Numerical Estimation of Nitrogen Loading from Septic Systems to Surface Waterbodies

November 18, 2024 in Seminar

Ming Ye, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Science, Department of Scientific Computing

Join us for the livestream November 20th, 11:45am ET: https://youtube.com/live/O3jdLNuq4cc?feature=share

(Please visit our YouTube channel main page for the stream if there are any issues with the direct link.)

ABSTRACT

Nitrogen pollution is one of the most prevalent and challenging environmental problems worldwide. Treatment of domestic wastewater using onsite sewage treatment and disposal systems (a.k.a. septic systems) is considered as the second largest nitrogen source in Florida. For managing nitrogen pollution due to septic systems, we developed software, called ArcGIS-based Nitrogen Load Estimation Toolkit (ArcNLET) for simulating nitrogen transport in soil and groundwater and for estimate nitrogen loading from septic systems to surface waterbodies. ArcNLET first simulates one-dimensional unsaturated flow and reactive transport of ammonium and nitrate in soil between drainfields and water table, and then simulates two-dimensional groundwater flow and reactive transport of ammonium and nitrate in groundwater. ArcNLET is an easy-to-use computer tool, and can be used to estimate long-term nitrogen loading from septic systems to surface water bodies to support management of nitrogen pollution. This seminar will first present the groundwater flow and solute transport models behind ArcNLET, and then introduce several applications of ArcNLET at several study site across the state, including a recent application for estimating the relations between nitrogen attenuation rates and distances from septic systems to water table and surface waterbodies. We recently developed the Python version of ArcNLET for ArcGIS Pro, and the source codes and user manual are available at GitHub (https://github.com/ArcNLET-Py/ArcNLET-Py) for free download.

BIO

Ming Ye is a Professor in the Department of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Science and the Department of Scientific Computing at the Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL. His research interests are groundwater numerical modeling, uncertainty assessment, karst hydrogeology, and environmental data science. He received a B.S. degree in Geology from the Nanjing University, China, in 1997. In 2002, he earned his Ph.D. degree in Hydrology from the University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ. After graduation, he worked in the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and Desert Research Institute. He joined Florida State University in 2007 as an Assistant Professor, and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2011 and to Full Professor in 2016. He was elected as a Fellow of the Geological Society of America in 2012, and received an Early Career Award in 2012 from the U.S. Department of Energy. In 2015, he received a Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize from the American Society of Civil Engineers. He is serving as Associate Editor for Journal of Hydrologic Engineering and Groundwater.

POSTCARD