A computationally attractive approach for near real-time contamination source identification

In this paper we propose a method to identify contamination events (location and time of release) by employing a mathematical method originally proposed by Carasso et al. [6]. The method of the Marching-Jury Backward Beam/Plate Equation, which was previously applied to groundwater problems [1,4,7], is enhanced and following Carasso et al. [6]; coupled to discrete Fourier transform processing techniques to solve a two-dimensional (2D) ad advection-dispersion transport problem with homogeneous and isotropic parameters backwards in dine. The difficulties associated with this ill-posed, inverse problem are well recognized [2]. We, therefore, enhance the method by integrating an optimization scheme that produces optimal values for the stabilization parameter and the coefficient of diffusion. The objective function is set as an equally weighted sum of different mass and peak errors that call be calculated based on a combination of exhaustive contaminant coverage, at specific points in time (e.g., Lidar or resistivity profiles) and/or point data collected at a continuously monitored network of chemical sensors or bio-sensors, which may be stationary or mobile.