Over 3.7 million people are in high risk of coastal flooding and live within 1 mile of high tide in the US alone. The Atlantic coast is one of the most vulnerable areas due to its low elevation, large population, and economic importance (Bray, et. al, 2016). Coastal municipalities in the region of Southeast Florida, such as the cities of Miami, Miami Beach, Fort Lauderdale, etc., are at especial risk from coastal flooding related to sea level rise. The US National Climate Assessment has named Miami, Florida as the economically most vulnerable city impacted by this sea level rise in the world (Melillo et. al, 2014). Virtually all coastal communities in Southeast Florida are now experiencing increased incidents of coastal tidal flooding and coastal storm flooding related to sea level rise. This has led to a variety of responses by coastal communities in how to address this issue. In the case of the City of Miami Beach, the city has [CS1] come up with an ambitious but expensive plan to help combat the increased urban coastal flooding that is now occurring multiple times a year. They invested over 500 million dollars into replacing the increasingly less-effective gravity-based drainage system with a pump-based system (Bray, et. al, 2016). With these influences, we hypothesized that microbial communities would significantly differ between three years (2014-2016) and that the potential pathogens would increase over the past years . Genetic analyses of the 16S rRNA V4 region yielded a total of 77,346 unique bacterial OTUs from a total of 96 samples collected monthly for three years from 2014-2016. The most abundant OTU within the whole sample set was New.ReferenceOTU407 or Arcobacter in the Campylobacter family with an overall abundance of 0.008232535481%.The second most abundant organism in the sample set was Bacillus, or OTUNew.CleanUp.ReferenceOTU121132, with an overall abundance of .007797807097%. Bacillusmay cause many more foodborne illness than is known and one main reason that there is not more reported cases is because people do not seek medical attention (FDA 2012). The remaining pathogens except for Serratia, Pleisomonas, and Cronobacter were all with an abundance over .001%, with Salmonella, Yersinia,andListeria not being identified at all within the data set. By showing that genetic signatures for this bacterium, especially Arcobacter,was present in more than half of the samples stresses the importance of better understanding of the microbial population within South Florida waters and how to prevent or reduce future outbreaks by making sure the water is treated correctly before use, and to better identify potential exposure sources in water.

Miscible gas flooding is a common method for enhanced oil recovery. Reliable design of miscible gas flooding requires compositional reservoir simulation that can accurately predict the fluid properties resulting from mass transfer between reservoir oil and injection gas. Drawbacks of compositional simulation are the efficiency and robustness of phase equilibrium calculations consisting of flash calculations and phase stability analysis. Simulation of multicontact miscible gas flooding involves a large number of phase equilibrium calculations in a near-critical region, where the calculations are time-consuming and difficult. Also, mixtures of reservoir oil and solvent such as CO₂ and rich gas can exhibit complex phase behavior at temperatures typically below 120°F, where three hydrocarbon-phases can coexist. However, most compositional simulators do not attempt to solve for three hydrocarbon-phases because three-phase equilibrium calculations are more complicated, difficult, and time-consuming than traditional two-phase equilibrium calculations. Due to the lack of robust algorithms for three-phase equilibrium calculations, the effect of a third hydrocarbon-phase on low-temperature oil displacement is little known. We develop robust and efficient algorithms for phase equilibrium calculations for two and three phases. The algorithms are implemented in a compositional reservoir simulator. Simulation case studies show that our algorithms can significantly decrease the computational time without loss of accuracy. Speed-up of 40% is achieved for a reservoir simulation using 20 components, compared to standard algorithms. Speed-up occurs not only because of improved computational efficiency but also because of increased robustness resulting in longer time-step sizes. We demonstrate the importance of three-phase equilibrium calculations, where simulations with two-phase equilibrium approximations proposed in the literature can result in complete failure or erroneous simulation results. Using the robust phase equilibrium algorithms developed, the mechanism is investigated for high efficiency of low-temperature oil displacements by CO₂ involving three hydrocarbon-phases. Results show that high displacement efficiency can be achieved when the composition path goes near the critical endpoint where the gaseous and CO₂-rich liquid phases merge in the presence of the oleic phase. Complete miscibility may not be developed for three-phase flow without considering the existence of a tricritical point. / text

Seventeenth-century Seville, one of early modern Spain's most populous cities and the mercantile hub of its imperial trade, endured repeated and severe flooding of the Guadalquivir River, events that have been largely overlooked by historians. Additionally, Seville's boom-then-bust history and the allure of the 'decline of Spain' thesis have ensured that the second half of the seventeenth century for both the urban and the national context remains similarly neglected. This thesis, by conducting research into the city's flooding from 1621 to 1700 presents an alternative narrative of continuity, at the same time as asserting the value to be gained from a historical study of the environment and disasters. I argue that urban responses - political and cultural - to disaster provide fundamental evidence of the impact of wider historical processes and structures. The asistente - the royal governor - of Seville likewise lacks sustained or detailed study. These men, as the king's appointees, had a vital role in the performance of the government of the Habsburg monarchy. The city's equivalent of the corregidor in other Spanish cities and towns, and previously understood as a legal and administrative official, the asistente was, I argue, responded to a broader set of political attitudes, which prioritised conservation and discouraged novelty. I also stress the hands-on and practical aspects to the post, which demanded a working appreciation of urban space. By connecting a study of royal government in one of the most significant of early modern Spanish cities to an environmental history of flooding, I address important gaps in the scholarship and suggest new avenues of research into the history of environmental disaster. Spanish 'decline' might be reinterpreted as a failure to deal with specific local environmental issues, and environmental disaster acknowledged as an issue of central political importance.

The new and upcoming field of wireless sensor networking is unfortunately still lacking in terms of both digital forensics and security. All communications between different nodes (also known as motes) are sent out in a broadcast fashion. These broadcasts make it quite difficult to capture data packets forensically and, at the same time, retain their integrity and authenticity. The study presents several attacks that can be executed successfully on a wireless sensor network, after which the dissertation delves more deeply into the flooding attack as it is one of the most difficult attacks to address in wireless sensor networks. Furthermore, a set of factors is presented to take into account while attempting to achieve digital forensic readiness in wireless sensor networks. The set of factors is subsequently discussed critically and a model is proposed for implementing digital forensic readiness in a wireless sensor network. The proposed model is next transformed into a working prototype that is able to provide digital forensic readiness to a wireless sensor network. The main contribution of this research is the digital forensic readiness prototype that can be used to add a digital forensics layer to any existing wireless sensor network. The prototype ensures the integrity and authenticity of each of the data packets captured from the existing wireless sensor network by using the number of motes in the network that have seen a data packet to determine its integrity and authenticity in the network. The prototype also works on different types of wireless sensor networks that are in the frequency range of the network on which the prototype is implemented, and does not require any modifications to be made to the existing wireless sensor network. Flooding attacks pose a major problem in wireless sensor networks due to the broadcasting of communication between motes in wireless sensor networks. The prototype is able to address this problem by using a solution proposed in this dissertation to determine a sudden influx of data packets within a wireless sensor network. The prototype is able to detect flooding attacks while they are occurring and can therefore address the flooding attack immediately. Finally, this dissertation critically discusses the advantages of having such a digital forensic readiness system in place in a wireless sensor network environment. Copyright / Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Computer Science / unrestricted

Flooding over the last few years has become the most frequent and devastating of the natural disasters. This has accounted for approximately half of the death-rate and a third of economic losses as a result of weather-related events. Though these flooding events affect many cities across the globe, it is often the less fortunate who are disproportionately impacted by such events. There are many factors as to why this is the unfortunate case, with a high number of the underprivileged urban population finding themselves living in informal settlements. These settlements are often developed on environmentally-fragile land on steep sites or floodplains and lack the adequate waste and drainage systems that control the flow of water, further aggravating the flood risk within these areas. These uneven hardships are no different to Cape Town metropolitan region. Flooding has become an annual recurrence for the city during the wet winter months between May and September, with the informal settlements in the Cape Flats low-lying area bearing the brunt of this impact. The research therefore aims to explore how integrated flood control design within urban development can contribute to creating social and environmental sustainable interventions for flood resilience in informal settlements within the Cape Town municipality. One of the most important findings was the strong relation between waste as one of the largest contributors to the flooding events in these settlements, which became a key driver for investigation within the research. Kosovo informal settlement is one of the hardest hit communities during Cape Town’s high rainfall winter seasons and will used as the case study area for the research. The objective of the study is to investigate the existing condition and the involved stakeholders to develop well thought design strategies and toolbox for the municipality, planners, and residents. The design strategies and toolbox provides mechanisms to rethink flood prevention measures by shifting from creating barriers [interrupt], to mechanisms that engage with floodwater [interact] within a case study area. This research has attempted to position the community at the centre. Community participation and collaboration with key stakeholders will allow the residents to contribute with their local knowledge, experience and voices, sharing their views on the design solutions that are required to be integrated into their spaces.

Master of Landscape Architecture / Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional and Community Planning / Timothy D. Keane / Urbanization has lead to environmental degradation in most of the world’s great cities. With the degradation of natural systems comes a reliance on man-made and engineered systems to perform functions vital to cities such as water treatment, the filtering of pollutants, flood mitigation, temperature control, and erosion prevention; functions formerly performed by natural systems. Relying on man-made operations to perform essential services comes at a cost, both in terms of monetary costs and in the resources needed to construct and operate them. New Orleans is a prime example of a city that has greatly altered the ecosystems that formerly existed on the site and has had to rely on human engineering for its survival. Instead of the mosaic of freshwater marshes, wooded swamps, wet meadows, and bottomland forests that once comprised New Orleans and allowed for the diffusion, evaporation, and infiltration of floodwater; present day New Orleans has had to rely on a system of levees and pumps to keep the City dry. These pumps and levees have allowed New Orleans to expand and prosper but failures in the flood control system have also lead to great disasters, Hurricane Katrina and the related flood in 2004 being the latest. Implementing permaculture designs to New Orleans will buffer the City from the effects of hurricanes and flooding and decrease its reliance on city services. These permaculture designs recreate key elements of the natural systems that formerly existed in New Orleans and attempt to again create spaces in the City were stormwater can safely be detained without damaging property and that allow the stormwater to infiltrate into the soil. At the same time these permaculture designs would enhance the character and uniqueness that makes New Orleans one of the world’s great cities.

Reservoir management strategies traditionally attempt to combine and balance complex geophysical, petrophysical, thermodynamic and economic factors to determine an optimal method to recover hydrocarbons from a given reservoir. Reservoir simulators have traditionally been too large and run times too long to allow for rigorous solution in conjunction with an optimization algorithm. It has also proven very difficult to marry an optimizer with the large set of nonlinear partial differential equations required for accurate reservoir simulation. A simple capacitance-resistance model (CRM) that characterizes the connectivity between injection and production wells can determine an injection scheme maximizes the value of the reservoir asset. Model parameters are identified using linear and nonlinear regression. The model is then used together with a nonlinear optimization algorithm to compute a set of future injection rates which maximize discounted net profit. This research demonstrates that this simple dynamic model provides an excellent match to historic data. Based on three case studies examining actual reservoirs, the optimal injection schemes based on the capacitance-resistive model yield a predicted increase in hydrocarbon recovery of up to 60% over the extrapolated exponential historic decline. An advantage of using a simple model is its ability to describe large reservoirs in a straightforward way with computation times that are short to moderate. However, applying the CRM to large reservoirs with many wells presents several new challenges. Reservoirs with hundreds of wells have longer production histories – new wells are created, wells are shut in for varying periods of time and production wells are converted to injection wells. Additionally, ensuring that the production data to which the CRM is fit are free from contamination or corruption is important. Several modeling techniques and heuristics are presented that provide a simple, accurate reservoir model that can be used to optimize the value of the reservoir over future time periods. In addition to optimizing reservoir performance by allocating injection, this research presents a few methods that use the CRM to find optimal well locations for new injectors. These algorithms are still in their infancy and represent the best ideas for future research. / text

Houston's Fifth Ward neighborhood is one of the last remaining areas of the inner city to have not yet seen large-scale redevelopment. Situated just northeast of downtown, the neighborhood's population is predominantly low- to mid-income African Americans; demographics are similar today as they were during the neighborhood's prime, from the 1920s-60s, when the Fifth Ward was a cultural hub of Houston famous for its musical culture of zydeco and blues. The ward's rich history also has dark spots, however, specifically its longstanding reputation as a center of poverty and violent crime, and its physical vulnerability to damaging floods. Much of the neighborhood's built history is unpreserved and unprotected, at risk of being wiped off the map by both development interests and extreme weather events. By modernizing the city's approach to stormwater management and infrastructure and strengthening its historic preservation and emergency management practices, Houston could help preserve one of its oldest communities, while also decreasing flood volumes, improving air and water quality, saving money, and establishing a pattern of smart growth citywide. In addition, neighborhood level efforts to promote placemaking via preservation and sustainability efforts can help the Fifth Ward leverage the redevelopment process to change its reputation, ensuring a future for the community that respects its past. / text

<p>The main objective of this study is to understand and asses flood risk perception among people living in Msimbazi Valley in Das es Salaam, Tanzania. Many of the people I have interviewed are experiencing flooding every year but it is rarely considered disastrous. Looked at individually they may not be disasters but cumulatively they may be. The rapid urbanisation, in this part of the world, forces people to live on hazardous but central land because of the livelihood opportunities available there. The government and the local communities are well aware of the risk of floods in the area and are considered as a serious threat to the families. People are still living in these areas because they find the benefits big enough to make up the risks.</p>

An avoidance response was conditioned to three stimuli presented in serial order. Following conditioning, each group of subjects received a different treatment procedure. The group I procedure involved distributed CS trials, contingent, non-anxious CS terminations, and individualized treatment durations. Group 2 subjects received massed CS trials, non-contingent CS terminations, and non-individualized treatment durations. Group 3 subjects experienced distributed CS trials, contingent non-anxious CS terminations, and non-individualized treatment durations. Individual izing treatment duration (termination contingent upon operational ized measure of anxiety dissipation) was found to significantly hasten the extinction of avoidance responses. Implications for the effective practice of implosive therapy were discussed. Yoked control methods were criticized for confounding the variable of individualization of the yoked variable.