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Project Description
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Students involved
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Comparison of modeling software packages
There are several modeling tools currently available on the market, such as:
etc.). It is not clear what are the advantages and weaknesses of these tools. A comparison of several of these packages along several criteria could be a very useful and publishable product.
Contact person: Alexey Voinov
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Charles Mark
AJ Rossman
Dave Whitney
Paula Mouser
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A model of a Living Machine
A Living Machine is a water purification system that incorporates helpful bacteria, plants, snails and fish to break down and digest organic pollutants. There are LM in South Burlington (e.g. next to the Red Hat facility), one is in the Library. There is data for several LM that can be used to built a model.
Contact person: Erica Brown
Click here to download a word file with more info.
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Lake Modeling and restoration.
"There are many ways to define and measure eutrophication and thus are many corresponding mechanisms for remediating a eutrophic problem. It would be interesting to build a model of a eutrophic system and superimpose onto it different strategies for remediation."
Contact person:
Erica Brown
Click here to download a word file with more info.
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Dominica water resources
Dominica, a small Carribean Island, is also known as the Island of 365 rivers. The hydro potential of these rivers to produce electricity is large. But how large? Can we estimate the net benefit of small scale hydro production, based on a DEM and rainfall data for the island?
Contact person: Gary Flomenhoft
Click here for more info.
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Wind resources
"Proposed is a complete impact study for generating electrical energy using wind turbines in three sites in the Urban Reserve Park and North Beach areas. All three sites show excellent potential for demonstrating the effectiveness of the wind turbine technology in urban settings". Can we build a model to help answer these questions:
- How much power can be generated at each specific site based on the calibrated data collected for the wind survey?
- What are the potential environmental impacts of wind turbines to the current urban and lakefront ecosystems including bird interactions?
- How would wind turbines affect the people living closest to them and the people enjoying the waterfront?
- How much will each system cost and how long will their payback period be?
Contact person: AJ
Click here for more info, or here for yet more.
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Intervale Ecopark - "This unique project will utilize waste heat from the local wood-fired power plant to fuel a series of year-round greenhouses where byproducts from local food manufactures and farms are converted to fish, shrimp, mushrooms, salad greens, and composts. Nutrients in this system are fully utilized as waste products from one process are used to fuel others."
Contact person: Alexey Voinov
More Info:
OceanArks Website
The Intervale Foundation
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Mark Gately
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Beaver (Castor Canadensis) population modeling
After being trapped to near extinction in the 18th and 19th century, beaver have been rapidly repopulating Vermont since they were reintroduced in the early part of the 20th century. The USDA Forestry department and the Agency of Natural Resources of Vermont are interested in learning about the population dynamics of beaver in the Green Mountain National Forest (GMNF). Specifically these stakeholders are curious about which factors most significantly influence colonization of sites by beaver and colony site longevity. By using aerial census data provided by the forestry department, and data collected from GIS coverages, a model can be created to simulate beaver population dynamics in the GMNF. This model could be used to demonstrate the habitat quality and possible longevity of potential colony sites in the GMNF.
Contact person: Patrick Leavey
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Patrick Leavey
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Contaminant Fate and Transport Modeling
It is important to understand the fate and transport of contaminants in aquifer systems. There are many processes involved, such as adsorption, dissolution, diffusion, dispersion, advection and many more. In order to understand the processes involved, physical and numerical models need to be investigated. These models are often used to predict an aquifer system in the real world when they should be used to better understand the system. This model can be used to determine the processes that are important and should be focused on.
Contact person: Emily Hackett
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Emily Hackett
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Physical Ground Water Model
UVM's Civil and Environmental Engineering Department has a state-of-the-art physical ground water model. A recent tracer test performed in the model has generated a data set of salt-tracer concentrations at 100 different locations in the porous media. A modeling study that uses this tracer data to develop an understanding of the hydrogeology of the physical model, such as hydraulic conductivity and dispersivity, would be useful for publication and future experiments.
Contact person: Jeffrey Doris
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Jeffrey Doris
Kwabena Osei
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