Development of systems analysis and process control approaches for optimal soil and groundwater remediation

加拿大有数千个与工业有关的设施向地下排放或泄漏大量石油碳氢化合物。被这些污染物污染的场地可能会构成严重的环境和健康风险，还可能降低土地价值和农业生产率。因此，这些污染场地的有效修复和管理越来越受到许多环境顾问、行业、社区和政府的关注。这项研究旨在通过开发先进的系统分析和过程控制方法，解决石油污染场地优化修复所产生的各种复杂性。它包括一些相互关联的任务：(A)通过综合实验和数学建模方法，推进用于模拟典型石油污染土壤和地下水修复过程的三维数值模型的研发；(B)开发先进的系统优化方法，以考虑场地修复系统的非线性、不确定性和多目标特征；(C)通过将修复模拟和优化模型与各种信息和人工智能技术相结合，开发用于最优场地修复的创新过程控制方法；以及(D)将开发的方法应用于不列颠哥伦比亚省北部的场地修复案例。拟议的方法允许系统地考虑与场地补救有关的因素和复杂性，制定系统分析和过程控制办法将是对场地补救工程方法的独特贡献。通过提供支持污染场地修复的有效工具，这项研究将能够为国家带来重大的环境、经济和社会效益，并可能因成功实施新开发的方法而产生副产品/企业。此外，拟议的研究将有助于吸引和培训一批有才华的学生，他们将有能力应对加拿大未来的环境挑战。

There are thousands of industry-related facilities in Canada emitting or leaking significant amounts of petroleum hydrocarbons into the subsurface. The sites contaminated by such pollutants could pose serious environmental and health risks, and could also reduce land value and agricultural productivity. Consequently, the effective remediation and management of these contaminated sites have received increasing attentions from many environmental consultants, industries, communities, and governments. This research is designed to address various complexities arising from the optimal remediation of petroleum-contaminated sites through the development of advanced systems analysis and process control approaches. It includes a number of interrelated tasks: (a) to advance the R&D of 3-D numerical models for simulating representative petroleum-contaminated soil and groundwater remediation processes through an integrated experimental and mathematical modeling approach; (b) to develop advanced system optimization methodologies for taking into account nonlinearities, uncertainties, and multi-objective characteristics of site remediation system; (c) to develop innovative process control approaches for optimal site remediation by combining the remediation simulation and optimization models with various information and artificial intelligence technologies, and (d) to apply the developed methods to site remediation case in northern BC. The proposed methodologies allow for systematic consideration of factors and complexities that are related to site remediation, and the development of systems analysis and process control approaches would represent a unique contribution to methodologies for site remediation engineering. By providing effective tools for supporting contaminated-site remediation, this study will be able to bring significant environmental, economic and social benefits to the country, and may lead to spin-off jobs/businesses as a consequence of successful implementation of the newly developed methodologies. In addition, the proposed research will help to attract and train a number of talented students, who will be capable of addressing Canada's future environmental challenges.