HR: 1340h
AN: H23B-1311    [Abstracts]
TI: On the significance of contaminant plume-scale and dose-response models in defining hydrogeological characterization needs
AU: * de Barros, F
EM: barros@berkeley.edu
AF: UC Berkeley, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering 626 Davis Hall University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720-1710, United States
AU: Rubin, Y
EM: rubin@ce.berkeley.edu
AF: UC Berkeley, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering 626 Davis Hall University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720-1710, United States
AU: Maxwell, R
EM: maxwell5@llnl.gov
AF: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Atmospheric, Earth, and Energy Sciences Department, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, 7000 East Ave. L-208, Livermore, Livermore, CA 94550, United States
AU: Bai, H
EM: baihang@berkeley.edu
AF: UC Berkeley, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering 626 Davis Hall University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720-1710, United States
AB: Defining rational and effective hydrogeological data acquisition strategies is of crucial importance since financial resources available for such efforts are always limited. Usually such strategies are developed with the goal of reducing uncertainty, but less often they are developed in the context of the impacts of uncertainty. This paper presents an approach for determining site characterization needs based on human health risk factors. The main challenge is in striking a balance between improved definition of hydrogeological, behavioral and physiological parameters. Striking this balance can provide clear guidance on setting priorities for data acquisition and for better estimating adverse health effects in humans. This paper addresses this challenge through theoretical developments and numerical testing. We will report on a wide range of factors that affect the site characterization needs including contaminant plume's dimensions, travel distances and other length scales that characterize the transport problem, as well as health risk models. We introduce a new graphical tool that allows one to investigate the relative impact of hydrogeological and physiological parameters in risk. Results show that the impact of uncertainty reduction in the risk-related parameters decreases with increasing distances from the contaminant source. Also, results indicate that human health risk becomes less sensitive to hydrogeological measurements when dealing with ergodic plumes. This indicates that under ergodic conditions, uncertainty reduction in human health risk may benefit from better understanding of the physiological component as opposed to a detailed hydrogeological characterization
DE: 1829 Groundwater hydrology
DE: 1831 Groundwater quality
DE: 1832 Groundwater transport
DE: 1847 Modeling
DE: 1869 Stochastic hydrology
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting