Hydrogeological modeling for improving groundwater monitoring network and strategies

Abstract

The research aimed to investigate a new approach for spatiotemporal groundwater monitoring network optimization using hydrogeological modeling to improve monitoring strategies. Unmonitored concentrations were incorporated at different potential monitoring locations into the groundwater monitoring optimization method. The proposed method was applied in the contaminated megasite, Bitterfeld/Wolfen, Germany. Based on an existing 3-D geological model, 3-D groundwater flow was obtained from flow velocity simulation using initial and boundary conditions. The 3-D groundwater transport model was used to simulate transport of α-HCH with an initial ideal concentration of 100 mg/L injected at various hydrogeological layers in the model. Particle tracking for contaminant and groundwater flow velocity realizations were made. The spatial optimization result suggested that 30 out of 462 wells in the Quaternary aquifer (6.49 %) and 14 out of 357 wells in the Tertiary aquifer (3.92 %) were redundant. With a gradual increase in the width of the particle track path line, from 0 to 100 m, the number of redundant wells remarkably increased, in both aquifers. The results of temporal optimization showed different sampling frequencies for monitoring wells. The groundwater and contaminant flow direction resulting from particle tracks obtained from hydrogeological modeling was verified by the variogram modeling through α-HCH data from 2003 to 2009. Groundwater monitoring strategies can be substantially improved by removing the existing spatio-temporal redundancy as well as incorporating unmonitored network along with sampling at recommended interval of time. However, the use of this model-based method is only recommended in the areas along with site-specific experts’ knowledge.