Determining Vulnerability and Resiliance of Fractured Aquifers to Pathogens: A Network-Based Approach

33%的加拿大人使用地下水作为饮用水。在农村地区，这一数字上升到70%。地下水可能会被致病的病原体污染，这种情况更有可能发生在水储存在岩溶或破碎的岩石中的地方。尽管加拿大三分之二以上的地下水储存在这些类型的岩层中，但加拿大地质调查局认为，它们的行为是加拿大最重大的地下水知识空白之一。这些地下水储藏库(含水层)受地质、水文、气候以及人类活动、政策和法规的影响。尽管现有工具可用于检查含水层中的水量，或含水层易受污染的程度，但这些工具都不能充分结合影响含水层的所有因素之间的关系。因此，这些工具不能提供含水层行为的全貌。鉴于许多加拿大人和行业依赖地下水，我们对裂隙岩石中的地下水缺乏了解，以及我们不断变化的环境，迫切需要开发更好、更综合、更有效的地下水管理工具和战略。网络模型为研究和测量含水层等复杂系统提供了一种创新和强大的方法。它们基于从数学上描述组成网络的元素(节点)之间的交互(链接)的接线图。这种方法是在过去15年中出现的，因为数字革命实现了对海量数据的经济收集、组织、共享和存储。这项研究计划的目标是使用一种基于网络的方法来建立控制颗粒(代表病原体)在破裂含水层中如何移动以及在哪里移动的关系(联系)。这些联系将构成含水层网络模型的基础，该模型将用于探讨多重压力、威胁、危险和管理情景如何影响潜在的含水层污染。这一创新的网络模式将提供对含水层行为的更深入了解，以便为从业人员提供更好的手段来评估裂隙岩石含水层对病原体污染的脆弱性和复原力、制定可持续含水层管理计划所需的知识以及制定有效政策所需的科学。在接下来的五年里，拟议的研究计划将培养3名博士和4名硕士。和5名UG学生。最终，拟议的研究计划的长期目标是通过使用网络科学理论来调查共同管理含水层行为的物理、社会和政治系统内部和之间的联系，从而发展对裂隙含水层行为的完全整合的理解。

Thirty-three percent of Canadians use groundwater for their drinking water. This number rises to 70% in rural areas. Groundwater can become contaminated by pathogens that make people sick, and this is more likely to occur where the water is stored in karst or fractured rock. Although more than two thirds of groundwater in Canada is stored in these types of rock formations, the Geological Survey of Canada identified their behaviour as one of the most significant groundwater knowledge gaps in Canada. These groundwater stores (aquifers) are influenced by geology, hydrology, and climate as well as human activities, policies, and regulations. Though tools exist for examining, for example, how much water can be taken out of an aquifer, or its vulnerability to pollution, none of these tools adequately incorporate the relationships between all of the factors that affect an aquifer. Consequently, these tools cannot provide a complete picture of aquifer behaviour. Given how many Canadians and industries rely on groundwater, our lack of knowledge of groundwater in fractured rock, and our changing environment, there is a critical need to develop better, integrated, more effective groundwater management tools and strategies. Network models provide an innovative and powerful approach to study and measure complex systems such as an aquifer. They are based on wiring diagrams that mathematically describe interactions (links) between the elements (nodes) that make up a network. This approach has emerged over the last 15 years because the digital revolution has enabled economical collection, organization, sharing, and storage of vast amounts of data. The goal of this research program is to use a network-based approach to establish the relationships (linkages) governing how and where particles (representing pathogens) move in fractured aquifers. These linkages will form the basis for an aquifer network model, which will be used to explore how multiple stresses, threats, hazards, and management scenarios affect potential aquifer contamination. This innovative network model will provide greater insight towards aquifer behaviour in order to provide practitioners with a better means to assess the vulnerability and resilience of fractured rock aquifers to pathogen contamination, the knowledge required for developing sustainable aquifer management plans, and the science needed to develop effective policy. Over the next five years, the proposed research program will train 3 Ph.D., 4 M.A.Sc. and 5 UG students. Ultimately, the long-term objective of the proposed research program is to develop a fully integrated understanding of fractured aquifer behaviour by using the theory of network science to investigate the connections within and between the physical, social, and political systems that collectively govern aquifer behaviour.