Water Resources Research Act Program

Details for Project ID 2006CT105B

GIM3 - A visual and interactive contaminant transport simulator for regulatory and educational applications

Institute: Connecticut
Year Established: 2006 Start Date: 2006-01-01 End Date: 2007-01-01
Total Federal Funds: $4,270 Total Non-Federal Funds: $9,391

Principal Investigators: Xiusheng Yang

Abstract: This study aims to develop an innovative software environment for multimedia transport simulation, GIM3, representing a GIS-based model of fate and transport of chemical contaminants at river-basin scale recently developed at the University of Connecticut. The core algorithm in GIM3 relies on the fugacity concept to describe the chemical concentration in an Eulerian frame. The simulation starts with inter-media physical and biological processes, representing a unique way in multimedia modeling. This model enables near-real time simulation of multimedia mass transport processes at the spatial resolution of watershed scale. GIS-based functions for spatial analysis are established for data collection and data management in a geographic database. This proposal requests support to integrate the Graphic User Interface and real-time interaction capabilities into the model GIM2 to make it a practical tool for regulatory and education applications. With these features, the model can be used by government agencies to evaluate and regulate various pollution sources in agricultural and industrial activities. As an educational tool, this software can be used for teaching and learning in classroom by visually examining the dynamics of the bulk flow, contaminant transport, and biochemical transformation.