Off-campus UNL users: To download campus access dissertations, please use the following link to log into our proxy server with your NU ID and password. When you are done browsing please remember to return to this page and log out.
Non-UNL users: Please talk to your librarian about requesting this dissertation through interlibrary loan.
Groundwater contamination control: Detection and remedial planning
Abstract
Ground water contamination has emerged as one of the Nation's primary environmental concerns. Reliable, rapid, and cost-effective detection and remedial action can contribute to minimizing the adverse environmental and economic impacts of ground water contamination. This dissertation contributes to aquifer remediation by developing a set of planning tools for detection, mapping, monitoring and remediation of contaminated aquifers. The dissertation is divided into three main sections that correspond to a typical sequence of actions resulting in a final remedial action plan for handling contamination at a particular site. The first section develops a methodology for detecting and mapping suspected contamination using multiple sources of data. Different data types are combined by using a modified form of kriging with uncertain data, termed compound kriging. In addition, the use of fuzzy set theory merged with geostatistics is explored as a possible mapping technique when variogram parameters are difficult to quantify. A decision support system for observation network design is presented in the second section. Network design is approached from a multiple objective decision making perspective. The objective is to identify the most cost-effective network design while considering the trade-off between performance and cost. Geostatistical variance reduction analysis and prior knowledge related to the site are used as performance measures in the decision support system. A remedial action design support system is described in the third section. Three dimensional geostatistical simulation and analytical ground water modeling are used to assess the need for further remedial action planning. In addition, a methodology for measuring the performance of candidate remediation systems under conditions of uncertainty in aquifer parameters and plume location is presented. These performance measures, combined with cost factors, are used in a multiple-criteria decision making system to determine the preferred clean up system for a site being investigated. Each of the methods developed in this dissertation have been demonstrated using data collected from the site of a low-level radioactive industrial waste reprocessing facility near Wood River Junction, Rhode Island.
Subject Area
Civil engineering|Environmental science
Recommended Citation
Woldt, Wayne E, "Groundwater contamination control: Detection and remedial planning" (1990). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI9121946.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI9121946