Spreading of Pollution

Diffusion and advection in soil. Darcy and Fick's laws. Transformation, retardation and attenuation of solutes. Site remediation. Ocean dispersion and dispersion in the atmosphere.
Mixing processes: Spreading by shear, turbulent diffusion, density driven diffusion (in plumes). Statistical methods and modelling. Spreading and drift of oil in the coatstal zone and at sea, in rivers including degradation processes and oil spill response.

The students will obtain a thorough knowledge on the mechanisms for dispersion and transport of pollution in various recipients (water, soil and air).

Knowledge
The student should have knowledge of:
-Key elements in contaminant hydrogeology
- Principles for spreading in saturated media
- Transport by concentration gradients
- Transport by advection
- Diffusion vs dispersion
- Hydrodynamic dispersion
- Transformation and retardation of solutes in saturated media
- Multiphase flow in saturated media
- Site remediation on land
- Principles for spreading of oil on water
- Basic remediation techniques for spilled oil in the ocean
- Spreading of oil and combat in rivers
- Plumes and jets in fjords.

Skills
The student is able to:
- Make simple calculations of diffusion of pollutants in a saturated media
- Make simple calculations of advection of an aquifer in a saturated media
- Assess spreading by plumes and jets in fjords
- Calculate spreading of oil in the ocean
- Discuss and assess site remediation of contaminants on land
- Consider risks and the principles of risks assessment.

General qualifications
The student has:
- Basics knowledge in spreading of pollution in saturated media
- A sufficient background to enable communication with experts in contaminant preparedness services both on land and in fjords.

Lectures, exercises and colloquia. 2/3 of the exercises must be passed to get access to the exam. The course is taught in English. If there is a re-sit examination, the examination form may be changed from written to oral.