Urban Fate and Transport Modeling of Contaminants: The Unique Needs of Emergency Response and the Potential for Adapting Existing Models

Abstract

Wide area urban contamination events, such as after a terrorist attack or other chemical, biological or radiological disaster, pose a logistical challenge for response and remediation. The extent of contamination, both on the surface and subsurface, directly impacts the costs related to characterization sampling, decontamination, and clearance sampling (e.g. personnel, consumables and waste management). Modeling tools that can predict the location and magnitude of contamination may allow for a more efficient allocation of key resources since wide area incidents may be very costly, and take an extended amount of time, to remediate. This paper identifies 27 existing water models that are able to simulate hydraulic, hydrologic and water quality processes and discusses the necessary adjustments to running the models during remediation activities. It also highlights how these features relate to the unique considerations encountered in the homeland security sector and discusses ongoing research needs.

Watershed analysis of urban stormwater contaminant 6PPD-Quinone hotspots and stream concentrations using a process-based ecohydrological model

“…Contaminant fate and transport in urban watersheds is notoriously difficult to model due to complex patterns of land use, impervious surfaces, and stormwater management infrastructure that collectively alter natural hydrologic and biogeochemical processes (Mikelonis et al, 2018). To model these complexities, we enhanced the VELMA model to explicitly simulate urban landscape features at high spatial resolutions and their impact on watershed hydrology (Halama et al, 2023).…”

“…• Limited observed data: within Longfellow watershed the number of 6PPD-Q stream sample data available to date for model performance tests are limited to five single day samples between October 2020 and April 2021. This should be considered a bare minimum, while recognizing that 6PPD-Q had only been discovered immediately before the 2020 stream sampling dates (Mikelonis et al, 2018;Tian et al, 2022a). • Hydrologic parameters: modeled 6PPD-Q fate and transport within the watershed can be no more accurate than the quantities and routing of water within the simulated engineered and natural infrastructure controlling those hydrologic dynamics.…”

Rainfall Washoff of Spores From Concrete and Asphalt Surfaces

“…Following a wide‐area pathogenic biological release, such as of Bacillus anthracis (the causative agent of anthrax) , consequence management activities including sampling, mitigation, decontamination, and waste management may last for many months (D'Amelio et al., 2015; Sinclair et al., 2008). Response strategies and resource management could benefit from a better understanding of the impact of rainfall on pollutant transport, but reference studies describing washoff do not exist for biothreat agents (Mikelonis et al., 2018).…”

Laboratory results and mathematical modeling of spore surface interactions in stormwater runoff

“…After the initial contamination event, spores can be redistributed even more broadly throughout the urban environment due to rain and wind, as well as by humans through vehicular and foot traffic. Developing numerical models that include the stormwater-driven fate and transport of spores can be useful to predict contamination extent as it evolves over time during emergency response and recovery, informing activities such as creating sampling maps, deciding where to stage waste, and developing strategic decontamination plans (Mikelonis et al, 2018). Conventional stormwater models have been used to predict water quality concentrations of common contaminants, such as solids or metals, at various points in a conveyance system (McPherson et al, 2005;Smith et al, 2007;Tiveron et al, 2017;Aceves et al, 2017;Lee et al, 2010).…”