<p>  </p> <p>Sea level rise is a growing threat to coastal communities across the United States. Uncertainty about the extent of sea level rise poses a challenge for creating infrastructure to address this threat. Due to disagreement among decision makers on the severity of climate change, it can be challenging to determine the appropriate level of preparation for the future, which can lead to potential under or over-preparedness. To combat this uncertainty, the US Department of Defense has embraced a robust decision-making model. Decision makers should incorporate multiple future models of the world into their decision-making process. This thesis describes an effort to address these challenges at the United States Naval Academy using a decision support approach called many-objective robust decision-making. Considering decisions to upgrade their seawall at varying heights and at twenty-year intervals, a genetic algorithm was employed to identify a frontier of non-dominated upgrade strategies. Three strategies from the frontier were evaluated in hundreds of possible scenarios with varied discount rates, sea level rise projections, changes to future storminess, and building replacement costs. An analysis was performed to determine in which future conditions those three strategies were vulnerable to failing to meet objectives of having a benefit cost ratio of over 1 and limiting damage to less than $100 million over an 80-year planning horizon. This analysis will enable the US Naval Academy to determine the effectiveness of their seawall upgrade plans for preventing storm surge damage over a range of future scenarios and stakeholder preferences. Ultimately, this research found that upgrading the Naval Academy’s seawall in the near future is critical to avoiding costly damage from flooding. This research also emphasizes how variations to the assumed discount rate can reshape a cost benefit analysis.</p>

The purpose of this study is to investigate and express the embodied potential of the architectural profession, as an influential actor against global climate change. The study investigates and proposes a hybrid floating intervention that helps adapt to sea-level rise and in length helps counterbalance the carbon emissions connected to fossil fuel consumption. The paper is divided in 3 parts. Part 1 outlines the understanding of three terms ‘infrastructure’, ‘landscape’, and ‘architecture’, and questions whether these distinctions are reasonable and beneficial for designers, or if we should instead focus on the intersections of these divisions. A dynamic discipline must be studied at its borders while yet being conserved at its center. Such crossings become especially important in large-scale projects. Part 2 outlines the concept of Aquatecture, a typology, water, and architectural design that can unify to produce dynamic and positive sea-level rise mitigation solutions. The article is devoted to the investigation of aquatecture’s key components, providing autonomous functioning of a floating structure as an artificial close-loop ecosystem. An architectural ecosystem is subdivided into four main functions: extraction of resources and water, energy production, waste disposal, and automated systems. Part 3 outlines the historic past, present, and future of Malmo and reflects on the role of the architects in today’s society and global conditions. Furthermore, it consists of a hybrid architectural proposal floating on the aquatic medium, ultimately answering the United Nations' global call against climate change, with sequestrating action. Most importantly the project proposes a new paradigm to alter climate change.

I detta examensarbete har jag genomfört en designprocess och utvecklat en konceptserie hållbara engångsbestick som ger användaren en förhöjd sinnlig matupplevelse. Tidigare har majoriteten av alla engångsbestick varit tillverkade i plast, vilket vi vet är skadligt för miljön. EU har därför infört ett plastdirektiv (Naturvårdsverket, 2022) som förbjuder vissa engångsartiklar i plast för att minska utsläpp, nedskräpning och mikroplaster i naturen. Efter det har en ny marknad skapats där nya mer hållbara bestick tar plats. Dessa produkter saknar förståelse för de krav användarna har, och fokuserar endast på miljövänliga egenskaper. Ätverktyg har följt människans utveckling genom historien (Scott, 2018) och nu behöver de också följa med oss in i en mer hållbar värld. De nya alternativen som ska ersätta plasten har bland annat en sträv och vass yta, instabil konstruktion samt ett formspråk som inte stämmer överens med användarnas preferenser eller det dom är vana vid. Detta har resulterat i en lucka på marknaden. Genom att studera material, barriärer, estetik, ergonomi och användarens upplevelse av dessa bestick har jag kunnat fortsätta utvecklingen av engångsbestick, så att de också kan generera en god matupplevelse utöver dess miljövänliga egenskaper. I projektet har jag utgått ifrån Holmens biobaserade material Inverform, en kartong av flerskiktade färsk- fiber från hållbart skötta skogar. Med hjälp av RISE har jag undersökt materialets egenskaper, genomfört sensoriska tester, formstudier och olika produktionstekniker för att skapa bestick som tar vara på materialets egenskaper för att tillfredsställa användarna. Resultatet är en serie bestick vars formspråk påminner om traditionella bestick av metall, med en konstruktion som ger stablilitet och funktionalitet utifrån materialets attribut. Med hjälp av biobaserade barriärer blandade med naturliga färgämnen kan dessa bestick lämpa sig i flera olika sammanhang, och erbjuder användarna en förhöjd sensorisk matupplevelse med hållbara medel.

While designing metal buildings for wind drift, for simplicity of analysis and design, connection at base of column is considered as pinned which provides no rotational restraint. The actual behavior of the connection however, is partially rigid, that provides some rotational stiffness even in case of single row of bolts. Moreover, using a two-dimensional (planar) structural model for analysis ignores any load distribution provided by roof and wall sheeting. Simulation of true behavior of base connection and diaphragm stiffness can substantially reduce drift caused due to lateral forces thereby lessening the conservatism in traditional design practices. This thesis provides results obtained from full-scale experimental testing and analytical study for a metal building. A full scale load test was conducted to quantify the lateral stiffness of an existing metal building. A static lateral load, consistent in magnitude with the building's design wind pressure, was applied to the knee of a primary frame, and the resulting lateral displacements and column-base rotations for all primary frames were measured. The test procedure was repeated at several locations. The experimentally obtained results were then validated using two-dimensional and three-dimensional analytical models. The three-dimensional models explicitly simulated the primary and secondary framing, roof and wall diaphragms, and column-base stiffness. A couple of approaches have been proposed to model column-base plate connection varying in complexity and accuracy. Once validated, the FE model is utilized to quantify the relative stiffness contributions of the metal building system components to lateral drift. While performing analysis some other parameters were also studied. These consisted of effect of base plate thickness and length of anchor bolts on column-base rigidity. Also, effect of including shear deformations and considering the haunch (column-rafter junction) as rigid were studied. Another small but important part of the paper is comparison of wind pressures obtained using different procedure of ASCE 7-05 with database assisted design pressures. Once these parameters are quantified practical engineering guidelines are developed to incorporate the influence of secondary framing, roof diaphragms, wall cladding, and column-base stiffness and wind loads in metal building design. / Master of Science

Millions of people in low-lying areas are already affected by flooding, and the number will increase substantially in the future. Tidal flooding, the form of flooding caused by a combination of high tides and sea level rise to overcome protection levels, can cause damage and inconveniences such as road closures, overwhelmed drainage systems, and infrastructure deterioration from water damage. Tidal flooding already occurs annually in cities along the U.S. east coast, most notably Miami. However, the time it will take for other regions globally to begin to experience tidal flooding has not yet been assessed. Therefore, there is a limited understanding of how and when human populations will be exposed to this type of flooding. Tide gauge data from the GESLA-2 data base are used to obtain information about the highest astronomical tide (HAT) and extreme value statistics for 571 locations globally. For a complete spatial analysis, modelled water levels from the Global Tide and Surge Reanalysis (GTSR) are also used. Estimated protection levels are extracted from the DIVA database and translated to absolute heights based on the extreme value statistics of high water levels. This analysis is based on calculating the difference between the existing protection level and HAT, which indicates how much sea levels can rise before tidal flooding occurs, and evaluating in what decade this is expected to happen under different sea-level rise (SLR) scenarios. Tidal trends from the nodal and perigean are also taken account and used to modify 1000 different sea level rise scenarios to provide a more comprehensive analysis of possible tidal flooding years. Our results indicate that tidal flooding may occur within a few decades in many locations (under the assumption that no adaptation will take place), and therefore awareness should be heightened so that actions can be taken to minimize the impacts.

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Natural and anthropogenic disturbances drive change in ecosystems, especially highly disturbed coastal systems, which are at the interface between the land and the sea and contain both aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. This transitional zone is at the forefront of climate change. As sea level rises, disturbance regimes are expected to change. Simultaneously, the frequency and intensity of extreme storm events, such as hurricanes, may increase, along with increases in fire intensity and severity in certain regions. Historically, fire was a natural disturbance along the northern Gulf of Mexico where lightning frequency is high; however, today fire along the Gulf is often anthropogenic in origin (i.e., prescribed fire). As disturbance regimes change, the interaction between hurricanes and fire is likely to become increasingly prevalent, since increased production of dead debris from more intense hurricanes is likely to serve as additional fuel material for fires. Sea level rise may also act synergistically with the typical pulse disturbances coastal ecosystems face, including hurricanes and fire. This combination of acute and chronic stressors may prevent coastal ecosystems from recovering and returning to their pre-disturbance state if layered legacies of these events decrease ecosystem stability and resilience. The goal of this study was to investigate the effects of layered legacies of disturbances on community composition, species distributions, extent of coastal zones (e.g., salt marsh, fresh marsh, forest) and vegetation vigor in coastal communities over a 17-year period (2004 to 2021) in coastal Alabama to explore the resilience of coastal systems and their persistence in the face of sea level rise. A combination of ground-collected data from 2004, 2011 and 2021, and fine resolution satellite images taken every other year from 2006-2019 were analyzed. Disturbances altered community composition between 2004 and 2021, which coincided with expansion of salt marsh and fresh marsh species distributions at lower elevations, and declines in woody species in the scrub-shrub ecotone and forest at higher elevations. The scrub-shrub ecotone disappeared, and the forest began to deteriorate, while the extent of the fresh marsh increased. Additionally, vegetation vigor (as measured by the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index; NDVI) was calculated from moderate resolution Landsat images within one month prior to and following each extreme storm event from 2004-2020. NDVI decreased after some extreme storm events but increased after others, and there was an overall increase in NDVI over the last five years of the study period. This study was conducted at a critical time; coastal systems are facing an increasing amount of chronic stress from sea level rise, in addition to more immediate stress from pulse disturbances. Despite these stressors, coastal systems along the northern Gulf of Mexico appear to be more resilient than previously realized because upslope migration of species is evident. Extreme storm events and fires appear to contribute to, and even promote, the persistence of coastal wetlands in the face of sea level rise. However, persistence of coastal wetlands along the northern Gulf of Mexico coast may be prevented in areas dominated by upslope barriers to migration (i.e., current/future urban development and levees), such as in Louisiana.

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A methodology to measure a characteristic time scale (duration) of peaks in pressure and velocity data is presented. This methodology is based on the use of the Morlet and Paul wavelets. Detailed descriptions of these wavelets and their implementation procedures are given. The results show that similar time scales or durations can be measured using either Morlet or Paul wavelets. To obtain consistent results data windowing might need to be applied. Using the Paul wavelet, durations of events measured in different wind tunnel simulations are obtained and discussed. / Master of Science