Non‐invasive lab test in the monitoring of vadose zone contaminated by light non‐aqueous phase liquid

Abstract

We discuss a strategy capable of a quantitative long‐term monitoring of water saturation and volume variation of light non‐aqueous phase liquids in the soil. The goal was reached monitoring a controlled sand cell contaminated with classical gasoline over 124 days, using geophysical methods such as electrical resistivity tomography, induced polarization and ground penetrating radar. We show that empirical relations, linking the water saturation to the physical parameters measured as resistivity from electrical resistivity tomography and travel time from georadar with advanced processing, are good tools for this purpose. The consistence of the proposed process is validated by both good overlap of results carried out from electrical resistivity tomography and georadar and theoretical models simulating the actual experiment.

Fingerprinting Organochlorine Groundwater Plumes Based on Non-Invasive ERT Technology at a Chemical Plant

“…On the one hand, ERT is easy to operate and highly precise. The data are detailed, clear, and sensitive to NAPL(non-aqueous phase liquids) [45]. On the other hand, the application of ERT in quickly detecting pesticide leakage pollution is still rare and the delineation of pollutants is not perfect, which needs to be further studied.…”

Quantification of Uncertainties from Image Processing and Analysis in Laboratory-Scale DNAPL Release Studies Evaluated by Reflective Optical Imaging

“…They allow for quasi-continuous monitoring of the entire DNAPL mass without disturbing the flow dynamics. Geophysical methods, such as X-ray tomography (e.g., [15]), electrical resistivity tomography (e.g., [16,17]) and magnetic resonance imaging (e.g., [18]) have been used. They are powerful yet technically demanding and can suffer from calibration and interpretation uncertainties [14,19,20].…”