1^st Global Geotechnical and Water Resource Engineering Summit September 18-19, 2017 , Hong Kong

Biography:

Yilang Shen is a PhD candidate in Resources and Environmental Science Institute, Wuhan University. His major specialty contains computer vision, cartographic generalization and spatial data quality.

Abstract:

The data source of spatial data for change detection can be divided into raster and vector format. In traditional methods of change detection, remote sensing image is the primary raster data for change detection. In this paper, we describe the use of a new type of raster data, tile maps, to detect the change information of multi-scale water system. From the perspective of spatial cognition, we propose the theory of hierarchical change detection of water areas based on the multi-scale tile map. The detection level of multi-scale water change is divided into three aspects: macro level, medium level, micro level. We also classify the changes of water areas and establish a set of indicators and rules used for the change detection of water areas in the multi-scale tile map. In addition, we solve the key technology in the process of water extraction from a tile map. For evaluation purpose, the proposed method is applied in several test areas from TianDi map in China. After evaluating the accuracy of change detection, our experimental results confirm the efficiency and high accuracy of the proposed methodology.

Biography:

Mushombe Muma is an Associate Professor at the Université Nouveaux Horizons in Lubumbashi, DR Congo. His specific research areas includes modeling of surface-subsurface water interactions at the watershed scale, analysis of land-use patterns or human activities and climate change impacts on groundwater recharge or river flows, modeling of water losses from crops, analysis of physical and hydraulic properties of soils.

Abstract:

A comprehensive sensitivity analysis study of CATHY (acronym for catchment hydrology model) application was performed with the basic objective of identifying the most influential parameters with respect to: (1) tile-drain flow and (2) edge-of-field flow of the Bras d’Henri, an agricultural micro-watershed in Quebec, Canada. CATHY is a coupled physically-based spatially-distributed model for surface-subsurface flows. Simulations were performed by coupling SENSAN (sensitivity analysis), a tool or a library of parameter estimation of PEST (Parameter Estimation) software and R to CATHY. One screening method of sensitivity analysis and two global sensitivity analysis variance-based methods, namely Morris, FAST99 and Sobol2002, respectively, were used. Of the 24 parameters evaluated using the Morris method, nine and eight parameters, being the most influential on the two output variables, respectively, were used for analysis by the FAST99 and Sobol2002 approaches. According to the Morris method on the one hand, the horizontal saturated hydraulic conductivity greatly influences the volume of water flowing out of the micro-watershed and on the other hand, the flow to the drains depend both on the horizontal and vertical saturated hydraulic conductivities below and above the drains. With regard to the FAST99 and Sobol2002 methods, the edge-of-field flow of the micro-watershed and that at the drains is influenced by the horizontal saturated hydraulic conductivity in the layers underlying the subsurface drainage networks. The highlight of this study is that efforts should be made on characterization of soil anisotropy, that is, this property should be seriously considered for a better understanding of the hydrological processes on a watershed.

Biography:

Bantayehu Uba has received BSc degree in Civil Engineering and MSc degree in Civil Engineering (Geotechnical Engineering) from Mekelle and Addis Ababa Universitiy, respectively. Presently, he is a Lecturer in the Institute of Technology, School of Civil Engineering, Hawassa University. He has also served as part-time Lecturer in Institute of Urban Development Studies, Ethiopian Civil Service University and as Assistant Lecturer at Civil Engineering Department of Technology Faculty, Arba Minch University, Ethiopia. He has worked with contractor and consulting private firms in road and building construction and he is serving as a Project Manager at Santamaria Construction PLC.

Abstract:

Construction of lightly loaded building and other civil engineering structures such us pavement on weak or soft soil is highly risky because such soil is susceptible to differential settlements, poor shear strength and high compressibility. In developing countries like Ethiopia transportation facilities such as roads, railroads and airfields are very important for sustainable development. However, a better performance of the agricultural sector in particular as Ethiopia’s economic growth is highly dependent on it and the sustainable economic growth of the country at large would be achieved through an improvement of the basic infrastructure. Consequently, the road network has been identified as a serious bottleneck for the economic development of the country. An appreciable part of Ethiopia is covered by expansive soil. Most of the roads constructed and proposed as well as substantial amount of the newly planned railway routes in the country pass through in the heart of expansive soils. The roads on this type of soils fail before their expected design life, in some cases after few months of completion. It has been reported in 2004 that Addis Ababa City Roads Authority had annual expenditure of around 300 million Birr for road construction and maintenance out of which more than 30 million Birr was expended for routine maintenances which is too big and require special attention. The current maintenance and rehabilitation practice also depends more on visual observation and functional evaluations such as surface roughness and visual survey at network level rather than detail pavement evaluation at project level. Major trunk and lower class universal rural access roads failed with in liability period where subgrade soil is black clay soil, but researches show that various treatments such as mechanical, lime and chemical stabilization has been implemented. Moreover, based on the pavement survey, the CBR criteria could not result in reliable solution in case of pavement on expansive subgrade. Thus additional stability criteria should be adopted to resist the heaving condition. Finally, emphasis should be given to the importance in construction in this kind of soil of strictly applying engineered design of geometric, drainage, pavement thickness, material selection and proportioning. Thus, the client, policy makers and other concerned bodies shall decide to accept and control the risk associated with construction on this soil or not or to decide that more detail study is required to allow for extra design and construction pre-emptive measures once the potential problem has been identified and the end user convinced of the cost-savings in adopting a pro-active approach.

Biography:

Hi-Ryong Byun had been a Weather Forecaster in Korean Air Force for 19 years. In 1982, he faced and experienced a very hard situation of drought and started to study drought. After separation from Air Force, he became a Professor who taught the Synoptic Meteorology. In Pukyong National University, he wrote many articles on natural disasters like thunderstorms, fogs, typhoons, floods, heat waves, etc., especially more articles on drought and made the EDI (Effective Drought Index). He has acquired many patents that mitigate the damages from disasters. Patents against global warming, drought and algae are his masterpieces.

Abstract:

In Ethiopia, many researches were done on characterizing expansive soils but only a very limited number of studies were conducted on Addis Ababa expansive soil, exists on the unsaturated shear strength behavior. The present study addresses examining expansive soils in Arba Minch; a town in the Rift Valley with great portion of its terrain covered by the same soil but not considered previously. Laboratory-testing program was planned and performed on undisturbed soil samples taken from 10 locations for swelling pressure testing and among these, one pit was allotted for unsaturated shear strength study. The laboratory test results revealed swelling pressure ranges from 74.53 to 571.29 kPa, Plasticity Index from 49 to 77%, Shrinkage Index from 81 to 117% and Free Swell from 94.0 to 165.0%. The results from unsaturated shear strength tests performed with a 50kN modified double wall triaxial machine on an undisturbed sample setting matric suction 100 kPa, 150 kPa and 200kPa for an effective consolidation pressure of 200kPa have clearly indicated the saturated case to yield smaller shear strength than the unsaturated one. The maximum deviator stress showed to increase from 107.61 kPa to 174.35 kPa with an increase in matric suction but the shape of the stress-strain diagram remained identical.

Biography:

Prof. Basahi obtained his PhD for Texas A&M, Texas, USA in 1998.  His speciality is irrigation engineering.  Since his return, he teaches several courses related to his speciality and supervised many graduation projects.  He conducted several research projects that were supported from the university as well as KACST.  He was promoted as Professor in 2007.

Abstract:

The study was carried out to understand the influences of flash flood on groundwater suitability in the arid region, Wadi Baysh Basin, Western Saudi Arabia. Groundwater samples were collected from 82 wells and 100 wells, before and after flash flood (FF), respectively and measured EC, pH, major ions and nutrients. Groundwater in the study area is alkaline in nature (pH>7) and the average EC value is 2556 µS/cm and 2265 µS/cm before and after FF, respectively. After FF, the average concentrations of TDS, Mg, Na, Cl, NO₃ and EC in the groundwater are decreased in the study area whereas K and SO₄ are increased. Groundwater suitability assessment for drinking and domestic uses indicate that 46% and 49% of wells, before and after FF, respectively are suitable for drinking based on TDS. According WHO drinking water standards, most of the samples exceeded highest desirable limit, especially pH, TDS and TH; however, around 60% of groundwater samples are within the maximum allowable limit. Further, water quality and its suitability for drinking are improved after flash flood recharge especially in the case of TDS, Ca, Na, Cl, HCO₃ and NO₃. Drinking water suitability maps illustrate that wells in the upstream region come under mostly suitable category except TDS and TH. In the downstream, unsuitable zones became moderately suitable zones after FF except Cl and SO₄. Hence, suitability maps suggest that the water quality in the downstream is improved by FF recharge compared to upstream. Irrigational suitability of the groundwater is evaluated using various parameters. Salinity classification indicates that the groundwater samples in the study area fall permissible (C3, 61%) and unsuitable (C4 and C5, 33%) classes. According to Kelly’s ratio, 61% and 69% of wells, before and after FF, respectively are suitable for irrigation. Kelly’s ratio, Mg hazard and Na percentage reveal that the water quality is improved by dilution after FF. USSL classification illustrates that majority of the water samples are plotted on C3S1 (BFF: 50%, AFF: 56%), C4S2 (BFF: 21%, AFF: 19%) and C3S2 classes irrespective of FF. Irrigational suitability maps depict that wells in the upstream region are suitable for irrigation whereas wells located near to the coast are unsuitable for irrigation. Parameters namely TDS, Mg hazard, Kelly’s ratio and Na percentage justify that the water quality is improved after FF by dilution, especially in the downstream region. 

Biography:

Mehman Agarza Oglu Rzayev has significant experience in irrigation investigations, agriculture water management. He deeply investigated water sector transition from planned economy to the market economy, participatory irrigation management practices. He has proposed application of multilevel assessment approach to define shortages in functioning of the irrigation systems observed at various levels and based on the result of such assessment prioritization of investments required for its modernization. He has suggested applying integrated approach for improvement of irrigation management to achieve sustainability in irrigated agriculture. His recent articles devoted to the analyses of water management techniques at various levels, comparable analyses of irrigation sector reforms and state water management policy.

Abstract:

Statement of the Problem: Azerbaijan Republic suffers from insufficiency of internal water resources. Trans-boundary inflow from neighboring countries is amounted averagely 70% from total renewable freshwater resources. 70.6% of total fresh water was consumed for irrigation in 2015. Future sustainability of water resources depends on the volumes of inflows into the country and irrigation management, including modernization of the existing infrastructure. Recently the government has outlined strategic goal to achieve sustainable usage of land and water resources in agriculture by establishment of the environmentally friendly food production systems and improvement of irrigation. This task requires elaborating integrated measures based on the assessment of the functioning of the existing irrigation infrastructure.

Methodology & Theoretical Orientation: The peculiarities of irrigated agriculture and climatic changes have been considered as the key indicators, directly affecting to the sustainability of water resources usage at national and basin level. The current irrigated agriculture practices and influencing factors have been reviewed with the analysis of statistic data, reports from service entities, findings by the international organizations, collected own data as well as other sources devoted to this problem.

Findings: The current problems of irrigation is originated from drastic agricultural land fragmentation, significant water losses during abstraction, distribution and irrigation in the field, outdated irrigation facilities, poor irrigation management especially at on-farm level, the number of deficiencies observed in the current farming system. The newly adopted road map needs to be realized through supported integrated and interlinked measures to balance with environment friendly agriculture production and sustainable water usage in irrigation.

Conclusion & Significance: The policy of efficient water resource and its use can be achieved in case if proposed, measures are applied on integrated and uninterrupted way in all levels of irrigation management. These measures cover engineering and institutional improvements for better water resource management in irrigation.

Biography:

Lila Prasad Limbu (M.A), Lecturer at Ratna Rajya Laxmi Campus , Tribhuvan University, is trained in Rural  Development department. He is also trained in research methodology from Aims International College (AMS), Central Department of Rural Development in Kirtipur,Tribhuvan university and Impact Evaluation research from a number of workshop/training organized/supported . He has more than 15 years of experience in teaching and social science research. His core area is survey research mainly focuses on impact evaluation, Feasibility, Sustainability and development. He is well acquainted with both quantitative and qualitative research. He has considerable working experience with government, and a number of INGOs/NGOs. He has published a number of articles. He has been continuously updating his expertise through various training, workshop/ seminars and research activities.

Abstract:

Nepalese government has been expanding sustainable water system in Nepal. On the process of expanding drinking water systems, the Nepalese government has been trying to involve governmental, non-governmental and private sectors. The governmental sector is leading from department of water supply and sewerage. To fulfill sustainable development goals, local government and NGOs have been conducting many drinking water and sanitation program in different parts of Nepal. However, only 11.06% people get safe drinking water in Nepal. Even more, the percentage mostly covers the urban area. The most of rural people are far away from safe drinking water in Nepal. Due to this, Nepalese government has been involving public and private sector to develop safe drinking water supply system in village area. The Nepal government has been spending money for constructing safe drinking water supply system. The projects lunched by government are not functioning well within two or three years. In the same way, British Gurkha Welfare office has been conducting rural water and sanitation program in different parts of Nepal by helping DFID and British Gurkha Trust. These are more sustainable than the Nepalese government drinking water projects. They need not repair for a long time. If there is existing minor problems, local people immediately repair those things in that projects. So, this study was conducted with objective of comparing the basic standard of sustainability between British Gurkha pipeline rural drinking water supply system and the Nepalese government pipeline rural drinking water supply system for reconstructing the sustainable rural drinking water supply system for rural area. So, in the research article the compulsion theory of sustainability in rural drinking water project explores the causes of sustainability of rural Gurkha Welfare pipeline drinking water supply system and weakness of Nepalese government rural pipeline drinking water supply system in Basantatar Village Development Committee in Dhankuta district. The study is mainly based on primary and secondary data which were collected by using field survey, discussion, focus group discussion and observation methods with help of structured questionnaires and check-list. Finally, it concludes that compulsion is major element for sustainability for the rural pipeline drinking water project. 

Biography:

Ahmed Abouhend is a PhD student in Environmental and Water Resources Engineering (EWRE) Program at UMass Amherst, USA. He used to work at the National Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries, Egypt. He did his Masters in Egypt then traveled to the US to pursue his PhD research. He is interested in water quality assessment, wastewater technologies and reactors operations. His PhD research focuses on the oxygenic photo-granules (OPGs) process as a novel technology for wastewater treatment.

Abstract:

Wastewater treatment is an energy-intensive industry. About 2.16 MJ of energy is required for the treatment of 1 m3 of wastewater. Since 1912-1914, activated sludge process is the most common technology for wastewater treatment. In activated sludge system, mechanical aeration is required to provide oxygen to the biological flocs (bacteria). Then, the bacterial flocs use this oxygen to oxidize the organic matter and ammonia from wastewater. The process involves oxygen being introduced into the activated sludge system accounts for 25-60% of the overall operational costs. Besides, activated sludge does not settle very well so settling tanks are required to allow the biological flocs to settle. On the other hand, untreated wastewater holds more than 10 times the energy used to treat it. If we can capture this potential energy from wastewater, the wastewater treatment process might become an energy producer rather than a consumer. We propose the oxygenic photogranule (OPG) process for aeration-free wastewater treatment. OPG process is a light-driven wastewater treatment that eliminates the need for mechanical aeration to treat wastewater. These photogranules are enriched with a phototrophic community (cyanobacteria, microalgae) that produces O2 needed for oxidizing organic matter and treating wastewater. Under sunlight, the phototrophs autonomously produce O2 through photosynthesis, which in the activated sludge process should be provided by energy-intensive aeration. In turn, the heterotrophic bacteria within the OPG uses this oxygen to oxidize the organic matter in wastewater and produces CO2 for phototrophs. We evaluated the feasibility of these granules for wastewater treatment in bench and pilot scales. The OPG process can cut the wastewater treatment costs in half through sustaining self-aeration process. Besides, the easily harvested phototrophic biomass could be converted through various pathways to biofuels. This phototrophic biogranule technique would allow wastewater treatment plants to generate most of the energy needed for plant operation.

Biography:

Abstract:

In this work, fish scales waste remains (FSWR) was employed as an ecofriendly and readily available cheap adsorbent for the removal of toxic mercury (II) and arsenic (III) ions from wastewater. The research focused on the adsorption ability of FSWR as a cost-effective technology for treatment of mercury (II) and arsenic (III) contaminated industrial wastewater. A FSWR sorbent was prepared and its morphology evaluated. The sorbent had a round shape and rough surface with a particle size of ≤63 µm. Batch adsorption experiment was conducted to examine the effects of FSWR dosage, pH, initial concentration of metal ions and contact time on adsorption of Hg (II) and As (III) from the wastewater. The obtained results showed that, the adsorption of the selected metal ions was FSWR dosage, pH, initial concentration of metal ions and contact time dependent. The optimum FSWR dosage, initial concentration, contact time and pH for adsorption of Hg (II), were found to be at 76.99 mg/L, 22.63 mg/L, 74.48 min and 7.29, respectively, while the optimum FSWR dosage, initial concentration, contact time and pH for adsorption of As (III) were found to be 78.82 mg/L, 23.85 mg/L, 63.89 mg/L and 7.78 mg/L, respectively. Kinetic studies showed that pseudo-second-order reaction model best described the adsorption process. Using Langmuir isotherm model, the equilibrium data yielded the following ultimate capacity values for the FSWR: On a per gram basis of FSWR: 35.83 mg/g and 33.93 mg/g for As (III) and Hg (II), respectively. The thermodynamic study shows that the adsorption of the ions was endothermic in nature. The negative values of ∆G reveal the feasibility and spontaneous nature of the process. The study showed that FSWR can be efficiently used as low cost alternative for removal of metal ions.

Biography:

Tae Jin Kim has been involved in various aspects of water and environmental fields, including watershed management, water availability, river basin hydrology and management of river/reservoir system and optimization. His specific fields are watershed protection plan focused on surface runoff, base flow and salinity, urban stormwater management focused on food and water pollutant, multiple reservoir system operation, optimization, decision support system and watershed flood management.

Abstract:

The monthly time step Water Rights Analysis Package Model (WRAP) is one of the components in the Texas Water Availability Model (WAM) system. Sub-monthly time step capabilities to conventional WRAP based on the monthly time step has been added. In this study, focus was given to key variables for simulating sub-monthly time step WRAP as follows: Disaggregation of monthly inflow and routing parameters computation. The daily flow pattern method was utilized for disaggregating Brazos River Authority Condensed (BRAC) monthly inflow and routing parameters based on length are computed. The USACE Southwestern Division Reservoir System Simulation Model (SUPER) model daily unregulated (naturalized) flows from 1939 to 1997 were used to develop daily flow patterns for disaggregating BRAC monthly inflows. The mean values of the daily naturalized flow for 1939 to 1997 were used as the flow pattern for 1900 to 1939 and 1998 to 2007. Also, these daily flow patterns were distributed to the other ungagged control points. The lag times at control points of the BRAC data set were computed based on the distance of the reaches with consideration of the lag time computed using the SUPER daily naturalized flow. The Muskingum routing parameters (K) were also computed based on the distance of the reaches. The key variable evaluated in this study provides a sufficient level of accuracy for using the model in flood control operations for a multiple-reservoir system. However, further refinements are possible by spending more time and effort to compile more detailed data.

Biography:

Kanhu Charan Patra has experience of 35 years in the field of water resources and hydraulic engineering. He has authored 8 books in water resources engineering and published more than 200 papers in the international journals and conferences. He has worked in the water resources engineering departments over a decade gaining unique experience in the planning, design, construction and management of water resources projects. Presently, he is working as a Professor, gaining experience in research, evaluation, teaching and administration

Abstract:

Statistical downscaling has become a convenient tool to bridge the gap between the scales of the outputs of GCM and the weather parameters needed for hydrologic analysis. Over the years many innovative methodologies have been developed and tested for the statistical downscaling to assess the impact of climate change on the hydrologic processes. In this study, three different methods of downscaling are studied for the Brahmani-Baitarani river basin for the Indian catchments: Classification using KNN, regression using multi-linear regression and change factor using Delta method. The comparison is based on 3 GCMs from the phase 5 of Coupled Model Inter-comparison (CMIP 5) and for the RCP 8.5 scenario. The observed data is taken from four meteorological stations spread over the basin. Various performance evaluation tests like coefficient of determination (R2), normalized mean square error (NMSE), Nash-Sutcliffe Efficiency (NSE) and percentage bias (PBIAS) are implemented to evaluate the different methods. Kolmogorov Smirnov (KS) test is applied to the three different methods so that comparison can be done of the distributions of the modelled values to the distribution of the observed data sets. Each method has its own set of virtues and vices. All the three methods are able to capture the pattern of monthly rainfall adequately.