A City in the Skies: A 3D environment in Unreal Engine 4

The introduction to the world of 3D can and will be in most cases daunting. While 2D representation of our thoughts comes innate in youth, our tools to represent the world are vague and imprecise. For example, a toddler’s way to tell their parents about their surroundings can be, at best, a mixture of lines and babbling. For us, humans, that is enough to convey a feeling, a sensation. But there are those whose aim is to better express that view of the world, from these many humanities branch and grow. Perhaps a few words are enough to express the feeling of a room. Or maybe an excellent drawing can picture to perfection how beautiful an scenery is. Thus, it is only natural to want to further showcase how a situation, an experience is. Something not stuck in time nor in point of view. Where you could be able to move freely and use your own pace. That is how 3D captivated me. And that is how this project began. This project is developed on - what I believe - are the industry standards of the moment. Unreal Engine 4, which, up until recently, was the latest version available, as a 3D engine. The choosing of Unreal Engine 4 (UE4) over Unity was based merely on looks, but this topic will be further expanded later in this document. For texturing, the Adobe Suite was the logical option. Substance Designer for the development of procedural textures and Substance Painter for its application on the models. Lastly, Blender as the 3D modelling tool of choice. This can be a rather controversial election but Blender has proven very useful and diverse tool, and this is a way of me betting on the software. The end result of this project is to create a 3D environment of a city that is floating in the sky. The ambiance will be set on what a future society would picture the 21st century to be. That means a mixture between occidental and oriental architecture

Methodology to quantify clogging coefficients for grated inlets: application to SANT MARTI catchment (Barcelona)

This is the accepted version of the following article: Gómez, M, Parés, J, Russo, B, Martínez‐Gomariz, E. Methodology to quantify clogging coefficients for grated inlets. Application to SANT MARTI catchment (Barcelona). J Flood Risk Management. 2019; 12:e12479. https://doi.org/10.1111/jfr3.12479, which has been published in final form at https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jfr3.12479.Within the drainage system of a city, the set of inlets is in charge of taking the runoff produced by local storms to the stormwater/sewer. In the drainage system design the selection of appropriate inlet models and their location is one of the fundamental aspects. The hydraulics of these inlets has received great attention within the last years; however, few inlet makers provide the hydraulic capacity of their products. In addition, these data usually consider clean water, while in reality, numerous inlets can be either totally or partially clogged. This aspect should be kept in mind within the design process. In this paper, a methodology to consider the hydraulic effects of clogging phenomena is presented. The work started from a visual inspection of the grated inlets throughout the urban catchment of Sant Martí, Barcelona, as a means of identifying clogging patterns, their repetitive forms and their associated frequency. After that, clogged patterns were reproduced in laboratory testing of typical inlets types, thereby obtaining the real quantity of water that could be captured by each of them. It was shown that the same expression employed to describe the efficiency of clean inlets can be used to assess the efficiency of those clogged. A reduction factor in terms of hydraulic capacity and related to each clogging pattern has been defined for use in hydraulic studies of runoff along streets. Finally, the paper compares the obtained results in terms of clogging coefficient with another experimental campaign carried out in other catchment of the city.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Assessment of inlet efficiency through a 3D simulation: numerical and experimental comparison

Inlet efficiency is a requirement for characterizing the flow transfers between surface and sewer flow during rain events. The dual drainage approach is based on the joint analysis of both upper and lower drainage levels, and the flow transfer is one of the relevant elements to define properly this joint behaviour. This paper presents the results of an experimental and numerical investigation about the inlet efficiency definition. A full scale (1:1) test platform located in the Technical University of Catalonia (UPC) reproduces both the runoff process in streets and the water entering the inlet. Data from tests performed on this platform allow the inlet efficiency to be estimated as a function of significant hydraulic and geometrical parameters. A reproduction of these tests through a numerical three-dimensional code (Flow-3D) has been carried out simulating this type of flow by solving the RANS equations. The aim of the work was to reproduce the hydraulic performance of a previously tested grated inlet under several flow and geometric conditions using Flow-3D as a virtual laboratory. This will allow inlet efficiencies to be obtained without previous experimental tests. Moreover, the 3D model allows a better understanding of the hydraulics of the flow interception and the flow patterns approaching the inlet.Preprin

A new experiments-based methodology to define the stability threshold for any vehicle exposed to flooding

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis Group in Urban water journal on 2017, available online at: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1573062X.2017.1301501A vehicle exposed to flooding, after losing stability, becomes buoyant and may be washed away with potential injuries and fatalities. Such vehicles cause additional disruption to traffic that is already affected by flooding, which may lead to substantial indirect economic impact, especially in urban areas. Therefore, the analysis of the stability of vehicles exposed to flooding is important in order to make decisions to reduce damages and hazards. In this research, based on an experimental campaign that included a range of twelve car models, a new methodology to obtain the stability threshold for any real vehicle exposed to flooding is developed. A stability coefficient (SCmod) is derived with which the vehicles can be sorted by stability against water flows and their stability functions may be determined. The experiments were conducted with three different model scales (1:14, 1:18 and 1:24) and involved analysis of both friction and buoyancy effects, which made this the most comprehensive research study to date. This methodology enables the definition of a stable area in the flow depth-velocity domain for any real vehicle. A tool is provided that decision-makers in the field of urban flood risk management can employ and after defining a design vehicle they can obtain its corresponding stability threshold.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Preliminary studies on the impact of the urbanization of the piemonte of Mendoza on the wild avifauna

Fil: Gómez, Viviana. Instituto Argentino de Investigaciones de las Zonas Áridas .Fil: Faggi, Ana.Fil: Martínez Carretero, Eduardo. Instituto Argentino de Investigaciones de las Zonas Áridas

The commoditization of the publication culture in Spain: a cost- and time-effective model to systematize Communication Sciences

This paper explores the current paradigm of the publication culture in Spain, examining the negative and positive forces that shape the dominant dynamics in the production, dissemination and evaluation of scholars' works. Following the intentional sampling of maximum variety, we planned a set of interviews with scholars in the area of communication that represented the heterogeneity of academic ranks, gender, and territories of Spain. The final output consisted of thirty-five semi-structured interviews that took place between May 2018 and May 2019. Scholarship on how researchers and university professors experience publication cultures is abundant, however the national and international studies that address this phenomenon from a holistic approach are practically non-existent. Comprising three actions or systems -production, dissemination and evaluation-, the current publishing culture is depicted as a structure tuned to a set of global-accepted requirements that seem easy to understand and replicate. Under such model, most of the scholars ex-perience discomfort because overproduction is widespread, social transference is rare, and the production and diffusion of scientific works frequently occur at the expense of scholars themselves. The goal seems to be inspired by the cost- and time-effective system of evaluation processes that, despite academics' general opposition, official bodies and university departments have adopted to circumvent the costly task of assessing scientists' outcomes on an individual basis

Experimental study of the stability of pedestrians exposed to urban pluvial flooding

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11069-016-2242-zPopulations in urban environments are extremely mobile throughout the day and in various weather conditions; accounting for this pedestrian mobility and security becomes high importance. Research into the security and stability of the pedestrian environment under exposure to critical water flows provides an essential knowledge base with which the associated hazard unto them can be critically evaluated. This research seeks to analyse degrees of hazard in relation to persons exposed to high-volume rain events in urban areas. Several human trials of critical urban flows were conducted in order to determine the stability limits of pedestrians, crossing through a water flow in a real-scale physic model. Additionally, the critical first step from a dry footpath into fast-flowing water is considered and an assessment of the tested subjects' emotional responses when entering and crossing flooded roadways was carried out. Results from this study are compared with various proposed human stability criteria as well as alternatives proposed in other written works. The presented study offers a stability threshold focused on shallow depths and high-velocity conditions, the most common urban flooding conditions.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

An approach to the modelling of stability of waste containers during urban flooding

This is the accepted version of the following article: Martínez‐Gomariz, E, Russo, B, Gómez, M, Plumed, A. An approach to the modelling of stability of waste containers during urban flooding. J Flood Risk Management. 2020; 13 ( Suppl. 1):e12558. https://doi.org/10.1111/jfr3.12558, which has been published in final form at https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jfr3.12558.Before the solid waste is dumped in landfills, the collection process for large Spanish cities starts from a regular collection of household waste municipal service which is carried out through street containers. When an urban flood occurs those containers may lose their stability, thereby allowing debris (i.e., solid waste contained) and leachate to escape from the container and contaminate the flood water. Moreover, once a container loses its stability it can further constrict a narrow street and increase flooding, thereby creating a closed basin with no outlet for runoff and exacerbating the effects of flooding. Therefore, the waste containers stability when exposed to flooding is definitely an environmental, safety and health concern to be addressed. In this research stability functions for waste containers exposed to urban floods have been derived. These thresholds have been employed to analyse the containers' potential behaviour during floods in Barcelona. In order to validate the model a historical rainfall has been modelled and low-return-period design storms (i.e., 1, 5, and 10 years) have been used to assess the containers vulnerability against floods for frequent rainfall events. Once the number of potentially unstable containers has been estimated, an adaptation measure has been proposed in order to increase the resilience of waste sector against urban floods in Barcelona.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Microspheres for the growth of silicon nanowires via vapor-liquid-solid mechanism

Silicon nanowires have been synthesized by a simple process using a suitable support containing silica and carbon microspheres. Nanowires were grown by thermal chemical vapor deposition via a vapor-liquid-solid mechanism with only the substrate as silicon source. The curved surface of the microsized spheres allows arranging the gold catalyst as nanoparticles with appropriate dimensions to catalyze the growth of nanowires. The resulting material is composed of the microspheres with the silicon nanowires attached on their surfaceThis work was supported by MICINN research Project MAT2010-19804. Financial support fromthe US Department of Energy through the Massie Chair project at University of Turabo is also acknowledged.The work of Arancha Gómez-Martínez was supported by the FPI fellowship from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.The authors thank I. Poveda for his technical assistance. The “Servicio Interdepartamental de Investigación (SIdI)” a tUniversidad Autónoma de Madrid and “Centro Nacional de Microscopía Español” (CNME) at Universidad Complutense deMadrid are also acknowledge