The full systematic approach combines statistical analyses of contaminant concentration data, with sophisticated water-level mapping techniques, to develop visual summaries of remedy performance. The presentation focuses on methods and codes recently incorporated within the ArcMAP GIS environment to map water level data using universal kriging with embedded analytic elements to represent the effects of pumped wells and other boundary conditions. The mapping method enables the semi-automated processing of single-event depictions of hydraulic capture, and construction of a capture frequency map – a single figure depicting the likely extent of capture over multiple water level monitoring events.
Typically, the results of such a water level mapping analysis are combined with the results of statistical analyses of intra-well concentration data – identifying contaminants that exceed standards, have increased from baseline values, and/or exhibit significant trends – and of spatial interpolation of concentration data that depicts the approximate the extent of groundwater contaminated above standards for individual contaminants (contaminant-specific target zones) or an ensemble of contaminants (composite target zones). This overlay of processed data enables the identification of areas of concern and the evaluation of remedy adequacy.
The novelty of the approach is the rigorous analysis of monitoring data and presentation of results in visually informative ways, while removing reliance upon complex models. Application of the methods described combines multiple lines of evidence to provide a systematic evaluation of remedy performance. Integration of the methods and codes within ArcGIS enables rapid pre-and-post-processing, visualization and communication of the results.
See more of: Topical Sessions