Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Papers

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://digital.lib.washington.edu/handle/1773/15623

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Giving Curb Visibility to Delivery Drivers
(2022-02-01) Chiara, Giacomo Dalla; Goodhild, Anne
At the time we are writing this article, hundreds of thousands of delivery vehicles are getting ready to hit the road and travel across U.S. cities to meet the highest peak of demand for e-commerce deliveries during Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and the Christmas holiday season. This mammoth fleet will not only add vehicle miles travelled through urban centers but also increase parking congestion, battling with other vehicles for available curb space. While the integration of road traffic data with modern navigation systems has seen huge developments in the past decade, drastically changing the way we, and delivery vehicles, navigate through cities, not as much can be said when it comes to parking. The task of finding and securing parking is still left to drivers, and largely unsupported by real-time information or app-based solutions. Delivery vehicle drivers are affected by curb parking congestion even more than any other driver because delivery drivers have to re-park their vehicles not once or twice, but 10, 20, or even more times during a delivery route. Our work, discussed in this article, focuses on improving delivery drivers’ life when it comes to finding available curb space, improving the delivery system, and reducing some of the externalities generated in the process. We first describe what types of parking behaviors delivery drivers adopt when facing a lack of available curb parking, then we will quantify the cost of lack of available parking, estimating how much time delivery drivers spent circling the block and searching for parking. We then discuss how we can improve on that by creating the first curb availability information system – OpenPark.
Boston Delivers: Cargo Bike Pilot Evaluation
(2025-05-30) Rula, Kelly; Chu, Yu-Chen; Chiara, Giacomo Dalla; Goodchild, Anne; Esmaili, Arsalan; Rosenblatt, Ben; Mills, Harper; Warfield, Matthew
Boston Delivers was an 18-month pilot project (running September 2023 through February 2025) led by the Boston Transportation Department in partnership with Net Zero Logistics and funded by MassCEC through the ACT4All program. The project tested the use of electric cargo bikes for neighborhood deliveries, aiming to reduce congestion, improve air quality, and support local businesses by replacing car and van trips with more sustainable, right-sized vehicles. The Urban Freight Lab served as a research partner on the pilot, helping to design the evaluation framework, develop performance metrics, and analyze outcomes related to safety, emissions, and economic feasibility — ensuring the project produced actionable insights for Boston and other cities looking to implement cleaner and more efficient last-mile delivery options.
The State of Zero-Emissions Delivery in the U.S.
(2025-05-25) Rula, Kelly; Schnaiberg, Lynn; Maxner, Thomas; Shafiei Nia, Hesam; Goodchild, Anne
We have seen major changes in the last few years as cities and companies in the United States transition to more environmentally sustainable urban delivery. But progress still remains piecemeal and slow. In both policy and practice on city streets, Europe and parts of Asia are far ahead of the U.S. in advancing electrification, shifting away from traditional trucks to smaller forms like e-bikes, and managing city space to induce or support zero emission delivery (ZED). This paper captures the state of policy and practice of zero emission delivery in the U.S. as of January 2025. It offers a baseline for future work and surfaces levers U.S. cities can consider using to advance ZED. In this report, researchers from the Urban Freight Lab at the University of Washington created a policy and practice framework based on their expertise, review and synthesis of academic literature, current technology and private sector achievements. Via the framework, the research team identifies a three-legged stool of approaches needed to achieve or advance zero emission delivery in the United States. These three vital areas for progress on ZED are: Electrification Mode Shift and Behavior Change, and Real Estate and Space Management For some, these three key building blocks and the myriad elements discussed in this report may not have been linked as levers to catalyze ZED. The report is divided into three sections, one for each of the key areas above. Each area has an overview of the current state of practice and associated trends, followed by both public sector-led and private-sector-led examples of the approach under discussion. All examples focus on real-world implementation (both domestic and international), showcasing ZED and/or providing a realistic pathway to advance ZED. And all examples focus a lens squarely on cities. In the process of compiling this summary of the state of practice of ZED, the research team synthesized key takeaways for cities to consider in Electrification, Mode Shift and Behavior Change, and Real Estate and Space Management.
Seattle SMART: Digitizing the Last Mile of Urban Goods to Improve Curb Access and Utilization
(2025-10-25) Chiara, Giacomo Dalla; Maxner, Thomas; Esmaili, Arsalan; Wehrmueller, Gabor; Rula, Kelly; Goodchild, Anne
In Spring 2023, the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) was awarded a Stage-1 grant under the Strengthening Mobility and Revolutionizing Transportation (SMART) Grants Program by the US DOT. The University of Washington’s Urban Freight Lab (UFL) partnered with SDOT to develop the methodological approach and analysis for the SMART project, titled “Last-mile freight curb access: digitizing the last-mile of urban goods to improve curb access and utilization,” and determine key research discoveries that contribute to the existing body of work and support development for a SMART Stage-2 grant. This technical report describes the research study, data collected, and findings from analysis of those data. This project tested a Vehicle-to-Curb (V2C) technology that investigated the digitization of the existing CVLZ permit and to potentially enable pricing strategies. While parking pricing policies have been successful to manage passenger vehicle demand and their parking behaviors, the response of commercial vehicles to parking pricing is not sufficiently understood, and little information is available to predict their behavioral response. The overarching goals of this project were to: pilot test the effectiveness of a V2C technology to enable the digitization of the existing Seattle CVLZ permit system and to qualitatively understand the role parking pricing and permitting programs play in affecting drivers’ ability to find and utilize authorized parking within the context of north downtown Seattle. Key insights were gained through multiple research strategies: on-the-ground parking behavior data collection, carrier interviews, and a carrier survey. These insights allowed SDOT to develop a successful Stage-2 grant submission and will inform future parking and permit policy decisions.
Evaluation of AI-based Feedback System for Reducing Sidewalk Riding by Shared e-scooter Users
(2024-01-07) Oshanreh, Mohammad Mehdi; Malarkey, Daniel; MacKenzie, Don
The objective of this study was to assess the efficacy of using AI-based auditory feedback and speed limitations on shared e-scooters equipped with computer vision sensors to reduce sidewalk riding. Spin, a US-based micromobility company, provided data from 100 e-scooters in Santa Monica, California: half with activated feedback systems and half with deactivated systems. From November 23, 2022, to February 14, 2023, 488 trips were recorded within Santa Monica. Empirical cumulative distribution function (ECDF) plots and Kolmogorov-Smirnov tests indicate that feedback and speed limitations induced a statistically significant reduction in the fractions of trip time and distance that were spent on sidewalks, and in the length and duration of individual segments of sidewalk riding. The feedback group spent 22% less time and 20% less distance on sidewalks compared to the no-feedback group. To assess whether the feedback decreased the likelihood of choosing the sidewalk as the next surface when the rider is on the street or bike lane, we used a binary logistic regression model. The models' results revealed a statistically significant association between receiving feedback and a reduced inclination to choose the sidewalk as the next surface. These results show that feedback from using onboard cameras and artificial intelligence systems that identify roads, bike lanes, and sidewalks can alter e-scooter users' decisions on where to ride, potentially reducing conflicts between pedestrians and scooter riders and increasing compliance with city ordinances.
Measurements and Verification (M&V) Guidelines for Weatherization Plus Health Program
(2023-03-15) Recart, Carolina; Kim, Amy; Dossick, Carrie Sturts
Weatherization Plus Health (Wx+H), a pilot program introduced by the Washington State Department of Commerce, has proposed a new scope to improve the indoor environment quality (IEQ) for low-income housing residents—one that extends beyond energy benefits. Typical interventions include the distribution of green cleaning kits, walk-off mats, ventilation system upgrades, and resident education, among other elements. Wx+H experts are working to capture the long-term impact of these combined measures to assess the program’s potential. Although guidelines and best practices exist to measure and verify the impacts and influences of energy conservation, these indicators do not holistically incorporate occupant satisfaction and perceptions regarding health benefits in the context of low-income housing. This paper presents a preliminary literature review that summarizes measurements and verifications (M&V) schemes applicable to the residential sector from two major standards: ASHRAE Guideline 14 and the international performance measurement and verification protocol. Additionally, reports from the Washington State Commerce Department were analyzed to identify procedures and factors that might influence M&V schemes as applied by Washington State who are leading health and energy programs. Barriers, opportunities, and innovative M&V are discussed.
Systematic Review of Hygrothermal Computational Tools for New and Existing Buildings
(2023-03-15) Recart, Carolina; Kim, Amy
The use of multiple design strategies seeking energy efficiency in buildings can offer a wide range of opportunities to improve energy and thermal performance. While thermal resistance is typically considered of high importance, to achieve energy efficiency and prolong the durability of buildings, hygrothermal conditions must also be taken into account. As new technology develops that is capable of measuring a given structure’s real-time data, the research community is increasingly relying on software and tools for hygrothermal assessments of buildings. As the tools vary widely in both extent and functionality, defining a method to identify the effectiveness and accuracy of hygrothermal tools for various project scopes presents a technical challenge. This paper presents a systematic review that organizes and summarizes a range of different software for hygrothermal assessment of new and existing buildings. This research review 11 hygrothermal models and tools based on three main characteristics: (1) interface and information transference, (2) hygrothermal assessment and scope, and (3) context and standards. This review seeks to offer a better understanding of technical tools for hygrothermal performance assessment to assist architects, engineers, and designers, promoting last-longing interventions, and improving assessments’ accuracy for energy-use estimations.
Travel Behavior Modeling and Emerging Mobility Technologies - Annual Report from the University of Washington To Argonne National Laboratory
(2021-09-09) Tu, Yuanjie (Tukey); Jabbari, Parastoo; Khaloei, Moein; MacKenzie, Don
This report presents work completed at the University of Washington in 2020-21 under contracts with Argonne National Laboratory. Specifically, it includes work completed in the fourth year of the UW’s efforts on the US-China Clean Energy Research Center - Clean Vehicles Consortium (CERC-CVC), and work under the Systems and Modeling for Accelerated Research in Transportation (SMART) consortium. The work completed includes survey design, data collection, and modeling. Specifically, we report on: 1. Modeling and analysis of autonomous vehicle mode choices and car ownership decisions that leverage data collected in prior years with CERC-CVC support. 2. Collection of data on travelers’ preferences for solo and pooled ridehailing services, taking advantage of a survey that was designed with prior CERC-CVC support but delayed by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. We also report on modeling efforts employing these data. 3. Design and administration of a stated choice survey of ridehailing drivers, aimed at collecting data to support modeling of drivers’ working time, location, and trip request acceptance decisions. We also include a summary of some practical lessons learned about surveying this hard-to-reach group. 4. Analysis of changes in transit usage before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, exploring differences between those who plan to return to transit and those who do not. 5. The design of a survey intended to link personality traits with preferences for autonomous vehicles and for sharing rides in ridehailing services.
Predicting Liquefaction in Near-Real-Time (NRT): An Assessment of Geospatial vs. Geotechnical Models During the Canterbury Earthquakes
(2017-10) Maurer, Brett W.; Bradley, Brendon A.; van Ballegooy, Sjoerd
Semi-empirical models based on in-situ geotechnical tests have become the standard of practice for predicting soil liquefaction. Since the inception of the "simplified" cyclic-stress model in 1971, variants based on various in-situ tests have been developed, including the Cone Penetration Test (CPT). More recently, prediction models based soley on remotely-sensed data were developed. Similar to systems that provide automated content on earthquake impacts, these "geospatial" models aim to predict liquefaction for rapid response and loss estimation using readily-available data. This data includes (i) common ground-motion intensity measures (e.g., PGA), which can either be provided in near-real-time following an earthquake, or predicted for a future event; and (ii) geospatial parameters derived from digital elevation models, which are used to infer characteristics of the subsurface relevent to liquefaction. However, the predictive capabilities of geospatial and geotechnical models have not been directly compared, which could elucidate techniques for improving the geospatial models, and which would provide a baseline for measuring improvements. Accordingly, this study assesses the realtive efficacy of liquefaction models based on geospatial vs. CPT data using 9,908 case-studies from the 20102016 Canterbury earthquakes. While the top-performing models are CPT-based, the geospatial models perform relatively well given their simplicity and low cost. Although further research is needed (e.g., to improve upon the performance of current models), the findings of this study suggest that geospatial models have the potential to provide valuable first-order predictions of liquefaction occurence and consequence. Towards this end, performance assessments of geospatial vs. geotechnical models are ongoing for more than 20 additional global earthquakes.
Fragility functions for performance-based ground failure due to soil liquefaction
(2017-10) Maurer, Brett W.; van Ballegooy, Sjoerd; Bradley, Brendon A.
The severity of liquefaction manifested at the ground surface is a pragmatic proxy of damage potential for various infrastructure assets, making it particularly useful for hazard mapping, land-use planning, and preliminary site-assessment. Towards this end, the recent Canterbury, New Zealand, earthquakes, in conjunction with others, have resulted in liquefaction case-history data of unprecedented quantity and quality, presenting a unique opportunity to rigorously develop fragility-functions for liquefaction-induced ground failure. Accordingly, this study analyzes nearly 10,000 liquefaction case studies from 23 global earthquakes to develop fragility functions for use in performance-based frameworks. The proposed functions express the probability of exceeding specific severities of liquefaction surface manifestation as a function of three different liquefaction damage measures (LDMs), wherein four alternative liquefaction-triggering models are used. These functions have the same functional form, such that end-users can easily select the model coefficients for the particular damage state, triggering model, and LDM of their choosing. It should be noted that these functions are not to be used to predict lateral spreading, which requires LDMs other than those assessed herein. Lastly, the proposed functions are preliminary and subject to further development. In this regard, several thrusts of ongoing investigation are discussed.
Probabalistic Prediction of Severity of Liquefaction Surface Manifestation Using Geotechnical and Geospatial Models
(2017-08-08) Maurer, Brett W.; van Ballegooy, Sjoerd; Bradley, Brendon A.
The severity of liquefaction manifested at the ground surface is a pragmatic proxy of damage potential for various infrastructure assets, making it particularly useful for hazard mapping ,land-use planning, and preliminary site-assessment. Towards this end, the recent Canterbury, New Zealand, earthquakes, inconjunction with others, have resulted in liquefaction case-history data of unprecedented quantity and quality, presenting a unique opportunity to develop fragility-functions for liquefaction-induced ground failure. Accordingly, this study analyzes nearly 10,000 liquefaction case studies from 23 earthquakes to develop functions that express the probability of exceeding specific severities of liquefaction surface-manifestation as a function of five different liquefaction damage measures (LDMs), of which three are based on geotechnical data and two are based on freely available geospatial data. The proposed functions have the same functional form, such that end-users can easily select the model coefficients for the particular damage state and LDM of their choosing. It should be noted that these functions are not to be used to predict lateral spreading, which requires LDMs other than those assessed herein. Lastly, the proposed functions are preliminary and subject to further development. In this regard, several thrusts of ongoing investigation are mentioned.
Field-testing liquefaction models based on geospatial vs. geotechnical data
(6th International Young Geotechnical Engineers' Conference, 2017-08-08) Maurer, Brett W.
This study assesses the relative efficacy of liquefaction models based on geospatial vs. geotechnical data. In particular, state-of-practice geotechnical models based on the Cone Penetration Test (CPT) are compared to geospatial models that use readily available no-cost data. This assessment is performed using a database of 9,623 liquefaction case studies compiled from the 2010-2016 Canterbury, New Zealand, Earthquakes. While the top-performing model is CPT-based, the geospatial models permed surprisingly well given their simplicity. In particular, a region-specific geospatial model out-performs some CPT-based methods. While further research is needed, the presented finding sare provacative considering the relaive cost and complexity of the geotechnical models. Accordingly, performance assessments of geospatial vs. geotechnical models are ongoing for more than 20 additional earthquakes.
THEORIZING THE INTERNAL SOCIAL SUSTAINABILITY OF SANITATION ORGANIZATIONS
(Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 15-09) Kaminsky, Jessica; Javernick-Will, Amy
Onsite household sanitation technologies such as septic tanks or latrines serve a large percentage of the world’s population. Unfortunately, they experience high failure rates after construction, with resulting environmental and public health consequences. Previous work has suggested that these failures are often a result of our inability to navigate the technology-‐society nexus. In other words, they represent problems of social sustainability. In order to address this urgent problem, we build theory regarding the social sustainability of infrastructure systems by leveraging established organizational theory. To do this, we collect household level interview data in four communities in rural Bangladesh. Virtually all households in this research population have constructed onsite sanitation systems, typically using their own resources. However, almost half of these systems have since fallen into disrepair, mirroring the high socially based failure rates cited globally from similar systems. Using cross case qualitative analysis and legitimacy theory, we explored what differentiates those households that continue to use and maintain sanitation systems (those with socially sustainable systems) from those that do not (those with socially unsustainable systems). We found that households in the unsustainable group have adopted toilets ceremonially, with construction decoupled from the actual practice of maintaining and using the sanitation system. Understanding infrastructure abandonment as a form of organizational decoupling gives us a new way to analyze and try to solve the problem of post-‐construction infrastructure abandonment. Specifically, effectiveness concerns (whether or not desired infrastructure services are actually achieved) and competing rational myths (beliefs regarding how and why things ought to be done) drive decoupling and lead to abandoned sanitation. In order to recouple sanitation structure and practice for continued use and maintenance of onsite systems, designs should consider both effectiveness and competing rational myths. For example, by requiring odor management technology for all improved sanitation infrastructure we improve infrastructure effectiveness (by delivering odor management) and also address the commonly held rational myth of miasma (odors causing illness). Therefore we suggest that, as we revise the almost expired Millennium Development Goals, technologies without odor management should be removed from our definition of improved sanitation due to negative contributions to social sustainability. Further, we observe that concern with status (likely stemming from Community Led Total Sanitation development methods) appears at a similar and high rate in both the socially sustainable and socially unsustainable household groups; it does not differentiate the two. Finally, technical support is needed to address effectiveness concerns, share knowledge, and help households move away from ceremonial sanitation adoption and towards locally desired benefits such as improved convenience, odor management, and public health protection.
The Fourth Pillar of Infrastructure Sustainability: Tailoring Civil Infrastructure to Social Context
(Construction Management and Economics, 2015-09) Kaminsky, Jessica
This research proposes technical performance over time as a fourth pillar of sustainability theory for infrastructure. It also describes a method that allows us to discover how changes in the technical pillar (operationalised as reduced breakage rates) may moderate the influence of the social pillar (operationalised as repair rates) on sanitation infrastructure outcomes. Oral histories were used to develop a history of sanitation for each of 152 poor households in four rural communities in Bangladesh that have gained access to sanitation in the past decade. Transcriptions and qualitative coding identified reported states of sanitation (for example, broken vs. functional) at three time steps. These were used to develop an initial vector and transition matrix for a Markov chain analysis. The breakage rate in this model was then adjusted to investigate the impact of improved technical durability on sanitation outcomes. For the case analyzed here, we found that increasing infrastructure durability by 50% (an estimated increase of two years) increased the rate of functional sanitation system use at model convergence from 54% to 88%. Increases in durability also caused households to use private rather than shared systems. Beyond this specific case, the generalisable theory and method presented here are analytic tools that permit targeted technical accommodation of social contexts specific to individual project sites.
Cultured Construction: Global Evidence of the Impact of National Values on Sanitation Infrastructure Choice
(Environmental Science & Technology, 2015-09) Kaminsky, Jessica
Case study research often claims culturevariously definedimpacts infrastructure development. I test this claim using Hofstede’s cultural dimensions and newly available data representing change in national coverage of sewer connections, sewerage treatment, and onsite sanitation between 1990 and 2010 for 21 developing nations. The results show that the cultural dimensions of uncertainty avoidance, masculinityfemininity, and individualism-collectivism have statistically significant relationships to sanitation technology choice. These data prove the global impact of culture on infrastructure choice, and reemphasize that local cultural preferences must be considered when constructing sanitation infrastructure.
The Internal Social Sustainability of Sanitation Infrastructure
(Environmental Science & Technology, 2015-09) Kaminsky, Jessica; Javernick-Will, Amy
While the construction of sanitation infrastructure is one of humankind’s greatest public health and environmental engineering achievements, its benefits are not yet enjoyed by all. In addition to the billions of people not yet reached by sanitation infrastructure, at least half of systems constructed in developing contexts are abandoned in the years following initial construction. In this research, we target the problem of post-construction onsite sanitation infrastructure abandonment in rural Guatemala using legitimacy and status theory. Legitimacy and status are established theoretical concepts from organizational theory that reflect cultural alignment and normative support. Crisp set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (csQCA), which uses Boolean algebra to discover combinations of theoretical conditions that produce an outcome of interest, allowed us to describe the various pathways that have caused socially sustainable uptake. We find that three combinations of legitimacy and status theory explain 85% of household cases at a consistency of 0.97. The most practically useful pathway covers 50% of household cases and shows that the combination of consequential legitimacy (a moral understanding of outcomes) and comprehensibility legitimacy (a cognitive model connecting outcomes to processes) is a powerful way to achieve socially sustainable sanitation infrastructure.
CONTESTED FACTORS FOR SUSTAINABILITY: THE CONSTRUCTION AND MANAGEMENT OF HOUSEHOLD ONSITE WASTEWATER TREATMENT SYSTEMS
(Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 2015-09) Kaminsky, Jessica; Javernick-Will, Amy
Onsite sanitation systems experience a high failure rate with resulting environmental and public health implications. In the USA alone, the EPA estimates that 10% of the 26 million homes served by onsite systems have failed. If this failure rate is extrapolated to the 8% of the global population that the UN estimates have gained access to sanitation between 1990 and 2008, an additional 5 million failed systems have been constructed. To address issues like this, development theory currently emphasizes a blend of hardware (e.g. infrastructure, technology) and software (e.g. knowledge, institutions, education) in an effort to achieve sustainable development. However, we lack both theory that addresses this interaction and a definition of sustainable infrastructure. To begin to address this gap, an initial set of 40 factors that may contribute to sustainable onsite sanitation systems was identified from a literature review including the Web of Science, the Engineering Village, and the full record of ASCE from 2000 to July 2011. A panel of 14 experts including academics, regulators, international development practitioners, O&M providers, and manufacturer/designers was then assembled to identify any additional factors that may lead to resilient onsite systems and to evaluate each one using the Delphi method. The panel evaluated each factor iteratively in order to develop a measure of its importance to the sustainability of onsite sanitation infrastructure. Experts were also invited to provide and review comments explaining or discussing the ratings they provided, and to identify the factors they perceived to be the most and least important. Of the initial list of factors, 9 came to consensus as being important or very important, including factors such as owner occupancy, quality of installation or materials, and post-construction follow-up programs. In addition, 10 factors provoked particularly diverse, or contentious, opinions with ratings that more than doubled the target criteria for consensus. These contentious factors are analyzed to identify trends and debates in expert opinion that showcase future research needs as well as issues that practitioners must address to build sustainable systems.
Technology Development to Explore the Relationship Between Oral Health and the Oral Microbial Community
(2006) Starke, E. Michelle; Smoot, James C.; Smoot, Laura M.; Liu, Wen-Tso; Chandler, Darrell P.; Lee, Hyun H.; Stahl, David A.
The human oral cavity contains a complex microbial community that, until recently, has not been well characterized. Studies using molecular tools have begun to enumerate and quantify the species residing in various niches of the oral cavity; yet, virtually every study has revealed additional new species, and little is known about the structural dynamics of the oral microbial community or how it changes with disease. Current estimates of bacterial diversity in the oral cavity range up to 700 species, although in any single individual this number is much lower. Oral microbes are responsible for common chronic diseases and are suggested to be sentinels of systemic human diseases. Microarrays are now being used to study oral microbiota in a systematic and robust manner. Although this technology is still relatively young, improvements have been made in all aspects of the technology, including advances that provide better discrimination between perfect-match hybridizations from non-specific (and closely-related) hybridizations. This review addresses a core technology using gel-based microarrays and the initial integration of this technology into a single device needed for system-wide studies of complex microbial community structure and for the development of oral diagnostic devices.

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