A stochastic optimization model under modeling uncertainty and parameter certainty for groundwater remediation design: part II. Model application.

A new stochastic optimization model under modeling uncertainty (SOMUM) and parameter certainty is applied to a practical site located in western Canada. Various groundwater remediation strategies under different significance levels are obtained from the SOMUM model. The impact of modeling uncertainty (proxy-simulator residuals) on optimal remediation strategies is compared to that of parameter uncertainty (arising from physical properties). The results show that the increased remediation cost for mitigating modeling-uncertainty impact would be higher than those from models where the coefficient of variance of input parameters approximates to 40%. This provides new evidence that the modeling uncertainty in proxy-simulator residuals can hardly be ignored; there is thus a need of investigating and mitigating the impact of such uncertainties on groundwater remediation design. This work would be helpful for lowering the risk of system failure due to potential environmental-standard violation when determining optimal groundwater remediation strategies.