Air Quality Conformity at ISE

ISE offers a comprehensive suite of air quality and air toxics analyses geared principally towards prediction and mitigation compliance of air emissions due to proposed project design standards. Each air quality impact assessment (AQIA) prepared by ISE is tailored to the client's individual needs and is consistent with known engineering practices and constraints.

ISE's air quality analyses are unique, technical, substantiated by defined scientific calculations and chemistry, and traceable to EPA protocol.

Common air quality studies and assessments performed by ISE include:

• Industrial and commercial air quality analysis studies. 
• Rapid screening of potential project impacts using ISE’s BTU air emissions model.
• Advanced air quality sampling and laboratory testing using Mass Spectrometry residual gas analysis.
• Site hazard screening for Radon (Rn), carbon monoxide (CO), hydrogen sulfide (H₂S), and trace EPA-specific criteria pollutants.
• National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) chemical screening of residual gasses against 196,000 different compounds.
• Greenhouse gas / global warming (AB 32) project compliance assessments using the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) scientific protocol.
• Construction, mining, and grading fugitive dust impact assessments.
• Emissions inventory assessments using Federal EPA and CARB modeling.
• Line source dispersion modeling for carbon monoxide (CO), oxides of nitrogen (NOx), oxides of sulfur (SOx), and respirable particulate matter (PM10, PM2.5).
• Federal (EPA) and State (Cal-EPA) compliance surveys.
• Toxic risk assessments including diesel emissions surveys.

Historic Preservation Plans

ISE’s structural risk assessment services are a natural extension of our structural dynamics services. We take the concept of nondestructive testing to its logical conclusion by combining wave theory with structural mechanics. Since any structure can only vibrate a certain number of ways based upon its geometry, mass, and material stiffness, we utilize this knowledge to our advantage to ‘see’ inside the structure to determine structural integrity, anomalies, and areas of weakness and/or potential failure.   

Typical structural risk assessment services provided by ISE include:

• Physical inspection and structural reporting of dated, questionable, or historic structures.
• Pre- and Post-construction structural surveys.
• Seismic blast modeling and monitoring.
• Nondestructive testing of structural elements, or entire structures, using forced excitation (modal analysis) methods or random vibration methods.
• Determination of structural element loading using dynamic response characteristics.
• Determination of foundation transmissibility to external force excitation from sources such as construction activities or blasting.
• Historic preservation vibration monitoring and mitigation in accordance with Code of Federal Regulations, 36 CFR Part 61 (Secretary of the Interior’s Standards).
• Deployment of remote warning systems for historic structures.

ISE's Noise Monitoring & Noise Control Solutions

ISE specializes in custom noise control and monitoring solutions for every imaginable industry application. Whether it is something as simple as a diffractive noise barrier or active monitoring and control - we've got you covered.

Typical noise control and mitigation solutions include:

• Standard barrier design and abatement following applicable federal (FHWA), state, and local protocols.
• Advanced acoustical modeling using various tools including the IS3 field propagation model.
• Field monitoring, Mitigation Monitoring and Reporting (MMRP) compliance, and active warning systems.
• Biological noise monitoring and compliance in accordance with USFWS and CDFG protocols.
• Active and passive noise control solutions.
• Small-scale anechoic laboratory testing.

Architectural Acoustics at ISE

ISE is one of only a small handful of firms offering a complete suite of acoustical engineering services tailored specifically to architectural applications and compliance with applicable federal, state, and local building requirements.

Standard architectural services typically include:

• Noise analysis for environmental impact studies compliant with CEQA, NEPA, EPA, and HUD.
• Advanced acoustical modeling using various tools including the IS3 field propagation model.
• Acoustical space design for audio-visual applications.
• Descriptive acoustics and contouring using GIS methods.
• Reverberation time testing (RT₆₀).
• LEED compatible acoustical analyses.
• Field sound transmission classification (FSTC) testing.
• Normalized isolation classification (NIC) and Outside-Inside Transmission Classification (OITC) and mitigation compliance.
• Field Impact Isolation Classification (FIIC) testing.
• HVAC and industrial noise source mitigation.
• ‘Phantom Noise’ location and mitigation.
• Active and passive noise control technology.
• Acoustical laboratory testing.