Experiential-based learning in engineering project management within a global economy

Introduction Over the past century, great technological advances have enabled high-speed communication and transportation across the globe. This technology trend combined with the needs of continuous expansion of market place has motivated major corporations not to restrict their business activities to within a single principality. Engineering design activities can take place across the globe, while projects themselves tend heavily towards larger and international scope, affecting greater numbers of diverse populations within numerous principalities. The social, cultural, political, and economical differences have inevitably raised tremendous challenges for coordinating widely spread, yet inter-connected collaboration project activities among the various stakeholders. This establishes the need for effective project management to ensure that the stakeholders, all with diverse backgrounds, cooperate to effectively progress to the project’s completion for the corporate sector, governmental organizations, and non-profit groups. Though extensive project management literature exists, little has been done on addressing the challenges faced by new managers in a global economy. In addition, in the current engineering curriculum, scant attention has ever been put on teaching such knowledge. This has left those inexperienced young engineers with frustration when beginning a prominent project management position. It is therefore crucial to develop innovative ways of acquiring such knowledge, and this thesis will address some of the major project management challenges in a global economy and share case studies on experiential-based learning. Thesis Statement This thesis seeks to discuss international engineering project management as a broad practice, and will include the author’s learnings in the specific area

Surface and subsurface hydrology of debris-covered Khumbu Glacier, Nepal, revealed by dye tracing

While the supraglacial hydrology of debris-covered glaciers is relatively well studied, almost nothing is known about how water is transported beneath the glacier surface. Here, we report the results of sixteen fluorescent dye tracing experiments conducted in April–May 2018 over the lowermost 7 km of the high-elevation, debris-covered Khumbu Glacier, Nepal, to characterise the glacier's surface and subsurface drainage system. Dye breakthroughs indicated a likely highly sinuous and channelised subsurface hydrological system draining water from the upper part of the ablation area. This flowpath was distinct from the linked chain of supraglacial ponds present along much of the glacier's lower ablation area, through which water flow was extremely slow (∼0.003 m s−1), likely reflecting the study's timing during the pre-monsoon period. Subsurface drainage pathways emerged at the glacier surface close to the terminus, and flowed into small near-surface englacial reservoirs that typically delayed meltwater transit by several hours. We observed rapid pathway changes resulting from surface collapse, indicating a further distinctive aspect of the drainage of debris-covered glaciers. We conclude that the surface and subsurface drainage of Khumbu Glacier is both distinctive and dynamic, and argue that further investigation is needed to refine the characterisation and test its regional applicability to better understand future Himalayan debris-covered glacier meltwater delivery to downstream areas

Instruments and Methods:hot-water borehole drilling at a high-elevation debris-covered glacier

While hot-water drilling is a well-established technique used to access the subsurface of ice masses, drilling into high-elevation (≳ 4000 m a.s.l.) debris-covered glaciers faces specific challenges. First, restricted transport capacity limits individual equipment items to a volume and mass that can be slung by small helicopters. Second, low atmospheric oxygen and pressure reduces the effectiveness of combustion, limiting a system's ability to pump and heat water. Third, thick supraglacial debris, which is both highly uneven and unstable, inhibits direct access to the ice surface, hinders the manoeuvring of equipment and limits secure sites for equipment placement. Fourth, englacial debris can slow the drilling rate such that continued drilling becomes impracticable and/or boreholes deviate substantially from vertical. Because of these challenges, field-based englacial and subglacial data required to calibrate numerical models of high-elevation debris-covered glaciers are scarce or absent. Here, we summarise our experiences of hot-water drilling over two field seasons (2017–2018) at the debris-covered Khumbu Glacier, Nepal, where we melted 27 boreholes up to 192 m length, at elevations between 4900 and 5200 m a.s.l. We describe the drilling equipment and operation, evaluate the effectiveness of our approach and suggest equipment and methodological adaptations for future use

Review article: The hydrology of debris-covered glaciers – state of the science and future research directions

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Continuous borehole optical televiewing reveals variable englacial debris concentrations at Khumbu Glacier, Nepal

Surface melting of High Mountain Asian debris-covered glaciers shapes the seasonal water supply to millions of people. This melt is strongly influenced by the spatially variable thickness of the supraglacial debris layer, which is itself partially controlled by englacial debris concentration and melt-out. Here, we present measurements of deep englacial debris concentrations from debris-covered Khumbu Glacier, Nepal, based on four borehole optical televiewer logs, each up to 150 m long. The mean borehole englacial debris content is ≤ 0.7% by volume in the glacier’s mid-to-upper ablation area, and increases to 6.4% by volume near the terminus. These concentrations are higher than those reported for other valley glaciers, although those measurements relate to discrete samples while our approach yields a continuous depth profile. The vertical distribution of englacial debris increases with depth, but is also highly variable, which will complicate predictions of future rates of surface melt and debris exhumation at such glaciers

Hydrology of debris-covered glaciers in High Mountain Asia

The hydrological characteristics of debris-covered glaciers are known to be fundamentally different from those of clean-ice glaciers, even within the same climatological, geological, and geomorphological setting. Understanding how these characteristics influence the timing and magnitude of meltwater discharge is particularly important for regions where downstream communities rely on this resource for sanitation, irrigation, and hydropower, such as High Mountain Asia. The hydrology of debris-covered glaciers is complex: rugged surface topographies typically route meltwater through compound supraglacial-englacial systems involving both channels and ponds, as well as pathways that remain unknown. Low-gradient tongues that extend several kilometres retard water conveyance and promote englacial storage. Englacial conduits are frequently abandoned and reactivated as water supply changes, new lines of permeability are exploited, and drainage is captured due to high rates of surface and subsurface change. Seasonal influences, such as the monsoon, are superimposed on these distinctive characteristics, reorganising surface and subsurface drainage rapidly from one season to the next. Recent advances in understanding have mostly come from studies aimed at quantifying and describing supraglacial processes; little is known about the subsurface hydrology, particularly the nature (or even existence) of subglacial drainage. In this review, we consider in turn the supraglacial, englacial, subglacial, and proglacial hydrological domains of debris-covered glaciers in High Mountain Asia. We summarise different lines of evidence to establish the current state of knowledge and, in doing so, identify major knowledge gaps. Finally, we use this information to suggest six themes for future hydrological research at High Mountain Asian debris-covered glaciers in order to make timely long-term predictions of changes in the water they supply

Refined energy-balance modelling of a supraglacial pond, Langtang Khola, Nepal

Supraglacial ponds on debris-covered glaciers present a mechanism of atmosphere/glacier energy transfer that is poorly studied, and only conceptually included in mass-balance studies of Debris-covered glaciers. This research advances previous efforts to develop a model of mass and energy balance for supraglacial ponds by applying a free-convection approach to account for energy exchanges at the subaqueous bare-ice surfaces. We develop the model using field data from a pond on Lirung Glacier, Nepal, that was monitored during the 2013 and 2014 monsoon periods. Sensitivity testing is performed for several key parameters, and alternative melt algorithms are compared with the model. The pond acts as a significant recipient of energy for the glacier system, and actively participates in the glacier’s hydrologic system during the monsoon. Melt rates are 2–4 cm d–1 (total of 98.5 m3 over the study period) for bare ice in contact with the pond, and <1 mm d–1 (total of 10.6 m3) for the saturated debris zone. The majority of absorbed atmospheric energy leaves the pond system through englacial conduits, delivering sufficient energy to melt 2612m3 additional ice over the study period (38.4 m3 d–1). Such melting might be expected to lead to subsidence of the glacier surface. Supraglacial ponds efficiently convey atmospheric energy to the glacier’s interior and rapidly promote the downwasting process.This research was enabled by PhD studentship funding from the Gates Cambridge Trust. Fieldwork was supported by the USAID (United States Agency for International Development) High Mountain Glacier Watershed Programs Climber-Scientist Grant (CCRDCS0010), Swiss National Science Foundation project UNCOMUN (SNF 200021L146761), Trinity College, Cambridge, the B.B. Roberts Fund and the Philip Lake and William Vaughn Lewis Fund.This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from the International Glaciological Society via http://dx.doi.org/10.3189/2016AoG71A42

Polythermal structure of a Himalayan debris-covered glacier revealed by borehole thermometry

Runoff from high-elevation debris-covered glaciers represents a crucial water supply for millions of people in the Hindu Kush-Himalaya region, where peak water has already passed in places. Knowledge of glacier thermal regime is essential for predicting dynamic and geometric responses to mass balance change and determining subsurface drainage pathways, which ultimately influence proglacial discharge and hence downstream water availability. Yet, deep internal ice temperatures of these glaciers are unknown, making projections of their future response to climate change highly uncertain. Here, we show that the lower part of the ablation area of Khumbu Glacier, a high-elevation debris-covered glacier in Nepal, may contain ~56% temperate ice, with much of the colder shallow ice near to the melting-point temperature (within 0.8 °C). From boreholes drilled in the glacier’s ablation area, we measured a minimum ice temperature of −3.3 °C, and even the coldest ice we measured was 2 °C warmer than the mean annual air temperature. Our results indicate that high-elevation Himalayan glaciers are vulnerable to even minor atmospheric warming

The Role of Differential Ablation and Dynamic Detachment in Driving Accelerating Mass Loss From a Debris-Covered Himalayan Glacier

Sustained mass loss from Himalayan glaciers is causing supraglacial debris to expand and thicken, with the expectation that thicker debris will suppress ablation and extend glacier longevity. However, debris-covered glaciers are losing mass at similar rates to clean-ice glaciers in High Mountain Asia. This rapid mass loss is attributed to the combined effects of; (a) low or reversed mass balance gradients across debris-covered glacier tongues, (b) differential ablation processes that locally enhance ablation within the debris-covered section of the glacier, for example, at ice cliffs and supraglacial ponds, and (c) a decrease in ice flux from the accumulation area in response to climatic warming. Adding meter-scale spatial variations in supraglacial debris thickness to an ice-flow model of Khumbu Glacier, Nepal, increased mass loss by 47% relative to simulations assuming a continuous debris layer over a 31-year period (1984–2015 CE) but overestimated the reduction in ice flux. Therefore, we investigated if simulating the effects of dynamic detachment of the upper active glacier from the debris-covered tongue would give a better representation of glacier behavior, as suggested by observations of change in glacier dynamics and structure indicating that this process occurred during the last 100 years. Observed glacier change was reproduced more reliably in simulations of the active, rather than entire, glacier extent, indicating that Khumbu Glacier has passed a dynamic tipping point by dynamically detaching from the heavily debris-covered tongue that contains 20% of the former ice volume