29 Dec 2025

Fort Phantom Power System Analysis-Case Studies for Notional Power Resource Mixes and Energy Storage : Results Produced Using the Analysis of Microgrid Performance, Reliability, and Resilience (AMPeRRe) Computational Model

Abstract: Analysis of Microgrid Performance, Reliability, and Resilience (AMPeRRe) is a computational model that provides quantitative results to installations and remote communities that inform them of the objectives they can achieve. Results provided by this model lead to reliable intermittent power resource implementation, optimize the set of resources within a power system, and improve reliability and resiliency outcomes. This technical report provides an example of the analysis results AMPeR-Re can produce to quantify the expected benefits and trade-offs of incorporating different power resources and energy storage in a power system. Fort Phantom, a notional installation, was used as the testbed to produce these results. The AMPeRRe model forecasts outcomes such as the power availability, fuel consumption, duty cycle, and excess energy of different power resource investment scenarios. The results produced by this model are based on notional stages of development for the Fort Phantom Consolidated Maintenance Activity (CMA) power system. This technical re-port also pro-vides an expanded set of results and comparison of outcomes from different quantities of incorporated power resources. These results can aid business case development for power systems and enable efficient, informed development.

16 Dec 2025

Measured and Projected Loss of Water Storage in 162 USACE Reservoirs due to Sedimentation: 1938–2074

Sediment accumulation in reservoirs is a recognized global problem with serious implications for water-supply security, flood risk reduction, and hydropower generation. This Regional Sediment Management Technical Note (RSM-TN) aggregates water-storage volume data from a sample of 162 US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) reservoir projects to provide the historic and current water-storage capacity at these projects. Future trends for water storage and sedimentation impacts are then predicted through the year 2074.

16 Dec 2025

Fiber-Optic Distributed Acoustic Sensing for Nondestructive Monitoring of Permafrost

Fiber-optic distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) has gained traction in recent years as a geophysical monitoring tool. Advancements in commercially available DAS have allowed for sub-10 m data resolution and high sampling rates (over 10 kHz), leading to the use of DAS for infrastructure change detection and localization monitoring. Using this technology, a team from the US Army Engineer Research and Development Center–Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (ERDC-CRREL) built a field campaign around monitoring changes in permafrost using DAS via a dispersion analysis of surface wave propagation. In May 2024, active seismic testing was performed on a rapidly deployed, surface-laid, nondestructive DAS array above CRREL’s permafrost tunnel. Active source testing was repeated in September 2024 to collect data that may indicate changes in the seismic response due to permafrost changes. DAS response data was also collected from an unmanned aerial system (UAS) to evaluate for potential use in standoff assessment of permafrost changes. The field campaign results indicate that nondestructive DAS arrays are likely useful in detecting and localizing changes in near-surface properties of the permafrost.

16 Dec 2025

Procedures for Obtaining US Air Force Global Air-Land Weather Exploitation Model (GALWEM) Data for Hydrological Modeling Applications: An Overview of the GALWEM Acquisition System (GAS) v1.0 and v2.0

Abstract: The Global Air Land Weather Exploitation Model (GALWEM) Acquisition System (GAS) is a software platform that serves to automate and simplify the procurement of numerical weather prediction model data from the 557th Weather Squadron. GAS allows for the download of meteorological and other environmental parameters from the GALWEM, an operational Numerical Weather Prediction capability operated by the 557th Weather Squadron for use by both Air Force and Army interests. GAS provides the ability to archive GALWEM data so that it may be used by the US Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) and other researchers. The report describes multiple methodologies for data access as well as suggestions for future work to improve computational efficiency and customer access.

10 Dec 2025

A Qualitative Comparison Review Between Commonly Used Boussinesq Models

Abstract: The purpose of this Coastal and Hydraulics Engineering Technical Note (CHETN) is to summarize the Boussinesq models FUNWAVE, Coulwave, and Celeris. This CHETN outlines the governing equations and numerical schemes for each model and presents the order of their error terms. A qualitative comparison was completed between the fully nonlinear models, FUNWAVE and Coulwave, and the weakly nonlinear model, Celeris. Results from this comparison demonstrate capabilities for each model by comparing previously published benchmark validation cases. The discussion section highlights additional areas of research and report recommendations.

10 Dec 2025

Evaluation of Vegetated Shoreline Capacity Using CSHORE-VEG

Abstract: A versatile vegetation module has been implemented into the Cross-Shore model (CSHORE) to evaluate the capacity of coastal and marine wetlands with respect to wave-height attenuation and wave-runup reduction. This extended model, Cross-Shore-Vegetation (CSHORE-VEG), is capable of simulating the effects of rigid and flexible vegetation with spatially varying biomechanical properties. To accurately estimate the vegetation-induced energy dissipation rate, a drag coefficient formula that is independent of the vegetation flexibility was developed based on field data collected in salt marshes in Terrebonne Bay, Louisiana, during a tropical storm. This universal drag coefficient formula along with other existing drag coefficient formulas have been implemented into CSHORE-VEG to meet different needs. CSHORE-VEG has been validated against four independent datasets involving different vegetation properties for wave attenuation and mean water level change. After achieving good agreement in model-data comparisons, CSHORE-VEG was employed to quantify the capacity of two representative salt marshes composed of Spartina alterniflora and Elymus athericus for wave attenuation. As a result, two ineffective vegetated shoreline scenarios were identified. Furthermore, a procedure for determining the percentage of broken vegetation stems and modeling the corresponding wave-height reduction was applied to evaluate the wave-height reduction under realistic field conditions.

8 Dec 2025

Assessing Fish-Passage Rates

Abstract: Riverine fragmentation by dams, culverts, and other barriers has led to the precipitous decline of migratory fishes nationwide. Accordingly, fish-passage restoration has emerged as a significant issue for resource agencies, restoration professionals, and fisheries managers. This special report addresses the key scientific challenge of measuring fish-passage rates before and after restoration. A variety of techniques for both forecasting (preproject) and monitoring (postproject) fish-passage rates are reviewed. A set of guiding questions are presented to help practitioners select a method appropriate to their site, resources, and time line. Four case studies are then presented to demonstrate a subset of these methods in practice: fish community movement through floodgate structures in Missouri, movement patterns through river restoration structures in Colorado, fish movement around a low-head weir in Mississippi, and watershed-wide passability estimation using professional judgment in Nevada. These projects represent a range of conditions and are intended to provide practitioners with real-world examples to use as models for their own studies.

8 Dec 2025

Modeling Tools for Proactive Ecosystem Restoration and Assisted Migration Planning: A State of the Science Review and Synthesis

Abstract: Decision-support modeling tools are needed to help aquatic ecosystem restoration (AER) planners understand how habitat footprints and species distributions will change in response to future changing conditions. Specifically, environmental projections and predictive model outputs that inform proactive AER planning and investments. This report provides a literature synthesis of resources and tools to create such a decision support tool. Select models identified were evaluated for applicability to AER planning using prediction confidence, user-friendliness, and suitability. This uncovered several existing, primarily terrestrially, predictive models that could be adapted to inform proactive AER planning efforts. Research efforts are still needed to fill gaps for aquatic data to train and validate predictive models, refine key drivers, and build and pilot aquatic-focused tools. Future condition vulnerability screening tools could be used to identify which proposed AER project sites are best suited for proactive AER measures, such as assisted migration, and determine if investments in more rigorous, spatially explicit, or species-specific models are needed. Species-specific assessments of habitat suitability changes and adaptive capacity can then inform restoration targets and enable end-users to achieve AER planning objectives. Such a decision support tool would improve planner ability to restore key aquatic habitats resilient to future conditions.

8 Dec 2025

Improved Prediction of Soil Thermal Properties Using Gated Recurrent Unit Neural Networks

Abstract: Frost actions, such as frost depth penetration and thaw weakening, are damaging to airfields and roadways in cold regions. Machine learning techniques, such as recurrent neural networks, have been applied to this problem, but with a large focus on long short term memory (LSTM) neurons. Gated recurrent units (GRUs) are similar to LSTM neurons in terms of accuracy, but are more computationally efficient, and have yet to be applied to predicting soil thermal properties. Using a hyperparameter search, an optimal architecture for a recurrent neural network based on gated recurrent units was identified. A general model using temperature, thermal conductivity, and volumetric moisture content was found to predict temperatures effectively, having an error of less than 0.25°F across all depths. For predicting thermal conductivity, a model including temperature but not moisture content was found to be effective. For moisture content, the results were inconclusive as both models were affected by similar errors. Overall, the GRU-base recurrent neural networks were found to work well for predicting soil thermal properties in high-plasticity clays, and it is recommended to further expand the training datasets to include other frost-affected soil types.

8 Dec 2025

The Trajectory of Iron Sulfide Oxidation and Production in Marshes Created from Dredged Sediments at Poplar Island: Implications for Wetland Plant Establishment

Abstract: The following report provides a summary of the effects of iron sulfide dynamics (e.g., oxidation and formation) on the establishment of plant communities in wetlands created from fine-grained dredged sediments at Poplar Island in Maryland’s mid-Chesapeake Bay. The challenges associated with handling sulfide-rich sediments are discussed using examples from dredged channels and subsequent placement in a created wetland setting in the upper Chesapeake Bay. Information is synthesized from multiple previous peer-reviewed publications as well as unpublished studies, all conducted by the Horn Point Laboratory (University of Maryland, Center for Environmental Science), on the trajectory of sulfur constituents in Poplar Island created wetlands. The implications for vegetation trajectories are discussed and the knowledge base of sulfide mineral biogeochemistry in managed coastal wetland systems is expanded.