A decision support system for urban groundwater resource sustainability

This paper discusses the development of a computer based software tool to generate groundwater contaminant data; that can be utilised in the sustainable management of water resources; in urban areas reliant on groundwater. The tool incorporates several models, including a model for simulation of the integrated urban water system within an urban area to estimate contaminant loads, a model that estimates the extent of leakage from sewer pipelines and two unsaturated transport models which trace the attenuation of contaminants and movement of water through the soil to the aquifer. The output from the tool is data suitable for use in commercially available groundwater flow models to allow prediction of contaminant flows within the aquifer, as well as sufficient data to allow socio-economic analysis of different scenarios. The urban water system tool allows water services to be represented in a flexible manner and provides the ability to represent and investigate the implications of a wide range of conventional and emergent techniques for providing water supply, stormwater and wastewater services. This allows the users to process predefined scenarios, and provide options to the end-user to develop best practice response to the scenario based on the scenarios potential for groundwater contamination, for example, modifying customer preferences, groundwater treatment or introducing system improvements that minimise contamination.