Analyzing the performance of a rain garden over 15 years

<p>The Bioinfiltration Traffic Island (BTI) is a bioinfiltration rain garden that was retrofitted off an existing traffic island located at Villanova University, USA in 2001. Having been monitored since 2003, the BTI has quantitative hydrological data collected for the approximately two decades, making it a very valuable dataset for an in-depth analysis of the performance of the site.</p><p>The initial analysis comprises of a high-resolution analysis of rainfall event frequency along with resulting performance at the bioinfiltration rain garden. All rainfall events within the 15 years of collected data was discretized in to 2.5 mm, 2-hour bins. The binned rain events were then analyzed using a mass balance approach to understand how the different hydrological elements contribute to the ability of the site to treat incoming stormwater runoff. The second part of the analysis focuses on assessing the intensities of each of the recorded storms to understand its influence on the performance of the rain garden.</p><p>The third part of this analysis will comprise of studying the site’s ability to manage incoming runoff with the rain garden’s development over the fifteen years. The main focus will be to assess the performance of the site in the earlier stages and compare it to the performance seen in the latter stages with established vegetation. The binned rainfall events will be used to compare the performance of the BTI for storms with similar characteristics (similar precipitation amount and event duration) occurring in different stages of the timeline. The extensive dataset will additionally give insight to internal mechanisms such as evapotranspiration and infiltration occurring at the site and indicate how their contribution changes with the evolution of the site.</p><p>The overall analysis provides lessons into system components and aims to understand the interaction of the different hydrological elements within the rain garden. The objective is to use the findings in designing Green Infrastructure systems that can be optimized in their ability to manage incoming stormwater.</p>

PENERAPAN ARSITEKTUR INFORMASI PADA DIGITAL LIBRARY

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui sejauh mana arsitektur informasi diterapkan pada digital library. Sampel pada penelitian ini yaitu Cambridge Digital Library, Villanova University Digital Library, University of Pittsburgh Digital Collection, dan Tuft Digital Library. Metode Penelitian yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah kualitatif deskriptif. Penelitian yang dilakukan adalah pengamatan terhadap 4 digital library yang dipilih. Data analis yang digunakan yaitu komponen arsitektur informasi yang meliputi organization information, navigation systems, labelling systems, dan search systems. Dari hasil deskripsi menunjukkan tidak semua user interface menerapkan arsitektur informasi. Cambridge Digital Library merupakan digital library yang menerapkan semua komponen arsitektur informasi, sedangkan ketiga digital library lainnya hanya menerapkan 3 komponen arsitektur informasi. Meskipun demikian Cambridge digital library belum menerapkan semua komponen arsitektur informasi dengan baik dikarenakan ada salah satu komponen arsitektur informasi yang belum sepenuhnya diterapkan. Organization information merupakan salah satu komponen arsitektur informasi yang tidak diterapkan sepenuhnya oleh mayoritas digital library. Dari 4 digital library yang dijadikan sebagai objek pengamatan, tidak ada satupun digital library yang menerapkan arsitektur informasi secara penuh dan baik.

Mechatronics for Humanitarian Explosive Ordnance Disposal in Cambodia

Over the past six years, researchers at Villanova University (VU) and the Golden West Humanitarian Foundation (GWHF) have developed an integrated research and educational program focused on the use of mechatronics and robotics in humanitarian explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) and mine action. In the following article, I will talk about this program, discuss two ongoing projects - a low-cost EOD robot and an automated ordnance identification system - and talk about how we have successfully integrated students in the work. There are many opportunities for the DSCD community to get involved in this area and hopefully this article will pique your interest.