Field Applicability of Design Methodologies for Groundwater Quality Monitoring Network

Protection of groundwater resources from contamination has been of increasing concern throughout the past decades. In practice, however, groundwater monitoring is performed based on the experience and intuition of experts or on the convenience. In dealing with groundwater contamination, we need to know what contaminants have the potential to threat the water quality and the distribution and concentration of the plumes. Monitoring of the subsurface environment through remote geophysical techniques or direct sampling from wells can provide such information. Once known, the plume can be properly menaged. Evaluation of existing methodologies for groundwater monitoring network design revealed that one should select an appropriate design method based on the purpose of the network and the avaliability of field information. Integer programming approach, one of the general purpose network design tools, and a cost-to-go function evaluation approach for special purpose network design were tested for field applicability. For the same contaminated aquifer, two approaches resulted in different well locations. The amount of information, however, was about the same.