Dr. Barbara J. Lence
Dr. Barbara J. Lence,
Professor
Professor
Location: CEME - Room 2012
Telephone: 604.822.1365
Facsimilie: 604.822.6901
Email: lence@civil.ubc.ca
Biography:
Dr. Lence joined the Department in January 1997. She received her doctorate from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for research on evaluating the engineering, environmental, and economic impacts of water pollution control policies, in particular emissions trading programs. Prior to joining the Department, she was an Assistant and Associate Professor in the Department of Civil and Geological Engineering at the University of Manitoba. She teaches undergraduate courses in water resources engineering and decision-making techniques in Civil Engineering, and graduate courses in advanced decision-making techniques and pollution modelling.
Research Interests:
In recent years, our criteria for design and operation of water resources projects, such as water supply, reservoirs, and flood control systems, and the institutions that govern these, are changing. It is widely accepted that if we are to make a genuine attempt at sustainable water use, we must develop adaptive facilities and operational strategies that maintain consistency in system performance under changing environmental conditions.
Dr. Barbara Lence develops methods of optimizing design and operational strategies of water resources projects. Much of this work is devoted to identifying solutions that are reliable and resilient in the face of stressors, and robust to non-stationary conditions. Non-stationary conditions may include sudden or monotonic changes over time of the statistical properties of the surface water flows, water demands, or other environmental conditions. They may result from controllable factors, such as changes in release schedules of upstream reservoirs, and uncontrollable factors such as climate change.
Her current research focuses on developing water supply systems operational strategies. She is identifying: reliable withdrawal-treatment strategies for contaminated groundwater supply systems; asset management strategies for mid-sized water utilities with limited break data; and water distribution system operational procedures that are reliable in terms of meeting hydraulic and water quality objectives.
Courses:
- CIVL 301 Optimization and Decision Analysis in Civil Engineering
- CIVL 405 Environmental Impact Studies
- CIVL 415 Water Resources Engineering
- CIVL 555 Analysis of Civil Engineering Systems
Recent Publications
Journals
- Becker, A., W.M. Johnstone, and B. J. Lence, A building response model for wood frame structures
influenced by catastrophic floods, ASCE Journal of Natural Hazards Review, accepted for publication,
posted ahead of print June 10, 2010, in press to be printed May 2011, doi:10.1061/(ASCE)NH.1527-
6996.0000029.
- Beauchamp, N., C. R. Bouchard, and B. J. Lence (2011). QMRA-based reliability analysis to assess
performance of an ultrafiltration plant, Journal of Water Supply Research and Technology – AQUA, 60 (2),
89-100
- Li, Y., Lence, B. J., Zhou, S., and Wu, Q. (2011). Stochastic fatigue assessment for berthing monopiles in
inland waterways. ASCE Journal of Waterway, Port, Coastal, and Ocean Engineering, 137(2), 43-53.
- Johnstone, W. M. and Lence, B. J. (2011). Assessing the life safety performance of integrated emergency
action plans. Journal of Dam Safety, 9 (1), 29-37.
- Li, Y., B. J. Lence, and S. M. Calisal, An Integrated Model for Estimating Energy Cost of a Tidal Current
Turbine Farm, Energy Conservation and Management, accepted for publication, February, 10, 2010, ECMD-
09-00242R1.
- Beauchamp, N., B. J. Lence, and C. R. Bouchard (2010), Technical hazard identification in water treatment
using fault tree analysis, Canadian Journal of Civil Engineering, 37: 897-906.
- Lauzon, N. and B.J. Lence (2010), Artificial intelligence techniques as detection tests for the identification of
shifts in hydrometric data, ASCE Journal of Computing in Civil Engineering, 24(5), 399-407.
- Yamini, H. and B. J. Lence, Probability of failure analysis due to internal and external corrosion in cast iron
pipes, ASCE Journal of Infrastructure Systems, accepted for publication, October 6, 2009 (IS 2008 022729).
- Johnstone, W.M. and B. J. Lence (2010), Assessing the value of mitigation strategies in reducing the impacts
of rapid-onset, catastrophic floods, Journal of Flood Risk Management, 2 (3), 209-221. DOI: 10.1111/j.1753-
318X.2009.01035.x
- Yamini, H. and B. J. Lence (2010), Probability of failure analysis due to internal corrosion in cast iron pipes, ASCE Journal of Infrastructure Systems, 16 (1) 73-80.
- Li, Y. and Lence, B. J. (2009). Closure to “Applicability of Rice's Formula in Stochastic Hydrological
Modeling”. ASCE Journal of Hydrologic Engineering, 14(9), 1044-1045.
- Li, Y., B. J. Lence, and S. M. Calisal (2009). Modeling tidal turbine farm with vertical axis tidal current
turbines, Journal of Computers 4 (4): 288-294, April.
- Li, Y. and B.J. Lence (2008), On the applicability of Rice’s formula in stochastic hydrological modeling, ASCE
Journal of Hydrological Engineering, 13 (9), 776-780
- Lauzon, N. and B.J. Lence (2008). Hybrid fuzzy-mechanistic models for addressing parameter variability,
Journal of Environmental Modelling and Software, 23 (5), 535-548, May.
- Wood, A. and B.J. Lence, Using water main break data to improve asset management for small and medium
utilities, accepted in the ASCE Journal of Infrastructure Systems, March, 2008, to be published in June,
2009. (IS 2007 22565)
- Liu, J., B.J. Lence, and M. Isaacson, A discrete joint probability method for estimating extreme sea levels,
ASCE Journal of Waterways, Ports, Coastal and Ocean Engineering, 136 (1), 66-76.
- Li, Y. and B.J. Lence (2007) Numerical approximations of design points in reliability analysis under
parametric changes, ASCE Journal of Engineering Mechanics, 133 (11), 1213-1221.
- Li, Y. and B.J. Lence (2007) Estimating resilience for water resources systems, Water Resources Research,
43 (7), ejournal.
- Li, Y. and B.J. Lence (2007) Mean points of failure and safety domains: estimation and application,
Probabilistic Engineering Mechanics 22 (3), 257-266
- Wood, A., B.J. Lence, and W. Liu (2007) Constructing water main break databases for asset management,
Journal of the American Water Works Association, 99 (1), 52-65.
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