Destination Area: Data and Decisions (D&D)
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The DA Data and Decisions advances the human condition and society with better decisions through data. D&D integrates all DAs and SGAs with data analytics and decision sciences. Work in this area embraces equity in the human condition by seeking the equitable distribution and availability of physical safety and well-being, psychological well-being, respect for human dignity, and access to crucial material and social resources throughout the world’s diverse communities. D&D also addresses policymaking and policy analysis, collaborating at the intersection of scientific evidence, governance, and analyses to translate scholarship into practice.
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Browsing Destination Area: Data and Decisions (D&D) by Department "Civil and Environmental Engineering"
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- AgroSeek: a system for computational analysis of environmental metagenomic data and associated metadataLiang, Xiao; Akers, Kyle; Keenum, Ishi M.; Wind, Lauren L.; Gupta, Suraj; Chen, Chaoqi; Aldaihani, Reem; Pruden, Amy; Zhang, Liqing; Knowlton, Katharine F.; Xia, Kang; Heath, Lenwood S. (2021-03-10)Background Metagenomics is gaining attention as a powerful tool for identifying how agricultural management practices influence human and animal health, especially in terms of potential to contribute to the spread of antibiotic resistance. However, the ability to compare the distribution and prevalence of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) across multiple studies and environments is currently impossible without a complete re-analysis of published datasets. This challenge must be addressed for metagenomics to realize its potential for helping guide effective policy and practice measures relevant to agricultural ecosystems, for example, identifying critical control points for mitigating the spread of antibiotic resistance. Results Here we introduce AgroSeek, a centralized web-based system that provides computational tools for analysis and comparison of metagenomic data sets tailored specifically to researchers and other users in the agricultural sector interested in tracking and mitigating the spread of ARGs. AgroSeek draws from rich, user-provided metagenomic data and metadata to facilitate analysis, comparison, and prediction in a user-friendly fashion. Further, AgroSeek draws from publicly-contributed data sets to provide a point of comparison and context for data analysis. To incorporate metadata into our analysis and comparison procedures, we provide flexible metadata templates, including user-customized metadata attributes to facilitate data sharing, while maintaining the metadata in a comparable fashion for the broader user community and to support large-scale comparative and predictive analysis. Conclusion AgroSeek provides an easy-to-use tool for environmental metagenomic analysis and comparison, based on both gene annotations and associated metadata, with this initial demonstration focusing on control of antibiotic resistance in agricultural ecosystems. Agroseek creates a space for metagenomic data sharing and collaboration to assist policy makers, stakeholders, and the public in decision-making. AgroSeek is publicly-available at https://agroseek.cs.vt.edu/ .
- Characterization and prediction of tropical cyclone forerunner surgeLiu, Yi; Irish, Jennifer L. (Elsevier, 2019)Forerunner surge, a water level rise ahead of tropical cyclone landfall, often strikes coastal communities unexpectedly, stranding people and increasing loss of life. Surge forecasting systems and emergency managers almost exclusively focus on peak surge, while much less attention is given to forerunner surge. To address the need for fast and accurate forecasting of forerunner surge, we analyze high-fidelity surge simulations in Virginia, New York/New Jersey and Texas and extract physical scaling laws between readily available storm track information and forerunner surge magnitude and timing. We demonstrate that a dimensionless relationship between central-pressure scaled surge and wind-duration scaled time may effectively be used for rapid forerunner surge forecasting, where uncertainty is considered. We use our method to predict forerunner surge for Hurricanes Ike (2008)—a significant forerunner surge event—and Harvey (2017). The predicted forerunner surge 24 to 6 hours before Hurricane Ike’s landfall ranged from 0.4 to 2.8 m, where the observed forerunner surge ranged from 0.4 to 2.6 m. This new method has the potential to be incorporated into real-time surge forecasting systems to aid emergency management and evacuation decisions.
- Forecasting Model for Air Taxi, Commercial Airline, and Automobile Demand in the United StatesBaik, Hojong; Trani, Antonio A.; Hinze, Nicolas; Swingle, Howard; Ashiabor, Senanu; Seshadri, Anand (Transportation Research Board of the National Academies, 2008)A nationwide model predicts the annual county-to-county person roundtrips for air taxi, commercial airline, and automobile at 1-year intervals through 2030. The transportation systems analysis model (TSAM) uses the four-step transportation systems modeling process to calculate trip generation, trip distribution, and mode choice for each county origin–destination pair. Network assignment is formulated for commercial airline and air taxi demand. TSAM classifies trip rates by trip purpose, household income group, and type of metropolitan statistical area from which the round-trip started. A graphical user interface with geographic information systems capability is included in the model. Potential applications of the model are nationwide impact studies of transportation policies and technologies, such as those envisioned with the introduction of extensive air taxi service using very light jets, the next-generation air transportation system, and the introduction of new aerospace technologies.
- Patterns and Limitations of Urban Human Mobility Resilience under the Influence of Multiple Types of Natural DisasterWang, Qi; Taylor, John E. (Public Library of Science, 2016-01-28)Natural disasters pose serious threats to large urban areas, therefore understanding and predicting human movements is critical for evaluating a population’s vulnerability and resilience and developing plans for disaster evacuation, response and relief. However, only limited research has been conducted into the effect of natural disasters on human mobility. This study examines how natural disasters influence human mobility patterns in urban populations using individuals’ movement data collected from Twitter. We selected fifteen destructive cases across five types of natural disaster and analyzed the human movement data before, during, and after each event, comparing the perturbed and steady state movement data. The results suggest that the power-law can describe human mobility in most cases and that human mobility patterns observed in steady states are often correlated with those in perturbed states, highlighting their inherent resilience. However, the quantitative analysis shows that this resilience has its limits and can fail in more powerful natural disasters. The findings from this study will deepen our understanding of the interaction between urban dwellers and civil infrastructure, improve our ability to predict human movement patterns during natural disasters, and facilitate contingency planning by policymakers.
- Stresses and Instability in Coastal Systems: Sustaining Prosperity, Increasing Diversity and Achieving ResilienceWeiss, Robert; Bukvic, Anamaria; Dayer, Ashley A.; Fraser, James D.; Karpanty, Sarah M.; Catlin, Daniel H.; Juran, Luke; Wynne, Randolph H.; Gohlke, Julia M.; Boyle, Kevin J.; Irish, Jennifer L.; Leon, Roberto T.; Zobel, Christopher W.; Rees, Loren P.; Zhang, Yang; Schenk, Todd; Dixit, Priya (Virginia Tech, 2017-05-15)More than half of the world’s human population lives within 40 miles of the sea. Coastal cities are the backbone of global finance, trade, manufacturing, and transportation. Millions of people worldwide travel to beaches for recreation. Coastal fisheries and aquaculture are key sources of food, and the chief source of protein in most developing countries. The coast is home to a diverse range of plants and animals, some commercially valuable, some threatened or endangered, and all part of unique ecosystems. Coastal livelihoods, tourism, fish and wildlife species, and ecosystem services are threatened by climate change and its associated impact on coastal hazards. Flooding and coastal disasters from New York to Kolkata have killed thousands of people and cost trillions of dollars. By 2100 more than 100 million people could be displaced by sea-level change, 13 million in the U.S. alone. The stability of the global economy is threatened by sea-level change...