Intro GIS for Urban and Environmental Analysis
Assignment 2 – Project Topics
Li Wang
As my own research is about computer modeling for remediation of arsenic
contaminated groundwater, I am particularly interested in combining GIS with
groundwater modeling. Arsenic and groundwater are the two key words that I’d like to
incorporate into this course project and I hope I can expand it into part of my dissertation.
The first idea that came to my mind is to conduct a groundwater vulnerability
study of arsenic contamination (especially near superfund sites such as some old landfills)
in New England area. While naturally-occurring arsenic is commonly bonded to iron
oxide minerals in soil and rock materials in New England area, only recently have people
found out that the degradation of organic-rich leachate from old landfills can cause the
reductive dissolution of iron oxide minerals and subsequently the release of adsorbed
arsenic into groundwater. This has been identified at several superfund sites in New
England area and stimulated discussion and re-thinking of some remediation strategies
such as landfill capping and monitoring natural attenuation1. My plan is to first gather
some data from USGS and USEPA about superfund landfill sites in New England
including site-specific geology, hydrogeology and geochemistry as well as population
and water use near these sites. Then with these information, I can combine GIS with a
groundwater vulnerability model like DRASTIC2, 3, 4, 5, 6 to conduct a spatial analysis of
the vulnerability of groundwater by arsenic contamination in New England.
1
deLemos, J. L., B. C. Bostick, et al. (2006). "Landfill-Stimulated Iron Reduction and Arsenic Release at
the Coakley Superfund Site (NH)." Environ. Sci. Technol. 40(1): 67-73.
2
http://cobweb.ecn.purdue.edu/~aggrass/GROUNDWATER/drastic.html
3
Kabbour, B., L. Zouhri, et al. (2006). "Assessing groundwater contamination risk using the
DASTI/IDRISI GIS method: coastal system of western Mamora, Morocco." Bulletin of Engineering
Geology and the Environment 65(4): 463-470.
4
Guo, Q., Y. Wang, et al. (2007). "A new model (DRARCH) for assessing groundwater vulnerability to
arsenic contamination at basin scale: a case study in Taiyuan basin, northern China." Environmental
Geology 52(5): 923-932.
5
Samadder, S. R. and C. Subbarao (2007). "GIS Approach of Delineation and Risk Assessment of Areas
Affected by Arsenic Pollution in Drinking Water." Journal of Environmental Engineering 133(7): 742-749.
6
Wang, Y., B. Merkel, et al. (2007). "Vulnerability of groundwater in Quaternary aquifers to organic
contaminants: a case study in Wuhan City, China." Environmental Geology 53(3): 479-484.
1
Another thing I’d like to do is to pick one of the above mentioned sites and create
a computer model to simulate the leachate migration and the resulted arsenic plume in
groundwater at the site. A number of examples from ESRI website such as Groundwater
Quality Modeling in Hillsborough County, Florida7 and Using GIS in Groundwater
Remediation at the Massachusetts Military Reservation (MMR), Cape Cod,
Massachusetts8 as well as peer-reviewed papers9, 10 can be used as guidance to my
practice of modeling groundwater flow and transport in a GIS environment. Hopefully I
can find enough information from USGS and USEPA about the site’s location, areal
boundary, topography, groundwater contour, and geologic unit distribution (both spatially
and stratigraphically). Another useful source of information might be the database of the
Hydrologic Information System11 (HIS) by The Consortium of Universities for the
Advancement of Hydrologic Science (CUAHSI). I need to learn how to use the
groundwater tools in ArcGIS and see if they can do the job. Otherwise, I might just use
the GIS data as input to my groundwater model. And at least, I believe I can use GIS to
enhance the visualization of my simulation results and demonstrate the potential of
arsenic contamination to drinking water sources of nearby residences.
7
http://www.esri.com/mapmuseum/mapbook_gallery/volume21/water6.html
http://www.esri.com/mapmuseum/mapbook_gallery/volume16/environmental3.html
9
Eric A. Seagren, R. C. M. J. (2002). "Visualizing reductive dechlorination in support of intrinsic
bioremediation using multivariate plots and GIS." Remediation Journal 12(4): 5-21.
10
Schilling, K. and C. Wolter (2007). "A GIS-based groundwater travel time model to evaluate stream
nitrate concentration reductions from land use change." Environmental Geology 53(2): 433-443.
11
http://www.cuahsi.org/his.html
8
2