Uncertainty analysis for simulating pump-and-treat in contaminated areas

Due to the growing demand for project execution remediation of contaminated aquifers, the pump and treat technique is being used significantly. This remediation technique consists in groundwater pumping in strategically points placed to generate a hydraulic barrier to prevent the advance of a contam...

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Main Authors: Caetano Pontes Costanzo, Alexandre Campane Vidal
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Associação Brasileira de Águas Subterrâneas 2015-02-01
Series:Revista Águas Subterrâneas
Subjects:
Online Access:https://aguassubterraneas.abas.org/asubterraneas/article/view/27865
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author Caetano Pontes Costanzo
Alexandre Campane Vidal
author_facet Caetano Pontes Costanzo
Alexandre Campane Vidal
author_sort Caetano Pontes Costanzo
collection DOAJ
description Due to the growing demand for project execution remediation of contaminated aquifers, the pump and treat technique is being used significantly. This remediation technique consists in groundwater pumping in strategically points placed to generate a hydraulic barrier to prevent the advance of a contamination plume. In areas with high lithological heterogeneity, the spatial organization of the hydraulic conductivity (K) values in the subsurface introduces uncertainties associated with the variability in the distribution of facies. In this study these uncertainties were evaluated using geostatistical methods (indicator kriging and stochastic simulations) and also from numerical simulations of flow and contaminant transport. These tools enable the analysis of the contamination plumes areas, as well as scenarios for remediation, due to different random fields of local conductivity according to the geological complexity. By indicator kriging, was possible to provide a geostatistical facies model which was used as a tool to validate the hydraulic conductivity as a function of each lithology, thus defining the possible hydrofacies groups in the area. The stochastic simulations generated twenty distinct hydraulic conductivity fields, which represented different spatial distributions of contamination plumes, as well as scenarios optimistic, intermediate and pessimistic to offset these. Three scenarios for pump and treat were simulated resulting nine situations of this remediation technique. Therefore the effects of heterogeneity associated with hydraulic conductivity showed that, for the remediation design in areas with certain geological heterogeneity, the analysis of uncertainties linked to hydrogeological studies is needed. When considering models with homogeneous conductivity and most simplistic, the remediation project may prove to be inefficient increasing the time to the project and consequently increasing costs.
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spelling doaj.art-5694293e782a4358bcca2c4b73251bb82022-12-21T18:30:45ZengAssociação Brasileira de Águas SubterrâneasRevista Águas Subterrâneas0101-70042179-97842015-02-01291132910.14295/ras.v29i1.2786516816Uncertainty analysis for simulating pump-and-treat in contaminated areasCaetano Pontes Costanzo0Alexandre Campane Vidal1UNICAMPUNICAMPDue to the growing demand for project execution remediation of contaminated aquifers, the pump and treat technique is being used significantly. This remediation technique consists in groundwater pumping in strategically points placed to generate a hydraulic barrier to prevent the advance of a contamination plume. In areas with high lithological heterogeneity, the spatial organization of the hydraulic conductivity (K) values in the subsurface introduces uncertainties associated with the variability in the distribution of facies. In this study these uncertainties were evaluated using geostatistical methods (indicator kriging and stochastic simulations) and also from numerical simulations of flow and contaminant transport. These tools enable the analysis of the contamination plumes areas, as well as scenarios for remediation, due to different random fields of local conductivity according to the geological complexity. By indicator kriging, was possible to provide a geostatistical facies model which was used as a tool to validate the hydraulic conductivity as a function of each lithology, thus defining the possible hydrofacies groups in the area. The stochastic simulations generated twenty distinct hydraulic conductivity fields, which represented different spatial distributions of contamination plumes, as well as scenarios optimistic, intermediate and pessimistic to offset these. Three scenarios for pump and treat were simulated resulting nine situations of this remediation technique. Therefore the effects of heterogeneity associated with hydraulic conductivity showed that, for the remediation design in areas with certain geological heterogeneity, the analysis of uncertainties linked to hydrogeological studies is needed. When considering models with homogeneous conductivity and most simplistic, the remediation project may prove to be inefficient increasing the time to the project and consequently increasing costs.https://aguassubterraneas.abas.org/asubterraneas/article/view/27865Krigagem da indicatriz. Simulações estocásticas. Simulações numéricas. Condutividade hidráulica.
spellingShingle Caetano Pontes Costanzo
Alexandre Campane Vidal
Uncertainty analysis for simulating pump-and-treat in contaminated areas
Revista Águas Subterrâneas
Krigagem da indicatriz. Simulações estocásticas. Simulações numéricas. Condutividade hidráulica.
title Uncertainty analysis for simulating pump-and-treat in contaminated areas
title_full Uncertainty analysis for simulating pump-and-treat in contaminated areas
title_fullStr Uncertainty analysis for simulating pump-and-treat in contaminated areas
title_full_unstemmed Uncertainty analysis for simulating pump-and-treat in contaminated areas
title_short Uncertainty analysis for simulating pump-and-treat in contaminated areas
title_sort uncertainty analysis for simulating pump and treat in contaminated areas
topic Krigagem da indicatriz. Simulações estocásticas. Simulações numéricas. Condutividade hidráulica.
url https://aguassubterraneas.abas.org/asubterraneas/article/view/27865
work_keys_str_mv AT caetanopontescostanzo uncertaintyanalysisforsimulatingpumpandtreatincontaminatedareas
AT alexandrecampanevidal uncertaintyanalysisforsimulatingpumpandtreatincontaminatedareas