A Method for Designing Upgradient Groundwater Monitoring Networks

A graphical heuristic was devised for locating upgradient groundwater monitoring wells near landfills. Utilizing computer-simulated contaminant plumes, the heuristic considers the direction of groundwater flow relative to the shape of a landfill, the location of the downgradient migration boundary used for configuring detection wells, and uniformity of spatial coverage. The heuristic positions upgradient wells far enough from a landfill to avoid contamination, but close enough to measure ambient water quality near the landfill. It can be adapted to nonuniform flow fields, nonlinear migration boundaries, and irregularly shaped landfills. An application to a rectangular landfill, oriented at various angles to the direction of groundwater flow, demonstrates the utility of the approach.     

Optimal Space-time Coverage and Exploration Costs in Groundwater Monitoring Networks

A method to determine the optimal subset of stations from a reference level groundwater monitoring network is proposed. The method considers the redundancy of data from historical time series, the times associated with the total distance required to run through the entire monitoring network, and the sum of the times for each monitoring station. The method was applied to a hypothetical case-study consisting of a monitoring network with 32 stations. Cost-benefit analysis was performed to determine the number of stations to include in the new design versus loss of information. This optimisation problem was solved with simulated annealing. Results showed that the relative reduction in exploration costs more than compensates for the relative loss in data representativeness.