RAPID: Assessing the fate of flood-born contaminants

洪水会给自然和社会造成严重的问题。除了水的损害，有毒污染物也可能被动员起来，影响公共健康和安全。然而，人们对污染物的性质以及它们在洪水期间的分布情况知之甚少。拟议中的项目研究了2019年内布拉斯加州密苏里河洪水中潜在的危险污染物和洪水沉积物。研究了农村和城市地区，以评估对环境和社会的影响。目标是识别污染物并了解它们是如何运输的。这些结果将有助于确定它们沉积并可能构成健康风险的地区。灾难性的洪水事件，如这里所研究的，预计在未来会变得更加频繁。了解最危险的污染物是什么，它们最有可能沉积在哪里，以及它们对自然和社会的长期威胁，将有助于指导未来的农村和城市发展战略。为了确定在灾难性的密苏里河洪水事件中污染物是如何重新分配的，拟议中的项目将收集内布拉斯加州奥马哈附近的土壤、河流和湖泊沉积物样本。样品将以100米的采样间隔以及更大规模的网格模式（3平方公里，500米间隔）沿着详细的剖面进行采集，并分析金属和总磷、氮和有机碳含量。水样将取自野外的河流和湖泊/池塘，并辅以现有水井的地下水样本。土壤和沉积物样品将使用ICP-MS（金属），ICP-AES（磷），热导率检测（氮）和红外吸收（碳）进行分析。水样将通过便携式Hach DR 1900分光光度计分析P和N种。这些数据将使我们能够确定哪些污染物通常与城市和农村农业地区有关，量化它们的丰度，并确定它们在洪水事件期间是如何重新分布的。这些结果将被整合到开发模型中，该模型可用于预测在灾难性洪水期间和/或之后有毒污染物最有可能沉积在哪里。在接下来的几年中，对同一地点重新采样可以帮助了解污染物的停留时间及其对环境的长期影响。由于预计未来极端天气事件将变得更加频繁，该项目将为设计旨在减少与灾难性洪水相关的生态、社会和经济损失的城乡发展战略提供重要的第一步。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Floods can cause significant problems for nature and society. In addition to water damage, toxic contaminants can be mobilized and affect public health and safety. However, only little is known about the nature of contaminants and how they are distributed during floods. The proposed project studies potentially dangerous contaminants in water and flood deposits from the 2019 Missouri River flood, Nebraska. Rural and urban areas are studied to assess the impact on the environment and society. The goal is to identify contaminants and understand how they are transported. The results will help to identify areas where they were deposited and may pose health risks. Catastrophic flood events, such as the one studied here, are predicted to become more frequent in the future. Understanding what the most dangerous contaminants are, where they are most likely to be deposited, and for long they remain a threat to nature and society will help to guide future rural and urban development strategies.To determine how contaminants were redistributed during the catastrophic Missouri River flood event, the proposed project will collect soil, river and lake sediment samples near Omaha, Nebraska. The samples will be taken along detailed profiles with sampling intervals 100 m as well as in a larger-scale grid pattern (3 km2, 500 m intervals) and analyzed for metals and total phosphorous, nitrogen and organic carbon contents. Water samples will be taken from rivers and lakes/ponds in the field area and complemented by groundwater samples from existing wells. Soil and sediment samples will be analyzed using ICP-MS (metals), ICP-AES (phosphorous), thermal conductivity detection (nitrogen), and infrared absorption (carbon). Water samples will be analyzed for P and N species via a portable Hach DR 1900 spectrophotometer. The data will allow to identify what contaminants are typically associated with urban and rural agricultural areas, quantify their abundances, and determine how they were redistributed during the flood event. The results will be integrated to develop models that can be used to predict where toxic contaminants are most likely to be deposited during and/or after catastrophic floods. Resampling of the same locations during the following years can then help to understand residence times of contaminants and their long-lasting effects on the environment. Because extreme weather events are predicted to become more frequent in the future, this project will provide an important first step to design urban and rural development strategies aimed at reducing the ecologic, social, and economic damage associated with catastrophic floods.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.