CAREER: Mitigation of Pollution Hazards in Ephemeral Streams and Estuaries; A Plan for Research and Education in Environmental Hydraulics

9984579-桑德斯-该学院早期职业发展(CARADE)研究和教育项目认为，识别影响地表水系统污染危险的关键成分是一种很有前途的方法。制定减灾战略的一个核心挑战是确定对结果有不成比例贡献的关键组成部分。当这些组成部分事先已知时，减灾的工程方法就可以随之而来。该方法将伴随灵敏度公式应用于描述河流和河口水流和污染物运移的随时间相关和深度集成的公式。伴随公式给出了系统结果如何与系统组件和控制措施相关的定量描述--可用于确定关键组件的信息。这种方法特别适用于研究河流和河口的污染危害，因为非稳定和非线性水流混淆了现场观测、系统特征和源头控制之间的关系。所使用的方法适用于河流和河口的广泛污染问题，如富营养化、毒性和病原体问题。它在加利福尼亚州中部和南部的干旱沿海地区特别有吸引力，那里的短暂水文对《清洁水法》规定的TMDL(总最大日负荷)过程的实施构成了挑战。因此，包括有机物、金属和病原体在内的各种污染物的TMDL过程并没有以直接的方式进行。这一新方法被用来确定影响圣安娜河流域微生物污染的关键成分。预计这将导致对沿海流域微生物污染TMDL的公平分配的洞察，并更好地理解该方法的真正效用，以及通过控制关键组件来管理污染的策略。在教育方面，基于问题的学习方法(PBL)在环境水力学(即水文学、水力学和污染物传输)的本科生和研究生课程中实施。PBL最早是在医学领域发展起来的，结果表明，它比工程学中常用的教学方法更能为学生的终身学习做好准备。一种结合了PBL和教学形式的混合版本的PBL正在测试中，目标是培养批判性思维、自我指导和自我激励技能，同时确保涵盖每门课程的要点。目标是让学生为工程师培训(EIT)考试做好准备--这是迈向专业实践的重要一步。现场的分水岭特征和设计问题被用作PBL的基础。学生不仅需要寻找和理解设计和分析的工程方法，而且还需要评估分析所需的特定于现场的数据，以及如何使用快速发展的信息技术获得这些数据。

9984579- SandersThis Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) research and education project considers a promising approach for identifying key components affecting pollution hazards in surface water systems. A central challenge in developing strategies for hazard mitigation is identifying the key components that contribute disproportionately to outcomes. When these components are known in advance, engineering approaches for hazard mitigation can then readily follow. The approach utilizes an adjoint sensitivity formalism applied to a time-dependent and depth-integrated formulation describing flow and pollutant transport in streams and estuaries.The adjoint formulation yields a quantitative description of how system outcomes are related to system components and control actions -- information that can be used to determine the key components. This approach is particularly useful for examining pollution hazards in streams and estuaries, because the unsteady and nonlinear flow obfuscates the relationship between field observations, system characteristics, and source controls.The approach used is applicable to a wide range of pollution problems in streams and estuaries such as eutrophication, toxicity, and pathogen issues. It is particularly attractive in arid coastal regions in central and southern California, where the ephemeral hydrology presents challenges to the implementation of the TMDL (Total Maximum Daily Load) process set forth by the Clean Water Act. As a result, the TMDL process for a wide range of pollutants, including organics, metals, and pathogens, has not proceeded in a straight forward manner. This new methodology is used to identify the key components affecting microbial pollution in the Santa Ana River Watershed. It is expected that this will lead to insight into the equitable assignment of TMDLs for microbial pollution in a coastal watershed, as well as a better understanding of the true utility of the methodology, and strategies to manage pollution via control of the key components.With regard to education, the Problem-Based Learning method (PBL) is implemented in undergraduate and graduate courses in environmental hydraulics, that is, hydrology, hydraulics, and pollutant transport. PBL was first developed in the field of medicine, and results indicate that it better prepares students for life-long learning than the didactic method commonly used in engineering. A hybrid version of PBL that combines the PBL and didactic format is being tested, the goal being to foster critical thinking, self-direction, and self-motivation skills, while ensuring that the essentials of each course are covered. The objective is to prepare students for the Engineer-in-Training(EIT) exam--an important step towards professional practice. Watershed characterization and design problems from the field site are employed as the basis for PBL. Students are required to not only seek out and understand engineering methods of design and analysis, but to assess what site-specific data are necessary for analysis, and how these data can be obtained using rapidly evolving information technologies.