The objective of this study is to determine a predicted energy capacity of disaster debris for the production of emergency power using a combined heat and power (CHP) unit. A prediction simulation using geographic information systems (GIS) will use data from past storms to calculate an estimated amount of debris along with an estimated energy potential of said debris. Rather than the expense and burden of transporting woody debris such as downed trees and wood framing materials offsite, they can be processed (sorting and chipping) to provide an onsite energy source to provide power to emergency management facilities such as shelters in schools and hospitals. A CHP unit can simultaneously produce heat, cooling effects and electrical power using various biomass sources.This study surveys the quantity and composition of debris produced for a given classification of disaster and location. A comparison of power efficiency estimates for various disasters is conducted.

This thesis will present the effects of the orbital debris evolution in two key areas: the geosynchronous disposal orbit regime known as “graveyard” and the two geopotential wells found in 105◦ W and 75◦ E longitude bins. After developing a GEO specific orbit propagator for NASA Johnson Space Center’s Orbital Debris Of- fice, collisions were simulated throughout these regimes using a low velocity breakup model. This model considered the effects of perturbations particularly non-spherical Earth effects (specifically sectorial and zonal harmonics), lunar effects, third body effects and solar radiation pressure effects. The results show that CDPROP does well in simulating the presence of the Eastern and Western geopotential wells, as well as catching drifting GEO objects. It does not do as well in catching East-West trapped objects. Three collision test cases were then simulated in graveyard and the East and West geopotential wells.

Debris-flows pose serious hazards to communities in mountainous regions of the world and are often responsible for loss of life and damages to infrastructure. Characterised by high flow velocity, large impact forces and long runout, debris-flows have potential discharges several times greater than clear water flood discharges and possess much greater erosive and destructive potential. In combination with poor temporal predictability, they present a significant hazard to settlements, transport routes and other infrastructure located at the drainage points (fan-heads) of watersheds. Thus, it is important that areas vulnerable to debris-flows are identified in order to aid decisions on appropriate land-uses for alluvial fans. This research has developed and tested a new GIS-based procedure for identifying areas prone to debris-flow hazards in the Coromandel/Kaimai region, North Island, New Zealand. The procedure was developed using ESRI Arc View software, utilising the NZ 25 x 25 m DEM as the primary input. When run, it enabled watersheds and their associated morphometric parameters to be derived for selected streams in the study area. Two specific parameters, Melton ratio (R) and watershed length were then correlated against field evidence for debris-flows, debris-floods and fluvial processes at stream watershed locations in the study area. Overall, strong relationships were observed to exist between the evidence observed for these phenomena and the parameters, thus confirming the utility of the GIS procedure for the preliminary identification of hydrogeomorphic hazards such as debris-flow in the Coromandel/Kaimai region study area. In consideration of the results, the procedure could prove a useful tool for regional councils and CDEM groups in regional debris-flow hazard assessment for the identification of existing developments at risk of debris-flow disaster. Furthermore, the procedure could be used to provide justification for subsequent, more intensive local investigations to fully quantify the risk to people and property at stream fan and watershed locations in such areas.

No description available.

Mountain watersheds recently burned by wildfire often experience greater amounts of runoff and increased rates of sediment transport relative to similar unburned areas. Given the sedimentation and debris flow threats caused by increases in erosion, more work is needed to better understand the physical mechanisms responsible for the observed increase in sediment transport in burned environments and the time scale over which a heightened geomorphic response can be expected. In this study, we quantified the relative importance of different hillslope erosion mechanisms during two postwildfire rainstorms at a drainage basin in Southern California by combining terrestrial laser scanner-derived maps of topographic change, field measurements, and numerical modeling of overland flow and sediment transport. Numerous debris flows were initiated by runoff at our study area during a long-duration storm of relatively modest intensity. Despite the presence of a well-developed rill network, numerical model results suggest that the majority of eroded hillslope sediment during this long-duration rainstorm was transported by raindrop-induced sediment transport processes, highlighting the importance of raindrop-driven processes in supplying channels with potential debris flow material. We also used the numerical model to explore relationships between postwildfire storm characteristics, vegetation cover, soil infiltration capacity, and the total volume of eroded sediment from a synthetic hillslope for different end-member erosion regimes. This study adds to our understanding of sediment transport in steep, postwildfire landscapes and shows how data from field monitoring can be combined with numerical modeling of sediment transport to isolate the processes leading to increased erosion in burned areas.

Thesis advisor: Noah P. Snyder / Thesis advisor: Gail C. Kineke / Maine coastal rivers host the last remaining runs of endangered anadromous Atlantic salmon in the United States, whose populations have decline from ~500,000 returning adults in the 1880s to only ~1000 in 2000. Restoration projects have focused on these coastal river systems to bring natural populations back to the area, and recent efforts involve adding large woody debris (LWD) to small tributaries to improve salmon rearing habitat. Large woody debris actively changes the hydraulics and geomorphology of small streams by acting as a barrier to flow and creating decreased velocity zones, scour pools, and sediment storage and sorting. I study the effects of LWD additions in early August 2008 on hydraulics and substrate in Baker Brook, a west-flowing tributary of the Narraguagus River. Hydraulically, I focus on the treatment reach nearest the confluence with the Narraguagus River (Baker1), and I also study changes in substrate in Baker1 and the upstream treatment location (Baker3). Both study locations are divided into two reaches, treatment (Baker1-T and Baker3-T) and control (Baker1-C and Baker3-C). In Baker1, the treatment and control reaches are further divided into four 50 m sub-reaches based on channel gradient (~1% in Baker1-C-Flat and Baker1-T-Flat; >2% in Baker1-C-Steep and Baker1-T-Steep). In Baker3, we use two 50 m sub-reaches of similar gradient (ranges from ~1% to 2%) to determine substrate changes. Significant post-LWD addition changes are determined by comparison with the control sub-reaches. Changes in the treatment sub-reaches must be larger than those in the control sub-reaches to be deemed significant. I seek to answer three research questions: (1) how much does mean velocity through the study sub-reaches change as a result of additions; (2) how much does hydraulic roughness change; and (3) does sediment storage and spatial sorting result from the LWD additions? I measured reach-average velocities (Ureach) in Baker1 using the salt dilution method in May, July and August 2008 and May 2009. I use rating curves to compare the post-treatment to the pre-treatment Ureach-stage relationship. A temporary decrease in Ureach occurred in October 2008 in Baker1-T-Flat, whereas the other sub-reaches experienced no change in Ureach. A localized change in cross-sectionally averaged velocity (U) measured with a flow meter, is also evident at Baker1-T-Flat, but this is because an added tree lies directly in the downstream cross-section where measurements are recorded. I assessed channel roughness changes by comparing roughness rating curves created using the Manning roughness parameter, n (back-calculated from velocity measurements) for each sub-reach. Because of the short-term decrease in Ureach, roughness increased in Baker1-T-Flat in October 2008 as well. No change in roughness is evident in the other sub-reaches because post-treatment values of n plot on the same decreasing trend with respect to stage as pre-treatment values. I quantified pre- and post-treatment sub-reach substrate median grain size (D50) with intensive clast counts in July 2008 and May 2009. In Baker1, analysis of pre-treatment substrate size show that the flat sub-reaches have a finer substrate size (34-38 mm) than the steep sub-reaches (88-134 mm). Baker3 pre-treatment grain size is similar to that of the flat Baker1 sub-reaches, with a median grain size of 38 mm in Baker3-T and 28 mm in Baker3-C. Two of the three treatment sub-reaches exhibited significant fining (D50 decreased by 37-54%) between the surveys, and the third changed less than measurement uncertainty. One of the three control sub-reaches coarsened significantly (D50 increased by 29%), one fined significantly (-42%), and one coarsened less than measurement uncertainty. In summary, I find that LWD additions in Baker Brook had little effect on reach-scale hydraulics during the flows we observed, but did influence bed-grain size during the 10-month study interval, underscoring the importance of floods on channel change. / Thesis (MS) — Boston College, 2009. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Geology and Geophysics.

Orientador: Silvia Maria Giuliatti Winter / Banca: Antonio Fernando Bertachini de Almeida Prado / Banca: Jarbas Cordeiro Sampaio / Resumo: Neste trabalho apresentamos uma análise da dinâmica de detritos espaciais na ressonância 14:1. O sistema analisado foi o sistema Terra-detrito considerando a não esfericidade da Terra. Para esta análise foram utilizados dois programas, o Mercury e o Algorítimo de Transformada de Fourier Modificado por Frequência. O desenvolvimento do potencial terrestre foi feito considerando os coeficientes de achatamento J2, J3 e C22, e as equações do movimento foram encontradas. Afim de analisar a evolução temporal dos elementos orbitais as equações do movimento foram inseridas no pacote Mercury e um conjunto de integrações para 1 e 20 dias foi realizado. As integrações mostram que os coeficientes afetam significativamente as trajetórias dos detritos. As regiões de estabilidade, instabilidade e o tempo de difusão para 5000 partículas foram analisadas através do mapa de difusão obtido pelo algorítimo de análise de frequência. Os resultados indicam regiões de estabilidade próximas à ressonância 14:1 / Abstract: In this work we present an analysis of the dynamics of spatial debris in the 14: 1 resonance. The system analyzed was the Earth-debris system considering the non-sphericity of the Earth. For this analysis, two programs, Mercury and Frequency Modified Fourier Transform Algorithm, were used. The development of the earth potential was made considering the gravity coefficients J2, J3 and C22, and the equations of motion were found. In order to analyze the time evolution of the orbital elements, the equations of motion were inserted in the Mercury package and a set of integrations for 1 and 20 days was performed. The integrations show that the coefficients significantly affect the trajectories of the debris . The regions of stability, instability and diffusion time for 5000 particles were analyzed by the diffusion map obtained by the frequency analysis algorithm. The results indicate stable regions of close to 14:1 / Mestre

The current methods for identifying ignitable liquid residues in fire debris are heavily based on the holistic, qualitative interpretation of chromatographic patterns with the mass spectral identification of selected peaks. The identification of neat, unweathered ignitable liquids according to ASTM 1618 using these methods is relatively straightforward for the trained analyst. The challenges in fire debris analysis arise with phenomena such as evaporation, substrate interference, and biodegradation. These phenomena result in alterations of chromatographic patterns which can lead to misclassifications or false negatives. The biodegradation of ignitable liquids is generally known to be more complex than evaporation [20], and proceeds in a manner that is dependent on numerous factors such as: composition of the petroleum product/ignitable liquid, structure of the hydrocarbon compound, soil type, bacterial community, the type of microbial metabolism that is occurring, and the environmental conditions surrounding in the sample. While nothing can be done to prevent the biodegradation, continued research on biodegraded ignitable liquids and the characterization of the trends observed may be able to provide insight into how an analyst can identify a biodegraded ignitable liquid residue. This research utilized normalized abundance values of select ions from pre-existing gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) data on samples from three different gasoline and diesel biodegradation studies. A total of 18 ions were selected to indicate the presence of six hydrocarbon classes (three each for alkanes, aromatics, cycloalkanes, naphthalenes, indanes, and adamantanes) based on them being either base peaks or high abundance peaks within the electron impact mass spectra of compounds within that hydrocarbon class. The loss of ion abundance over the degradation periods was assessed by creating scatter plots and performing simple linear regression analyses. Coefficient of determination values, the standard error of the estimate, the slope, and the slope error of the best fit line were assessed to draw conclusions regarding which classes exhibited desirable characteristics, relative to the other classes, such as a linear degradation, low variation in abundance within the sampling days, and a slow rate of abundance loss over the degradation period. Additional analyses included two-way analysis of the variance (ANOVA), to assess the effects of time as well as different soil type on the degradation of the hydrocarbons, stepwise multinomial logistic regressions to identify which classes were the best predictors of the type of ignitable liquid, and one-way ANOVAs to determine where the differences in the ratios of hydrocarbon classes existed within each of the ignitable liquids, as well as between the two liquids. Hydrocarbon classes identified as exhibiting characteristics such as slow and/or reliable rates of abundance loss during biodegradation are thought of as desirable for future validation studies, where specific ranges of hydrocarbon class abundance(s) may be used to identify the presence of a biodegraded ignitable liquid. Classes of hydrocarbons that have experienced biodegradation that maintain an abundance close to that of a neat, non degraded counterpart, or that reliably degrade and have predictable abundance levels given a particular period of degradation, would be instrumental in determining whether or not an unknown sample contains an ignitable liquid residue. It is the hope that these assessments will not only provide helpful information to future researchers in the field of fire debris analysis, but that they will create interest in the quantitative, statistical assessment of ignitable liquid data for detection and identification purposes.

Part 1: The emergence of environmentally friendly commercial products and their impact on fire debris analysis. Environmentally friendly products (i.e. green products) are environmentally preferable choices relative to comparable commercial products. They are readily available to the public, often highly flammable, and can be used by criminals as accelerants to facilitate the start and/or spread of fire. It is critical for analysts to have an understanding of their composition and chromatographic characteristics. Green products include paint thinners, solvents, removers, and cleaning and surface preparation products. As the composition of commercial products continually change over time, the fire debris community needs to be aware of the variety of environmentally friendly ignitable liquids that could be encountered during casework. Traditionally, when fire debris analysts have been trained, they are taught that most of the ignitable liquid residues they will encounter in casework are petroleum-based products. With the increasing emergence of non-petroleum based green products in the consumer marketplace, such products may be encountered more often than ever before in fire debris evidence submitted to forensic laboratories. Analysts should become familiar with the chromatographic features of these products as neat liquids as well as when present in fire debris samples. The purpose of this study is to introduce fire debris analysts to the prevalence of green products and increase knowledge regarding a variety of green product compositions and the characteristics they exhibit when analyzed as neat liquids and in "mock" fire debris samples. Several green products were analyzed as neat liquid samples and subsequently extracted from fire debris samples using typical fire debris extraction and analysis techniques in order to familiarize fire debris analysts with the chromatographic and mass spectral features of these products. General information about different types of green commercial products, their chromatographic and mass spectral characteristics, and their interpretation will be summarized. Analytical methods were developed for the analysis of environmentally friendly products and included considerations of gas chromatography oven temperature and ramp rate, hold times, and flow rate, as well as the scan rate and range of the mass spectrometer. Analyses involving common substrates were performed, including spiking green products onto various substrates with subsequent analysis and comparison of burned and unburned samples. Part 2: Application of fast GC/MS analysis for the identification of ignitable liquids in fire debris samples. Fire debris samples that contain ignitable liquid residues undergo a two-step process of extraction, most commonly via passive adsorption elution (PAE) onto an activated carbon strip, and instrumental analysis by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. Upon completion of PAE, adsorbed compounds are eluted from the adsorbent with a suitable solvent and analyzed using (GC/MS) for the potential identification of ignitable liquid residues. A thorough evaluation of the literature revealed the average run time for gas chromatography of fire debris samples that contain hydrocarbon or petroleum based ignitable liquids to be 30 minutes. Additionally, a blank sample is run before an evidentiary sample to ensure solvent purity and to ensure any chromatographic carry over has not occurred between subsequent injections. The average run time, along with case volume, extraction times and case reviews contributes significantly to the backlog of samples to be analyzed in most crime laboratories around the country. Fast-GC/MS would significantly reduce analysis time, lower operating costs and would use less consumables. Based on a process known as pattern recognition, an initial goal of a fire debris analyst is to identify a pattern that is consistent with an ignitable liquid class. The standard method followed by most fire debris analysts use or base standard operating procedures (SOPs) on the American Society of Testing and Materials (ASTM) E1618, which defines the classes of commercial ignitable liquids based on chemical composition and boiling point range (or volatility). This study was conducted to optimize current methods of ignitable liquid detection and to optimize fast-GC/MS conditions for the identification of ignitable liquids in fire debris samples. Additionally, this study was conducted to determine if fast-GC/MS can reduce chromatographic separation times without sacrificing peak resolution and subsequently allow for ignitable liquid discrimination. Method development included considerations of flow rate, initial GC oven temperature, ramp rate, and mid and end temperature hold times. Fast-GC/MS conditions were tested on neat ignitable liquids from all nine ASTM E1618 classes. Optimizing fast-GC/MS method parameters led to an increase in sample throughput in comparison to traditional GC/MS methods. As a result, the GC/MS identification of ignitable liquids and their residues was performed in a quarter of the amount of time when compared to traditional methods.

In space, visual based relative navigation systems suffer from the harsh illumination conditions of the target (e.g. eclipse conditions, solar glare, etc.). In current Rendezvous and Docking (RvD) missions, most of these issues are addressed by advanced mission planning techniques (e.g strict manoeuvre timings). However, such planning would not always be feasible for Active Debris Removal (ADR) missions which have more unknowns. Fortunately, thermal infrared technology can operate under any lighting conditions and therefore has the potential to be exploited in the ADR scenario. In this context, this study investigates the benefits and the challenges of infrared based relative navigation. The infrared environment of ADR is very much different to that of terrestrial applications. This study proposes a methodology of modelling this environment in a computationally cost effective way to create a simulation environment in which the navigation solution can be tested. Through an intelligent classification of possible target surface coatings, the study is generalised to simulate the thermal environment of space debris in different orbit profiles. Through modelling various scenarios, the study also discusses the possible challenges of the infrared technology. In laboratory conditions, providing the thermal-vacuum environment of ADR, these theoretical findings were replicated. By use of this novel space debris set-up, the study investigates the behaviour of infrared cues extracted by different techniques and identifies the issue of short-lifespan features in the ADR scenarios. Based on these findings, the study suggests two different relative navigation methods based on the degree of target cooperativeness: partially cooperative targets, and uncooperative targets. Both algorithms provide the navigation solution with respect to an online reconstruction of the target. The method for partially cooperative targets provides a solution for smooth trajectories by exploiting the subsequent image tracks of features extracted from the first frame. The second algorithm is for uncooperative targets and exploits the target motion (e.g. tumbling) by formulating the problem in terms of a static target and a moving map (i.e. target structure) within a filtering framework. The optical flow information is related to the target motion derivatives and the target structure. A novel technique that uses the quality of the infrared cues to improve the algorithm performance is introduced. The problem of short measurement duration due to target tumbling motion is addressed by an innovative smart initialisation procedure. Both navigation solutions were tested in a number of different scenarios by using computer simulations and a specific laboratory set-up with real infrared camera. It is shown that these methods can perform well as the infrared-based navigation solutions using monocular cameras where knowledge relating to the infrared appearance of the target is limited.