No description available.

Graduation date: 1966

Thesis (Ph.D.) in Civil Engineering--University of Maine, 2002. / Includes vita. Bibliography: leaves 118-126.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1961. / Type-written copy. Includes bibliographical references (p. 103-115). Also available on microfilm.

No description available.

Coastal and river environments are exposed to a number of natural hazards that have the potential to negatively affect both human and natural environments. The purpose of this research is to explain that significant vulnerabilities to seismic hazards exist within coastal and river environments and that coasts and rivers, past and present, have played as significant a role as seismic, engineering or socio-economic factors in determining the impacts and recovery patterns of a city following a seismic hazard event. An interdisciplinary approach was used to investigate the vulnerability of coastal and river areas in the city of Christchurch, New Zealand, following the Canterbury Earthquake Sequence, which began on the 4th of September 2010. This information was used to identify the characteristics of coasts and rivers that make them more susceptible to earthquake induced hazards including liquefaction, lateral spreading, flooding, landslides and rock falls. The findings of this research are applicable to similar coastal and river environments elsewhere in the world where seismic hazards are also of significant concern. An interdisciplinary approach was used to document and analyse the coastal and river related effects of the Canterbury earthquake sequence on Christchurch city in order to derive transferable lessons that can be used to design less vulnerable urban communities and help to predict seismic vulnerabilities in other New Zealand and international urban coastal and river environments for the future. Methods used to document past and present features and earthquake impacts on coasts and rivers in Christchurch included using maps derived from Geographical Information Systems (GIS), photographs, analysis of interviews from coastal, river and engineering experts, and analysis of secondary data on seismicity, liquefaction potential, geology, and planning statutes. The Canterbury earthquake sequence had a significant effect on Christchurch, particularly around rivers and the coast. This was due to the susceptibility of rivers to lateral spreading and the susceptibility of the eastern Christchurch and estuarine environments to liquefaction. The collapse of river banks and the extensive cracking, tilting and subsidence that accompanied liquefaction, lateral spreading and rock falls caused damage to homes, roads, bridges and lifelines. This consequently blocked transportation routes, interrupted electricity and water lines, and damaged structures built in their path. This study found that there are a number of physical features of coastal and river environments from the past and the present that have induced vulnerabilities to earthquake hazards. The types of sediments found beneath eastern Christchurch are unconsolidated fine sands, silts, peats and gravels. Together with the high water tables located beneath the city, these deposits made the area particularly susceptible to liquefaction and liquefaction-induced lateral spreading, when an earthquake of sufficient size shook the ground. It was both past and present coastal and river processes that deposited the types of sediments that are easily liquefied during an earthquake. Eastern Christchurch was once a coastal and marine environment 6000 years ago when the shoreline reached about 6 km inland of its present day location, which deposited fine sand and silts over this area. The region was also exposed to large braided rivers and smaller spring fed rivers, both of which have laid down further fine sediments over the following thousands of years. A significant finding of this study is the recognition that the Canterbury earthquake sequence has exacerbated existing coastal and river hazards and that assessments and monitoring of these changes will be an important component of Christchurch’s future resilience to natural hazards. In addition, patterns of recovery following the Canterbury earthquakes are highlighted to show that coasts and rivers are again vulnerable to earthquakes through their ability to recovery. This city’s capacity to incorporate resilience into the recovery efforts is also highlighted in this study. Coastal and river areas have underlying physical characteristics that make them increasingly vulnerable to the effects of earthquake hazards, which have not typically been perceived as a ‘coastal’ or ‘river’ hazard. These findings enhance scientific and management understanding of the effects that earthquakes can have on coastal and river environments, an area of research that has had modest consideration to date. This understanding is important from a coastal and river hazard management perspective as concerns for increased human development around coastlines and river margins, with a high seismic risk, continue to grow.

Graduation date: 1999 / Best scan available for figures. Original has a moray pattern.

Thesis (M. Sc. (Urb. Plan.))--University of Hong Kong, 1994. / Includes bibliographical references.

Semi-enclosed coastal systems are of great importance bothenvironmentally and economically. ln recent years, increasedanthropogenic activities in these areas brought the need for integrated, ecosystem-scale management. This study proposes to estimate the assimilative capacity of a small fjord. This study had three main aims. The first one was to compare the pelagic properties observed in the 2000s to those observed at the same site in the 1970s, the second one was to design an accurate but simple, two dimensional dynamic model of a fjordic system for the prediction of chlorophyll and nutrient concentrations, and the third one was to propose a method for the estimation of the assimilative capacity of the fjord. This study was carried out on Loch Creran, a shallow fjord in the Scottish Highlands, in which a large sh farm was established in the 1980s. A sampling campaign was carried out 2003-2004 in order to collect time series of chlorophyll, dissolved inorganic nutrients and particulate organic matter concentrations; temperature, salinity, density and turbidity proles and microplankton and mesozooplankton diversity, abundance and biomass. Similar time series from the 1970s were gathered from the literature. The data from both decades were compared and showed significant changes in some physical, chemical and biological properties. The cessation of activity of an alginate production plant, changes inweather patterns and the introduction of aquaculture were identified as possible causes. A simple two-dimensional, three-box dynamic model of Loch Creran was designed. It has only three state variables (chlorophyll, nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations) and two crucial parameters (the exchange rate and the yield of chlorophyll from nutrients) as well as an optical-photosynthetic sub-model. The model was tested against observations for the years 1975 and 2003 and showed an overall good fit. The model was then run under different scenarios in order to estimate the assimilative capacity of Loch Creran for nitrogen and phosphorus and its carrying capacity for farmed salmon.

In this thesis, a methodology and framework were created to detect the seawalls accurately and efficiently in low coastal areas and was evaluated in the study area of Hallandale Beach City, Broward County, Florida. Aerial images collected from the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) were processed using eCognition Developer software for Multi-Resolution Segmentation and Classification of objects. Two classification approaches, pixel-based image analysis, and the object-based image analysis (OBIA) method were applied for image classification. However, Pixel based classification was discarded for having less accuracy in output. Three techniques within object-based classification-machine learning technique, knowledge-based technique and machine learning followed by knowledge-based technique were used to compare the most efficient method of classification. While performing the machine learning technique, three algorithms: Random Forest, support vector machine and decision tree were applied to test the best algorithm. Of all the approaches used, the combination of machine learning and a knowledge-based method was able to map the sea wall effectively. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2021. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection