The University Area (UA), a low-income, unincorporated neighborhood in Hillsborough County, Florida, is a site of sustainable redevelopment by the local government and nonprofit organizations. Throughout the past decade, the transitions in local and state political climates have significantly impacted the residents’ ability to advocate for infrastructural and environmental improvement to the site. This thesis discusses the findings of a research project dedicated to exploring resident perspectives of stormwater management, infrastructure, and the redevelopment currently occurring the University Area. Drawing from theoretical concepts in political ecology, environmental justice, and the interplay of agency and structure, this research investigates the impacts of flooding on the UA’s residents and infrastructure; specifically, the ways it affects the population’s interaction with their environment. Data were collected using a mixed methods approach including participant observation; semi structured interviews with residents, developers, and community organization employees; ground truthing the area to verify the location of the stormwater drains present in a selection of the UA; a historical review of the area’s land use; and analysis of critical environmental justice databases. Findings indicate that flooding in the University Area is related to historical oppressive housing strategies against minority and low-income populations. Results found that flooding in UA is caused by a combination of faulty infrastructure (impervious surfaces and a subpar, unmaintained stormwater system), increasing rain events (climate change), and the lack of municipality support (power dynamics). The oppressive power dynamic present in the relationship between the residents and their respective property owners and the county municipality services exacerbates problems with flooding. Redevelopment plans in the University Area must address the effects of historical marginalization and disenfranchisement of the current residents with respect to housing segregation and lack of municipality support. Without these considerations, the cycle of disenfranchisement faced by the current residents of the UA will likely continue and worsen over time.

Counter-Current Flow Limitation (CCFL) is of importance for PWR safety analyses in several accident scenarios connected with loss of coolant. Basing on the experiences obtained during a first series of hot leg tests now new experiments on counter-current flow limitation were conducted in the TOPFLOW pressure vessel. The test series comprises air-water tests at 1 and 2 bar as well as steam-water tests at 10, 25 and 50 bar. During the experiments the flow structure was observed along the hot leg model using a high-speed camera and web-cams. In addition pressure was measured at several positions along the horizontal part and the water levels in the reactor-simulator and steam-generator-simulator tanks were determined. This report documents the experimental setup including the description of operational and special measuring techniques, the experimental procedure and the data obtained. From these data flooding curves were obtained basing on the Wallis parameter. The results show a slight shift of the curves in dependency of the pressure. In addition a slight decrease of the slope was found with increasing pressure. Additional investigations concern the effects of hysteresis and the frequencies of liquid slugs. The latter ones show a dependency on pressure and the mass flow rate of the injected water. The data are available for CFD-model development and validation.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to increase the knowledge of the complexity of a crisis team consisting of multiple government. Furthermore, the consequences of the complexity on the sensemaking and sensegiving processes, regarding the crisis team in a natural disaster. Method: To be able to answer the questions regarding this study, the empirical data has been collected through six (6) interviews. The researchers for this study have applied a case study on the floodings of Mälaren December 2019. Therefore, the interviews have been done with the persons within this crisis team. Empiricism and Analysis: The theoretical framework that has been applied for the analysis of this study consists of three main topics, complexity, sensemaking and sensegiving. Conclusions: The final conclusions of this study identify that there are multiple factors of complexity that affect the sensemaking and sensegiving process. These complexity factors are: routines, preexperiences, excellence in specific field, terminology, missions, mandate and hierarchy. These complexity factors create frictions and possibilities for the crisis team in regard of the consequences of the complexity factors on the sensemaking and sensegiving processes. / Syfte: Syftet med studien är att skapa en ökad förståelse för komplexitetens påverkan på den meningsskapande och meningsgivande processen. Samt hur detta påverkar en krisgrupp bestående av flertalet myndigheter i en hantering av en naturkatastrof. Metod: För att besvara studiens frågeställningar har det empiriska materialet samlats in genom en kvalitativ metod, i form av sex semistrukturerade intervjuer. Då forskarna för denna studie har tillämpat en fallstudie grundar sig studien på översvämningskriserna i december 2019. Därmed genomfördes intervjuerna på respondenter som representerade olika myndigheter som samverkat i detta fall. Empiri och analys: Det underlag som använts till studiens analys är den teoretiska referensramen som omfattar litteratur om komplexitet, meningsskapande och meningsgivande. Slutsatser: De slutsatser som identifierades var att komplexa faktorer hade en påverkan på meningsskapande och meningsgivande processerna. Dessa huvudsakliga faktorer identifierades som: rutiner, tidigare erfarenheter, spetskompetenser, terminologier, uppdrag, mandat och hierarki. Dessa komplexa faktorer gör att meningsskapande och meningsgivande processerna skapar friktioner och möjligheter för krisgruppen.

Återhämtningsprocessen efter naturkatastrofer är en ny process i Sverige som få studier studerat. Teorin om den kommunikativa planeringen innebär att kommunikationen och samverkan är väsentlig för att lyckas med en planering utan dispyter och argument. Syftet är att analysera hur den kommunikativa planeringen är en del av återhämtningsprocessen efter översvämningen i Gävle 2021. Två frågeställningar har använts; på vilket sätt har kommunkoncernen och medborgarna i Gävle implementerat återhämtningsstrategier samt hur upplevs samverkan vid återhämtningsprocessen fungera mellan aktörerna.   Studien tar en explorativ ansats och kvalitativa intervjuer har genomförts med aktörer i Gävle. Det framgår att kommunkoncernen samverkar, man att medborgarna inte är inblandade vid återhämtningsprocessen utöver återhämtningen av sina hem. Avsaknaden av att vara inblandade har lett till missnöjen, vilket kan lösas genom förtydliganden och information om medborgarnas roller och vad som förväntas av dem. Därmed är slutsatsen att den kommunikativa planeringen delvis är en del av återhämtningsprocessen. / Few have studied the recovery after natural disasters in Sweden. The theory of communicative planning is about how communication and cooperation can minimize disputes and arguments during a process. The aim is to analyze how communicative planning is part of the recovery after the flooding in Gävle 2021. Two questions have been used; how has the municipal group and the citizens of Gävle implemented recovery strategies and how has the collaboration between the actors in the recovery process worked.   The study takes an exploratory approach and qualitative interviews have been made with actors in Gävle. The results show the municipality collaborates; however, the citizens are not part of the recovery more than to rebuild their homes. The lack of participation has led to dissatisfaction, which can be solved through clarifications and information about citizens' roles and expectations. Therefore, the conclusion is that the recovery process does not fully follow the theory.

The frequency and severity of floods have increased due to climate change and achieving successful disaster risk reduction is deemed crucial to attain preparedness and sustainability. The responsibility for society’s preparedness mainly resides with local public actors. However, several Swedish municipalities have insufficient flood risk management. Research within disaster risk reduction suggests that risk can be understood as socially constructed and produced, highlighting the relevance of exploring risk perceptions. Yet, previous research has mostly been concerned with objective dimensions of risk and largely neglected social dimensions, such as decision-makers’ risk perceptions. Ridolfi and colleagues’ theoretical contribution to Cultural Theory of Risk suggests four types of ideal societies, or perceptions, which ultimately affect flood risk management: risk neglecting, risk monitoring, risk downplaying, and risk controlling perceptions. Yet, the theoretical work has not been applied empirically. This study aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of local public actors’ perceptions of flood risk and how this in turn may be connected to different flood risk management strategies. This thesis adopts a comparative case study design and explores the topic by applying Ridolfi and colleagues’ theoretical contribution to the municipalities of Karlstad and Kristinehamn. While Kristinehamn has been criticized for insufficient flood risk management, Karlstad has been put forward as a front runner in disaster risk reduction. Surprisingly, the results show that the municipalities reason in similar ways about flood risk, suggesting that the proposed differences between the two may be overestimated. Both municipalities believe in the capacity of technical hard-adaptive measures manipulating the environment and thus largely correspond to the risk controlling perception. However, the municipalities differ in some respects, as it can be argued that Karlstad shows signs of a risk monitoring perception whereas Kristinehamn shows signs of a risk neglecting or downplaying perception, potentially shedding light on the slightly varying approaches. In essence, the study’s utilization of the theory indicates that decision-makers’ subjective risk perceptions are important to explore in order to understand flood risk management approaches and subsequently important processes to achieve overall preparedness and sustainability. By exploring municipal actors’ perceptions of flood risk, the study not only contributes empirically by applying mentioned theoretical contribution for the first time, but also adds to the wider body of the theoretical knowledge on the significance of decision-makers’ risk perception for risk reduction, and thus contributes to a better understanding of the social dimensions of risk.

My master's work was done within the context of the PhytoVaLix project, a research project that brings together researchers from the Université de Montréal and private companies. The goal of this project is to develop a technology for the phytotreatment of leachate from engineered landfill sites using willows to replace conventional techniques. A filtering plantation of miyabeana willow (Salix miyabeana) is currently in place on the experimental site. The willows are watered with leachate so that they use ammoniacal nitrogen, the main pollutant, for their growth. In my study, I focused on the morphological and physiological responses developed by four willow species when subjected to various treatments combining flooding and nitrogen overfertilization. The study aimed to compare the potential of these species for nitrogenous water phytoremediation as well as two leachate application methods. Responses to flooding and overfertilization with nitrogen varied and reveal much about the strategies adopted by each species. The biomass of S. miyabeana, S. amygdaloides and S. nigra was not impacted by the leachate treatments, while S. bebbiana suffered greatly from the flooding periods. The native species S. nigra and S. amygdaloides positively stood out in their ability to remove nitrogen from leachate (>75 kg/ha). It would be relevant to continue research on these two with the aim of using them in projects where leachate phytotreatment and biodiversity go hand in hand. / Mon travail de maitrise a été réalisé dans le cadre du projet PhytoVaLix, un projet de recherche qui réunit des chercheurs de l'Université de Montréal et des entreprises privées. Le but de ce projet est de développer une technologie de phytotraitement de lixiviat provenant de lieux d’enfouissement technique à l’aide de saules pour remplacer les techniques conventionnelles. Une plantation filtrante de saule miyabeana (Salix miyabeana) est présentement en place sur le site expérimental. Les saules y sont arrosés avec du lixiviat afin qu’ils utilisent l’azote ammoniacal, le polluant principal, pour leur croissance. Dans mon étude, je me suis intéressée aux réponses morphologiques et physiologiques développées par quatre espèces de saule lorsqu’elles sont soumises à divers traitements combinant l’inondation et la surfertilisation à l’azote. L’étude avait comme objectif de comparer le potentiel de ces espèces pour la phytoremédiation d’eau azotée et de deux méthodes d’application du lixiviat. Les réponses à l’inondation et à la surfertilisation à l’azote furent variées et en révèlent beaucoup sur les stratégies adoptées par chacune des espèces. La biomasse de S. miyabeana, S. amygdaloides et S. nigra ne fut pas impactée par les traitements de lixiviat, alors que S. bebbiana a grandement souffert des périodes d’inondation. Les espèces indigènes S. nigra et S. amygdaloides se sont positivement démarqués quant à leur capacité à retirer l’azote du lixiviat (>75 kg/ha). Il serait pertinent de continuer à faire des recherches sur celles-ci dans le but de les utiliser dans des projets où le phytotraitement du lixiviat et la biodiversité vont de pair.

Industrial automation systems normally consist of four different hierarchy levels: planning, scheduling, real-time optimization, and control. At the planning level, the goal is to compute an optimal production plan that minimizes the production cost while meeting process constraints. The planning model is typically formulated as a mixed integer nonlinear programming (MINLP), which is hard to solve to global optimality due to nonconvexity and large dimensionality attributes. Uncertainty in component qualities in gasoline blending due to measurement errors and variation in upstream processes may lead to off-specification products which require re-blending. Uncertainty in product demands may lead to a suboptimal solution and fail in capturing some potential profit due to shortage in products supply. While incorporating process uncertainties is essential to reducing the production cost and increasing profitability, it comes with the disadvantage of increasing the complexity of the MINLP planning model. The key contribution in the planning level is to employ the inventory pinch decomposition method to consider uncertainty in components qualities and products demands to reduce the production cost and increase profitability of the gasoline blend application. At the control level, the goal is to ensure desired operation conditions by meeting process setpoints, ensure process safety, and avoid process failures. Model predictive control (MPC) is an advanced control strategy that utilizes a dynamic model of the process to predict future process dynamic behavior over a time horizon. The effectiveness of the MPC relies heavily on the availability of a reasonably accurate process model. The key contributions in the control level are: (1) investigate the use of different system identification methods for the purpose of developing a dynamic model for high-purity distillation column, which is a highly nonlinear process. (2) Develop a novel hybrid based MPC to improve the control of the column and achieve flooding-free control. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / The operation of a chemical process involves many decisions which are normally distributed into levels referred to as process automation hierarchy. The process automation hierarchy levels are planning, scheduling, real-time optimization, and control. This thesis addresses two of the levels in the process automation hierarchy, which are planning and control. At the planning level, the objective is to ensure optimal utilization of raw materials and equipment to reduce production cost. At the control level, the objective is to meet and follow process setpoints determined by the real-time optimization level. The main goals of the thesis are: (1) develop an efficient algorithm to solve a large-scale planning problem that incorporates uncertainties in components qualities and products demands to reduce the production cost and maximize profit for gasoline blending application. (2) Develop a novel hybrid-based model predictive control to improve the control strategy of an industrial distillation column that faces flooding issues.

Grön infrastruktur påstås ha möjligheten att minska mängden dagvatten längs hårdgjorda ytor i stadsmiljöer och därigenom höja städernas motståndskraft mot ökade nedbördsmängder. Denna undersökning har undersökt hur grön infrastruktur kan höja fem stadsmiljöers resiliens mot översvämningar och hur stadsmiljöerna kan få större inslag av ekologi. Undersökningen har visat att det förvisso är en möjlighet att den gröna infrastrukturen kan längs med gator, parker och hustak minska mängden dagvatten längs hårdgjorda ytor i stadsmiljöer. Satsningen på grön infrastruktur kan bli otroligt dyr i en större stad om hela stadens dagvatten ska tas om hand om och det gick inte att ta fram en mall för grön infrastruktur som enkelt kan kopieras från en stad till en annan. Det krävs även uträkningar av flödesemängder för att säkerställa hur stor del av staden som skyddas mot ökade nederbördsmängder. / It is claimed that green infrastructure has the ability to reduce the amount of storm water in urban areas and by extension increasing the resilience of urban areas. This study has investigated how the resilience against flooding can be strengthened and at the same time how an increase in ecological wildlife within five urban areas can be increased with greeni nfrastructure given the limitations of an urban area with preexisting buildings. The study concluded that it is possible to implement green infrastructure alongside roads, parks and rooftops with the desired effects of increased resilience and ecological wildlife in urban areas. The issues found were several. One of the issues was the lack of generalized city patterns which lead to that no generalized model for implementing green infrastructure could be concluded. Another issue was the issue of cost, it is not easy nor a cheap undertaking to remodel the road network of a preexisting city. Furthermore, it is required that every contribution of green infrastructure has its potential of storm water consumption calculated to match the local demand.

The fast urbanization produces a large and growing population in coastal areas. However, the rise of sea level, one of the most significant impacts of global warming, makes coastal communities much more vulnerable to flooding than before. This Master’s thesis study investigates sea-level rise impacts on parcel-level property in the specific coastal city of Tampa, Florida, USA. An improved sea-level rise model based on satellite altimeter data is first used to predict future sea levels. Based on high-resolution LiDAR digital elevation data and property map, flooded properties are identified to evaluate property damage cost. This empirical analysis provides an in-depth understanding of potential flooding risks for individual properties with detailed spatial information at a fine spatial scale. The spatial and temporal analyses can be potentially used by researchers or governments to mitigate the impact of sea-level rise and make better urban management plans to adapt to climate change.

Bluetooth Mesh networks have gained popularity across various industries, showcasing their significant impact on network solutions. This technology is particularly notable for its low power consumption, making it a preferred choice for efficient and sustainable network development.  The objective of this study investigates the behavior of Bluetooth Mesh networks in various environments, aiming to improve network performance and provide guidance for optimal network design. This was achieved by performing experiments in multiple environments.  Data collection and regression analysis along with comparative visualization were employed to understand the relationship between these variables, including distance, number of packets sent, environment, latency, and packet loss ratio.   The results showed a significant relationship between distance and latency in the office and forest environments, as well as between distance and packet loss ratio in all environments. The number of packets sent has impact on latency and packet loss ratio.  The findings contribute to the development of more reliable and efficient communication systems for Internet of Things applications, as well as providing insights into the performance characteristics of the Bluetooth Mesh network in various scenarios.