Academic literature on the topic 'Amphibious buildings'

The study aims to present, compare, and assess three different types of buildings considered as flood-resilient construction: building on piles (also called static elevation), amphibious building (also called can-float), and floating building in terms of their performance in the context of a semiwild river in a large city. The comparative multiple-case study covers three objects realized between 2014 and 2017 at the Vistula riverbanks in Warsaw, Poland: pile founded Beach Pavilion, amphibious Boulevard Pavilion, and floating Water Tram Terminal. The research was based on the blueprints analysis as well as on on-site observations in the phase of construction and operation and interviews. The general characteristic of the three resilient typologies has been confirmed in the study. The pile building has an almost unlimited range of operation regarding the water level on the cost of a relatively remote location from the river, but during an exceptionally extreme flood, it will be flooded. Floating buildings provide the best visual and physical contact with water, cannot be flooded, and may be relocated but access to them from land is hampered, especially during very low and very high water levels. Amphibious buildings seem to be a compromise of water proximity and reliability of operation in all circumstances. A closer look reveals technical problems with buoyant structures. In the case of the floating terminals, problems with mooring on the semiwild freezing river remain a challenge. The amphibious buildings are still in the phase of implementation, waiting for their first test in natural flooding conditions.

This paper concerns the numerical analysis of closed rectangular tanks made in one stage, used as pontoons. Such structures can be successfully used as floating platforms, although they primarily serve as floats for ‘houses on water’. Amphibious construction has fascinated designers for many years and is becoming, in addition to a great and prestigious location for many purposes, a practical global necessity. Severe weather phenomena that no country is safe from, i.e., heavy rains or floods, combined with the scarcity of space intended for the construction of residential buildings, encourage development at the contact of water and land or on water only. This paper contains an analysis of the static work of tanks with different bottom thickness subjected to hydrostatic load acting on tank walls and the bottom plate and evenly distributed load acting on the upper plate, i.e., major impacts that occur when tanks are used as pontoons. Calculations were made using the finite difference method in terms of energy, assuming the Poisson’s ratio ν = 0. Based on the solutions obtained, charts were made that illustrated the change in bending moments at the characteristic points of the analysed tanks depending on acting loads. The article also includes calculations of buoyancy, stability and the metacentric height for tanks with different bottom thicknesses, with the main purpose being to improve and share knowledge on their safe use as pontoons.

A landscape is never so valuable as when it is under threat, and the English rural countryside has been the subject of alarm for centuries. Raymond Williams identified an ‘escalator’ on which literary representation continually looked back upon a past golden age of rural virtue, ensuring that the idea of a ‘true’ rural England has persisted into the twentieth century with extraordinary power Thus Howard Newby can write of the ‘stereotypes and myths which surround the popular image of the rural world’, while, at the same time, he claims this fallacious perception is ‘one of the major protecting illusions of our time’. This illusion has been reinforced by the nature of English society. Sir Lewis Narnier believed English society to be ‘amphibious’ in the eighteenth century, with no sharp divide between town and country among the interests of the ruling classes. By the end of the nineteenth century the countryside, under the influence of Romanticism and a changing class structure, had become the preserve of an upper-class society increasingly separated from industrialism and the great towns. Yet this upper class was cemented by the public schools and the universities to include not only landowners, but an array of occupations, including many intellectuals. Until the First World War, despite increasing mechanisation and specialisation in the countryside, the land presented a rural face largely unspoiled by the intrusion of industrial and urban uses. Land was held in large estates, farmed by tenants in a world of mostly irregular fields, lanes and hedgerows, with buildings that preserved vernacular styles.

AbstractThe proximate mechanisms of territorial behaviour in Boleophthalmus boddarti, an amphibious gobiid mudskipper that builds and maintains polygonal mud-walled territories provides a good example of the elastic disc concept of territories. The occurrence of wall building is density dependent and a contiguous mosaic of territories is only produced at high fish densities. Wall removal and replacement experiments show that the mud-wall acts as a visual barrier and reduces aggression between neighbouring territorial fish.

Habitat loss, degradation, and fragmentation due to urbanization are implicated in amphibian declines worldwide. Conservation efforts require information on resident species and their habitat interactions, but amphibian ecology is largely unstudied in urban centers of the Southern High Plains. Here, we gathered baseline data on amphibian presence, species richness, and habitat preferences at site-specific and landscape scales during a severe drought year in the city of Lubbock, in northwestern Texas. Ephemeral playa wetlands are characteristic of this landscape. During urbanization, these have been extensively modifiied for stormwater drainage, agriculture, and construction of roads, buildings and neighborhoods. A semi-arid climate with frequent droughts, together with urbanization, could have an adverse effect on resident amphibians. In 2011, we sampled 23 urban lakes for amphibian presence, using a combination of audio, visual, and larval surveys. We detected five amphibian species at seven lakes; Texas Toads (Anaxyrus speciosus) and Spotted Chorus Frogs (Pseudacris clarkii) were the most frequently encountered species. We found significant negative effects of nearby road density on amphibian species presence and richness. We also detected significant negative effects of basic pH on amphibian species richness. These data can be used for prioritizing lakes for amphibian conservation strategies, to monitor ecosystem function in urban wetlands, and to guide future development and restoration efforts.

Abstract Buildings and facilities on waterways have significant landscaping, water management and ecological importance. They affect the landscape and create conditions for the emergence of new habitats. Small dams, mills, saws, small hydropower plants, dams and other water objects and structures, which more or less affect the flow of the surrounding countryside, are built and are building in the countryside. Within design and construction of these objects environmental relationships must be respected and in line with the sustainable exploitation of the territory. Many objects built in the past adversely affected the flow and the landscape while make it impossible the migration of fish and amphibians. A series of objects is currently non-functional and have a negative impact on the flow and the surrounding countryside. In such cases the streams are revitalized or inoperative objects are removed, fish ladders are often built. This study evaluates the possibility of using land adjacent to the fixed weir on the Svratka river in the Ujčov village, from the viewpoint of maintaining the existing biodiversity, aesthetic and economic potential of the territory. A study with several options of land use is the result.

SUMMARYArid regions are increasingly being anthropogenically altered. In the north-western Sahara, a growing road network facilitates the use of habitats adjacent to roads. In regions where livestock is the traditional and main economic resource, local people are currently building numerous water cisterns for watering livestock, leading to an increase in the extent of pasturing of domestic livestock. Cisterns may attract desert vertebrates and act as death traps for species with already sparse populations in these arid areas. This paper is the first to examine the impact of cisterns as lethal traps for amphibians and reptiles in the Sahara, using a survey of 823 cisterns in south-western Morocco to identify and quantify species affected. Four amphibians and 35 reptiles were trapped in cisterns, some of which were listed as threatened. At least 459 017 individual amphibians and reptiles were trapped annually within the study area. The low productivity and low population densities of terrestrial vertebrates in this arid region suggest cisterns have a substantial impact upon amphibian and reptile species. As cistern construction is increasing, management actions are required to mitigate this impact on the herpetological community.

Captivity should be the last resort in any attempt to conserve threatened species. However, for many species we are now at this point, particularly when we consider the lower vertebrates such as amphibians. Zoos have the potential to play a leading role in the conservation (as opposed the exploitation) of this often-neglected taxa. However, in order to do this will require two significant mind-shifts within the zoo world. Firstly we need to distinguish between those species which we maintain for exhibition purposes (i.e. large mammals) from those which have an important conservation role (e.g. amphibians) and be willing to discuss this openly with our visiting public. Second we must recognise that while educating children about the natural world is of value, our biggest impact on wildlife conservation will be through training conservation professionals worldwide and building their capacity to conserve their own wildlife.

From the very inception of the preliminary design phase of the U.S. Navy's new amphibious assault ship, which at the time was designated only as the LX, there has been an emphasis on generating a design which is producible—one that requires a minimum of redesign by the building yard and which can be built efficiently using modern ship construction techniques. This emphasis resulted in establishment of a Producibility Task Manager as a member of the LX Preliminary Design Team and in the creation of a Product-Oriented Design And Construction (PODAC) Working Group. The functions of this Group were to mimic a shipyard production planning effort and to interact with the design team on a regular basis. This paper describes the results of their efforts, including the development of a Generic Build Strategy and numerous Design for Producibility improvements during the LX Preliminary Design Phase.

Climate change will increase the risk of floods from storms and rising sea levels in many countries with coasts, seas and rivers. In Sweden, climate change is going to affect the intensity and frequency of precipitation which, together with rising sea levels, will result in more floods in the future. In the last few years amphibious buildings have emerged as an alternative solution to building protective infrastructure such as walls and levees around communities.  There are several different strategies for how communities can be protected against floods. Amphibious architecture is a strategy were buildings are working with nature instead of trying to force water away. Amphibious buildings have the same amenities and appearance as traditional building constructions and help residents to stop living in fear of potential flood and start living in harmony with water. The building technique is applicable globally and minimizes material damage, financial losses and mental suffering in the event of a flood. The purpose of this master thesis is to contribute to increased knowledge of amphibious buildings as a building technique by summarizing experience and knowledge from other countries and identifying opportunities and limitations for building that type of constructions in Sweden. A literature study was conducted in order to find published knowledge on the subject and to form a basis for an interview study regarding opportunities and limitations to build amphibious buildings in Sweden.  Results from the literature and interview studies indicate that one of the main opportunities of the building technique is the possibility to use more land for buildings and that amphibious buildings are adapted for future climate changes. By using an alternative strategy against floods where buildings work with the water less impacts in nature and ecosystems occur. One of the limitations of amphibious construction is the limited research on the subject. Amphibious buildings also requires low vertical water flow rates and waves. Knowledge of amphibious buildings as a building technique is low among many professionals in the construction sector and many countries’ laws are not adapted to this type of construction which makes it more difficult to build amphibious houses.  Furthermore, results indicate that amphibious buildings could be an effective solution for building in flood areas. Proposals for future studies include how amphibious buildings work in a Nordic climate. Another proposal is to investigate what is needed for amphibious buildings to become an accepted alternative solutions in Swedish flood areas.
När klimaten förändras ökar risken för översvämningar från stormar, skyfall och stigande havsnivåer i många länder. Klimatförändringar kommer påverka Sverige på flera olika sätt där en konsekvens är ökad nederbörd och stigande havsnivåer vilket kommer resultera i ökat antal översvämningar i framtiden. På senare tid har alternativa lösningar lyfts fram istället för bygga skyddande infrastruktur som exempelvis skyddsmurar runt samhällen. Det finns flera olika strategier hur samhällen kan skyddas mot översvämningar där amfibisk arkitektur är en strategi som innebär natur inte motarbetas utan byggnaden samarbetar med vattenmassorna. Byggnaderna har samma faciliteter och utseende som traditionella konstruktioner men vid en översvämning flyter huset på vattnet. Byggtekniken hjälper individer som lever inom riskzon för översvämningar att sluta leva i rädsla och börja leva i harmoni med vattnet. Byggmetoden är applicerbar globalt och har potential att minimerar materiella skador, ekonomiska förluster och psykiskt lidande för inblandade vid en eventuell översvämning. Syfte med studien är att bidra till ökad förståelse om amfibiska hus som byggnadsmetod, vilka möjligheter och begränsningar som finns för att använda sig av tekniken i Sverige, sammanställa kunskap och erfarenhet från andra länder samt vilka faktorer som påverkar utformningen. Målet är att identifiera kunskaper och erfarenheter om byggtekniken och sammanfatta dessa. En litteraturstudie genomfördes i syfte att identifiera och sammanställa redan känd kunskap inom ämnet och ta fram underlag till en intervjustudie. Intervjustudien fokuserade på möjligheter och begränsningar att bygga amfibiska hus i Sverige. Intervjustudien behandlade tre perspektiv; myndighetsperspektiv, finans- och försäkringsperspektiv samt sakfrågeperspektiv.  Resultatet från litteratur- och intervjustudien indikerar att en av de främsta möjligheterna  med byggtekniken är att mer markyta kan utnyttjas och att byggtekniken är anpassad för framtida klimatförändringar. Genom att använda sig av en alternativ strategi mot översvämningar som arbetar med vattenmassorna krävs mindre ingrepp i naturen och ekosystemet. Byggtekniken är applicerbar i många olika länder och kan anpassas efter individens ekonomiska förutsättningar.  En begränsande faktor är bristen på dokumenterad kunskap som kan försvåra användning av byggtekniken. Byggmetoden passar inte alla lokaliseringar utan det är platsen förutsättningar som styr huruvida amfibiska hus kan användas. Kunskapen om amfibiska hus är låg hos många aktörer inom byggsektorn och många länders lagstiftningar är inte anpassad för denna typ av byggteknik vilket försvårar byggandet av sådana objekt.  Förslag på framtida studier är att se över hur byggtekniken kan användas för större byggnader och hur byggtekniken påverkas av nordiskt klimatet. Ett annat förslag är vilka utredningar som krävs för att svenska myndigheter ska ta ställning till byggtekniken och godkänna anpassad bebyggelse på orter med översvämningsrisk.

Chapter 8 focuses on the military components of China’s grand strategy to build regional order. It argues that the Global Financial Crisis accelerated a shift in Chinese military strategy away from a singular focus on blunting American power through sea denial to a new focus on building order through sea control. China now sought the capability to hold distant islands, safeguard sea lines, intervene in neighboring countries, and provide public security goods. For those missions, China needed a different force structure, one that it had previously postponed for fear it would be vulnerable to the United States and unsettle its neighbors. These were risks a more confident Beijing was now willing to accept. China promptly stepped up investments in aircraft carriers, capable surface vessels, amphibious warfare, marines, and overseas bases—all with the goal of building regional order.

The out-of-doors provides unique opportunities to engage youth in the natural environment and to teach STEM content in a more informal setting. In this chapter, the authors share findings from a study focused on elementary-aged students as they participated in a week-long herpetology (the study of reptiles and amphibians) program at an environmental education center. Informal science education centers provide a context for participants to use STEM to address local, place-based issues, exercise agency in how they practice autonomy within learning activities, and broaden their perceptions of what it means to “do science” through participation in normative scientific practices. However, there is a dearth of literature addressing the use and benefits of environmental education. Using a lens focused on agency and normative scientific practices, the authors examine the ways engagement in environmental education impact participants' perceptions of their abilities to engage in STEM-related practices.

Agent-based or individual-based models allow for variation in the state and behavior of the basic objects that interact within the model. Modeling each individual as a separate entity allows for spatially explicit components to be included so that the individuals can interact with a heterogeneous landscape and with each other. Realism is added to the models by incorporating spatially explicit data for the area of interest. Integrating spatial data into an agent-based system requires that a significant level of geographic information systems (GIS) functionality from traditional GIS be incorporated into the modeling system. This approach may seem redundant and costly, but current GIS systems do not offer a framework for building dynamic agent-based models. The across-trophic-level system simulation (ATLSS) is characterized by the integration of several distinct agent-based models and spatially explicit data into a single modeling system. One of the goals of the ATLSS (pronounced like “atlas”) project is to investigate the relative response of various interconnected trophic levels of the South Florida (SF) Everglades to different hydrologic scenarios over a thirty-year planning horizon. The ATLSS approach consists of several distinct component models, each of which represents different biotic components of the Everglades system, linked together as a multimodel. Currently, ATLSS includes component models for the Florida Panther, the Cape Sable Sea Side Sparrow, white tail deer, fresh water fish, wading birds, the Snail kite, and vegetation biomass. Additional models for alligators and various reptiles and amphibians are in development and will be added as they are completed. The list above by no means enumerates all of the species in SF. It reflects instead the initial attempt to include key components that biologists with many years of field experience in SF believed were critical to include. It also reflects the time and funding limitations to carry out empirical studies and develop both the theory and software needed to model each system component. The Florida Panther, the Cape Sable Seaside Sparrow, the Snail Kite and several wading bird species of SF are all listed as endangered species. The fish, deer, and vegetation on the other hand are included since they are critical resources for the endangered species.

According to the statistics of the World Bank between years 1970–2010, most economy losses caused by disasters in rich countries were due to floods and earthquakes. The East Asia was the most disastrous area in terms of the death toll caused by earthquakes, which proved that the earthquake is unpredictable. To cope with the crisis of the rise of the sea level, the concept of Marine Cities has been proposed. The most famous one among these concepts is the Dutch amphibious house. People living in earthquake and flood prone areas should be aware of the threat from oceans. Therefore, Ministry of Interior in Taiwan passed the rule 4 No. 2 in the chapter of the design and construction regulations to allow the use of high-raised buildings for reducing life and property loss. Furthermore, the most threatening natural hazards we are facing over a long period of time are floods and earthquakes. When are focusing on the flood resistant buildings in flood-prone areas, we should also aim at the prevention of earthquake disasters. The purpose of this study is to simulate the seismic behavior of the high-raised structures with different water levels, which are capable of flood resistance. We also propose a new seismic isolation system for these structures and study its efficiency in protecting these types of structures from earthquake damage. It appears from experimental results that the seismic responses of high-raised houses have been significantly reduced by the proposed device. Experimental results also disclosed that the proposed concept in this study is feasible for protecting structures in lowlands from damage resulting from floods as well as earthquakes.

Vanderbilt University introduced a new course in the 2012 Fall Semester: Cyber-physical vehicle modeling, design and development. This course focused on the design, development, fabrication, verification, and validation of a scale vehicle in the virtual and the physical domains to meet a set of realistic and challenging design requirements for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Model-Based Amphibious Racing Challenge. The students built a series of models in software and hardware to guide the design choices for the 1/5th scale amphibious vehicle. The culmination of this course was a competition against teams from other universities in January 2013 that compared the vehicle’s actual performance with student-created simulation models. This was an elective course outside the traditional capstone design curriculum and consisted of a team of juniors and seniors across the disciplines of mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, computer engineering, computer science, and physics. The students received robust training “to be an engineer” with many activities that can’t be included in a typical classroom environment: hands-on experience designing, modeling, and building a complete vehicle; simultaneously solving several open ended, rigid deadline challenges; and navigating complex team dynamics in a full end-to-end project. Additionally, the students gained experience using modern engineering modeling tools from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s META tool suite under development for the Fast, Adaptable, Next-Generation Ground Vehicle program. The META tool suite is a set of free, open source tools for compositional design synthesis at multiple levels of abstraction, design trade space exploration, metrics assessment, and probabilistic verification of system correctness. This work details the course activities and summarizes the lessons learned from a pedagogy perspective.