A continuous -space model for optimal placement of groundwater contamination detection wells
Abstract
Recent federal legislation and public insistence on groundwater protection has resulted in the need to design effective groundwater monitoring programs. An important component of these monitoring programs is the design of a contamination monitoring plan; a network of monitoring wells that can be demonstrated to be effective in detecting contamination. An effective groundwater monitoring network can facilitate early detection of a contaminant release and timely deployment of aquifer remediation measures. Conventional methods that have been proposed for designing groundwater monitoring networks have (1) used uniform grids of possible well locations as potential monitoring sites and (2) neglected to consider the potential benefits of allowing an incremental evolution of system expansion over time. This research proposes an optimization model for the design of a groundwater monitoring network based on facility location theory using (1) continuous feasible region of potential monitoring sites, and (2) the ability to expand and extend the resulting monitoring network as additional information becomes available. A heuristic approach is presented to deal with the NP-complete combinatorial optimization model.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Wright, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Operations research|Environmental science
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