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Title: Least-cost groundwater remediation design using uncertain hydrogeological information. 1998 annual progress report

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/13624· OSTI ID:13624

'The objective of the project is to formulate, test, and evaluate a new approach to the least-cost design of groundwater contamination containment and decontamination systems. The proposed methodology employs robust optimization, the outer-approximation method of non-linear programming, and groundwater flow and transport modeling to find the most cost-effective pump-and-treat design possible given the physical parameters describing the groundwater reservoir are known with uncertainty. The result is a methodology that will provide the least-cost groundwater remediation design possible given a specified set of design objectives and physical and sociological constraints. As of the end of the first year of this 3-year project the author has developed and tested the concept of robust optimization within the framework of least-cost groundwater-contamination-containment design. The outer-approximation method has been employed in this context for the relatively simple linear-constraint case associated with the containment problem. In an effort to enhance the efficiency and applicability of this methodology, a new strategy for selecting the various realizations arising out of the Monte-Carlo underpinnings of the robust-optimization technique has been developed and tested. Based upon observations arising out of this work a yet more promising approach has been discovered. The theoretical foundation for this most recent approach has been, and continues to be, the primary focus of the research.'

Research Organization:
Univ. of Vermont, Dept. of Mathematics, Burlington, VT (US)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Environmental Management (EM), Office of Science and Risk Policy
OSTI ID:
13624
Report Number(s):
EMSP-60069-98; ON: DE00013624
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English