Major pathway into the body for contaminants Easy to contaminate, difficult (costly) to remediate. Extensive to transport.

1. APPLICATIONS OF RS/GIS
TECHNIQUES IN GROUNDWATER
DECONTAMINATION
HARSHITA SINGH

2. POLLUTION-A PRIZE TAG OF MODERN SOCIETY
POLYMERS
PLASTICS
SOLVENTS
FUELS
DETERGENTS
DYES
PESTICIDES
CARCINOGENS
PAINTS
HEAVY METALS

3. Ground water
Major pathway into the
body for contaminants
Easy to contaminate,
difficult (costly) to
remediate.
Extensive to transport.
Why worry about Ground Water Supplies?

4. ORIGIN OF GROUNDWATER CONTAMINATION
CONTAMINATION
Any physical, chemical, biological
or radiological substance or matter
that has an adverse effect on air,
water or soil
POINT SOURCES
(Radioactive waste disposal
Sites Landfills, storage tanks,
NON-POINT SOURCES
(runoff from pesticides &
fertilizers applications)
ENDOSULFAN
EPISODE

5. LAND USE IMPACT ON GROUND
WATER QUALITY
ILLEGAL DUMPING ILLICIT DISCHARGE
Contaminated groundwater may play a significant role in
contaminating urban river system

6. Existing Scenario of Hazardous Waste
Management ….
National Inventory of Hazardous Waste
2.7 MT
(44%)
0.4 MT (7%)
3.1 MT
(49%)
Landfillable Waste
Incinerable Waste
Recyclable Waste
Total annual hazardous waste generation = 6.2 MT

7. The Challenge
Using Geo-Spatial technique research to:
 …Help clean up past environmental
damage
 …Correct present environmental
problems
 …Prevent future environmental
impacts

8. OBJECTIVES
 Identification and Risk Assessment by
siting areas of groundwater contamination
 Management of groundwater
contamination by proper landfill siting.
Shift from Conventional to Sophisticated techniques

9. COMPONENTS OF GEOSPATIAL
TECHNIQUE
Environmental Sustainability
Economic Sustainability
Scio political Sustainability

10. UTILIZATION OF GIS DATA
GIS DATA
GRAPHIC DATA ATTRIBUTE DATA
VECTOR
(tells about geographic location)
SATELLITE
(tells about multi-dimensional photographs
GPS
(tells about important landmarks

11. MCDM
Analysis
GROUND
WATER
TABLE
GROUND
WATER
QUALITY
LAND USE
HABITATION
GEOLOGY
AIR QUALITY
INDEX
LAND USE
ELEVATION
FAULT-LINE
MULTI-CRITERIA DECESION MAKING ANALYSIS

12. CASE STUDIES
 Arsenic in Bangladesh
 Love Canal Chemical Waste Dump (USA)
 Cadmium (Epidemics in Japan)

13. ARSENIC IN BANGLADESH
 20% of the countries wells affected
 900,000 of the country's four million tubewells were
sunk with UNICEF assistance
 Estimated that the number of people exposed to arsenic
concentrations above 0.05 mg/l is 28-35 million (more
than 0.01 mg/l is 46-57 million) (BGS, 2000)
 Long-term exposure to arsenic via drinking-water
causes cancer of the skin, lungs, urinary bladder, and
kidney, as well as other skin changes such as
pigmentation changes and thickening.
ARSENIC:THE KING OF POISION [USEPA, 2009]

14. SKIN LESIONS

15. Arsenic in Drinking Water in the
US
 Setting the Standard
 2008: California
toxicologist argues
that US EPA
standard for As in
drinking water
would constitute a
1:100 risk of cancer
for lifetime
consumption

16. LOVE CANAL EPISODE
• Landfill near Niagara Fall, New
York.
• Hooker Chemicals & Plastics
Corporation put wastes in
abandoned canal, covered it,
deeded 16 acres to Niagara Falls
Board of Education in 1953.
• 1976-Chemicals leaking into
basements, contaminating
groundwater.
• Environmental Emergency declared
in 1978.

17. Cadmium (Cd) Epidemics
Japan (1980s)
 effluent (outflow) from a lead-
processing plant washed over
adjacent rice paddies for many
years
 rice accumulated high level of
Cd
 community was poor (and
therefore malnourished with
respect to calcium)
 acute toxicity: renal
failure,anemia, severe muscle
pain
 named "Itai-Itai" disease
("ouch, ouch")
Itai-itai victim

18. CONCLUSION
 Today's GIS produces intelligent, relevant, and
useful spatial (3D)information that achieves
critical response missions. First responders
deserve nothing less.
 The need of the hour is to have scientifically
designed landfill system in Indian cities so that
ground water can be protected from being
polluted.
 GIS, a powerful risk assessment tool, is cost
effective and can successfully mitigate and
manage the problem of groundwater
contamination

19. END NOTE
If a picture is worth a thousand words,
then certainly an intelligent map is worth much more.

20. Come forth into the light of things,
Let nature be your teacher
William Wordsworth
SAVE THE
ENVIRONMENT