Modeling groundwater flow and contaminant transport in soils

Riitta Molarius, Jouni Sarkkila, Minna Leppänen, Kim Dahlbo

    Research output: Book/ReportReport

    Abstract

    Road accidents, fertilization, and chemical spills, etc. may pollute the soil and groundwater. Contaminants can move along the ground surface, dissolve into rainwater and infiltrate the unsaturated soil zone or be transported to the lakes or rivers, and finally reach the saturated groundwater zone. While propagating through the soil column, they are exposed to various physical, chemical and biological processes which may affect the fate of the substances. Transport and flow models provide a tool for risk assessment and fate analysis, as well as for designing remediation and protection measures. The modeling process usually requires simplification and idealization of the problem consideration as well as the soil conditions prevailing on the site. Data collection is an essential, but laborious part of the modeling procedure. The accuracy of the modeling results depend on the accuracy of input paramater data. Nowadays, numerous modeling software is available for flow and transport modeling. The selection of a suitable model for a specific problem is not an task. User-friendly, interactive, constantly maintained and upgraded public domain software which has regulatory acceptance would be an obvious choice. The development of computer resources has made it possible to use 3-dimensional models which offer a good selection of visualization tools.
    Original languageEnglish
    Place of PublicationEspoo
    PublisherVTT Technical Research Centre of Finland
    Number of pages99
    ISBN (Print)951-38-4881-7
    Publication statusPublished - 1996
    MoE publication typeNot Eligible

    Publication series

    SeriesVTT Tiedotteita - Meddelanden - Research Notes
    Number1726
    ISSN1235-0605

    Keywords

    • models
    • simulation
    • mathematical models
    • ground water
    • water resources
    • flow
    • contaminants
    • transportation
    • transportation models
    • soils

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