the practicality of such an approach in complex ocean environments through detailed sound propagation modelling using the propagation model Bellhop in the Matlab toolbox AcTUP. Results show that acoustic propagation is very sensitive to variations in the shallow water environments considered. When concerning sensor placement, multiple-path interferences mean that the location of the measuring sen-sor(s) needs to be carefully considered, but might not cover all environmental variations over the several months necessary for accurate long-term monitoring. Associated to the shallow depths, these environmental variations also mean that some frequencies cannot be back-propagated easily, generally limiting access to the monitoring of Received Levels. The results presented here are the first steps toward optimizing AE sensor po-sitions and AE measuring strategies for arrays of devices.The lead author would like to thank the academic supervisors of this IDCORE project for their contributions, advice and support. Similar thanks must go to the engineers involved in developing the Squid devices at Albatern Ltd. The author would also like to thank Wave Energy Scotland, the IDCORE programme and their funding bodies, in particular the ETP (Energy Technology Partnership), for their support. IDCORE is funded by the Energy Technology Partnership and the RCUK Energy Programme; Grant number EP/J500847/1