Optimal Unknown Pollution Source Characterization in a Contaminated

Precise identification of the pollutant source characteristics is the first step for designing an effec-tive groundwater contamination remediation strategy. In this study a linked simulation-optimi-zation based methodology is utilized for identification of unknown groundwater pollution sources in a real life contaminated aquifer in New South Wales, Australia where the source locations and source flux release history are the explicit unknown variables. The methodology is applied utiliz-ing an in house software package GWSID developed at James Cook University for optimal deter-mination of the unknown source characteristics. The methodology incorporates linked simulation optimization approach and utilizes simulated Algorithm as an evolutionary optimization algo-rithm. The performance evaluation results show practical utility of the methodology and of the associated developed computers software in identifying the unknown source characteristics