Theme: Multiscale Sustainable Systems Engineering

Due to rapid economic development and population growth and migration, these critical environmental engineering infrastructures have evolved into highly coupled and interacting, or interdependent networks and systems - through complex physical, natural resource, cyber, information, geographic, human, social, and logical connections. They must be sustainable and resilient, however, so as to cope with any catastrophic events, such as flood and drought, and they must be re-engineered to be more advanced to include recent forefronts of information technology, biotechnology, nanotechnology, and cognitive optimization.

The aim of my research is to incorporate the convergent technology to fulfill the resilient and sustainable goals in design, construction, and operation of these interdependent environmental infrastructures. My research is multidisciplinary in dealing with large-scale complex environmental and water resources systems leading to expand the theoretical frameworks for understanding the physical, chemical, and biological processes, and conduct modeling, simulation, and optimization of interdependent infrastructure systems at multiple time scales. The development of vital sensors to promote environmental sensing, detection, and decision making is deemed necessary in support of monitoring and modeling leading to explore the mechanisms and implications. These efforts focus on the concept of sustainability, developing and applying forward-looking, risk-informed, and cost effective decision-making models that combine social and economic factors with broad-based considerations of potential future environmental impacts. The research focus conducted under the topical area of “Multiscale Sustainable Systems Engineering” is devised to promote the "Resilient and Sustainable Environmental Engineering Infrastructures" at different temporal and spatial scales, such as

• National infrastructure assessment from regional to continental scale (Research project 1 funded by EPA via Pegasus contract),
• Stormwater management in urban areas (Research project 2 funded by the Southwest Florida Water Management District),
• On-site wastewater treatment systems in suburban areas (Research project 3 funded by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection),
• Drinking water systems in rural areas (Research project 4 funded by the Kentucky Science and Technology Foundation)

"National and Regional Baseline Assessment and Infrastructure Adaptation Outcome Documentation - Multi-scale Water Infrastructure Characterization Study Using Remote Sensing," US Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA), (PI) ($57,500 with $18,000 cost share), funded, Sept., 2007 (100% effort).

1. Recent drought events in the US have threatened drinking water supplies for communities in Maryland and Chesapeake Bay in 2001 through September 2002, Lake Mead in Las Vegas in 2000 through 2004, the Peace River and Lake Okeechobee in South Florida in 2006, and Lake Lanier in Atlanta, Georgia in 2007. Drought measurement is sensitive to biophysical parameters such as vegetation indices (VIs), land surface temperature (LST), soil moisture, albedo, and evapotranspiration (ET). Traditional drought indices include: 1) meteorology-based drought index, such as Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI), 2) satellite-derived drought indices, such as modified perpendicular drought index (MPDI). Some drought indices, like Keetch-Byram Drought Index (KBDI), also start to include the El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) information to address the global climate change impacts. Currently used drought indices like the PDSI and the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) have coarse spatial (7,000–100,000 km2) and temporal resolution (monthly). Their derivations mainly count on temperature and precipitation information. In environmental science community, there is a renewed interest to develop a new “Water Availability Index (WAI)” that serves for short-term water resources planning and water infrastructure management in dry periods. Such development may be geared toward presenting a near real-time, risked informed and forward looking instrumental message in terms of both the quantity and quality of available fresh water in the major metropolitan regions. The success of this effort has to count on the use of integrated remote sensing technologies in concert with intermediate- and long-term climate change forecasts.
2. It is the aim of this study to present a state-of-the-art technology to show about: 1) How the multi-scale and multi-dimensional databases collected by optical and microwave satellite images, such as the NASA GOES, MODIS Terra and Aqua etc., and ground-based radar stations, such as the NOAA NEXRAD system, and 2) How can they be applied to support the development of WAI and help reduce the managerial risks of water infrastructures across the continental US.

"Improving Local Water Supply in Rural Communities via a Sensor Network with the Aid of a Rule-based Expert System in a GIS Platform," Kentucky Science & Engineering Foundation, (Co-PI) with Dr. Andrew Ernest (PI) ($150,000), Funded, April, 2007 (33% effort).

• There are numerous traditional exterior and interior detection sensor technologies available for various type of vulnerability assessment in water supply systems. While many water utilities have strived to improve the monitoring of their distribution networks and sources of water, monitoring of transmission (trunk) pipelines has lagged. Current telemetry systems, sensors, and commercially available data loggers cannot completely satisfy the needs of water utilities. In addition to traditional instruments, emerging monitoring techniques have been developing with unprecedented speed. The continuous development and refinement of these monitoring techniques, including the developing triggers based on changes in network or system state rather than vector specific sensor responses, have had a profound impact in emergency preparedness and response. There is an acute need to develop an expert system to critically assess the performance of existing sensor technologies and consider the optimal deployment of various sensors in a sensor network capable of in-service condition assessment of water transmission mains and distribution network, as well as the relevant cost and performance guidelines for rural communities. There is currently no such product in the market.
• The proposed rule-based expert system for the customized sensor network in a GIS platform will be derived from extensive experience in modeling water transmission and distribution networks. The primary concern is the disruption of supply to a large number of customers in rural communities with all the consequences for disrupting fire fighting capabilities and public health risks. The optimal locations for sensor deployment may then be drawn from multi-dimensional simulation outputs with respect to associated statistical indices. Vulnerability assessment can be further made possible by combining sensors with models to determine what would be the optimal locations in the water supply systems to deploy and which type of sensor is required for corresponding location. Models required in this area include hydraulic models, steady state water quality models, dynamic water quality models, optimization models, and display/visualization models. The models encompass a wide range of methods that can be used to predict the water quality in an aquatic environment, treatment trains, and water distribution networks under a set of conditions. The component technologies, including distributed and adaptive artificial intelligence, knowledge information exchange ontologies, miniaturized embedded computing and sensor/control platforms, to be integrated into the production system are fully developed and easily translatable and scalable to the proposed product. The resulting platform will be significantly more effective, reliable, and scalable - human interface options may be tuned to the budget, needs and technical acuity of the end-user.
  

"Performance-based and Passive On-site Wastewater Treatment Systems Evaluation for Nutrients Removal," Florida Department of Environmental Protection, (PI) with Co-PI, Dr. Martin Wanielista, ($956,683), funded, Jan., 2007 (67% effort).

• When urban regions gradually expand due to regional development, complete service of sewage collection, treatment, and disposal is often unavailable for both geographic and economic reasons. Thus, decentralized or on-site wastewater treatment systems (OWTS) may be necessary to protect public health while the centralized system may be able to maintain the sewer collection effectively in those highly populated regions. Nation wide, wastewater effluent from OWTS can represent a large fraction of nutrient loads to groundwater aquifers. Phosphorus and nitrogen compounds are the most frequent measurements to indicate nutrient loadings. This project aims at developing and comparing three performance-based and passive OWTS, including 1) a septic tank followed by a recirculating sand filter (RSF) with effluent discharged to an unlined drip irrigation field, 2) a septic tank with effluent discharged to a lined drip irrigation field with soil substitution, 3) a septic tank followed by a subsurface wetland system, to ensure the effective removal of nutrient flux from septic tanks, and perform essential monitoring and modeling of the fate and transport of nutrient flux in vadose zone and aquifer system. It eventually leads to improve the State wide Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) programs.
  

"Alternative Stormwater Sorption Media for Control of Nutrients," Southwest Water Management District, Florida, (Co-PI) with Dr. Martin Wanielista ($100,000), funded, Nov., 2006 (50% effort).

• Stormwater runoff often contains organic and inorganic contaminants, nutrients and faecal coliforms (FC) that are associated with suspended solids and the dissolved phase. Stormwater may also transport high concentrations of these toxicants, including gross pollutants, into adjacent receiving waters (rivers, lakes, estuaries and sea/ocean) resulting in degraded water and sediment quality. In remediation of wet weather pollution, much attention has focused on urban stormwater runoff and its impacts on the receiving water bodies, including the physical, chemical, and biological effects that result in reducing beneficial water use. Infiltration of stormwater runoff into soil has long been an accepted development for the disposal of stormwater and recharge of groundwater in many sites in the United States. One of the best management practices (BMPs) is stormwater control measures using wet or dry ponds to reduce the impacts of urbanization on receiving water bodies. Water treatment occurs through the use of large volume of the stormwater wet pond allowing for high retention time and physical settling of solids onto the bottom. In fact, biofiltration process may not only remove suspended solids and dissolved organic carbon, but also metals, nitrogen, and phosphorous through coupled physical, chemical, and biological processes within the unit operation. These constituents are of concern in urban stormwater runoff since they contribute to increased eutrophication, sedimentation and toxicity in receiving water bodiesThis project aims at developing innovative sorption media materials that have multiple effect of removing heavy metal, nutrients, and some toxic chemicals. It may aid in low impact development in the future.
  
• Specializations of particular interest in applications include sustainability and green chemistry, stream restoration, environmental microbiology, watershed management, hydrodynamics, ecological engineering, low impact development and storm water management, urban sewer design, water management in streams and lakes, flood plain hydrology, eco-hydrology, environmental hydrology, and BMP and erosion control in the context of TMDLs.

Major Research Interests

• Water resources and environmental systems engineering
• Green materials and sustainable systems engineering
• Environmental informatics, sensor networks, and decision support
• Environmental nanotechnology and bioengineering
• Quantitative risk assessment, management, and communication for environmental management
• Brownfield revitalization and environmental remediation
• Environmental and ecological systems modeling and sustainability assessment
• Green building--energy and environmental systems
• Industrial ecology and ecological systems engineering
• Environmental and resources economics
• Environmental law, regulations, and policy analysis
• Environmental statistics, data and information management
• Artificial intelligence, decision support system, and expert systems for environmental science and health applications
• High performance computing, grid computing, computer graphics, and visualization for environmental decision support
• Simulation, optimization, and control of waste treatment and pollution reduction processes
• Monitoring and analytical techniques of environmental quality

Sposnored and Pending Research Projects (Total up to 6 million US$ as PI/CO-PI)

• “Green Nano-based Sorption Systems for Innovative Treatment of Stormwater and Wastewater to Address Human Health and Ecosystem Risks”, National Science Foundation, Emerging Frontier for Research Innovation Program, (PI) ($1,994,173) pending, Oct., 2007 (70% effort).
• “Ontology for Water Systems and Engineering Applications,” American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), (PI) ($767,135), with Dr. Avelino Gonzalez (Co-PI), pending, Sept., 2007 (75% effort).
• “National and Regional Baseline Assessment and Infrastructure Adaptation Outcome Documentation - Multi-scale Water Infrastructure Characterization Study Using Remote Sensing,” US Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA), (PI) ($187,500 with $18,000 cost share), funded, Sept., 2007 (100% effort).
• “Improving Local Water Supply in Rural Communities via a Sensor Network with the Aid of a Rule-based Expert System in a GIS Platform,” Kentucky Science & Technology Corporation (KSTC), (Co-PI) with Dr. Andrew Ernest (PI) and Spatial Digital Incorporation (Co-PI) ($150,000), pending, Sept., 2006 (33% effort).
• “Performance-based and Passive On-site Wastewater Treatment Systems Evaluation for Nutrients Removal,” Florida Department of Environmental Protection, (PI) with Co-PI, Dr. Martin Wanielista, ($976,000), funded, Jan., 2007 (67% effort).
• “Alternative Stormwater Sorption Media for Control of Nutrients,” Southwest Water Management District, Florida, (Co-PI) with Dr. Martin Wanielista ($100,000), funded, Nov., 2006 (50% effort).
• “Assessment of Nonpoint Source Pollution in the Arroyo Colorado River Basin due to Intensive Agricultural Practices in the Coastal Watershed,” The Texas Soil and Water Conservation Board (TSSWCB), (PI) ($220,000), granted, July, 2005 (100% effort, career move before start day).
• “Enhancing Instrumentation Capabilities at TAMUK to Perform Advanced Environmental Analysis,” Department of Defense (DOD), (Instrument Grant, Senor Personnel) ($399,897), granted, Jan. 2005.
• “Composting Feasibility Study and Regionalization Assessment for the City of Harlingen,” City of Harlingen, Texas (PI) ($30,000), granted, Oct., 2004 (100% effort).
• “Composting Feasibility Study and Regionalization Assessment for the City of Mission,” City of Mission, Texas (PI) ($30,000), granted, Oct., 2004 (100% effort).
• “Biosolid Treatability Study and Pilot Plant Planning” City of Edinburg, Texas (PI) ($10,000), granted, Oct., 2004 (100% effort).
• “Municipal Solid Waste Landfill Site Selection Analysis” The City of Harlingen (PI) ($ 25,000), granted, May, 2004 (100% effort).
• “The Planning and Design of Decentralized Wastewater Treatment System in Suburban Colonias, Lower Rio Grande Region, Texas,” The Rensselaerville Institute, (PI) ($ 45,000), granted, May, 2004 (100% effort).
• “Remote Sensing and Variable Rate Technology for Citrus Pest Management and Impact on Water Quality,” Advanced Technology Program (ATP) in Texas Higher Education Coordination Board, (PI) with Dr. Jenny Du ($100,000), granted (Project Number: 003639-0019-2003), Nov., 2003 (50% effort).
• “Feasibility Study of the Potential for Re-routing Domestic Wastewater Streams,” City of Pharr, Texas, USA. (PI) ($2,900), Granted, Nov., 2003 (100% effort).
• “Storm Water Management Plans for Various Municipalities in the Lower Rio Grande Valley,” Regional Task Force of Storm Water Management, Texas, USA. (PI) ($60,000), Granted, July, 2003 (100% effort).
• “Lower Rio Grande Valley Texas Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (TPDES): Task Force Project” Storm Water Management Task Force in Lower Rio Grande Valley, Texas, USA. (PI) ($55,000), Granted, Oct., 2003 (100% effort).
• “Stream Flow Prediction by Remote Sensing and Genetic Programming Technologies,“ National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA), USA. (PI) ($300,000), Granted (NAG13-03008), Oct., 2002 (100% effort).
• “Research on Environmental Sustainability of Semi-Arid Coastal Areas (RESSACA)” Center for Research Excellence in Science & Technology (CREST) at Texas A&M University-Kingsville, National Science Foundation, USA. (award ID: 0206259)(Senior Personnel/Associate Director) ($5 million) Granted, Sep., 2002 (5% effort).
• “Acquisition of a GC/MS for the Study of Hydrocarbons in the South Texas Region,” National Science Foundation, USA. (Instrument Grant, Co-PI), with Drs. John Kuruvilla, Venki Uddameri, King Jones ($180,000), Granted, Aug., 2002 (20% effort).
• “Feasibility Study of Reusing the Scrap Solvent as Auxiliary Fuel in the Cement Kiln” sponsored by the Cleanaway International Corporation, Taiwan Branch Office, April, 2001. (PI) ($13,000) (100% effort).
• “Feasibility Study of Using Plasma Arc Process for Handling Oily Sludge” sponsored by the Kaohsiung Harbor Management Bureau, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, April, 2001. (PI) ($ 80,000) (100% effort).
• “Nonpoint Sources Pollution Modeling and Application” sponsored by National Science Council, Taiwan, NSC 90-2211-E-006-044, 2001. (PI) ($33,000) (100% effort).
• “Combined Research and Curriculum Development: Environmental Informatics and Systems Analysis” sponsored by National Science Council, Taiwan, NSC 90-2511-S-006-044, 2001. (PI) ($170,000) (100% effort).
• “National Cost-Benefit Database for Environmental Pollution Control: Master Plan (II)" sponsored by the National Science Council, Taiwan, NSC89-2211-E-006-006, 2000. (PI) ($13,000) (100% effort).
• “National Cost-Benefit Database Construction for Solid Waste Management (II)” sponsored by the National Science Council, Taiwan, NSC89-2211-E-006-005, 1999. (PI) ($9,500) (100% effort).
• “Environmental Restoration of Zen-Ai River in Kaohsiung – Master Plan” sponsored by the ROC National Science Council, Taiwan, NSC89-2621-Z-006-002, 2000. (PI) ($19,000) (100% effort).
• “Environmental Restoration of Zen-Ai River in Kaohsiung – Optimization Analysis for Sewage Treatment and Ocean Outfall System” sponsored by the National Science Council, Taiwan, NSC89-2621-Z-006-002, 2000. (PI) ($15,000) (100% effort).
• “Sustainable Management and System Planning in the Tseng-Wen River Basin” sponsored by the National Science Council, Taiwan, NSC88-2211-E-006-050,1999. (PI) ($7,000) (100% effort).
• “National Cost-Benefit Database Construction for Environmental Pollution Control - Master Plan (I)” sponsored by the National Science Council, Taiwan, NSC88-2211-E-006-074, 1999. (PI) ($14,000)
• “National Cost-Benefit Database Construction for Solid Waste Management (I)” sponsored by the National Science Council, Taiwan, NSC88-2211-E-006-073, 1999. (PI) ($10,000) (100% effort).
• “Use of Economic Instrument and Systems Analysis for Water Pollution Control in the Kao-Ping River Basin” sponsored by the Environmental Protection Administration, Taiwan, EPA-88-U1G1-03-001, 1999. (PI) ($114,000) (100% effort).
• “Community-based Allocation of Compensation Fund in the Proximity of Waste Incineration Facility via AHP-based Decision-Making” sponsored by the Taipei County Government, Taiwan, 1999. (PI) ($40,000) (100% effort).
• “Cost-benefit Analysis for Food Waste Recycling” sponsored by the Tainan County Government, Taiwan, 1999. (CO-PI) ($40,000) (50% effort).
• “Emergency Preparedness and Response Planning for Three Nuclear Power Plants via 3D Spatial Decision Support System” sponsored by the Taiwan Power Company, Taiwan, 1999. (PI) ($250,000)
• “Spatial Decision Support System for Scrap Automobile Management” sponsored by the 3R Foundation, Taiwan, 3RF-88-A-003-01, 1999. (PI) ($50,000) (100% effort).
• “Environmental Tax/Charge Assessment for Scrap Tire Management” sponsored by the Environmental Protection Administration, Taiwan, EPA-88-HA21-03-419, 1999. (PI) ($ 160,000)
• “Resources and Energy Recovery for Combustible Demolition Waste Using a Redundant Brick Tunnel” sponsored by Brick Tunnel Association, Taichung, Taiwan, 1999. (PI) ($38,000) (100% effort).
• “Stabilization of Incineration Ash Using Phosphorous Compounds” sponsored by the Waste Management , Inc., Taiwan Branch Office, 1999. (PI) ($7,000) (100% effort).
• “Environmental Impact Assessment for a Regional Mall in Kaoshiung City” sponsored by Fichtner Pacific Engineer, Inc., Taiwan, 1998. (PI) ($50,000) (100% effort).
• “Strategic Planning of Recycling in a fast-growing Urban Region” sponsored by the National Science Council, Taiwan, NSC87-2211-E-006-011, 1998. (PI) ($6,000) (100% effort).
• “Resources Recovery from Incineration Process (III)” sponsored by National Science Council, Taiwan, NSC87-2621-P-006-004, 1998. (PI) ($14,000) (100% effort).
• “Use of Artificial Intelligence for Water Pollution Control in the River Basin” sponsored by the National Science Council, Taiwan, NSC87-2211-E-006-012, 1998. (PI) ($10,000) (100% effort).
• “Water Resources Systems Analysis and GIS Application for the Tseng-Wen River Basin” sponsored by the Ministry of Economics, Taiwan, 1998. (PI) ($62,000) (100% effort).
• “Optimal Planning of Presorting Process prior to Shu-Lin Municipal Incinerator in Taipei County” sponsored by the Taipei County Government, Taiwan, 1998. ($85,000) (100% effort).
• “Strategic Planning for ISO14001 Accreditation in the Textile Dying Industry” sponsored by the Environmental Protection Administration, Taiwan, EPA-86-G03-09-11, 1997. (PI) ($ 31,000) (100% effort).
• “Computer Aided Engineering Design of Large-scale Municipal Incinerators” sponsored by the China Ship Manufacturing Inc., Taiwan, 1997. (PI) ($42,000) (100% effort).
• “Management Information System and Network Communication Planning for Solid Waste Management in Taiwan” sponsored by the Department of Environmental Protection, Taiwan Provincial Government, Taiwan, 1997. (CO-PI) ($33,000) (100% effort).
• “Resources Recovery from Incineration Process (II)” sponsored by the National Science Council, Taiwan, NSC86-2621-P-006-004, 1997. (PI) ($13,000) (100% effort).
• “Genetic Algorithm-based Optimization Analysis for Regional Solid Waste Management Planning” sponsored by the National Science Council, Taiwan, NSC86-2211-E-006-017, 1997. (PI) ($8,000) (100% effort).
• “Chemical Emergency Preparedness and Response Planning Program” sponsored by the Environmental Protection Administration, Taiwan, EPA-85-E3J1-09-06, 1996. (PI) ($80,000) (100% effort).
• “Chemometric Analysis for the prediction of Dioxins/Furans Emissions from Large-scale Municipal Incinerators” sponsored by the Environmental Protection Administration, Taiwan, EPA-85-13S4-09-07, 1996. (PI) ($16,000) (100% effort).
• “Environmental Informatics for Metropolitan Solid Waste Management” sponsored by the Environmental Protection Administration, Taiwan, EPA-85-L105-03-20, 1996. (PI) ($35,000) (100% effort).
• “Resources Recovery from Incineration Process (I)” sponsored by the National Science Council, Taiwan, NSC85-2621-P-006-033, 1996. (PI) ($14,000) (100% effort).
• “Strategic Planning and Regionalization Assessment of Solid Waste Management in Taipei Metropolitan Region” sponsored by the Environmental Protection Administration, Taiwan, EPA-044-840-040, 1995. (PI) ($80,000) (100% effort).
• “Optimization Analysis for Solid Waste Collection, Recycling, Treatment and Disposal System” sponsored by the National Science Council, Taiwan, NSC87-2211-E-006-011, 1995. (PI) ($10,000) (100% effort).
• “Compatible Analysis between Recycling and Energy Recovery in Tainan City” sponsored by the Tainan City Government, Taiwan, 1993. (PI) ($15,000) (100% effort).
• “Recovery and Reuse of RFCC Scrap Catalyst for Removing VOCs in the Petrochemical Industry” sponsored by the National Science Council, Taiwan, NSC83-0421-P006-001Z, 1994. (PI) with Dr. H. P. Wang ($21,000) (50% effort).