Advisory system for North Carolina groundwater quality modeling and management needs
Federal policy states that groundwater quality management is a State responsibility. Waste disposal sites that discharge or may leak to a groundwater system must undergo a permitting process. Applications are reviewed by the Division of Environmental Management, Department of Natural Resources and Community Development, State of North Carolina. This research project conditions the permitting process upon: sound mathematical modeling techniques, review of all sources of data on waste, method of disposal and hydrogeologic scenario - all processed by a computerized advisory system capable of assessing degree of uncertainty within a sequential decision analysis framework. The advisory system is a friendly, interactive menu-driven management program which executes a large number of supporting decision algorithms and mathematical models, including 3-dimensional color graphics representation of the predicted contaminant plume. The decision analysis framework provides the foundation for the advisory-system-based permitting process. A user's manual is presented.
