Nodal Failure Index Approach to Groundwater Remediation Design |
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Authors: | Jejung Lee Howard W. Reeves Charles H. Dowding |
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Affiliation: | 1Assistant Professor, Dept. of Geosciences, Univ. of Missouri—Kansas City, Kansas City, MO 64110 (corresponding author). E-mail: leej@umkc.edu 2Research Hydrologist, U.S. Geological Survey, USGS Michigan Water Science Center, 6520 Mercantile Way, Ste. 5, Lansing, MI 48911. E-mail: hwreeves@usgs.gov 3Professor, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL 60208. E-mail: c-dowding@northwestern.edu
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Abstract: | Computer simulations often are used to design and to optimize groundwater remediation systems. We present a new computationally efficient approach that calculates the reliability of remedial design at every location in a model domain with a single simulation. The estimated reliability and other model information are used to select a best remedial option for given site conditions, conceptual model, and available data. To evaluate design performance, we introduce the nodal failure index (NFI) to determine the number of nodal locations at which the probability of success is below the design requirement. The strength of the NFI approach is that selected areas of interest can be specified for analysis and the best remedial design determined for this target region. An example application of the NFI approach using a hypothetical model shows how the spatial distribution of reliability can be used for a decision support system in groundwater remediation design. |
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Keywords: | Remedial action Groundwater pollution Uncertainty principles Computer aided simulation |
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