Overview

The Department of Civil Engineering at UNC Charlotte provides opportunities for discipline specific and multidisciplinary graduate-level education in civil engineering.  Advanced course work and research are used to enhance professional competency through a master's degree.  Doctoral studies leading to the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) are available through a cooperative arrangement with North Carolina State University (NCSU).  Research and teaching assistantships and tuition remission are available in the Department of Civil Engineering at UNC Charlotte (place link here to the Dept.) on a competitive basis to highly qualified applicants.  The Environmental and Water Resources Engineering Program within the Department of Civil Engineering offers graduate study in several areas including in water and wastewater treatment, solid waste management, remediation of contaminated groundwater and soils, water quality analysis and modeling, hydraulics and hydrology, and watershed analysis (Click to learn more about College of Engineering and UNC Charlotte ).

Facilities

The Department of Civil Engineering is located in the Smith Building on the UNC Charlotte campus.  Facilities available for research and instruction in civil engineering are located in Smith and Kennedy Buildings, and the C.C. Cameron Applied Research Center (CARC).  The environmental engineering program is well equipped to perform high quality research. Computing laboratories and office space are available in the Smith Building.  Additional laboratory, office, and supporting facilities can be found in the Kennedy Building and in the C.C. Cameron Applied Research Center.  The Cameron Center provides excellent facilities for research in collaboration with regional business and industrial partners.  Instruments are available in the environmental engineering laboratory facilities for analysis of heavy metals, inorganic and organic species, conventional water quality parameters, radioactive tracers, and microbiological analyses.  Nearby in the Cameron Center is RACHEL, the Regional Analytical Chemical Laboratory operated by the Chemistry Department, with a comprehensive analytical capability and research expertise in organics analysis.  Other research tools include access to the College of Engineering's UNIX and Windows based computer networks that include over 400 computational, graphical, and GIS workstations.

Faculty

James D. Bowen , Associate Professor, 1990, Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, EI. Water Quality and Eutrophication Modeling, Tracer Methods for Surface Water Assessment, Predicting Harmful Algal Blooms.

Helene A. Hilger , Associate Professor, 1998, Ph.D. North Carolina State University, EI. Solid Waste, Anaerobic Digestion, Wastewater Reclamation, Wastewater Treatment.

Hilary I. Inyang , Duke Energy Distinguished Professor, 1989, Ph.D., Iowa State University. Utilization of Waste Materials, Bioremediation of Contaminated Soils, Global Energy Policy, Natural Hazards Assessment.

Jy S. Wu , Professor, 1980, Ph.D. Rutgers University, PE. Infrastructure and Environmental Systems, Disaster Research and Management, Watershed Management and Modeling, Industrial Waste Management, Air Pollution Control.

Graduate and Undergraduate Students

Graduate Students

Mohammad Madjdinasab, William Saunders, Dinakar Nimmala, Robert Billings, Gayatri
Pendyala, Juan Morales, Chris Reinbold, Sonia Tremblay, Life Kaanagbara , Gustavo Borel, Kate Liu, Qianhong Tang, Mary Fabian, Jessica Creed, Nick Parker

Undergraduate Assistants

Jason Irish, Jacob Basinger, Sreejith Nair, Nada Chamu

Recent Projects

- Modeling of Human Pathogens in a Eutrophying Estuary (National Science Foundation)
- Reliability Modeling (National Science Foundation )
- Development of Object-Oriented Water Quality Models (US Environmental Protection Agency)
- Water Reuse Issues in North Carolina (NC Water Resources Research Institute)
- Eutrophication Modeling in the Neuse River Estuary (NC Water Resources Research Institute)
- Development of Fluorescently Labeled Bacterial Tracers for Tracking Fecal Coliform Contamination (NC Water Quality Workgroup)
- Highway Runoff Characterization (NC Department of Transportation)
- Riparian Buffers for Water Quality Control (NC Water Resource Research Institute)

Selected Publications

• Hilger, H.A. and M. Huber-Humer, 2003. Biotic landfill cover treatments for mitigating methane emissions, Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, Special Edition on Innovative Technologies and Policies for Waste Management, 84:71-84.

• Bowen, James D., and Hieronymus, Jeffrey W. 2002. Model Predicted Water Quality Response to Reductions in Inorganic and Organic Nitrogen Loading. In Estuarine and Coastal Modeling: Proceedings of the 7th International Conference, Spaulding, Malcolm L., (ed.), pp. 244-265. American Society of Civil Engineers, New York, NY.

• Hilger, H.A. and M.A. Barlaz, 2002. Anaerobic decomposition of refuse in landfills and methane oxidation in landfill cover soils, Chapter 60 in Manual of Environmental Microbiology, 2nd Edition, pp. 541-557, (C.J. Hurst, G.R. Knudsen, M.J. McInerney, L.D. Stetzenbach, and M.V. Walter, eds), ASM Press, Washington, D.C.

• Bae, S. and Inyang, H.I. 2001. Effects of various polyethylenimine solution on desiccation of Na-Montmorillonite. International Journal of Soil and Sediment Contamination, Vol. 10, No.6, pp. 675-685.

• Bowen, J. D., and Hieronymus, J. 2000. Neuse River Estuary Modeling And Monitoring Project Stage 1: Predictions and Uncertainty Analysis of Response to Nutrient Loading Using a Mechanistic Eutrophication Model. Report No. 325-D, UNC Water Resources Research Institute, N. C. State Univ., Raleigh, NC.

• Daniels, J.L., Chien, C.C., Ogunro, V.O. and Inyang, H.I. 2000. A comparative analysis of contaminant migration models using barrier material data. International Journal of Soil and Sediment Contamination, Vol. 9, No. 5, pp. 487-501.

• Hilger, H.A., M.A. Barlaz, and A. G. Wollum, 2000. Landfill methane oxidation response to vegetation, fertilization, and liming. Journal of Environmental Quality 29:324-334.

• J.S. Wu, W.G. Langley, and A.C. Chao. Reaction Kinetics of Immobilized Cell Denitrification: II Experimental Study J. of Envir. Eng., ASCE, 127(8):689-697, 2001.

• Inyang, H.I., and Fisher, G., 2000. Spatial indexing of environmental sensitivity for selection of industrial sites. Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Environmental Issues and Management of Waste in Energy and Mineral Production, Calgary, Canada, pp. 683-687.

• Inyang, H.I., and Daniels, J.L. and Chien, C.C. 2000. Methods of analysis of contaminant migration in barrier materials. In Remediation of Hazardous /Waste Contaminated Soils, 2nd Edition, Edited by D.L. Wise et al., Marcell Dekker Publishing Co., New York, pp. 63-82.

• Bai, M., Inyang, H.I., Chien, C.C., and Bruell, C. 2000. Factors for assessing flow and transport in fractured porous media. ASCE Special Publication on Remediation in Rock Masses, pp. 12-27.

• Hilger, H.A., M.A. Barlaz, and S.K. Liehr, 1999. A mathematical model of multicomponent gas diffusion and biofilm gas exchange associated with methane oxidation in landfill cover soil. Journal of Environmental Engineering, American Society of Civil Engineers 125:1113-1123.

• J.S. Wu and S. Nitisoravut. Modeling of Immobilized-cell Bioreactor Performance for AOC Removal. In: Proceedings of Biofilm Systems, IAWQ, 1999.

• J.S. Wu, C. Allan, J. Evett, and W. Saunders. Characterization and Pollutant Loading Estimation for Highway Runoff. J. of Envir. Eng., ASCE, 124(7):584-592, 1998.

• S. Nitisoravut, J.S. Wu, D. Reasoner and C. Chao. Columnar Biological Treatability of Assimilable Organic Carbon under Oligotrophic Conditions. J. of Envir. Eng., ASCE, 123(3):1997.

• J.S. Wu, R. Holman and J. Dorney. Systematic Evaluation of Pollutant Removal by Urban Wet Detention Ponds, J. of Envir. Eng., ASCE, 122(11):983-988, 1996.

• Bowen, J.D., K.D. Stolzenbach, and S.W. Chisholm. 1993. Simulating Bacterial Clustering Around Phytoplankton in a Turbulent Ocean. Limnology and Oceanography. Vol. 38, No. 1, p. 36 - 51.

• Bowen, J.D., and K.D. Stolzenbach 1992. The Concentration Distribution Near a Continuous Point Source in Steady Homogeneous Shear. J. of Fluid Mechanics. Vol. 95, p. 95 - 110.