Flood Risk Management In Small Urban River Using A Sustainable Urban Drainage System: Wortley Beck, Leeds, Uk

In the UK, urban river basins are particularly vulnerable to flash floods due to short and intense rainfall. This paper presents potential flood resilience approaches for the highly urbanised Wortley Beck river basin, south west of the Leeds city centre. The reach of Wortley Beck is approximately 6km long with contributing catchment area of 30km2 that drain into the River Aire. Lower Wortley has experienced regular flooding over the last few years from a range of sources, including Wortley Beck and surface and ground water, that affects properties both upstream and downstream of Farnley Lake as well as Wortley Ring Road. This has serious implications for society, the environment and economy activity in the City of Leeds. The first stage of the study involves systematically incorporating Wortley Beck’s land scape features on an Arc-GIS platform to identify existing green features in the region. This process also enables the exploration of potential blue green features: green spaces, green roofs, water retention ponds and swales at appropriate locations and connect them with existing green corridors to maximize their productivity. The next stage is involved in developing a detailed 2D urban flood inundation model for the Wortley Beck region using the CityCat model. CityCat is capable to model the effects of permeable/impermeable ground surfaces and buildings/roofs to generate flood depth and velocity maps at 1m caused by design storm events. The final stage of the study is involved in simulation of range of rainfall and flood event scenarios through CityCat model with different blue green features. Installation of other hard engineering individual property protection measures through water butts and flood walls are also incorporated in the CityCat model. This enables an integrated sustainable flood resilience strategy for this region.

Object-Space Road Extraction in Rural Areas Using Stereoscopic Aerial Images

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Evaluation of the Cartographic Communication Performance of a Route Guidance and Navigation System

This study evaluates the influence of different cartographic representations of in-car navigation systems on visual demand, subjective preference, and navigational error. It takes into account the type and complexity of the representation, maneuvering complexity, road layout, and driver gender. A group of 28 drivers (14 male and 14 female) participated in this experiment which was performed in a low-cost driving simulator. The tests were performed on a limited number of instances for each type of representation, and their purpose was to carry out a preliminary assessment and provide future avenues for further studies. Data collected for the visual demand study were analyzed using non-parametric statistical analyses. Results confirmed previous research that showed that different levels of design complexity significantly influence visual demand. Non-grid-like road networks, for example, influence significantly visual demand and navigational error. An analysis of simple maneuvers on a grid-like road network showed that static and blinking arrows did not present significant differences. From the set of representations analyzed to assess visual demand, both arrows were equally efficient. From a gender perspective, women seem to took at the display more than men, but this factor was not significant. With respect to subjective preferences, drivers prefer representations with mimetic landmarks when they perform straight-ahead tasks. For maneuvering tasks, landmarks in a perspective model created higher visual demands.

ROAD TRANSPORT IN BRAZIL: SOME TYPES of VISCOSITY

The planning of the transportation sector in Brazil has long been the railroads as the main engineering system of the country. Thus, it was used to carry, in addition to the physical integration of the national territory, the consolidation of its domestic market. However, after entering in the 1980s, the planning of the sector is left out, and an inversion of the matrix of development is observed, with share gains in monoculture economy and on development of new areas where agricultural expansion advanced. This situation culminated in logistics blackouts in the 1990s and the resumption of sector planning in the early twenty-first century. At this time, it establishes a new institutional apparatus that ensures the participation of private capital in the sector, as well as a new principle for resolving bottlenecks concentrated regions (economically dynamic), from targeting investments to areas of primary economies that only in recent decades have been incorporated into the national economy.

A transactional runtime system for the Cell/BE architecture

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Time and distance in acceleration of road commercial vehicles

The time and the distance traveled during the acceleration and the velocity retaking are parameters used for the comparison and the project of vehicles. In this paper equations for the calculation of those parameters are presented. Several criteria are presented for the shift gears. It is also verified the occurrence or not of total slip during the acceleration of the vehicle. The theoretical models were implemented in a developed computational system. Such system was applied in a Mercedes-Benz do Brazil sample vehicle, in order to facilitate comparisons between the simulate values and the experimental road tests. Copyright © 1997 Society of Automotive Engineers, Inc.

Georeferenced road extraction and formulation of hypotheses for new road segments

The acquisition and update of Geographic Information System (GIS) data are typically carried out using aerial or satellite imagery. Since new roads are usually linked to georeferenced pre-existing road network, the extraction of pre-existing road segments may provide good hypotheses for the updating process. This paper addresses the problem of extracting georeferenced roads from images and formulating hypotheses for the presence of new road segments. Our approach proceeds in three steps. First, salient points are identified and measured along roads from a map or GIS database by an operator or an automatic tool. These salient points are then projected onto the image-space and errors inherent in this process are calculated. In the second step, the georeferenced roads are extracted from the image using a dynamic programming (DP) algorithm. The projected salient points and corresponding error estimates are used as input for this extraction process. Finally, the road center axes extracted in the previous step are analyzed to identify potential new segments attached to the extracted, pre-existing one. This analysis is performed using a combination of edge-based and correlation-based algorithms. In this paper we present our approach and early implementation results.

Development of a low-cost mobile mapping system: A South American experience

This paper presents the prototype of a low-cost terrestrial mobile mapping system (MMS) composed of a van, two digital video cameras, two GPS receivers, a notebook computer, and a sound frame synchronisation system. The imaging sensors are mounted as a stereo video camera on top of the vehicle together with the GPS antennae. The GPS receivers and the notebook computer are configured to record data referred to the vehicle position at a planned time interval. This position is subsequently transferred to the road images. This set of equipment and methods provide the opportunity to merge distinct techniques to make topographic maps and also to build georeferenced road image databases. Both vector maps and raster image databases, when integrated appropriately, can give spatial researchers and engineers a new technique whose application may realise better planning and analysis related to the road environment. The experimental results proved that the MMS developed at the São Paulo State University is an effective approach to inspecting road pavements, to map road marks and traffic signs, electric power poles, telephone booths, drain pipes, and many other applications important to people's safety and welfare. A small number of wad images have already been captured by the prototype as a consequence of its application in distinct projects. An efficient organisation of those images and the prompt access to them justify the need for building a georeferenced image database. By expanding it, both at the hardware and software levels, it is possible for engineers to analyse the entire road environment on their office computers.

Road maps towards an information society in Latin America and the Caribbean

Includes bibliography

Road safety and public health: the cost of treating and rehabilitating the injured in Chile, Colombia and Peru

This issue of the FAL Bulletin examines the implications of road safety for the health-care system. It focuses on the economic cost of treating and rehabilitating road traffic injury victims and, for the sake of better public policy, proposes policy changes aimed at improving data collection as well as coordination among government agencies.

Implant-retained finger prosthesis with modified retention system

Background: Amputations affect both the physical and the psychological aspects of an individual, causing significant impact on self-esteem. The main causes of finger amputations are work-related accidents with dangerous machinery, road traffic accidents, and animal bites, as well as systemic diseases such as diabetes. This report aims to describe a simple technique for fabrication of implant-retained finger prosthesis with a modified base of the retention system.Case Description and Methods: The O-Ring retention system was used with a modified hexagon-shaped base and a metallic capsule adapted to the acrylic resin to attach the prosthesis to the implant.Findings and Outcomes: The prosthesis was made with silicone, and after osseointegration, it was installed without complications, leading to a patient satisfied with the end result and encouraged to return to social life.

Simulação da suspensão tipo duplo A de um veículo off-road através do histórico de excitação do solo

The search for mechanical components validation methods, employed in product development sector, becomes more avid for less expensive solutions. As a result, programs that can simulate forces acting on a given part through finite element method are gaining more space in the market, once this process consumes less capital when compared to currently-employed empirical validation. This article shows the simulation of an off-road prototype suspension through such technique, using ground excitation history coming from field measurements and also by making use of a specific tool for obtaining dynamic loads from the model in question. The results shown at the end is key for future enhancements aiming mass reduction, for example, that may be executed on the prototype suspension system discussed here

Simulação da suspensão tipo duplo A de um veículo off-road através do histórico de excitação do solo

The search for mechanical components validation methods, employed in product development sector, becomes more avid for less expensive solutions. As a result, programs that can simulate forces acting on a given part through finite element method are gaining more space in the market, once this process consumes less capital when compared to currently-employed empirical validation. This article shows the simulation of an off-road prototype suspension through such technique, using ground excitation history coming from field measurements and also by making use of a specific tool for obtaining dynamic loads from the model in question. The results shown at the end is key for future enhancements aiming mass reduction, for example, that may be executed on the prototype suspension system discussed here

The effect of flex fuel vehicles in the Brazilian light road transportation

The retaking of the ethanol program in the year 2003 as a fuel for light road transportation in Brazil through the introduction of flex fuel vehicles fleet was a good strategy to overcome the difficulties of the ethanol production sector and did work to increase its market share relative to gasoline. This process, however, may cause a future disequilibrium on the food production and on the refining oil derivates structure. In order to analyze the substitution process resultant of the competition between two opponents fighting for the same market, in this case the gasoline/ethanol substitution process, a method derived from the biomathematics based on the non-linear differential equations (NLDE) system is utilized. A brief description of the method is presented. Numerical adherence of the method to explain several substitution phenomena that occurred in the past is presented in the previous author`s paper, in which the urban gas pipeline system substitution of bottled LPG in the dwelling sector and the substitution of the urban diesel transportation fleet by compressed natural gas (CNG) buses is presented. The proposed method is particularly suitable for prospective analysis and scenarios assessment. (c) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Pushover analysis of an existing reinforced concrete bridge:Jamboree Road Overcrossing in Irvine, California

The work for the present thesis started in California, during my semester as an exchange student overseas. California is known worldwide for its seismicity and its effort in the earthquake engineering research field. For this reason, I immediately found interesting the Structural Dynamics Professor, Maria Q. Feng's proposal, to work on a pushover analysis of the existing Jamboree Road Overcrossing bridge. Concrete is a popular building material in California, and for the most part, it serves its functions well. However, concrete is inherently brittle and performs poorly during earthquakes if not reinforced properly. The San Fernando Earthquake of 1971 dramatically demonstrated this characteristic. Shortly thereafter, code writers revised the design provisions for new concrete buildings so to provide adequate ductility to resist strong ground shaking. There remain, nonetheless, millions of square feet of non-ductile concrete buildings in California. The purpose of this work is to perform a Pushover Analysis and compare the results with those of a Nonlinear Time-History Analysis of an existing bridge, located in Southern California. The analyses have been executed through the software OpenSees, the Open System for Earthquake Engineering Simulation. The bridge Jamboree Road Overcrossing is classified as a Standard Ordinary Bridge. In fact, the JRO is a typical three-span continuous cast-in-place prestressed post-tension box-girder. The total length of the bridge is 366 ft., and the height of the two bents are respectively 26,41 ft. and 28,41 ft.. Both the Pushover Analysis and the Nonlinear Time-History Analysis require the use of a model that takes into account for the nonlinearities of the system. In fact, in order to execute nonlinear analyses of highway bridges it is essential to incorporate an accurate model of the material behavior. It has been observed that, after the occurrence of destructive earthquakes, one of the most damaged elements on highway bridges is a column. To evaluate the performance of bridge columns during seismic events an adequate model of the column must be incorporated. Part of the work of the present thesis is, in fact, dedicated to the modeling of bents. Different types of nonlinear element have been studied and modeled, with emphasis on the plasticity zone length determination and location. Furthermore, different models for concrete and steel materials have been considered, and the selection of the parameters that define the constitutive laws of the different materials have been accurate. The work is structured into four chapters, to follow a brief overview of the content. The first chapter introduces the concepts related to capacity design, as the actual philosophy of seismic design. Furthermore, nonlinear analyses both static, pushover, and dynamic, time-history, are presented. The final paragraph concludes with a short description on how to determine the seismic demand at a specific site, according to the latest design criteria in California. The second chapter deals with the formulation of force-based finite elements and the issues regarding the objectivity of the response in nonlinear field. Both concentrated and distributed plasticity elements are discussed into detail. The third chapter presents the existing structure, the software used OpenSees, and the modeling assumptions and issues. The creation of the nonlinear model represents a central part in this work. Nonlinear material constitutive laws, for concrete and reinforcing steel, are discussed into detail; as well as the different scenarios employed in the columns modeling. Finally, the results of the pushover analysis are presented in chapter four. Capacity curves are examined for the different model scenarios used, and failure modes of concrete and steel are discussed. Capacity curve is converted into capacity spectrum and intersected with the design spectrum. In the last paragraph, the results of nonlinear time-history analyses are compared to those of pushover analysis.