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Prediction of Remediation of a Heterogeneous Aquifer: A Case Study
Author(s) -
Moreno Ziv,
Paster Amir
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
groundwater
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.84
H-Index - 94
eISSN - 1745-6584
pISSN - 0017-467X
DOI - 10.1111/gwat.12493
Subject(s) - aquifer , phreatic , hydraulic conductivity , environmental remediation , plume , soil science , function (biology) , flow (mathematics) , variable (mathematics) , groundwater remediation , mathematics , environmental science , mathematical optimization , mechanics , geotechnical engineering , groundwater , geology , mathematical analysis , geometry , physics , meteorology , ecology , contamination , evolutionary biology , biology , soil water
Abstract Contaminant plumes whose characteristic length is smaller than the horizontal integral scale of the hydraulic conductivity, K , are abundant in shallow, phreatic aquifers. In such cases, the aquifer can be regarded as layered, with K being only a function of the vertical coordinate. The heterogeneity of K has a critical role upon the efficiency of remediation of such sites, for example, by Pump and Treat schemes. The expected efficiency is a random variable, with uncertainty. Quantifying this uncertainty can be of great importance to decision making. In this study, we focus on a case study in the coastal aquifer of Israel and compare two different approaches for constructing realizations of K : continuous and indicator. We observe a significant difference between the constructed realizations, which results in a considerable difference in the predicted remediation efficiency and its uncertainty. Furthermore, we study the effect of conditioning the realizations by a rather limited number of K data points. We find that the conditioning results in a major reduction of the uncertainty. In addition, we compare the results of the transport model to a simplified semi‐analytical solution that is based on assuming radial flow. We find a good agreement with the three‐dimensional numerical model. This result illustrates that the simplified solution can be used for prediction of the remediation efficiency when the flow at the plume vicinity can be regarded as radial.