School of Civil Engineering – University of Leeds
Module Code and Title:
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CIVE5574/5575 – Groundwater Pollution and Contaminated Land (GPCL)
Associate Professor Xiaohui Chen Coursework of Groundwater Pollution and
Contaminated Land (GPCL): PART A and PART B
Report (40%) and Modelling (60%)
>4000 words excluding references, and the quality of the report is the first priority.
Release date: 21/03/2023
12:00PM, 22/May/2023 (Hard Deadline, NO Extension is allowed due to exam board meeting)
Minerva (see section 3.0) 9th of June, 2023
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1.0 Introduction –Rationale and Learning Outcome
GPCL coursework aims to equip the MSc/MEng students with a deeper and systemic understanding of the knowledge and numerical skills associated with the Geo-Environmental Issues. There are two parts of the coursework: (1) develop a method for restoration of contaminated land (40%); (2) Using software to develop a pollution kinetical model (60%, note here, the software Phreeqc has been deployed in the following computer clusters: Civil Eng 501, Civil Eng 504 and SCAPE G06). The amount of time you should allocate to this part of the module is approximately 150 hours (3 weeks), including contact time.
The submission date for this project is 12 pm May 22/2023. Accordingly, it is imperative that you carefully plan the work to ensure you leave yourself sufficient time to complete all elements of the project. Each student is advised to plan their use of time.
At the end of this project, you should have
• Further improved your knowledge and understanding of groundwater pollution and soil contamination
• Further improved your knowledge and understanding of remediation technologies
• Been able to apply some of the knowledge to contribute solving of Environmental problems and understanding from previous learning to satisfy the present requirements
• Developed a solution to an engineering problem via a case support.
• Improved your ability to learn independently using various learning and information resources • Improved time management skills
• Improved written skills
• Been able to reinforce some aspects of previous learning
2.0 Learning Resources
The GPCL coursework is meant to be a vehicle by which you can demonstrate your ability to work independently and contribute using your knowledge in a team. There are specific
practical session (computational modelling) associated with this module. You should consider the tasks in hand and look to apply what you have learned in your theory so far.
3.0 Submission, Marking Schedule, Feedback
The submission date/time is 12 pm May 22/2023 (only a single copy of the report is required, including print copies of the program file). Only the electric copy is required: the electric copy of the report should be submitted via turnitin in Minerva CIVE5575/5574 (assessment folder). Appropriate penalties will be incurred for a late submission.
A standard coursework cover sheet should be used, clearly stating names, module code and module leader (Dr Xiaohui Chen).
The report should include the following:
• A cover page entitled “CIVE 5574/5575 Groundwater Pollution and Contaminated Land”
• Title sheet
• Contents page
• Detailed and fully justified responses to the method and modelling prediction you developed for a selected contaminated site.
Please note you will not have your work returned to you. Accordingly, if you wish to keep a copy, you will to need to give yourself time to make your own prior to final submission.
Mark Schedule
a) 40 marks (Report)
b) 60 marks (Program) including input file (30 Marks) and Results analysis (30 Marks)
Grade Feedback
Since this is a large piece of coursework representing the exam of the module, an indicative grade will be given for the report. The grade will be provided to GPCL total marks, based on the aforementioned marking schedule.
THE COURSEWORK DETAILED BRIEF
Soils and groundwater are essential for human beings to support our food and drinking water. However, the pollution/wastes generated by the civilization and industrialization processes have placed long term threats to our already vulnerable geoenvironment, resulting in comtaminated lands and groundwater.
Improving existing restoring methods for contaminated land and groundwater become increasingly important during the climate change crisis, as more exteme events (e.g. frequent flooding) may undermine the efforts of decontamination. There are various technologies that are implemented (ex-situ, as well as in-situ) for the remediation of both contaminated land and groundwater. Picking the correct one with consideration of climate change is a multifactorial dependent process that involves investigation depending on a) the area and magnitude of the problem, b) whether or not it is a residential one, c) the nature and concentrations of contaminants, d) the accessibility to contamination sources, e) the nearby aquifer; f) the nature of the soil for contaminants transport; g) overall costing, etc.
Hyper-alkaline leachate is one of the common sources for pollution, which may be generated from steel industry, chemical plants and radioactive waste disposal. In this coursework, you will focus on an environmental assessment of a mixture of any two of the three cement leachates (e.g. YCL, ICL and OCL, please refer the lecture notes 4) on soils/rocks. A deep understanding of the leachate reacting with soils is essential for the understanding of environmental assessment.
Soils normally contain multiple minerals such as Quartz, K-field spar etc. Please also select a type of host soils (contains at least two minerals) for the hyper-alkaline leachates, and develop a kinetical reaction modelling based on the Phreeqc input file for kinetical reaction of quartz (please download the Phreeqc input file from Minerva/Assessment).
Github
You may need knowledge from Hydrogeology, Geochemistry, Mineralogy, Geochemical reaction, Chemical Transport and Reaction, Soil Restoration methods of soils and groundwater for completing the coursework.
The following tasks are expected of you:
PART A: Report: Literature review and knowledge report (40% of the total marks). Please consult research papers as an example when writing this report, and justify the method you selected for the treatment of a contaminated site (please select a site from literature or design a site by yourself). List the most preferable (in-situ and ex-situ) for dealing with hyper-alkaline leachate contaminated site in extreme weather condition, reporting the reasons for choosing them. (Note: there are various hyper-alkaline leachates, you can select one of them, or have a general review of all of them in this report)
Example Format:
Topics: Groundwater pollution and contaminated lands
(1) Abstract
(2) Literature Review
(3) Proposed methods
(4) Justification of this method, and comparison with other methods. (5) Conclusion.
(6) Case study (from section b as below)
(7) Reference
(8) Appendix: attach the input file of your Phreeqc program.
PART B: Modelling. Program files and analysis report
• Write program files. This task is to get a deeper understanding of the
mechanism for the kinetical reaction. Please use the provided example input file, and modify it according to the data of minerals from the literature and the lecture notes for a hyper-alkaline leachate (e.g. the ICL).
Programming Help, Add QQ: 749389476
• Please identify the surface area of the minerals in the host soil, the kinetics of quartz dissolution and other minerals, to update in your program file and predict the chemical concentration change. Note: please refer to the programme file: Quartz-kinetics in Phreeqc contents.
• Case study: please have a discussion of the results you obtained from the input file, including the concentration change along with time, and describe how you can contribute your knowledge to the restoration method you developed in PART A (please note: this needs to be included in (PART 1) for the submission).
Code Help, Add WeChat: cstutorcs