Soil Liquefaction Remediation of the Port of San Diego's B Street Pier Facility Using Deep Soil Mixing

The Port of San Diego's B Street Pier facility (Pier) is the busiest cruise terminal in the City of San Diego with over a hundred ship calls annually (pre-COVID). The Pier is an approximately 9.4-acre bulkhead faced mole extending about 1,000 ft into San Diego Bay and approximately 400 ft wide. On the three offshore sides of the bulkheaded mole are marginal pile supported wharfs constructed in 1923. The upland side of the mole is a concrete gravity seawall constructed in 1900. The mole soils consist of hydraulically placed dredge spoils and are susceptible to liquefaction.The existing Pier containment walls are deemed inadequate for seismic loading, mainly due to the presence of liquefiable materials both in front of and behind the existing containment wall. A solution consisting of an improved Deep Soil Mixing (DSM) zone coupled with the installation of a new steel sheet bulkhead was selected to retrofit and upgrade the Pier to current seismic standards. A key aspect of the design was to minimize loading induced from the wharf onto the existing curtain wall during an earthquake. The DSM zone is intended to serve a triple purpose, that is to improve shear strength of the soils behind the curtain wall, to mitigate the impact of liquefaction, and to provide sufficient bearing for potential future lightly loaded structures which may be constructed on the Pier. To obtain a cost-effective design and limit the DSM zone extents, the design also needed to limit the seismic load contributions to the DSM from the marginal wharves during seismic conditions. A development plan consisting of a multi-phased construction plan was determined to meet the Port's capital improvement needs and budget. Phase I development will install the DSM zone and steel sheet pile bulkhead along the south and west face of the mole. Future work will include wharf pile and deck replacement along with completing curtain wall replacement along the north face of the mole. This paper presents the geotechnical design challenges and considerations associated with the design of the DSM and sheet pile system comprising Phase I of the development plan. Key aspects of the geotechnical design included the selection of appropriate liquefaction resistance of the DSM improved zone, designing for the lateral spread of the slope in front of the curtain wall, assessment of stability and deformation of the proposed sheet pile, and the determination of the seismic earth pressures. © ASCE.

Frequently asked Questions in the Interval Pressure Transient Test (IPTT) and what is Next with Deep Transient Test (DTT)

The past few years have been challenging for the oil and gas industry. Many processes and operations have needed to adapt to lower oil and gas prices, caused in part by the COVID-19 pandemic. Understanding reservoir producibility and proving reserves are keys to generating a reservoir field development plan (FDP). However, the different processes to obtain such answers are strongly dependent on cost. The value of information is an extremely important criterion for operators to decide whether to proceed with their discoveries. In an interval pressure transient test (IPTT), a formation tester is used to pump a fluid from a single point or small interval of the formation into the wellbore. Zones of interest can be isolated and tested separately zone by zone. Mud filtrate and reservoir fluids are pumped continuously using the downhole pump, and a downhole fluid analyzer (DFA) is used to monitor the fluid cleanup process. The post-pumping p pressure buildup can be analyzed in a similar manner to traditional well test analysis. Such IPTT have been available since 1980s;however, comparisons of IPTT to actual well tests and other permeability measurements were rarely published until the early 2000s. IPTT have been widely used in the past 20 years, especially in combination with dual packers, and more recently with single packers. Operation efficiency and safety have improved significantly. However, interpretation of the pressure transient obtained from an IPTT is not always well understood. Frequently asked questions (FAQs) include the following: 1. What is an IPTT or a vertical interference test (VIT)? 2. How does an IPTT compare with other permeability measurements? 3. What are the different scales of pressure transient data? 4. How do we upscale zone permeability to an entire reservoir interval? 5. What is next? This paper will address these questions using both reservoir simulation and field data. The field examples are from different environments, ranging from shallow marine to turbidite to deepwater environments, with different fluid systems, such as black oil, heavy oil, waxy oil, gas, and gas condensate. Geographically, the field data include examples from South East Asia and the Middle East. Permeability obtained from pretests, IPTT, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), core analyses, and well testing will be compared. Recently deep transient testing (DTT) has been introduced in the industry. With DTT, we can flow faster and longer than previously possible with formation testers, enabling pressure transient analysis in higher permeability and thicker formation. Further data quality improvements come from new, high-resolution gauges deployed with an intelligent wireline formation testing platform. This paper includes a review of the DTT method with several field examples. Finally, the advantages and disadvantages of the different testing methods are discussed relative to the test objectives, with the intent to provide a cost-effective data selection method to ensure sufficient FDP input and to justify the value of investment to the relevant stakeholder. Copyright © 2023, International Petroleum Technology Conference.

"Expo City Dubai": A Convergence of Smart Touristic and Residential Experience

Advanced technologies are leading to a vital change in city life and turning the urban planning development plans. The new technical development initiatives have evolutionary transform the urban infrastructure by optimizing planning of resources use and through information technology systems. Post COVID-19 raised interesting question that if another pandemic or major threat in the future, would urban areas be sufficiently prepared to respond based on the lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic? This paper highlights the Expo City Dubai case in light of smart city and smart tourism destination. The emphasis is on dual approach of usage of smart technologies as residential areas and tourist place in term of planning and provision of facilities. This research figure out the planning instruments applied in smart strategies in Expo City by focusing on how sustainability indicators are considered under the smart paradigm. The discussion revealed that Expo City is fulfilling the requirements of being a smart destination by displaying novel technical applications of 5G, Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, Internet of Things (IoT) and robotics. The final discussion contextualizes by proposing potential areas of synthesis, applications for planning practice, and areas of future research in sustainable urban city planning. © 2022 IEEE.

Toward a Sustainable Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in Qatar

This study aims to contribute to the empirical literature on sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystems by understanding the opportunities and constraints to support its development using the case of Qatar. This study was designed using a triangulation method to combine different data collection techniques to increase the validity and reliability of the results. The data collection incorporated multiple data sources, starting with secondary sources and then collecting primary data through 37 interviews with key informants, mainly start-up founders and key stakeholders, a technique previously used in studies of critical players in entrepreneurial ecosystems. The findings were four-fold: (1) entrepreneurial ecosystem conditions are essential as facilitators of entrepreneurship, innovation, and sustainability, but government intervention can inhibit the outputs if the policies are not designed as customer-centric, (2) business sophistication is fundamental to increase innovation and attractiveness for investors but requires a stronger academic, industry, and government collaboration, (3) knowledge and technology outputs are limited when the domestic market is small, and the knowledge transfer policies are complex, and (4) the sustainability of an entrepreneurial ecosystem is fostered by the exposure to a crisis, robust national culture, and joint vision to reach sustainable development. This study provides evidence that shows a positive relationship between innovation and sustainable economic development, which makes this research even more relevant to our aim of supporting the Qatar National Vision 2030;at the same time, it contributes to the GCC literature and guides policymakers in the region.

Employment policy in mainland Tanzania: what's in it for women?

Tanzania has experienced relatively strong and stable economic growth accompanied by social stability over the past two decades. The country is also pursuing an ambitious development plan with significant employment objectives. For development to be fully inclusive, specific attention must be paid to the gendered dimensions of employment policy, in terms of both design and outcomes. This constitutes a key challenge in Tanzania, where women and female-headed households are constrained by lower levels of education and social capital, deeper levels of poverty, and limited access to assets-while also being impacted disproportionately by the economic implications of the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper interrogates Tanzania's employment policies from a gender perspective by adopting a functional approach. We examine policies with (1) a labour market entry-facilitating function, (2) an enterprise- and productivity-enhancing function, and (3) a job quality-enhancing function, through their effects on working-age women's employment in the 2000s. We also discuss the extent to which women's employment is considered in the broader development approach and social policy model in the country. The analysis draws on a desktop-based scoping review of diverse sources of evidence. The paper shows that several progressive policies have been introduced in the areas of financial services, labour market regulations, and entrepreneurship support, and women's labour market position has slightly improved in the new millennium. However, women remain at the margins of the broader development strategy, and much needs to be done to enhance women's access to assets, skills training, and better-quality employment. Further gender-responsive social policy investments would facilitate this process.

Muslim West Detroit: Black Neighborhood Institutions and Their Legacies

African American Muslim leaders in West Detroit are working in concert with local mosques and Muslim-led institutions to address the socioeconomic problems faced by low-income Detroit residents in their areas. Their modes of philanthropy reflect national trends, as Black Muslim institutions historically have demonstrated high levels of neighborhood stewardship. This ethnographic study discusses how leaders affiliated with three West Detroit mosques and associated institutions propagate this tradition of localized care. These mosques and institutions are situated in contiguous neighborhoods, comprising an area that is lacking sufficient access to capital investment and state services. The philanthropy of these Detroit-based African American Muslims is taking on a growing urgency with the progress of Detroit’s neoliberal development plans, which further marginalize low-income neighborhoods. The community-building efforts of African American Muslims offer a counter-balance to forces that are further stratifying Detroit and represent a source of hope for racial justice in the city.

Teaching Expert Development Project by KOSEN Security Educational Community

Cyber-attacks are on the rise, and the advent of COVID-19 has changed work styles, leading to an increase in cyber-attacks targeting remote workers. This situation is the same in the world and in Japan, and the development of cyber security personnel and their training to face the attackers who can respond to the social situation is desired all over the world. The National Institute of Technology (KOSEN) is known not only in Japan but also in the world as the only institution of higher learning in the world where students can freely study engineering for five years from the age of 15. The technical framework of cybersecurity and the KOSEN education, which is based on the acquisition of practical skills, go hand in hand, and KOSEN is an important higher education institution that plays a part in the cybersecurity human resource development strategy in Japan. In 2015, KOSEN launched the KOSEN Security Educational Community (K-SEC) to initiate cybersecurity education for KOSEN students. This project has two objectives: one is to develop excellent cyber security personnel for qualitative improvement. The second is to develop a large number of KOSEN students who have systematically acquired security knowledge for the purpose of quantitative expansion. In 2019, a new project, Highly Advanced Cybersecurity for KOSEN (HACK), was launched within K-SEC to accelerate the achievement of the two objectives of K-SEC. HACK is a project based on a simple idea: to strengthen KOSEN faculty in order to develop strong students with practical cybersecurity skills. Participating faculty members will develop cyber range materials. The development of the cyber range will contribute to the understanding of both attacker and defender scenarios and the acquisition of advanced security knowledge and skills. In the previous paper, we reported on the results of the first year of HACK (2019). The faculty development plan, which mainly focused on cyber range development, contributed to the motivation and skill development of the faculty. The cyber range as a deliverable was also obtained. This paper reports on the outcomes of the second year (2020) of HACK activities. Within the faculty development plan, which mainly focused on cyber range development as in the first year, we used the deliverables of the first year to give lectures to KOSEN students to measure the educational effects. During the cyber range development, there were some knowledge and skills that the faculty intended to have the KOSEN students improve their skills. Therefore, the focus of the study was to see if the faculty members' intended skills would be improved when they gave lectures to the KOSEN students using the teaching materials. As it turned out, we were able to achieve this goal, and we were able to improve the skills of the KOSEN students as intended by the faculty. Furthermore, it was not only possible to control the skills to be improved by the content of the teaching materials, but also by the way the lectures were delivered. In addition, by selecting the theme of the cyber range development, we were able to achieve the intended skill improvement for the faculty. Through the implementation of HACK until the second year, we were able to identify many factors for skill improvement. In the third and fourth years of the program, we will continue to look for factors that can be used to further improve specific skills, and at the same time, we will explore the relationship with motivation, which is expected to contribute greatly to educational effectiveness. © 2022 IEEE.

Productive public investment in agriculture for economic recovery with rural well-being: an analysis of prospective scenarios for Uganda

This study highlights how, through a series of scenarios, public investments promoting agricultural productivity in Uganda could drive growth in agrifood production, with favourable impacts on the economy, on well-being and on poverty, especially in rural areas. Using a modelling tool to represent the Ugandan economy, with its multiple sectors and current fiscal constraints, the study ranked the subsectors of Uganda's agriculture that, through the productivity impact of public investments representing 0.25 percent of GDP (on average, about 373 billion 2017 Uganda shillings) during the years 2023-2025, will generate the greatest socio-economic benefits, maximizing the cost-effectiveness of the public investments. Generally, economic growth and the welfare of households, as measured by their consumption, will be positively impacted, but the impacts will ultimately depend on the sector that receives the investment, which is shown in a ranking. The agricultural sectors targeted for government investment will increase their output (and food prices will thus fall), and this will stimulate growth in non-agricultural sectors, both by increasing final demand for non-agricultural products and by lowering input prices and fostering upstream processing. Lower food prices will have a significant impact since food represents a relatively large proportion of the consumption basket of poorest households. Furthermore, labour income for rural households will increase with productivity growth, and this will reduce rural poverty. The findings of this study provide important information about the priorities of Uganda's National Development Plan (NDP) III and vision for agriculture, as well as new priorities to be considered for enabling economic recovery with increased well-being post-COVID-19.

Advance Injection Strategy Optimization: Maximize Benefit-Cost Ratio by Integration of Economic Spreadsheet in Excel to Assisted History Matching Using Python Scripting

Oil prices see large fluctuations peculiarly over the last eight years due to natural disasters, political instability, and Covid-19 pandemic shock. These prompt to anxiety towards expenditure in planning and forecasting of a field development plan (FDP). Economic optimization of a reservoir under water drive can be extremely tedious and time consuming especially for complex field. Traditionally, upon completion of forecast optimization on fluid production, reservoir engineer willhand over the reservoir models to petroleum economist for economical evaluation. If the chosen development strategy is not economically viable, the model strategies will have to be updated, and continue the repetition of financial evaluation all over again. Hence, this paper established an automated workflow that diminished the dilemma on iterations obligation between simulation runs and financial reviews in searching for most efficient waterflooding strategy. The automated workflow is accomplished by bridging three tools together seamlessly utilizing python scripting. These include the cash flow economic spreadsheet model, the dynamic simulator, and an assisted uncertainty analysis tool. The process first started with defining the economic parameters such as OPEX, CAPEX, oil price, taxes, discounted rates, and other financial parameters on an annual basis in spreadsheet. The uncertainty parameters: water injection rate, maximum water cut, and injection duration will be evaluated during forecast optimization to produce project efficiency indexes: Net Present Value (NPV) and Benefit-Cost Ratio (BCR). This integration was achieved by python script that automatically creates a coding path which exchanges simulation production and economic spreadsheet data at every simulation time step and each development strategy, that require no manual intervention. The integrated economic-dynamic model workflow has successfully applied on West Malaysian field and Olympus model, a development strategy that maximize oil recovery without neglecting cost of water disposal, storage for total water produced from the reservoir. This paper successfully identified the most efficient waterflooding strategy and production constraints for each well using BCR as objective function for optimization. The optimum development scenario does have a BCR which is more than 2 which show that investment on that particular development strategy is profitable. The results also demonstrated a crucial impression that the highest oil cumulative production may not results in high BCR due to cost involvement in resolving water production and field maintenance services. This paper outlined the methodology, python scripting codes, and how integration automation works that successfully optimized an injection strategy in a development project using economic model from third-party application. The results of this automated workflow demonstrate a successful utilization of new technologies and simple customize programming knowledge that promote cross-discipline integration for enhanced work-time efficiencies in problem solving that is suitable for all reservoir model type to determine its success rate and economic viability during FDP. © Copyright 2021, Society of Petroleum Engineers

GENDER PERSPECTIVES OF MEASURES TO IMPROVE WATER AND SANITATION DELIVERY IN SOUTH AFRICAN LOCAL MUNICIPALITIES

This study investigated measures to improve water and sanitation delivery in South African local municipalities. The qualitative research approach and exploratory research design were selected for this study. Thirty (30) participants were selected to participate in this study through online and telephonic interviews due to COVID-19 pandemic. Atlas-ti software (version 8.2) was used to analyse data collected from the participants. Themes and categories emerged from the study and were discussed adequately by corroborating it with the literature review outcomes to find solutions to the study. Major findings disclosed that some local municipalities in the North West province do not provide adequate water and sanitation delivery to the residents due to issues related to budget implementation plans, limited supply of water resources, lack of personnel training, the poor state of infrastructure, poor implementation of legislative frameworks, financial management issues, inability to update service development plans, lack of skills, and strategic leadership issues. The study recommended that municipal employees should collaborate with residents, conduct awareness campaigns, promote emerging innovation options and communication dynamics, install leak monitoring and detection sensory machines, ensure effective infrastructural maintenance culture, apply service legislation and promote effective strategic/financial management in an endeavour to enhance water and sanitation delivery in the municipalities.