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Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Events for April
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Sensitivity, Uncertainty and Cost Assessments of Impacts of Climate Change on Air Quality
Wed, Apr 01, 2009 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: K.J. Liao,
Environmental Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory,
Argonne, Illinois,
E-mail: kliao@anl.gov Abstract:
Climate change is forecast to affect ambient temperatures, precipitation frequency and stagnation conditions, all of which impact regional air quality. An issue of primary importance for policy-makers is how well currently planned control strategies for improving air quality that are based on the current climate will work under future global climate change scenarios. The US EPA's Regional Air Quality Modeling System, CMAQ, with decoupled direct method (DDM) are used to investigate sensitivities of ground-level ozone and PM2.5 (particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter less than 2.5 ìm) to emission controls for current and future scenarios. Sensitivities are predicted to change slightly in response to climate change, suggesting that currently planned emission control strategies will continue to be effective in decreasing ozone and PM2.5 levels in the future. Impacts of uncertainties in climate change forecast on regional air quality predictions are investigated using multiple climate futures in order to evaluate the robustness of currently planned emission controls under impacts of climate change. The results show that the impacts of climate uncertainties can be substantial and partially offset the effectiveness of future emission controls in some urban areas and should be included in assessing future air pollutant control requirements. Several mathematical programming models for developing optimal integrated air pollutant control strategies under impacts of climate change will also be discussed. Optimization of emission control strategies for offsetting climate effects on ozone and PM2.5 levels for five U.S. cities (Los Angeles, Houston, Chicago, Atlanta and New York) will be presented as an example of single-objective nonlinear programming models based on the least-cost approach.
Location: Kaprielian Hall (KAP) - 209
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Evangeline Reyes
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Open-Path FTIR Monitoring Technology in Environmental Applications
Fri, Apr 03, 2009 @ 01:00 PM - 02:00 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Chia-Yu (Iris) Yang, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Southern CaliforniaAbstract:Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) is a powerful real-time monitoring technique for both detection and quantification of multiple compounds simultaneously even in harsh industrial environments. Several ASTM and EPA measurement protocols using FTIR in industrial or regulatory monitoring have been published in US or in Taiwan.FTIR systems can operate with telescopes transmitting and receiving the IR beam so monitoring of long outdoor paths becomes possible. Such telescope systems are so called "open-path" instruments. Typical environmental applications of open-path monitoring include urban air monitoring in metropolitan areas and fence-line monitoring of industrial sites, other examples such as accidental release detection/identification, and homeland security applications are also seen often. Several cases using open-path FTIR monitoring technology in environmental applications in US and Taiwan will be discussed.
Location: Kaprielian Hall (KAP) - 209
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Evangeline Reyes
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Residence Time Distributions in Dynamically Changing Hydrologic Systems
Wed, Apr 08, 2009 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Dr. John L. Wilson, Department of Earth and Environmental Science,
New Mexico Tech,Socorro, NM 87801, USAAbstract:Spatial and temporal variability of weather and climatic forcings induce a dynamic response in hydrologic systems. Regional groundwater systems, mountain watersheds, and stream hyporheic zones are examples of hydrologic systems driven by forcings varying at several time scales, from daily to seasonal to decadal and longer. Hydrologic systems are also characterized by a suite of flow paths, with positions further along flow paths exhibiting older residence time statistics. If a hydrologic flow system is in steady state the flow paths do not change in time and water present at a given point has a stable residence time distribution. But hydrologic flow paths and residence times can change dynamically with weather and climate temporal variability. Traditionally, this dynamic response is ignored and modeled and observed residence times are evaluated as if the flow was in steady state. In dynamic systems the residence time distribution depends on the time of observation and the time at which the water entered the system; in other words, it depends on two different times. A finite element scheme is used to model the transient flow and transport of an ideal tracer into a Thóthian-like domain, and to illustrate the effect of dynamically changing systems on residence-time estimation. Further applications of these concepts to atmospheric and ocean residence times, are also discussed.
Location: Kaprielian Hall (KAP) - 209
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Evangeline Reyes
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An Air Quality Engineer in Industry
Fri, Apr 10, 2009 @ 01:00 PM - 02:00 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Patricia G Menjivar, LEED AP, Sr. EHS Engineer, Air QualityAbstract:
California's air pollution control program is one of the most effective in the world. California legislature is continuously in the forefront of newly created air quality regulations that affect not just California but the Nation. Industry in California must keep abreast of newly created regulations, such as AB32. Despite these improvements, California continues to face the nation's greatest air quality challenge. An Air Quality Engineer must work these challenges with Industry for efficient and feasible outcomes while keeping the mission to find and support alternatives or reduce hazards in order to protect the environment and its citizens. Ms. Patricia Menjivar will talk about her experiences as a Senior Air Quality Engineer. 310.334.7388 Business
310.628.2607 Cell
Patricia_G_Menjivar@Raytheon.com
Location: Kaprielian Hall (KAP) - 209
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Evangeline Reyes
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Modeling Air Quality and Climate Interactions: from Urban to Global Scale
Wed, Apr 15, 2009 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker:Dr. Yang Zhang,
North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NCAbstract:Simulating air quality-climate interactions represents a major challenge in quantifying the impacts of urban/regional air pollution on climate change. A unified global-through-urban fully-coupled online climate and chemistry model provides an excellent model framework to accurately simulate such interactions. Such a unified global-through-urban model is being developed at North Carolina State University based on the U.S. NCAR's Global Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model and the U.S. NOAA's mesoscale WRF with Chemistry (referred to as GU-WRF/Chem). This presentation will highlight our recent model development toward GU-WRF/Chem, demonstrate the model's capability with several case studies on urban/regional/global scales, and discuss major challenges and future directions in modeling air quality and climate/meteorology feedbacks.
Location: Kaprielian Hall (KAP) - 209
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Evangeline Reyes
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Non-CO2 Greenhouse Gasses
Fri, Apr 17, 2009 @ 01:00 PM - 02:00 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Professor Jeff Kuo, California State University, Fullerton, CAAbstract:This project, Clearinghouse of Technological Options for Reducing Anthropogenic Non-CO2 GHG Emissions from All Sectors, gathered and evaluated information and data that are available in the literature regarding technological options for reducing anthropogenic non-CO2 greenhouse gas (NCGG) emissions from all sectors in California. Emissions sources of the NCGGs (methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, and sulfur hexafluoride) and black carbon in California were first identified. Data and information of many viable technological options were then gathered, evaluated, and presented in a systematic way for easy comparison and use. This seminar will present the approaches and findings of this project.
Location: Kaprielian Hall (KAP) - 209
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Evangeline Reyes
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A Quantitative Monitoring Approach for Assessing Tunnel Safety ...
Wed, Apr 22, 2009 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Using a Strain-Based TechniqueSpeaker: Dr. Si-hyun Park,Project Manager, Tunnel Division,
Korea Infrastructure Safety & Technology Corporation.
Goyang-City, Kyunggi-Province, KoreaABSRACT:This presentation discusses a method for the safety assessment of tunnel structures by using the values of measured displacements. Unlike stress measurements, the displacement measurements during the construction of a tunnel have advantages such as simple instrumentation, easy measurements (daily measurements), and economic efficiency. The safety of tunnels has been previously evaluated by using empirical control criteria for the displacement in the construction of tunnels. However, these control criteria have not been validated and do not provide consistent information during the construction phase of tunnels. This presentation introduces the concept of the critical strain for tunnel safety assessment by measuring the displacement instead of the stress-based values. The basic concept behind the critical strain approach was proposed several years ago. However, the concept of critical strain has not been widely applied in the field of the tunnels because until now the concept has not had a convincing engineering interpretation either at the theoretical or the mathematical level. The aim of this presentation is to: (1) compare and collect the control criteria to be used as tools for the measurement and management of the construction of a tunnel, (2) provide an overview the engineering interpretation of the critical strain, using results from prior studies, (3) verify the engineering interpretation of the critical strain, and (4) assess tunnel safety quantitatively by using the measured displacement values. It will be shown that the concept of critical strain can be validated by physical interpretation and be subsequently applied for the safety assessment during the construction of tunnels.Location: Kaprielian Hall (KAP) - 209 (on WebEx)
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Evangeline Reyes
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Identifying Remediation Techniques and Quantifying TMDL Regulated Pollutants for ....
Thu, Apr 23, 2009 @ 01:00 PM - 04:00 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Stormwater Runoff in the Los Angeles RegionOral Defense, Jaime Sayre, Ph.D. Student, Sonny Astani, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, USCAbstract:The goals for Los Angeles and southern California water quality included evaluating the capture, treatment, and reuse of stormwater through groundwater infiltration; assessing the costs of stormwater quality control; monitoring virus numbers in stormwater; and developing improved methods for measuring pollutant concentrations.The cost benefit analysis indicated that the treatment of larger regions as one watershed reduces the initial cost to employ the stormwater best management practices, that willingness to pay and value of ecological improvements vary and are difficult to quantify. The new cost estimated for both structural and non-structural BMPs was $12.6 billion, and the total benefit of the BMPs and improvement to the environment was $21.3 billion, for a net benefit of $8.7 billion.
The virus study was less conclusive, finding rather uniform virus counts in the tens of millions per milliliter. Previous research found human viruses in significantly smaller concentrations (1-100 per mL), suggesting that the total counts may reflect high background concentrations of non-human viruses from sources that are not coincident with sources of pollution.Using two passive samplers, polyethylene devices (PEDs) and solid phase microextraction (SPME) fibers, hydrophobic organic contaminants (HOCs) were quantified and the samplers were compared. PEDs were calibrated for 16 model HOCs (PCBs, PAHs, DDTs, and chlordanes) for both partitioning coefficients (KPEW) and exchange rate kinetics (ke). Triplicate PEDs and SPME fibers were exposed for 45 days to a concentration series of water spiked with nine model hydrophobic organic compounds. Model HOCs in SPME were higher than those in PEDs, with SPME measurements matching water concentrations more closely than PEDs for PCBs and chlorinated pesticides. For PAHs, PED and SPME measurements bracketed LLE water concentrations with no apparent bias. The number of detections using PEDs was greater for concentrations less than 0.1 ng/L, indicating that PEDs afford greater sensitivity than single SPME fibers. Researchers are continuing to investigate PEDs, including the use of pre-loaded reference compounds to quantify the "extent" of equilibrium vs. exposure time and possible variations due to polyethylene manufacturer and process.Location: Kaprielian Hall (KAP) - 209
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Evangeline Reyes
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Microbial Interactions with Emerging Contaminants: 1,4-Dioxane and Nanoparticles
Thu, Apr 30, 2009 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Shaily Mahendra, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Rice UniversityAbstract:
Emerging contaminants are chemicals being increasingly detected in the environment, which are perceived to cause adverse ecological or human health effects, but are not yet regulated. Some examples of materials that have emerged recently are industrial compounds, gasoline additives, pharmaceuticals, and nanomaterials. It is particularly important to evaluate contaminant-microbe interactions because microorganisms can (a) transform contaminants into non-toxic products, (b) act as convenient models for toxicity to higher organisms, and (c) serve as sensitive indicators of potential environmental impacts. 1,4-Dioxane and quantum dots are selected as representative emerging contaminants for this presentation.
1,4-Dioxane, a probable human carcinogen, is typically found as an environmental contaminant in conjunction with groundwater solvent plumes as it is commonly used as a stabilizer for chlorinated solvents. In my research, a variety of bacteria containing specific monooxygenase enzymes were shown to degrade 1,4-dioxane. Quantitative and biochemical data generated in this research will facilitate the development of monitoring tools for this important emerging contaminant in natural and engineered systems. Thus, an outcome of microbial-emerging contaminant interactions may be effective, inexpensive, in situ, natural or enhanced bioremediation.
Quantum dots (QDs) are semiconductor nanocrystals valuable for electronics, solar energy generation, and medical imaging applications. QDs consist of heavy metal core/shell structures coated with organics to make them biocompatible. These coatings can be easily weathered under certain environmental conditions. In contrast to coated QDs, weathered QDs are bactericidal. QD toxicity to bacteria was primarily due to cadmium and selenite ions. Once QDs are released into the environment, water and soil characteristics, such as pH, pE, salinity, and natural organic matter, affect their bioavailability and consequent toxicity. Therefore, a potential consequence of microbial interactions with emerging contaminants may be ecotoxicity.
It is important to recognize emerging contaminants and their impact on public health and the environment. A proactive understanding of their interactions with microorganisms will allow us to use them in a sustainable manner and also develop systems to biologically remediate them.Location: Kaprielian Hall (KAP) - 209
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Evangeline Reyes