Case Studies

This section includes case studies that use different geospatial methods and software packages to optimize project life cycle activities. These case studies demonstrate the usefulness of geospatial methods and the particular abilities of some common software packages. The case studies were chosen for their applicability to groundwater, soil, and sediment and for the variety of software applications that they present.
These case studies were performed for purposes other than this guidance document, were completed prior to the preparation of this document, and were done in context with individual project parameters and constraints. These real-world examples show how the software can be used to solve real problems, with limitations of time, resources, and specific project needs.

Table 10. Summary of case studies

Case study/location	Life cycle stage	Environmental medium	Methods	Software used	Contaminants	Applicable questions
Superfund Site, TX	Monitoring	Groundwater	Mann Kendall Voronoi/Delaunay mesh	MAROS	VOCs, 1-2-DCA, Benzene, Metals	Trend Maps Monitoring Program Optimization
PAH in Sediments, Quebec, Canada	Site Characterization	Sediment	Experimental variogram Uncertainty Conditional Simulations Isatis	Isatis	PAHs	Hot Spot Detection Sample Spacing Estimating Quantities
Ordnance Plant, NE	Monitoring, Closure	Groundwater	Kriging Iterative Thinning Quasi-genetic optimization	GTS Summit Envirosolutions	TCE, Research Department Explosives (RDX)	Monitoring Program Optimization Remedial Program Optimization
Smelter, IL	Site Characterization, Remediation	Soil	Inverse Distance Weighting (IDW) Kriging Volumetric estimation	Environmental Visualization System (EVS) Mining Visualization System (MVS) Earth Volumetric Studio EnterVol	Lead, cadmium, mercury	Interpolation Estimating Quantities Remedial Action Optimization
Nuclear Plant, Fukushima, Japan	Site Characterization, Remediation	Soil	IDW Kriging	ArcGIS Spatial Analyst ArcGIS Geostatistical Analyst	Cesium-137	Estimating Quantities Hot Spot Detection Interpolation Estimating Average Concentrations
Research Facility, NJ	Monitoring	Groundwater	Mann-Kendall Nonparametric statistics Penalized splines Voronoi/Delaunay mesh	GWSDAT	BTEX, MTBE	Trend Maps Quantifying Uncertainty Plume Change/Attenuation Over Time
Tidal Site, NJ	Site Characterization	Sediment estuary	EDA Variography Point/block kriging	ArcGIS	PCB, Aroclors	Sample Spacing Estimating Concentrations Based on Proxy Data Estimating Quantities
Superfund Site, CA	Monitoring	Groundwater	Mann-Kendall Parametric linear regression Voronoi/Delaunay mesh Cost Effective Sampling algorithm	MAROS	Perchlorate, TCE, Chloroform	Monitoring Program Optimization
Lead in Soil, GA	Site Characterization	Soil	Point/Block Kriging Exploratory Variography	ArcGIS	Lead	Hotspot Detection Estimating Average Concentrations Remedial Action Optimization