RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN ID ENTIFICATION OF UNKNOWN CONTAMINATION SOURCES AND MONITORING NETWORK DESIGN FOR CONTAMINATED GROUNDWATER SYSTEMS

In order to design an effective aquifer contamination remediation strategy two important steps are: (i) identification of unknown groundwater pollution sources once contamination is detected in an aquifer, and (ii) efficient and effective monitoring of contaminant plume movement. James Cook University, Australia and CRC-CARE are collaborating in developing comprehensive and easy to use computer software and state of art methodologies that at can be utilized for (i) identification of unknown pollution source magnitudes, location, and time of activity; (2) optimal design of a contamination monitoring network that can be implemented in any contaminated groundwater site incorporating site specific information. One part of the collaborative research between James Cook University team and CRC-CARE has resulted in the development of software that enables water resources managers and engineers to solve the difficult problems of identifying sources of pollution in a contaminated groundwater systems, and to design optimal monitoring networks that can detect the extent and movement of contaminants in contaminated groundwater systems. The developed computer software make it possible for practitioners with limited knowledge of hydrogeology and pollutant transport processes to address the source identification issue. These software are expected to be immensely useful for proper management of contaminated sites with unknown sources of contamination. The capabilities of the two developed software, the contamination source identification and the monitoring network design, are briefly introduced.