Spatio-temporal analysis of urban heat island (UHI) and its effect on urban ecology: The case of Mekelle city, Northern Ethiopia.

The bio-geophysical effects of land cover classes are considered to be an important factor in land surface temperature variations between urban and suburban areas. This means that major cities are significantly warmer than surrounding suburban or rural areas, which is known as the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect. The aim of this study was to assess and analyze the spatiotemporal variation, correlation and impact of UHIs on Mekelle city (1990-2020) using remote sensing techniques.

Seismic collapse risk of RC-timber hybrid building with different energy dissipation connections considering NBCC 2020 hazard.

The 2020 National Building Code of Canada (NBCC) seismic hazard model (SHM) marks a comprehensive update over its predecessor (NBCC 2015). For different regions in Canada, this will have an impact on the design of new buildings and performance assessment of existing ones. In the present study, a recently developed hybrid building system with reinforced concrete (RC) moment-resisting frames and cross-laminated timber (CLT) infills is assessed for its seismic performance against the latest SHM.

Portfolio Seismic Loss Estimation and Risk-based Critical Scenarios for Residential Wooden Houses in Victoria, British Columbia, and Canada.

This study presents a city-wide seismic risk assessment of single-family wooden houses in Victoria, British Columbia, and Canada. The novelty and uniqueness of this study include considerations of detailed building-by-building exposure model for residential houses, current national seismic hazard model for Canada, and rigorous seismic fragility modeling of wooden houses based on nonlinear dynamic analysis of structures subjected to mainshock-aftershock sequences. A full consideration of stochastic event scenarios in probabilistic seismic risk analysis allows the identification of critical scenarios from overall regional seismic risk perspectives and provides valuable insights in informing earthquake disaster risk management actions.

Mapping safety culture attributes with integrity management program to achieve assessment goals: A framework for oil and gas pipelines industry.

Introduction: The safety of oil and gas pipelines is an increasing concern for the public, government regulators, and the industry. A safety management system cannot be efficient without having an effective integrity management program (IMP) and a strong safety culture. IMP is a formal document (policies, planning, scheduling, and technical processes) while safety culture is a measure of views, beliefs, and traditions about safety.

Environmental risk assessment of acid rock drainage under uncertainty: The probability bounds and PHREEQC approach.

Acid rock drainage (ARD) is a major environmental problem that poses significant environmental risks during and after mining activities. A new methodology for environmental risk assessment based on probability bounds and a geochemical speciation model (PHREEQC) is presented. The methodology provides conservative and non-conservative ways of estimating risk of heavy metals posed to selected endpoints probabilistically, while propagating data and parameter uncertainties throughout the risk assessment steps.

Uncertainty quantification and integration of machine learning techniques for predicting acid rock drainage chemistry: a probability bounds approach.

Acid rock drainage (ARD) is a major pollution problem globally that has adversely impacted the environment. Identification and quantification of uncertainties are integral parts of ARD assessment and risk mitigation, however previous studies on predicting ARD drainage chemistry have not fully addressed issues of uncertainties. In this study, artificial neural networks (ANN) and support vector machine (SVM) are used for the prediction of ARD drainage chemistry and their predictive uncertainties are quantified using probability bounds analysis.

Selection of remedial alternatives for mine sites: a multicriteria decision analysis approach.

The selection of remedial alternatives for mine sites is a complex task because it involves multiple criteria and often with conflicting objectives. However, an existing framework used to select remedial alternatives lacks multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) aids and does not consider uncertainty in the selection of alternatives. The objective of this paper is to improve the existing framework by introducing deterministic and probabilistic MCDA methods.

Predicting copper concentrations in acid mine drainage: a comparative analysis of five machine learning techniques.

Acid mine drainage (AMD) is a global problem that may have serious human health and environmental implications. Laboratory and field tests are commonly used for predicting AMD, however, this is challenging since its formation varies from site-to-site for a number of reasons. Furthermore, these tests are often conducted at small-scale over a short period of time.

Decision making under uncertainty--an example for seismic risk management.

Decision-making techniques are used to select the "best" alternatives under multiple and often conflicting criteria. Multicriteria decision making (MCDM) necessitates to incorporate uncertainties in the decision-making process. The major thrust of this article is to extend the framework proposed by Yager for multiple decisionmakers and fuzzy utilities (payoffs).