Submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) species, such as seagrasses, are highly valued in estuaries because of the many economic, ecological, and cultural services that they provide, including shelter for fisheries, minimizing water turbidity, and improving am-bient water quality. SAV can also alter its physical environment by attenuating wave and current velocities,...
The Cone Penetration Test (CPT) has been widely-adopted for rapid, cost-effective exploration of the subsurface and reduction in the effort associated with drilling, sampling, and laboratory testing of soil. The adoption of the CPT has stemmed in part to the correlation of measurements to preliminary soil classification, stress history, drained...
Urban stormwater runoff with a high impervious area can significantly impact pollution concentrations of receiving water bodies. The use of low impact development (LID), which mimics the hydrological properties of the site before development, has been studied in an increasing number of studies, and the available database has shown to...
Background: Studies indicate that problems utilized in traditional undergraduate engineering education do not adequately prepare students for the workforce. Calls to implement authentic, ill-structured problems into upper level engineering experiences may address this issue but adopting authentic engineering problems without considering barriers to adoption of faculty has not been fully...
Scour is the main cause of bridge failures in the United States. Bridge failures raise a hazard to the safety of the traveling public as well as the massive economic consequences due to the high cost of constructing a new or a replacement bridge. The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT)...
Conflicts and disasters displace millions of populations worldwide. There is a need for rapid and affordable housing to cater to the needs of the displaced and unhoused population. Experience from previous post-disaster responses shows that temporary housing should be rapidly deployable, planned for months to years, and should be environmentally...
Since the collapse of World Trade Center building number seven (WTC7), significant research has been done to understand the behavior of steel structures in fire and enable engineers to account for the behavior of steel framing systems exposed to fire during design. Despite these efforts, there are still significant barriers...
It is considered best practice when designing pedestrian access at intersections to provide two curb ramps at each street corner. In Oregon, there are many locations where long ramp runs cause curb ramps to be set back a significant distance from the apex of the intersection corner to meet this...
Projects in forestry and civil engineering depend on accurate information, which is often acquired through remote sensing techniques. One of the remote sensing technologies that has gained importance in the last decade is light detection and ranging (lidar), which describes the surveyed area with 3D points, presented as point clouds....
Centerline rumble strips (CLRS) have proven to be a cost-effective safety measure in reducing lane departure crashes. However, there are often unintended consequences associated with the installation of CLRS, particularly in rural mountainous areas or snow zones. These consequences include the accumulation of water and ice on the roadway and...
Signalized intersections often provide pushbuttons to call for pedestrian service to minimize conflicting movements between road users. Signalized midblock crossings typically increase safety for pedestrians in locations with high traffic volumes and multiple lanes in each direction. However, unnecessary vehicular delay occurs from “ghost” pedestrian intervals when someone activates the...
This thesis builds on a modeling tool that has been developed to link thermodynamic modeling and concrete performance. This tool is intended to predict the performance for modern concrete mixtures made with ordinary portland cement (OPC), conventional and novel supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs), and limestone (Ls). The first part of...
Frequent 3D spatial mapping of estuaries is critical to understanding and modeling changes that can impact ecological health (e.g., water quality) and ecosystem services (e.g., aquaculture, nutrient cycling, and shoreline stabilization). However, obtaining accurate, repeat topobathymetric data for estuaries is a major challenge. Because shallow estuaries are typically not used...
Marine debris is a chronic and increasingly pervasive problem for coastal regions around the world. Debris poses environmental risks, threats to wildlife, and degradation of the natural environment. Recent research has shown the advantages of uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS) for detection and recognition of marine debris, including the ability to...
The characterization of the seismic performance of structures relies on numerical simulations. However, estimates of seismic response are subject to various sources of uncertainty, including modeling uncertainty. This research estimated the response of two full-scale structural specimens composed of a moment resisting frame, elastic spines, and force-limiting connections (FLC), which...
With growing interest in mass timber, especially mass timber panels (MTP), there has been a need to better understand their structural properties. One of the most versatile uses for MTP are as floor systems. Under new code provisions, these floors can be utilized in new and taller building types, but...
Climate change has pervasive impacts on Earth’s diverse ecosystems. Observed and projected effects that impact coastal environments pose unique challenges. Coastal regions provide numerous ecosystem services (e.g., fisheries, nursery habitats, erosion control, and water filtering and detoxification), house 40% of the US population, and contribute to 58% of the national...
Pile caps are structural elements used to transfer loads from columns to a group of piles, which transfer them to stronger soil layers. Pile cap with horizontal distance between the column and piles less than twice its effective depth is categorized as "deep," where significant nonlinear strain distribution occurs through...
Many older reinforced concrete bridges and buildings in the United States are considered deficient due to past design codes that are not conservative, increased loading, and deterioration of structural components. Deterioration is most commonly caused by corrosion, which reduces the steel cross sectional area and damages the concrete cross section....
To ensure the safety of the nation’s bridges, the National Bridge Inspection Standards (NBIS) require all bridges to undergo routine load rating analyses to assess their structural capacity. Accurate geometric information for each structure is necessary for load rating analyses. This information is typically ascertained from as-built plans. Still, when...