The California <scp>GeoTracker</scp> Database: A Unique Public Resource for Understanding Contaminated Sites

Beckley, Lila; McMasters, Steven; Cohen, Matthew J.; Cordano, Dayna; Rauch, Sharon R.; McHugh, Thomas E.

doi:10.1111/gwmr.12520

Cited by 4 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…Large environmental datasets resulting from consistent surveying over time have shown to be great tools for advancing science and impacting regulations 22 , 23 . Unfortunately, CSs have not been the subject of such rich and robust datasets 24 . While providing monitoring data in the public domain is a valuable step towards the democratisation of information, such as in the case of São Paulo State, the lack of digitisation of these data poses an obstacle to their practical use in research and decision support.…”

Section: Background and Summarymentioning

confidence: 99%

A comprehensive dataset of environmentally contaminated sites in the state of São Paulo in Brazil

Samlani,

Pino,

Bertolo

et al. 2024

Sci Data

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In the Brazilian state of São Paulo, contaminated sites (CSs) constitute threats to health, environment and socioeconomic situation of populations. Over the past two decades, the Environmental Agency of São Paulo (CETESB) has monitored these known CSs. This paper discusses the produced dataset through digitising the CETESB reports and making them accessible to the public in English. The dataset reports on qualitative aspects of contamination within the registered sites (e.g., contamination type and spread) and their management status. The data was extracted from CETESB reports using a machine-learning computer vision algorithm. It comprises two components: an optical character recognition (OCR) engine for text extraction and a convolutional neural network (CNN) image classifier to identify checked boxes. The digitisation was followed by harmonisation and quality assurance processes to ensure the consistency and validity of the data. Making this dataset accessible will allow future work on predictive analysis and decision-making and will inform the required policy-making to improve the management of the CSs in Brazil.

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Section: Background and Summarymentioning

confidence: 99%

A comprehensive dataset of environmentally contaminated sites in the state of São Paulo in Brazil

Samlani,

Pino,

Bertolo

et al. 2024

Sci Data

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“…GeoTracker is a database of corrective action sites maintained by the California State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB). The SWRCB requires parties to report site investigation results which are then made publicly available through the database (Beckley et al 2022). The web-based interface provides access to investigation results for individual sites and also allows users to download data sets of investigation results for thousands of sites (GeoTracker 2022).…”

Section: Geotracker Databasementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The web-based interface provides access to investigation results for individual sites and also allows users to download data sets of investigation results for thousands of sites (GeoTracker 2022). GeoTracker has been used previously to evaluate high-level trends in the progress of groundwater remediation (e.g., McHugh et al 2014;McHugh et al 2022). For this study, the GeoTracker database was used to obtain two data sets of long-duration (8 years or longer for petroleum sites; 10 or more monitoring events for chlorinated solvent sites) groundwater monitoring records: one focused on petroleum-contaminated sites and one focused on chlorinated volatile organic compound (VOC) contaminated sites.…”

Section: Geotracker Databasementioning

confidence: 99%

Forecasting Groundwater Remediation Timeframes: Site‐Specific Temporal Monitoring Results May Not Predict Future Performance

McHugh

Newell

Beckley

et al. 2023

Groundwater Monitoring Rem

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At contaminated sites, groundwater monitoring results are commonly used (quantitatively or qualitatively) to predict remediation timeframes. If results are predictive, then there should be a strong positive correlation between attenuation rates for the first half of a temporal monitoring record and attenuation rates for the second half of the same record. We utilized the GeoTracker database to evaluate the power of historical groundwater monitoring results to predict future attenuation rates. For two data sets (petroleum and chlorinated solvent), we found a small negative correlation between the first‐order concentration vs. time attenuation rate observed during the earlier part of the monitoring record and the later part of the monitoring record: benzene—correlation coefficient (r) = −0.11, methyl tert‐butyl ether (MTBE)—r = −0.12, trichloroethene (TCE) = −0.12. For each data set, a small negative correlation between the first‐order attenuation rate observed during the earlier part of the monitoring record and the later part of the monitoring record was also observed for a subset of monitoring records exhibiting the best model fits (R2 > 0.8), a subset with a statistically significant (p < 0.05) positive attenuation rate for the first half of the monitoring record. For the TCE data set, this negative correlation was also observed for a subset of monitoring records with no change in site remedy during the monitoring period (r = −0.22). Our analysis suggests that the historical concentration vs. time attenuation rate for a contaminant at an individual site or monitoring well is a poor predictor of the future rate.

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A probabilistic extension of existing site-specific liquefaction triggering and liquefaction manifestation methods for regional scale evaluations

Greenfield,

Estep,

Taing

et al. 2024

Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering

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The California GeoTracker Database: A Unique Public Resource for Understanding Contaminated Sites

Cited by 4 publications

References 15 publications

A comprehensive dataset of environmentally contaminated sites in the state of São Paulo in Brazil

A comprehensive dataset of environmentally contaminated sites in the state of São Paulo in Brazil

Forecasting Groundwater Remediation Timeframes: Site‐Specific Temporal Monitoring Results May Not Predict Future Performance

A probabilistic extension of existing site-specific liquefaction triggering and liquefaction manifestation methods for regional scale evaluations

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