Data and Calibration Challenges for Spill Response Models
Publication: Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 144, Issue 3
Abstract
Accurate predictions of time of travel and concentration of the plume are critical for decision makers to respond to a spill. A quick response to an incident requires availability of data in a timely manner and a methodology for analysis. Data available during a spill event consist of flow and concentration of contaminants. Flow is an important component in spill response modeling because velocity, depth, width, and dispersion are calculated from this parameter. Parameters required for flow analysis may not be readily available along the downstream path of the plume. Contamination data are collected as the event unfolds; therefore, the number of samples at each monitoring location varies. Lack or unavailability of flow parameters or a small number of contaminant samples available from the spill site do not give confidence to the incident responders or decision makers about the usefulness of the results. This paper demonstrates an alternate approach, which addresses the availability, usefulness, and efficiency of data from national and transboundary databases for use in a spill model for simulating downstream transport.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) and the U.S. Forest Service for funding the development of the ICWater model, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for monitoring data, and the U.S. Geological Survey for flow data. We also thank two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments on the manuscript.
References
Abell, R., et al. (2008). “Freshwater ecoregions of the world: A new map of biogeographic units for freshwater biodiversity conservation.” BioScience, 58(5), 403–414.
Alexandrov, G. A., et al. (2011). “Technical assessment and evaluation of environmental models and software: Letter to the editor.” Environ. Modell. Software, 26(3), 328–336.
Arnold, J. G., et al. (2012). “SWAT: Model use, calibration, and validation.” Trans. ASABE, 55(4), 1491–1508.
Asante, K. O., Artan, G. A., Pervez, S., Bandaragoda, C., and Verdin, J. P. (2008). “Technical manual for the geospatial stream flow model (GeoSFM).”, U.S. Geological Survey, Washington, DC.
Bahadur, R., Amstutz, D. E., and Samuels, W. B. (2013). “Water contamination modeling: A review of the state of the science.” J. Water Resour. Prot., 5(2), 142–155.
Bahadur, R., and Samuels, W. B. (2015). “Modeling the fate and transport of a chemical spill in the Elk River, West Virginia.” J. Environ. Eng., 05014007.
Barrett, E. (1998). “Satellite remote sensing in hydrometry.” Hydrometry: Principles and practices, 2nd Ed., R. W. Herschey, ed., Wiley, Chichester, U.K., 199–224.
Bennett, N. D., et al. (2013). “Characterising performance of environmental models.” Environ. Modell. Software, 40, 1–20.
Bjerklie, D. M. (2004). “Development of hydraulic relationships for estimating in-bank river discharge using remotely sensed data.” Ph.D. dissertation, Univ. of New Hampshire, Durham, NH.
Brosnan, T. M., ed. (1999). Early warning monitoring to detect hazardous events in water supplies, International Life Sciences Institute, Washington, DC.
Clark, R. M., Grayman, W. M., Males, R. M., and Kilgore, R. (1989). “Identifying vulnerable surface water utilities.” J. Am. Water Works Assoc., 81(2), 60–67.
Clark, R. M., Vicory, A. H., and Goodrich, J. A. (1990). “The Ohio river oil spill: A case study.” J. Am. Water Works Assoc., 82(3), 39–44.
Cox, B. A. (2003). “A review of currently available in-stream water-quality models and their applicability for simulating dissolved oxygen in lowland rivers.” Sci. Total Environ., 314–316, 335–377.
Daggupati, P., et al. (2014). “A recommended calibration and validation strategy for hydrologic and water quality models.” Trans. ASABE, 58(6), 1705–1719.
Dai, A., Qian, T., Trenberth, K. E., and Milliman, J. D. (2009). “Changes in continental freshwater discharge from 1948–2004.” J. Clim., 22, 2773–2792.
Delaware River Basin Commission. (2017). “About DRBC.” ⟨http://www.nj.gov/drbc/about⟩ (Nov. 14, 2017).
DiGiano, F., and Grayman, W. G. (2014). “Can we better protect vulnerable water supplies?” J. Am. Water Works Assoc., 106(4), 28–31.
Doel, P., et al., eds. (2001). “The global integrated water model WaterGAP 2.1.” ⟨https://www.uni-frankfurt.de/45218063/WaterGAP⟩ (Dec. 7, 2015).
Economic Commission for Europe. (2007). “Our waters: Joining hands across borders.” ⟨http://www.unece.org/fileadmin/DAM/env/water/blanks/assessment/assessment_full.pdf⟩ (Dec. 7, 2015).
European Environment Agency. (2010). “Mapping the impacts of natural hazards and technological accidents in Europe: An overview of the last decade.”, Copenhagen, Denmark.
FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations). (2016). “AQUASTAT main database.” ⟨http://www.fao.org/NR/WATER/AQUASTAT/irrigationmap/index10.stm⟩ (Dec. 7, 2015).
Franz, K. J., and Hogue, T. S. (2011). “Evaluating uncertainty estimates in hydrologic models: Borrowing measures from the forecast verification community.” Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 15(11), 3367–3382.
Global Runoff Data Centre. (1985). “Monthly flow rates of world rivers (except former Soviet Union).” ⟨http://rda.ucar.edu/datasets/ds552.0/⟩ (Dec. 7, 2015).
Global Runoff Data Centre. (2007). “Major river basins of the world.” ⟨http://www.bafg.de/GRDC/EN/02_srvcs/22_gslrs/221_MRB/riverbasins_node.html⟩ (Dec. 7, 2015).
Global Runoff Data Centre. (2015a). “56068 Koblenz, Germany.” ⟨http://www.bafg.de/GRDC/EN/02_srvcs/21_tmsrs/riverdischarge_node.html⟩ (Dec. 7, 2015).
Global Runoff Data Centre. (2015b). “Long-term mean monthly discharges and annual characteristics of GRDC stations online provided by the Global Runoff Data Centre of WMO. 2015 ed. Koblenz: Federal Institute of Hydrology BfG).” ⟨http://www.bafg.de/GRDC/EN/03_dtprdcts/32_LTMM/longtermmonthly_node.html⟩ (Dec. 7, 2015).
Global Terrestrial Network for River Discharge. (2016). “Daily river discharge data of GTN-R/online provided by the Global Runoff Data Centre of WMO. Koblenz: Federal Institute of Hydrology (BfG).” ⟨http://www.bafg.de/GRDC/EN/04_spcldtbss/44_GTNR/gtnr_node.html⟩ (Dec. 7, 2015).
Grayman, W. M., and Deininger, R. A. (2000). “Design of early warning and predictive source-water monitoring systems.” AWWA Annual Conf. and Exposition, American Water Works Association, Denver.
Grayman, W. M., Deininger, R. A., and Males, R. M. (2001). Design of early warning and predictive source water monitoring systems, American Water Works Association Research Foundation, Denver.
Gullick, R. W., Grayman, W. M., Deininger, R. A., and Males, R. M. (2003). “Design of early warning systems for source waters.” J. Am. Water Works Assoc., 95(11), 58–72.
Harmel, R. D., et al. (2014). “Evaluating, interpreting, and communicating performance of hydrologic/water quality models considering intended use: A review and recommendations.” Environ. Modell. Software, 57, 40–51.
ICPDR (International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River). (2015). “Water quality in the Danube river basin—2013 TransNational monitoring network (TNMN).” ⟨https://www.icpdr.org/main/⟩ (Dec. 7, 2015).
Jabbour, D., Dandrieux-Bony, A., and Dusserre, G. (2005). “Validation of a decision support model to predict concentration after a chemical spill into a river.” WIT Trans. Built Environ., 82, 73–81.
Jakeman, A. J., Letcher, R. A., and Norton, J. P. (2006). “Ten iterative steps in development and evaluation of environmental models.” Environ. Modell. Software, 21(5), 602–614.
Jarvis, A., Reuter, H. I., Nelson, A., and Guevara, E. (2008). “Hole-filled seamless SRTM data V4, International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT).” ⟨http://www.waterbase.org/download_data.html⟩ (Dec. 7, 2015).
Jobson, H. E. (1996). “Prediction of travel time and longitudinal dispersion in rivers and streams.”, U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, VA.
Krause, P., Boyle, D. P., and Bäse, F. (2005). “Comparison of different efficiency criteria for hydrological model assessment.” Adv. Geosci., 5, 89–97.
Lehner, B., and Doll, P. (2004). “Development and validation of a global database of lakes, reservoirs and wetlands.” J. Hydrol., 296(1–4), 1–22.
Lehner, B., Verdin, K., and Jarvis, A. (2008). “New global hydrography derived from spaceborne elevation data.” EOS Trans. AGU, 89(10), 93–94.
Leopold, L. B., Wolman, M. B., and Miller, J. P. (1964). Fluvial processes in geomorphology, W. H. Freeman and Co., San Francisco.
Leopold, L. L., and Maddock, T., Jr. (1953). “The hydraulic geometry of stream channels and some physiographic implications.”, U.S. Geological Survey, Washington, DC, 57.
Matthews, K. B., Rivington, M., Blackstock, K. L., McCrum, G., Buchan, K., and Miller, D. G. (2011). “Raising the bar? The challenges of evaluating the outcomes of environmental modelling and software.” J. Environ. Modell. Software, 26(3), 247–257.
McIntosh, B., Alexandrov, S. G., Matthews, K., Mysiak, J., and van Ittersum, M., eds. (2011). “Thematic issue on the assessment and evaluation of environmental models and software.” Environ. Modell. Software, 26(3), 245–246.
McKay, L., Bondelid, T., Dewald, T., Johnston, J., Moore, R., and Rea, A. (2012). “NHDPlus version 2: User guide.” ⟨http://www2.epa.gov/waterdata/nhdplus-national-hydrography-dataset-plus⟩ (Jun. 21, 2016).
McKean, J., et al. (2009). “Remote sensing of channels and riparian zones with a narrow-beam aquatic-terrestrial LIDAR.” Remote Sens., 1(4), 1065–1096.
Mekong River Commission. (2005). “Overview of the hydrology of the Mekong basin.” ⟨http://www.mrcmekong.org/⟩ (Dec. 7, 2015).
Moriasi, D. N., Wilson, B. N., Douglas-Mankin, K. R., Arnold, J. G., and Gowda, P. H. (2012). “Hydrologic and water quality models: Use, calibration, and validation.” Trans. ASABE, 55(4), 1241–1247.
National Research Council. (2007). “Models in environmental regulatory decision making.” ⟨http://www2.lbl.gov/today/2007/Jun/22-Fri/Models-report.pdf⟩ (Jun. 21, 2016).
National Response Center. (2016). “The spills and accidents database.” ⟨http://www.nrc.uscg.mil/⟩ (Dec. 7, 2015).
NBI (Nile Basin Initiative). (2012). “State of the Nile River basin.” ⟨http://nileis.nilebasin.org/content/state-river-nile-basin-report⟩ (Dec. 7, 2015).
Olson, D. M., and Dinerstein, E. (2002). “The global 200: Priority ecoregions for global conservation.” Ann. Missouri Bot. Garden, 89(2), 199–224.
Olson, S. A., and Norris, J. M. (2007). “U.S. Geological Survey stream gaging…from the national streamflow information program fact sheet 2005-3131.” ⟨http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2005/3131/FS2005-3131.pdf⟩ (Jun. 21, 2016).
Oreskes, N., Shrader-Frechette, K., and Belitz, K. (1994). “Verification, validation, and confirmation of numerical models in the earth sciences.” Science, 263(5147), 641–646.
ORSANCO (Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission). (2017). “The Ohio River watershed: 14 states, over 200,000 square miles.” ⟨http://www.orsanco.org⟩ (Nov. 14, 2017).
OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe) and UNECE (United Nations Economic Commission for Europe). (2005). “Project: Transboundary co-operation and sustainable management of the Dniester river.” Vienna, Austria.
Pavelsky, T. M., and Smith, L. C. (2008). “RivWidth: A software tool for the calculation of river widths from remotely sensed imagery.” IEEE Geosci. Remote Sens. Lett., 5(1), 70–73.
Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration. (2017). “Incident statistics.” Hazmat Intelligence Portal, U.S. Dept. of Transportation, ⟨https://www.phmsa.dot.gov/hazmat/library/data-stats/incidents⟩ (Jun. 6, 2017).
Refsgaard, J. C., and Henriksen, H. J. (2004). “Modelling guidelines: Terminology and guiding principles.” Adv. Water Resour., 27(1), 71–82.
Revenga, C., Murray, S., Abramovitz, J., and Hammond, A. (1998). “Watersheds of the world: Ecological value and vulnerability.” ⟨http://multimedia.wri.org/watersheds_2003/gm1.html⟩ (Dec. 7, 2015).
Samuels, W. B., Amstutz, D. E., Bahadur, R., and Pickus, J. (2006a). “RiverSpill: A national application for drinking water protection.” J. Hydraul. Eng., 393–403.
Samuels, W. B., and Bahadur, R. (2015). “Gold King Mine spill.” ⟨http://nhd.usgs.gov/HydrographySeminarSeries⟩ (Nov. 17, 2017).
Samuels, W. B., and Bahadur, R. (2016). “Applications of the incident command tool for drinking water protection (ICWater).” AWRA 2016 Summer Specialty Conf. on GIS and Water Resources, American Water Resources Association, Middleburg, VA.
Samuels, W. B., Bahadur, R., Monteith, M., and Amstutz, D. E. (2006b). “Using NHDPlus for real-time spill modeling.” Proc., American Water Resources Association GIS Conf., American Water Resources Association, Middleburg, VA.
Samuels, W. B., Bahadur, R., and Ziemniak, C. (2013). “Waterborne transport modeling of radioactivity from the Fukushima nuclear power plant incident.” Securing water and wastewater systems: Global experiences, R. M. Clark and S. Hakim, eds., Springer, New York.
Samuels, W. B., Bahadur, R., Ziemniak, C., and Amstutz, D. (2014). “Development and application of the incident command tool for drinking water protection.” Water Environ. J., 29(1), 1–15.
Seaber, P. R., Kapinos, F. P., and Knapp, G. L. (1994). “Hydrologic unit maps.” ⟨http://pubs.usgs.gov/wsp/wsp2294/pdf/wsp_2294_a.pdf⟩ (Jun. 21, 2016).
Siebert, S., Henrich, V., Frenken, K., and Burke, J. (2013). “Global map of irrigation areas version 5.” ⟨http://www.fao.org/NR/WATER/AQUASTAT/irrigationmap/index10.stm⟩ (Dec. 7, 2015).
Singh, V. (2009). “Review of Hydrodynamics and Water Quality: Modeling Rivers, Lakes, and Estuaries by Zhen-Gang Ji.” J. Hydrol. Eng., 892–893.
Smith, L. C. (1997). “Satellite remote sensing of river inundation area, stage, and discharge: A review.” Hydrol. Process., 11(10), 1427–1439.
Sood, A., and Smakhtin, V. (2014). “Global hydrological models: A review.” Hydrol. Sci. J., 60(4), 549–565.
Steimke, A. (2002). “Abandoned hardrock mines and waters polluted by metals, Mineral Policy Center Map.” ⟨https://www.earthworksaction.org/files/publications/CO_AML_303d.pdf⟩ (Nov. 17, 2017).
Susquehanna River Basin Commission. (2017). “Protecting your watershed for today and tomorrow.” ⟨http://www.srbc.net⟩ (Nov. 14, 2017).
Tsakiris, G., and Alexakis, D. (2012). “Water quality models: An overview.” ⟨http://www.ewra.net/ew/pdf/EW_2012_37_04.pdf⟩ (Dec. 7, 2015).
UNEP-WCMC (United Nations Environment Programme–World Conservation Monitoring Centre). (1993). “Wetlands version 1.0 of the global polygon dataset.” ⟨http://datadownload.unep-wcmc.org/requests/new?dataset=Global_Wetlands_1993⟩ (Dec. 7, 2015).
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. (1997). “Riverine emergency management model. User manual version 3.0.” Washington, DC.
USEPA (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency). (1993). “PC-PROUTE user’s manual.” Washington, DC.
USEPA (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency). (2009). “Guidance on the development, evaluation, and application of environmental models.” ⟨https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/201504/documents/cred_guidance_0309.pdf⟩ (Jun. 21, 2016).
USEPA (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency). (2010). “Model report, incident command tool for protecting drinking water (ICWater).” ⟨http://cfpub.epa.gov/crem/knowledge_base/crem_report.cfm?deid=194563⟩ (Dec. 7, 2015).
USEPA (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency). (2015a). “Emergency response monitoring data from the Gold King Mine incident.” ⟨http://www2.epa.gov/goldkingmine/data-gold-king-mine-response⟩ (Jun. 21, 2016).
USEPA (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency). (2015b). “Flow and chemistry data from the Gold King Mine Adit, Table 5.” ⟨http://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2015-10/documents/1622632.pdf⟩ (Jun. 21, 2016).
USEPA (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency). (2015c). “Gold king mine data.” ⟨https://www.epa.gov/goldkingmine/gold-king-mine-data-august-10-2015⟩ (Aug. 10, 2015).
USEPA (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency). (2015d). “How did the August 2015 release from the Gold King Mine happen?” ⟨http://www.epa.gov/goldkingmine/how-did-august-2015-release-gold-king-mine-happen⟩ (Dec. 7, 2015).
USEPA (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency). (2015e). “Pollution/situation report 2015 Gold King Mine blowout: Polrep/Sitrep Initial Polrep/Sitrep.” ⟨https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/townofsilverton/atom/26271⟩ (Dec. 7, 2015).
USEPA (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency). (2015f). “Summary of EPA surface water sampling of select metals results to date: Gold King Mine blowout.” ⟨https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2015-08/documents/data_update_08082015.pdf⟩ (Nov. 17, 2017).
USGS (U.S. Geological Survey). (2000). “HYDRO1k elevation derivative database.” ⟨https://lta.cr.usgs.gov/HYDRO1K⟩ (Dec. 7, 2015).
USGS (U.S. Geological Survey). (2014). “USGS water data for the nation.” ⟨http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis⟩ (Dec. 7, 2015).
USGS (U.S. Geological Survey). (2015a). “National water information system data.” ⟨http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/⟩ (Jun. 21, 2016).
USGS (U.S. Geological Survey). (2015b). “Streamflow measurements for the nation.” ⟨http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/measurements?⟩ (Dec. 7, 2015).
Vogel, R. M., and Sankarasubramanian, A. (2003). “Validation of a watershed model without calibration.” Water Resour. Res., 39(10), 1292.
Vörösmarty, C., et al. (1999). “NASA post-2002 land surface hydrology mission component for surface water monitoring, HYDRA_SAT.”, NASA, Washington, DC.
Vörösmarty, C. J., Federer, C., and Schloss, A. (1998a). “Potential evaporation functions compared on U.S. watersheds: Implications for global-scale water balance and terrestrial ecosystem modeling.” J. Hydrol., 207(3–4), 147–169.
Vörösmarty, C. J., Fekete, B. M., and Tucker, B. A. (1998b). “Global river discharge, 1807–1991, version 1.1 (RivDIS).” ⟨https://daac.ornl.gov/cgi-bin/dsviewer.pl?ds_id=199⟩ (Dec. 7, 2015).
Waldon, M. G. (1998). “Time-of-travel in the lower Mississippi river: Model development, calibration, and application.” Water Environ. Res., 70(6), 1132–1141.
Wang, H., Yang, Z., Saito, Y., Liu, J. P., and Sun, X. (2006). “Interannual and seasonal variation of the Huanghe (Yellow River) water discharge over the past 50 years: Connections to impacts from ENSO events and dams.” Global Planet. Change, 50(3), 212–225.
Wang, Q., Wang, Q., Li, S., Jia, P., Qi, C., and Ding, F. (2013). “A review of surface water quality models.” Sci. World J., 2013, 7.
Wool, T. A., Ambrose, R. B., Martin, J. L., and Comer, E. A. (2004). “WASP6: Water quality analysis simulation program (WASP) version 6.0. Draft: User’s manual.” ⟨http://sdi.odu.edu/model/wasp.php⟩ (Jun. 21, 2016).
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 144 • Issue 3 • March 2018
Copyright
©2017 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Oct 27, 2016
Accepted: Aug 9, 2017
Published online: Dec 20, 2017
Published in print: Mar 1, 2018
Discussion open until: May 20, 2018
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.