Tiered Approach to Resilience Assessment.

Regulatory agencies have long adopted a three-tier framework for risk assessment. We build on this structure to propose a tiered approach for resilience assessment that can be integrated into the existing regulatory processes. Comprehensive approaches to assessing resilience at appropriate and operational scales, reconciling analytical complexity as needed with stakeholder needs and resources available, and ultimately creating actionable recommendations to enhance resilience are still lacking. Our proposed framework consists of tiers by which analysts can select resilience assessment and decision support tools to inform associated management actions relative to the scope and urgency of the risk and the capacity of resource managers to improve system resilience. The resilience management framework proposed is not intended to supplant either risk management or the many existing efforts of resilience quantification method development, but instead provide a guide to selecting tools that are appropriate for the given analytic need. The goal of this tiered approach is to intentionally parallel the tiered approach used in regulatory contexts so that resilience assessment might be more easily and quickly integrated into existing structures and with existing policies.

Nonreversible immobilization of water-borne plutonium onto self-assembled adlayers of silanized humic materials.

The objective was to study plutonium partitioning between immobile and mobile humic materials at the water-solid interfaces. Immobilization of the humic materials on solid supports was performed in situ using self-adhesive silanized humic derivatives. The presence of the humic adlayers on solid supports was shown to significantly enhance Pu sorption and its retention under both steady state and dynamic conditions. While plutonium may exist in multiple oxidations states plus colloidal forms, the major thrust in this work was to study the behavior of most mobile--the PuO2(+) form in dilute solutions. The values of the plutonium partition coefficients (Kd) between water and humics-coated silica gels after 10 days exposure reached 1.6 × 10(4) L · kg(-1) at pH 7.5 under anaerobic conditions with a total plutonium concentration of 1.2 × 10(-8) M exceeding those for the uncoated SiO2 (6.3 × 10(2) L · kg(-1)). Column tests showed substantial sequestration of water-borne plutonium (up to 73%) on the humics-coated silica gels. Remobilization experiments conducted under batch conditions at different pH values (3.5, 4.5, 7.5) showed that no more than 3% of the sequestered Pu was remobilized from the humics-coated silica gels by treatment with dissolved humic materials at environmentally relevant pH of 7.5. Consequently, silanized humic materialas can be seen as both molecular probes and as potent candidate materials for scavenging mobile Pu from an aqueous phase.

A comparison of storm-based and annual-based indices of hydrologic variability: a case study in Fort Benning, Georgia.

The magnitude, frequency, duration, timing, and rate of change of hydrologic conditions regulate ecological processes in aquatic ecosystems. Conditions are typically characterized using annual-based hydrologic indices derived from daily and/or monthly stream flow data. In this study, we present an alternative approach to identify hydrologic indices based on storm hydrographs. Hydrologic indices derived from long-term daily flow data were compared to those from storm events for two headwater watersheds in Fort Benning, Georgia. Five hydrologic indices derived from daily flow data and storm events shared common features. Storm-based magnitude of mean peak discharge and mean response factor, frequency of bankfull discharge, rate of change in mean slopes of rising, and falling limb of the hydrograph were consistent with the results from long-term daily flow data. The annual flow increases and decreases were well matched by stormflow rising and falling. Both indicators showed one watershed having three times the response rates as compared to the other. Results suggested that select storm-based indices may be used as surrogates to the indices derived from long-term data.

Analytical solutions for flow fields near continuous wall reactive barriers.

Permeable reactive barriers (PRBs) are widely applied for in-situ remediation of contaminant plumes transported by groundwater. Besides the goal of a sufficient contaminant remediation inside the reactive cell (residence time) the width of plume intercepted by a PRB is of critical concern. A 2-dimensional analytical approach is applied to determine the flow fields towards rectangular PRBs of the continuous wall (CW) configuration with and without impermeable side walls (but yet no funnel). The approach is based on the conformal mapping technique and assumes a homogeneous aquifer with a uniform ambient flow field. The hydraulic conductivity of the reactive material is furthermore assumed to exceed the conductivity of the aquifer by at least one order of magnitude as to neglect the hydraulic gradient across the reactor. The flow fields are analyzed regarding the widths and shapes of the respective capture zones as functions of the dimensions (aspect ratio) of the reactive cell and the ambient groundwater flow direction. Presented are an improved characterization of the advantages of impermeable side walls, a convenient approach to improved hydraulic design (including basic cost-optimization) and new concepts for monitoring CW PRBs. Water level data from a CW PRB at the Seneca Army Depot site, NY, are used for field demonstration.

Changes in contaminant mass discharge from DNAPL source mass depletion: evaluation at two field sites.

Changes in contaminant fluxes resulting from aggressive remediation of dense nonaqueous phase liquid (DNAPL) source zone were investigated at two sites, one at Hill Air Force Base (AFB), Utah, and the other at Ft. Lewis Military Reservation, Washington. Passive Flux Meters (PFM) and a variation of the Integral Pumping Test (IPT) were used to measure fluxes in ten wells installed along a transect down-gradient of the trichloroethylene (TCE) source zone, and perpendicular to the mean groundwater flow direction. At both sites, groundwater and contaminant fluxes were measured before and after the source-zone treatment. The measured contaminant fluxes (J; ML(-2)T(-1)) were integrated across the well transect to estimate contaminant mass discharge (M(D); MT(-1)) from the source zone. Estimated M(D) before source treatment, based on both PFM and IPT methods, were approximately 76 g/day for TCE at the Hill AFB site; and approximately 640 g/day for TCE, and approximately 206 g/day for cis-dichloroethylene (DCE) at the Ft. Lewis site. TCE flux measurements made 1 year after source treatment at the Hill AFB site decreased to approximately 5 g/day. On the other hand, increased fluxes of DCE, a degradation byproduct of TCE, in tests subsequent to remediation at the Hill AFB site suggest enhanced microbial degradation after surfactant flooding. At the Ft. Lewis site, TCE mass discharge rates subsequent to remediation decreased to approximately 3 g/day for TCE and approximately 3 g/day for DCE approximately 1.8 years after remediation. At both field sites, PFM and IPT approaches provided comparable results for contaminant mass discharge rates, and show significant reductions (>90%) in TCE mass discharge as a result of DNAPL mass depletion from the source zone.

Evidence of rock matrix back-diffusion and abiotic dechlorination using a field testing approach.

An in situ field demonstration was performed in fractured rock impacted with trichloroethene (TCE) and cis-1,2-dichloroethene (DCE) to assess the impacts of contaminant rebound after removing dissolved contaminants within hydraulically conductive fractures. Using a bedrock well pair spaced 2.4m apart, TCE and DCE were first flushed with water to create a decrease in dissolved contaminant concentrations. While hydraulically isolating the well pair from upgradient contaminant impacts, contaminant rebound then was observed between the well pair over 151days. The magnitude, but not trend, of TCE rebound was reasonably described by a matrix back-diffusion screening model that employed an effective diffusion coefficient and first-order abiotic TCE dechlorination rate constant that was based on bench-scale testing. Furthermore, a shift in the TCE:DCE ratio and carbon isotopic enrichment was observed during the rebound, suggesting that both biotic and abiotic dechlorination were occurring within the rock matrix. The isotopic data and back-diffusion model together served as a convincing argument that matrix back-diffusion was the mechanism responsible for the observed contaminant rebound. Results of this field demonstration highlight the importance and applicability of rock matrix parameters determined at the bench-scale, and suggest that carbon isotopic enrichment can be used as a line of evidence for abiotic dechlorination within rock matrices.

Passive flux meter measurement of water and nutrient flux in saturated porous media: bench-scale laboratory tests.

The passive nutrient flux meter (PNFM) is introduced for simultaneous measurement of both water and nutrient flux through saturated porous media. The PNFM comprises a porous sorbent pre-equilibrated with a suite of alcohol tracers, which have different partitioning coefficients. Water flux was estimated based on the loss of loaded resident tracers during deployment, while nutrient flux was quantified based on the nutrient solute mass captured on the sorbent. An anionic resin, Lewatit 6328 A, was used as a permeable sorbent and phosphate (PO4(3-)) was the nutrient studied. The phosphate sorption capacity of the resin was measured in batch equilibration tests as 56 mg PO4(3-) g(-1), which was determined to be adequate capacity to retain PO4(3-) loads intercepted over typical PNFM deployment periods in most natural systems. The PNFM design was validated with bench-scale laboratory tests for a range of 9.8 to 28.3 cm d(-1) Darcy velocities and 6 to 43 h deployment durations. Nutrient and water fluxes measured by the PNFM averaged within 6 and 12% of the applied values, respectively, indicating that the PNFM shows promise as a tool for simultaneous measurement of water and nutrient fluxes.

Nature-like solution for removal of direct brown 1 azo dye from aqueous phase using humics-modified silica gel.

The objective was to estimate suitability of humics-modified silica gels for adsorptive removal of the Direct Brown 1 trisazo dye from aqueous phase. The major advantage of the proposed adsorbents is that of an ecologically sound procedure of immobilizing silanized humic derivatives onto silica gel in aquatic solutions. The silanized humic derivatives, in turn, are obtained without a use of organic solvent by reacting natural humic materials from peat and coal with 3-aminopropyltriethoxyorganosilane in water. These silanized derivatives are surface active and are capable of self assembling into humic adlayers at the water solid interface. A use of this approach allows for immobilization of up to 220 mg of humic materials per 1 g of SiO2. The adsorption capacity of humics-modified silica gels with respect to the Direct Brown 1 trisazo dye varied from 3.5 up to 8.8 mg per 1 g of SiO2. The maximum sorption obtained for the silanized derivative with 50% modification degree was comparable to adsorption capacity of activated coal to this dye (7.5 mg g(-1)). The results of this adsorption study, warrant further studies of azo dye removal from aqueous environments.

Modeling microbial-mediated reduction in batch reactors.

The governing equations that depict microbially-mediated reduction of heavy metals in the subsurface include a system of coupled nonlinear partial differential equations (PDE's) that describe physical (transport), chemical (sorption), and microbial (reduction/oxidation) processes. The existence of nonlinear reaction terms makes numerical simulations more challenging; however, with the advent of time-splitting solution algorithms, nonlinear reaction terms can be isolated from the convective-dispersive components of the governing transport equations and then solved as a coupled system of nonlinear ordinary differential equations (ODE's). In this paper, four methods are evaluated for solving coupled systems of nonlinear ODE's that describe microbially-mediated reduction/oxidation processes. The evaluation involves a series of comparisons of transient simulations of electron donor oxidation, electron acceptor reduction, and microbial biomass accumulation. The methods evaluation is initiated with a comparison of simulation results obtained with the four methods to those generated with an analytical model. Next, laboratory observations, of nitrite consumption by Nitrobacter winogradski in batch reactors are used in a comparison of batch system simulations generated using each of the four methods and BIOKEMOD (biogeochemical kinetic/equilibrium reaction model). The evaluation finds one of the four methods, the quasi-steady-state approximation (QSSA), to be among the most accurate and easiest to implement. Final validation of the QSSA is performed simulating experimental results of microbially-mediated chromium reductions in batch cultures.

A hybrid method for inverse characterization of subsurface contaminant flux.

The methods presented in this work provide a potential tool for characterizing contaminant source zones in terms of mass flux. The problem was conceptualized by considering contaminant transport through a vertical "flux plane" located between a source zone and a downgradient region where contaminant concentrations were measured. The goal was to develop a robust method capable of providing a statement of the magnitude and uncertainty associated with estimated contaminant mass flux values. In order to estimate the magnitude and transverse spatial distribution of mass flux through a plane, the problem was considered in an optimization framework. Two numerical optimization techniques were applied, simulated annealing (SA) and minimum relative entropy (MRE). The capabilities of the flux plane model and the numerical solution techniques were evaluated using data from a numerically generated test problem and a nonreactive tracer experiment performed in a three-dimensional aquifer model. Results demonstrate that SA is more robust and converges more quickly than MRE. However, SA is not capable of providing an estimate of the uncertainty associated with the simulated flux values. In contrast, MRE is not as robust as SA, but once in the neighborhood of the optimal solution, it is quite effective as a tool for inferring mass flux probability density functions, expected flux values, and confidence limits. A hybrid (SA-MRE) solution technique was developed in order to take advantage of the robust solution capabilities of SA and the uncertainty estimation capabilities of MRE. The coupled technique provided probability density functions and confidence intervals that would not have been available from an independent SA algorithm and they were obtained more efficiently than if provided by an independent MRE algorithm.

An exploratory approach to modeling explosive compound persistence and flux using dissolution kinetics.

Recent advances in the description of aqueous dissolution rates for explosive compounds enhance the ability to describe these compounds as a contaminant source term and to model the behavior of these compounds in a field environment. The objective of this study is to make predictions concerning the persistence of 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT) and octahydro-1,3,5,7-tetranitro-1,3,5,7-tetrazocine (HMX) in solid form both as individual explosive compounds and components of octol, and the resultant concentrations of explosives in water as a result of dissolution using three exploratory modeling approaches. The selection of dissolution model and rate greatly affect not only the predicted persistence of explosive compound sources but also their resulting concentrations in solution. This study identifies the wide range in possible predictions using existing information and these modeling approaches to highlight the need for further research to ensure that risk assessment, remediation and predicted fate and transport are appropriately presented and interpreted.

A direct passive method for measuring water and contaminant fluxes in porous media.

This paper introduces a new direct method for measuring water and contaminant fluxes in porous media. The method uses a passive flux meter (PFM), which is essentially a self-contained permeable unit properly sized to fit tightly in a screened well or boring. The meter is designed to accommodate a mixed medium of hydrophobic and/or hydrophilic permeable sorbents, which retain dissolved organic/inorganic contaminants present in the groundwater flowing passively through the meter. The contaminant mass intercepted and retained on the sorbent is used to quantify cumulative contaminant mass flux. The sorptive matrix is also impregnated with known amounts of one or more water soluble 'resident tracers'. These tracers are displaced from the sorbent at rates proportional to the groundwater flux; hence, in the current meter design, the resident tracers are used to quantify cumulative groundwater flux. Theory is presented and quantitative tools are developed to interpret the water flux from tracers possessing linear and nonlinear elution profiles. The same theory is extended to derive functional relationships useful for quantifying cumulative contaminant mass flux. To validate theory and demonstrate the passive flux meter, results of multiple box-aquifer experiments are presented and discussed. From these experiments, it is seen that accurate water flux measurements are obtained when the tracer used in calculations resides in the meter at levels representing 20 to 70 percent of the initial condition. 2,4-Dimethyl-3-pentanol (DMP) is used as a surrogate groundwater contaminant in the box aquifer experiments. Cumulative DMP fluxes are measured within 5% of known fluxes. The accuracy of these estimates generally increases with the total volume of water intercepted.

Controlled release, blind test of DNAPL remediation by ethanol flushing.

A dense nonaqueous phase liquid (DNAPL) source zone was established within a sheet-pile isolated cell through a controlled release of perchloroethylene (PCE) to evaluate DNAPL remediation by in-situ cosolvent flushing. Ethanol was used as the cosolvent, and the main remedial mechanism was enhanced dissolution based on the phase behavior of the water-ethanol-PCE system. Based on the knowledge of the actual PCE volume introduced into the cell, it was estimated that 83 L of PCE were present at the start of the test. Over a 40-day period, 64% of the PCE was removed by flushing the cell with an alcohol solution of approximately 70% ethanol and 30% water. High removal efficiencies at the end of the test indicated that more PCE could have been removed had it been possible to continue the demonstration. The ethanol solution extracted from the cell was recycled during the test using activated carbon and air stripping treatment. Both of these treatment processes were successful in removing PCE for recycling purposes, with minimal impact on the ethanol content in the treated fluids. Results from pre- and post-flushing partitioning tracer tests overestimated the treatment performance. However, both of these tracer tests missed significant amounts of the PCE present, likely due to inaccessibility of the PCE. The tracer results suggest that some PCE was inaccessible to the ethanol solution which led to the inefficient PCE removal rates observed. The flux-averaged aqueous PCE concentrations measured in the post-flushing tracer test were reduced by a factor of 3 to 4 in the extraction wells that showed the highest PCE removal compared to those concentrations in the pre-flushing tracer test.

Controlled release, blind tests of DNAPL characterization using partitioning tracers.

The partitioning tracer technique for dense nonaqueous phase liquid (DNAPL) characterization was evaluated in an isolated test cell, in which controlled releases of perchloroethylene (PCE) had occurred. Four partitioning tracer tests were conducted, two using an inverted, double five-spot pumping pattern, and two using vertical circulation wells. Two of the four tests were conducted prior to remedial activities, and two were conducted after. Each test was conducted as a "blind test" where researchers conducting the partitioning tracer tests had no knowledge of the volume, method of release, nor resulting spatial distribution of DNAPL. Multiple partitioning tracers were used in each test, and the DNAPL volume estimates varied significantly within each test based on the different partitioning tracers. The tracers with large partitioning coefficients generally predicted a smaller volume of PCE than that expected based on the actual release volume. However, these predictions were made for low DNAPL saturations (average saturation was approximately 0.003), under conditions near the limits of the method's application. Furthermore, there were several factors that may have hindered prediction accuracy, including tracer degradation and remedial fluid interference.

Evaluation and application of anion exchange resins to measure groundwater uranium flux at a former uranium mill site.

Laboratory tests and a field validation experiment were performed to evaluate anion exchange resins for uranium sorption and desorption in order to develop a uranium passive flux meter (PFM). The mass of uranium sorbed to the resin and corresponding masses of alcohol tracers eluted over the duration of groundwater installation are then used to determine the groundwater and uranium contaminant fluxes. Laboratory based batch experiments were performed using Purolite A500, Dowex 21K and 21K XLT, Lewatit S6328 A resins and silver impregnated activated carbon to examine uranium sorption and extraction for each material. The Dowex resins had the highest uranium sorption, followed by Lewatit, Purolite and the activated carbon. Recoveries from all ion exchange resins were in the range of 94-99% for aqueous uranium in the environmentally relevant concentration range studied (0.01-200 ppb). Due to the lower price and well-characterized tracer capacity, Lewatit S6328 A was used for field-testing of PFMs at the DOE UMTRA site in Rifle, CO. The effect on the flux measurements of extractant (nitric acid)/resin ratio, and uranium loading were investigated. Higher cumulative uranium fluxes (as seen with concentrations>1 ug U/gram resin) yielded more homogeneous resin samples versus lower cumulative fluxes (<1 ug U/gram resin), which caused the PFM to have areas of localized concentration of uranium. Resin homogenization and larger volume extractions yield reproducible results for all levels of uranium fluxes. Although PFM design can be improved to measure flux and groundwater flow direction, the current methodology can be applied to uranium transport studies.

Analytical solutions for flow fields near drain-and-gate reactive barriers.

Permeable reactive barriers (PRBs) are a popular technology for passive contaminant remediation in aquifers through installation of reactive materials in the pathway of a plume. Of fundamental importance are the degree of remediation inside the reactor (residence time) and the portion of groundwater intercepted by a PRB (capture width). Based on a two-dimensional conformal mapping approach (previously used in related work), the latter is studied in the present work for drain-and-gate (DG) PRBs, which may possess a collector and a distributor drain ("full" configuration) or a collector drain only ("simple" configuration). Inherent assumptions are a homogeneous unbounded aquifer with a uniform far field, in which highly permeable drains establish constant head boundaries. Solutions for aquifer flow fields in terms of the complex potential are derived, illustrated, and analyzed for doubly symmetric DG configurations and arbitrary reactor hydraulic resistance as well as ambient groundwater flow direction. A series of practitioner-friendly charts for capture width is given to assist in PRB design and optimization without requiring complex mathematics. DG PRBs are identified as more susceptible to flow divergence around the reactor than configurations using impermeable side structures (e.g., funnel-and-gate), and deployment of impermeable walls on drains is seen to mitigate this problem under certain circumstances.

Integration of traditional and innovative characterization techniques for flux-based assessment of dense non-aqueous phase liquid (DNAPL) sites.

Key attributes of the source zone and the expanding dissolved plume at a trichloroethene (TCE) site in Australia were evaluated using trends in groundwater monitoring data along with data from on-line volatile organic compound (VOC) samplers and passive flux meters (PFMs) deployed in selected wells. These data indicate that: (1) residual TCE source mass in the saturated zone, estimated using two innovative techniques, is small ( approximately 10 kg), which is also reflected in small source mass discharge ( approximately 3 g/day); (2) the plume is disconnecting, based on TCE concentration contours and TCE fluxes in wells along a longitudinal transect; (3) there is minimal biodegradation, based on TCE mass discharge of approximately 6 g/day at a plume control plane approximately 175 m from source, which is also consistent with aerobic geochemical conditions observed in the plume; and (4) residual TCE in the vadose zone provides episodic inputs of TCE mass to the plume during infiltration/recharge events. TCE flux data also suggest that the small residual TCE source mass is present in the low-permeability zones, thus making source treatment difficult. Our analysis, based on a synthesis of the archived data and new data, suggests that source treatment is unwarranted, and that containment of the large TCE plume (approximately 1.2 km long, approximately 0.3 km wide; 17 m deep; approximately 2000-2500 kg TCE mass) or institutional controls, along with a long-term flux monitoring program, might be necessary. The flux-based site management approach outlined in this paper provides a novel way of looking beyond the complexities of groundwater contamination in heterogeneous domains, to make intelligent and informed site decisions based on strategic measurement of the appropriate metrics.

Initial test results for a passive surface water fluxmeter to measure cumulative water and solute mass fluxes.

The theoretical concept and initial test results of a Passive Surface Water Fluxmeter (PSFM) to directly and simultaneously measure cumulative water and solute mass fluxes in surface water flow systems are presented. The PSFM consists of a symmetric hydrofoil that is vertically installed in a stream and one or more sorbent columns that are connected to the nonuniform flow field around the hydrofoil. Depending on the ambient flow velocity, a flow occurs through each column, which elutes portions of initially present "resident" tracers in the column, while, at the same time, solutes in the water (e.g., contaminants or nutrients) are retained in the sorbent column. Quantification of the resident tracer mass remaining and the mass of solutes sorbed in the column enables determination of the local cumulative or time-averaged water and solute mass fluxes. Laboratory flume experiments show good agreement with independent measurements (R(2) > or = 0.96) for instantaneous water fluxes (tested range: 0.3-0.7 m/s), cumulative water fluxes (50-600 L/cm(2)), and cumulative nitrate fluxes (0.4-5.1 g/cm(2)). Future work is required to validate the PSFM performance under a larger range of flow velocities, transient flow, and transport conditions and for different hydrofoil shapes.

Magnitude and directional measures of water and Cr(VI) fluxes by passive flux meter.

A new configuration of the passive fluxmeter (PFM) is presented that provides for simultaneous measurements of both the magnitude and the direction of ambient groundwater specific discharge qo and Cr(VI) mass flux J(Cr). The PFM is configured as a cylindrical unit with an interior divided into a center section and three outer sectors, each packed with a granular anion exchange resin having high sorption capacity for the Cr(VI) oxyanions CrO4(2-) and HCrO4-. The sorbent in the center section is preloaded with benzoate as the "resident" tracer. Laboratory experiments were conducted in which PFMs were placed in porous packed bed columns, through which was passed a measured volume of synthetic groundwater containing Cr(VI). During the deployment period, some of the resident tracer is depleted while the Cr(VI) is sorbed. The resin was then removed from the four sectors separately and extracted to determine the "captured" mass of Cr(VI) and the residual mass of the resident tracer in each. Cumulative specific discharge, q0t, values were assessed using the residual mass of benzoate retained in the center section. The direction of this discharge theta was ascertained from the mass distribution of benzoate intercepted and retained in the outer three sections of the PFM. Cumulative chromium fluxes, J(Cr)t, were quantified using the total Cr(VI) mass intercepted and retained on the PFM. Experiments produced an average measurement error for direction theta of 3 degrees +/- 14 degrees, while the average measurement errors for q0 and J(Cr) were, respectively, -8% +/- 15% and -12% +/- 23%. Results demonstrate the potential utility of the new PFM configuration for characterizing groundwater and contaminant fluxes.

Inverse characterization of NAPL source zones.

This work presents a possible tool for inverse characterization of NAPL (nonaqueous phase liquid) source zones in terms of contaminant mass flux. A hybrid solution technique was applied that considers contaminant transport through a vertical flux plane. The hybrid solution technique takes advantage of the robust solution capabilities of simulated annealing (SA) and the uncertainty estimation capabilities of minimum relative entropy (MRE). The coupled technique (SA-MRE) provides probability density functions and confidence intervals that would not be available from an independent SA algorithm, and they are obtained more efficiently than if provided by an independent MRE algorithm. The SA-MRE method was used to characterize a NAPL source zone that was emplaced in a three-dimensional aquifer model. When dissolution experiments were complete, the aquifer model was excavated, and the distribution of NAPL zones was recorded using digital images of excavation grids. The excavation images were compiled into a three-dimensional representation of the source zone for comparison with and validation of modeling results.