Case study for estimation of the amount of contaminants stored in soil in an industrial area

One of the main sources of contaminants in the soil is industrial activity which has become one of the major environmental problems of the last few decades. The development of geoinformatics as well as the introduction of standards and regulations has led to a decreased risk of soil contamination and the cost-effective optimization of remediation activities. Based on the above, the aim of our study is to demonstrate the geoinformation processing of the remediation performed in an industrial area located in the Great Hungarian Plain, with special regard to the estimation of the amount and spread of the contaminants accumulated in the soil. In order to reveal the lithological and hydrogeological properties of the investigated area and the environmental status of the underground areas, we performed a large number of shallow land drillings (115). During the field sampling, 1000–1500 grams of samples were collected from the drill bit and were processed in an accredited laboratory. Based on the concentration and volume models created it can be concluded that with the estimations performed via modeling, we were able to locate the most critical areas from the standpoint of contamination. It was revealed that the focal point of the contaminants accumulated in the soil was in the central part of the investigated area. Furthermore, the model demonstrated the effect of lithological factors, since contaminants tend to accumulate more heavily in cohesive soils compared to porous rocks. The extent of contaminant concentration in the aquifer increased with decreasing depth; however, after reaching the floor clay the extent of contaminant concentration began to decrease. The lithological layer closest to the surface contained the most contaminants.

Identification of Potential Groundwater Bearing Zones by Hydrostratigrafic Analysis in the Eastern Part of Kushtia District

The study was conducted to analyze the groundwater potential zones in the Eastern part of Kushtia district. Secondary data collected from Bangladesh Agriculture Development Board Corporation (BADC) and borehole data of 119 locations have been processed, analyzed and interpreted for studying the hydrogeological properties. The sub-surface groundwater-bearing sequence of the area up to the depth of 97 m have been classified into two main hydrostratigraphic units- aquitard and aquifer, consisting of clay-silt-sand and sands of different granular respectively. The 18-30 m thick aquitard is covering a major part of the study area. The thickness of main aquifers is varying from 0.9-30 m and 27-67 m consisting of fine-medium to coarse sand. The yield potential index is 1.3-13.0. However, from the obtained results, it can be concluded that the area is suitable for groundwater potentiality. GUB JOURNAL OF SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING, Vol 7, Dec 2020 P 36-41

Subsurface Topographic Modeling Using Geospatial and Data Driven Algorithm

Infrastructures play an important role in urbanization and economic activities but are vulnerable. Due to unavailability of accurate subsurface infrastructure maps, ensuring the sustainability and resilience often are poorly recognized. In the current paper a 3D topographical predictive model using distributed geospatial data incorporated with evolutionary gene expression programming (GEP) was developed and applied on a concrete-face rockfill dam (CFRD) in Guilan province- northern to generate spatial variation of the subsurface bedrock topography. The compared proficiency of the GEP model with geostatistical ordinary kriging (OK) using different analytical indexes showed 82.53% accuracy performance and 9.61% improvement in precisely labeled data. The achievements imply that the retrieved GEP model efficiently can provide accurate enough prediction and consequently meliorate the visualization insights linking the natural and engineering concerns. Accordingly, the generated subsurface bedrock model dedicates great information on stability of structures and hydrogeological properties, thus adopting appropriate foundations.

Reliability of spring recession curve analysis as a function of the temporal resolution of the monitoring dataset

Mountain springs represent one of the largest and most precious sources of potable water in Italy, necessary to meet the water needs of the population. Optimizing the present and future management strategies of mountain groundwater resources has become increasingly necessary. The accuracy and frequency of the flow rate (Q) measurements determine and restrict the processes that can be studied using spring hydrograph and recession curve analysis. Therefore, to properly define mountain aquifers’ hydrogeological properties, it turns out important to highlight the variation of the error in the estimation of the hydrogeological parameters as the time interval of sampling varies. In this paper, recession curve analysis was performed on two different mountain springs (Spring 1 and Spring 2) of north-western Italy, firstly considering available 4-h resolution measuring data and subsequently by resampling data to simulate longer sampling intervals of 1, 3, 7, 15, and 30 days.The resulting distribution of errors introduced by longer acquisition intervals underlined how the percentage error increases with increasing acquisition interval. For obtaining an adequate estimation of mountain aquifer hydrodynamic parameters, in place of continuous hourly data, 1-day and 3-day sampling intervals with associated errors respectively lower than 5% and 10% were found to be valid.

Wildfire impact on the hydrological conditions of an Alpine slope

<p>Wildfire events have severe effects over mountain environments, changing dramatically the local terrain hydrogeological conditions and frequently affecting slope stability. Besides burning vegetation, wildfires induce a modification on soil properties that could result in a decreased capacity of infiltration. This leads to an increase of erosion and, potentially, of the related geohazards, such as flash flooding and debris flows, in the vicinity of the affected sites.</p><p>Past studies found that this reduced infiltration rate changes over time and the original hydrogeological soil properties are expected to recover in as long as 10 years after the wildfire event, depending on the environmental characteristics and on the soil properties of the site.</p><p>Our work aims to investigate the impact of a wildfire on the infiltration conditions of a slope located in the Southern Alps, considering as a case study a wildfire event occurred in Sorico (CO) in December 2018.</p><p>The effects of the wildfire on the infiltration rates and the subsequent recovery of the original hydrogeological properties were evaluated over the span of more than two years after the event. Infiltration tests were performed both within the most affected area as well as in the nearest unburnt area. Results were then correlated with precipitation and satellite imagery data in order to retrieve a recovery factor, necessary for the calibration of a simple 1D hydrogeological model.</p>

Thermal Waters of Azerbai̇jan – Sources of Renewable Alternati̇ve Energy

Azerbaijan that is situated in the east of the Caucasian region of the Alpine folding belt is rich in not only oil, gas, and mineral reserves, but in unique mineral water deposits as well. There is over 1000 mineral and thermal water deposits in Azerbaijan. The majority of these deposits have not been exploited yet. These waters can be used for therapeutic purposes as well as an alternative source of renewable energy. This article is dedicated to ways to solve this problem.There are a high production rate (40-50 lit/sec) aquifers with water temperatures close to 100°C at depth of 3000m in Neogene and Paleogene rocks.Geochemical and hydrogeological properties of the mineral and thermal waters of Azerbaijan have separately been analyzed in the article for various regions and specific proposals on their efficient use have been put forward. Thermal waters can be used in heating civil and industrial premises (T=40-600C). Electrical energy can be produced from waters with temperatures above 800C (Jarli, Precaspian-Guba, etc.). The presence of thermal waters distribution patterns in time and space associated with tectonic faults and magmatic processes has been proven from the scientific point of view.

The geological and hydrogeological characteristics of Tamelast landfill site in Agadir, Morocco

The Grand Agadir is confronting with huge production of solid waste. Due to the fact of changes in habits of consumption, the increase of production, and demographic evolution. This production is buried in the controlled discharge of Tamelast. This landfill faces many environmental issues. Our work aims to evaluate the environmental characteristics based on the geological and hydrogeological properties of the site of the Tamelast landfill in Grand Agadir (Morocco). To evaluate the geological and hydrogeological characteristics of the Tamelast landfill, we have generated geological, hydrogeological maps, stratigraphic vertical sections, and cross-sections of the landfill area that have been prepared for further assessment of environmental geological factors. Besides, we also focused on other measures of permeability, and field data we could define the probability and importance of contamination by leachate. The Tamelast landfill is installed on the marl-limestone and carbonate ranges of the Campanian and Maastrichtian. Geologically, the site consists essentially of carbonate deposits, limestones, and Cretaceous marls. These geological outcrops that can play the role of a potential aquifer are the fractured Campanian marl-limestone formations. These soils have a permeability of 5.10-4 to 10-3m/s and transmissivity of 10-2 to 5.10-2 m2/s.

Rigidity of “Warsaw clay” from the Poznań Formation determined by in situ tests

The character of morphogenetic processes occurring within river valleys depends on the mechanical and hydrogeological properties of deposits that build up such landforms. In the case of the Polish Lowlands, a series of Pliocene clay lake sediments (so-called Poznań mottled clays) plays a special role. Their current locations and properties are associated with specific sedimentation conditions and glacitectonic deformations, which the soils have been subjected to many times in Pleistocene. Their presence in the lithological profile influences dynamics of slope processes in valleys’ escarpment zones and channel erosion stabilization. In this article, the “Warsaw clay” from the Poznań Series Formation is presented in comparison with other cohesive Quaternary sediments, which are mostly building neighboring outcrops. This article analyzes the Seismic Dilatometer (SDMT) results and a method of interpretation to determine IR, plasticity index, and liquid limit (LL) parameters. The undrained shear strength Su was determined based on the Cone Penetration Test (CPT), SDMT, and laboratory test results. Spatial variability of the strength and deformation parameters in the study area were determined using dilatometer test (SDMT) results. Finally, the nomogram chart is proposed to obtain the rigidity index (IR) of the preconsolidated Pliocene clays, depending on both p0 and p1 pressures from SDMT and effective vertical stress {\sigma }_{\text{v0}}^{^{\prime} } and pore water pressure u0.

Spatial distribution of stygobitic crustacean harpacticoids at the boundaries of groundwater habitat types in Europe

The distribution patterns of stygobitic crustacean harpacticoids at the boundaries of three different groundwater habitat types in Europe were analysed through a GIS proximity analysis and fitted to exponential models. The results showed that the highest frequency of occurrences was recorded in aquifers in consolidated rocks, followed by the aquifers in unconsolidated sediments and, finally, by the practically non-aquiferous rocks. The majority of the stygobitic harpacticoid species were not able to disperse across the boundaries between two adjacent habitats, with 66% of the species occurring in a single habitat type. The species were not evenly distributed, and 35–69% of them occurred from 2 to 6 km to the boundaries, depending on the adjacent habitat types. The distribution patterns were shaped by features extrinsic to the species, such as the hydrogeological properties of the aquifers, and by species’ intrinsic characteristics such as the preference for a given habitat type and dispersal abilities. Most boundaries between adjacent habitat types resulted to be “breaches”, that is transmissive borders for stygobitic harpacticoids, while others were “impermeable walls”, that is absorptive borders. Our results suggest that conservation measures of groundwater harpacticoids should consider how species are distributed within the different groundwater habitat types and at their boundaries to ensure the preservation of species metapopulations within habitat patches and beyond them.