This paper describes a comprehensive sensitivity study that was performed using high performance parallel computers to understand the importance of input parameters to a transient partially saturated finite element seepage analysis for a levee with separate soil layers of sand, silty sand, and clay. Seepage flow in this paper refers to the type of flow of water that occurred through the failed ...

Cascading failures have become major threats to network robustness due to their potential catastrophic consequences, where local perturbations can induce global propagation of failures. Unlike failures spreading via direct contacts due to structural interdependencies, overload failures usually propagate through collective interactions among system components. Despite the critical need in develo...

We study the propagation of cascading failures in complex supply networks with a focus on nonlocal effects occurring far away from the initial failure. It is shown that a high clustering and a small average path length of a network generally suppress nonlocal overloads. These properties are typical for many real-world networks, often called small-world networks, such that cascades propagate mos...

This paper is motivated by the following two related problems in complex networks: (i) control of cascading failures and (ii) mitigation of traffic congestion. Both problems are of significant recent interest as they address, respectively, the security of and efficient information transmission on complex networks. Taking into account typical features of load distribution and weights in real-wor...

Flood-control levees are generally thought to increase flood height and velocity for a given discharge. While extensive areas of floodplain in the United States are leveed, the ecological impacts of levees have largely been ignored relative to other anthropogenic impacts to large river floodplains. We examined a century of flood control along the Wisconsin River by comparing simulated flood reg...

Hydraulic gold-mining tailings produced in the late nineteenth century in the Sierra Nevada foothills of California caused severe channel aggradation in the lower Feather and Yuba Rivers. Topographic and planimetric data from historical accounts, maps, topographic surveys, vertical sections, aerial photographs, and LiDAR (light detection and ranging) data reveal contrasting styles of channel ch...

Erosion of unprotected levee banks decreases their structural integrity and increases the likelihood of failure. Several types of restoration structures for levee protection and stabilization have been used in the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta, California, to reduce erosion. The purpose of this paper is to describe the results of a field experiment designed to measure the effectiveness of ...

Rivers around the world have been heavily engineered, and these man-made changes are affecting important biogeochemical cycles. play a key role in global carbon cycle, by mobilizing organic from land delivering it to oceans. River engineering techniques, like levees that prevent flooding, change way is cycled through rivers, but difficult identify quantify changes. Shen et al. (2021) were able ...