Utilization of GIS technology to support development of flow and contaminant fate and transport models at US DOE sites - 15457

Conference · Wed Jul 01 00:00:00 EDT 2015

OSTI ID:22824357

Lawrence, Angelique; Tachiev, Georgio ^[1]

---

1. Applied Research Center, Florida International University (United States)

U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) sites have accumulated years of data and millions of spatial and temporal records related to the hydrological cycle, contaminant transport, and parameters of remediation technologies. In addition, numerical models which use field monitoring data to help understand flow and transport produce gigabytes of computed spatial and temporal data for each computation node. There is a need therefore for an advanced spatial data structure that can be used to address the management, processing, and analysis of spatial and temporal numerical modeling data derived from multiple sources. This can be accomplished using a geo-database. The development of an ArcSDE geo-database facilitates the centralized storage, backup, accessibility, organization, and management of model configuration and computed simulation data, putting it into a structured, coherent, and logical computer-supported system. GIS data processing and automation would enable faster and hence more complex analyses of field test data. The Applied Research Center (ARC) at Florida International University (FIU) has provided analysis of flow and transport for several watersheds at DOE's Oak Ridge Reservation (ORR), including East Fork Poplar Creek (EFPC), Upper EFPC in the Y-12 National Security Complex area (Y-12 NSC) and White Oak Creek (WOC). Integrated surface and subsurface flow, fate and transport models were developed to provide analysis of contaminant patterns within each watershed. In addition, digital monitoring data available from the Oak Ridge Environmental Information System (OREIS) related to mercury (Hg) contamination and remediation within these watersheds was used for calibration and verification of the model. Experimental studies were also carried out which provided kinetic and equilibrium data about important parameters related to Hg transport, speciation and methylation/demethylation kinetics within the watershed. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology was employed to support the modeling work through storage and geo-processing of spatial and temporal data required by the models and to produce hydrogeological maps for visualization. An ArcGIS geo-database was developed for centralized storage and management of experimental and computed model data and its capabilities were extended over the years using tools such as ModelBuilder combined with Python scripting to automate repetitive tasks, perform statistical analyses and generate maps and reports. The hydrologic geo-database model developed possesses a structure that enables linkage with scalable hydrologic modeling tools/applications to model hydrologic systems, and in this case, enables the testing of the potential impacts of various remediation scenarios on the ORR watersheds. The ArcSDE geo-database can also be used to automate and simplify the process of calling stored GIS and time series data. This geo-database can serve as a tool for contaminant flow and transport analyses which require large amounts of high-quality spatial and temporal data in order to ensure reliability and validity of modeling results. The existing geo-database structure developed for the hydrological modeling at ORR was designed to be replicable for application at other DOE sites. An investigation of downloadable free/open source GIS software along with required security protocols to facilitate online querying of the database was also conducted to determine methods by which project-derived data can be more easily shared with other project stakeholders such as DOE personnel and site contractors. (authors)

• Research Organization: WM Symposia, Inc., PO Box 27646, 85285-7646 Tempe, AZ (United States)
• OSTI ID: 22824357
• Report Number(s): INIS-US-19-WM-15457; TRN: US19V0929069403
• Resource Relation: Conference: WM2015: Annual Waste Management Symposium, Phoenix, AZ (United States), 15-19 Mar 2015; Other Information: Country of input: France; 29 refs.; available online at: http://archive.wmsym.org/2015/index.html
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE WASTES, AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
AUTOMATION
CALCULATION METHODS
CALIBRATION
COMPUTER CODES
CONTAMINATION
CONTRACTORS
DATA PROCESSING
FIELD TESTS
GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS
HYDROLOGY
MANAGEMENT
MERCURY
METHYLATION
MONITORING
OAK RIDGE RESERVATION
POPLARS
RELIABILITY
REMEDIAL ACTION
SIMULATION
TRANSPORT THEORY
WATERSHEDS