APPLICATIONS OF RS/GIS TECHNIQUES IN GROUNDWATER DECONTAMINATION

PARUL SHARMAAMITY SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGY

AMITY UNIVERSITY, MANESAR, HARYANA

POLLUTION-A PRIZE TAG OF MODERN SOCIETY

POLYMERS

PLASTICS

SOLVENTS

FUELS

DETERGENTS

DYES

PESTICIDES

CARCINOGENS

PAINTS

HEAVY METALS

Ground water

Major pathway into the body for contaminants

Easy to contaminate, difficult (costly) to remediate.

Extensive to transport.

Why worry about Ground Water Supplies?

ORIGIN OF GROUNDWATER CONTAMINATION

CONTAMINATIONAny physical, chemical, biological

or radiological substance or matter that has an adverse effect on air,

water or soil

POINT SOURCES(Radioactive waste disposal

Sites Landfills, storage tanks,

NON-POINT SOURCES(runoff from pesticides &

fertilizers applications)

ENDOSULFANEPISODE

LAND USE IMPACT ON GROUND WATER QUALITY

ILLEGAL DUMPING ILLICIT DISCHARGE

Contaminated groundwater may play a significant role in contaminating urban river system

Existing Scenario of Hazardous Waste Management ….

National Inventory of Hazardous Waste

2.7 MT (44%)

0.4 MT (7%)

3.1 MT (49%)

Landfillable Waste

Incinerable Waste

Recyclable Waste

Total annual hazardous waste generation = 6.2 MT

The Challenge

Using Geo-Spatial technique research to:

…Help clean up past environmental damage

…Correct present environmental problems

…Prevent future environmental impacts

OBJECTIVES

Identification and Risk Assessment by siting areas of groundwater contamination

Management of groundwater contamination by proper landfill siting.

Shift from Conventional to Sophisticated techniques

COMPONENTS OF GEOSPATIAL TECHNIQUE

Environmental Sustainability

Economic Sustainability

Scio political Sustainability

UTILIZATION OF GIS DATA

GIS DATA

GRAPHIC DATA ATTRIBUTE DATA

VECTOR(tells about geographic location)

SATELLITE(tells about multi-dimensional photographs

GPS(tells about important landmarks

MCDM Analysis

GROUND WATER TABLE

GROUND WATER

QUALITY

LAND USE

HABITATION

GEOLOGY

AIR QUALITY INDEX

LAND USE

ELEVATIONFAULT-LINE

MULTI-CRITERIA DECESION MAKING ANALYSIS

CASE STUDIES Arsenic in Bangladesh Love Canal Chemical Waste Dump (USA) Cadmium (Epidemics in Japan)

ARSENIC IN BANGLADESH

20% of the countries wells affected 900,000 of the country's four million tubewells were

sunk with UNICEF assistance Estimated that the number of people exposed to arsenic

concentrations above 0.05 mg/l is 28-35 million (more than 0.01 mg/l is 46-57 million) (BGS, 2000)

Long-term exposure to arsenic via drinking-water causes cancer of the skin, lungs, urinary bladder, and kidney, as well as other skin changes such as pigmentation changes and thickening.

ARSENIC:THE KING OF POISION [USEPA, 2009]

SKIN LESIONS

Arsenic in Drinking Water in the US

Setting the Standard

2008: California toxicologist argues that US EPA standard for As in drinking water would constitute a 1:100 risk of cancer for lifetime consumption

LOVE CANAL EPISODE

• Landfill near Niagara Fall, New York.

• Hooker Chemicals & Plastics Corporation put wastes in abandoned canal, covered it, deeded 16 acres to Niagara Falls Board of Education in 1953.

• 1976-Chemicals leaking into basements, contaminating groundwater.

• Environmental Emergency declared in 1978.

Japan (1980s) effluent (outflow) from a lead-

processing plant washed over adjacent rice paddies for many years rice accumulated high level of

Cd community was poor (and

therefore malnourished with respect to calcium)

acute toxicity: renal failure,anemia, severe muscle pain named "Itai-Itai" disease

("ouch, ouch")

Cadmium (Cd) Epidemics

Itai-itai victim

CONCLUSION

Today's GIS produces intelligent, relevant, and useful spatial (3D)information that achieves critical response missions. First responders deserve nothing less.

The need of the hour is to have scientifically designed landfill system in Indian cities so that ground water can be protected from being polluted.

GIS, a powerful risk assessment tool, is cost effective and can successfully mitigate and manage the problem of groundwater contamination

END NOTE

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then certainly an intelligent map is worth much more.

Come forth into the light of things, Let nature be your teacher William WordsworthWilliam Wordsworth

SAVE THE ENVIRONMENT