Environmental site assessments focus on understanding the nature and extent of contamination. Subsequent investigations may focus on identifying the source or sources of that contamination and developing allocation models for computing proportional ownership and cost-sharing of any remedial action. Still later, investigations may monitor remediation and long-term monitoring. Throughout such programs, large volumes of chemical and physical data are routinely acquired, often from a variety of sources. One of the challenges for environmental project managers is to capture and maintain this complex dataset, which may be acquired over a period of years, in an organized and accessible fashion. Another challenge is to achieve an understanding of the environmental implications of the acquired data. Both challenges can be met with integrated data management and visualization tools.

FIGURE 1

Battelle’s Environmental Management Information Systems (EMIS) group specializes in organizing and presenting data for large and small environmental management programs. Data management is conventionally achieved with relational databases. Recent advances have made relational databases accessible through the World Wide Web, allowing multiple users secure access to a site’s data, often in real-time.

Web-based relational databases can also be linked with GIS mapping or 3-D graphics applications, which allow users to quickly explore spatial and/or temporal relationships within a complex and extensive dataset, thereby proving the old adage, “a picture is worth a thousand words.”

FIGURE 2

For example, Figure 1 shows the total PAH concentration data in more than 100 surface sediments extracted from a large database of sediments within a waterway. After kriging, the mapped data quickly reveals three “hot spots,” i.e., potential PAH sources in the study area. Additional interactive graphing of data from the study area can be used to further investigate these sources and other aspects of the data. Figure 2 shows an example of total petroleum hydrocarbon (TPH) data plotted in 3-D (after processes that use a minimum tension gridding algorithm), which clearly reveals that the distribution of TPH (diesel) is controlled by this upland site’s stratigraphy.

The linkage of Web-based relational databases with two- and three-dimensional graphing applications provides environmental project teams the ability to investigate large datasets quickly and effectively. For more information about Battelle’s data management and data visualization capabilities contact Tom Gulbransen at (631) 941-3211, gulbran@battelle.org.