Mustafa Aral

Abstract: The focus area of this research program is the development of novel methods to analyze and evaluate environmental impacts on coastal Georgia integrating the inland watersheds to coastal regions through multiphase hydrologic and environmental models. For this purpose, the aim is to develop user friendly Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and remotely sensed data integrated computational tools, which may be used in analyzing existing or future environmental conditions in a watershed and/or in evaluating the effects of environmental stressors on the ecosystem at these river basins. These computational tools will be extremely useful in planning future activities in a watershed or they may be used by managers to evaluate alternative management practices at a given site.

Abstract: The purpose of this study is the development of 3-D density dependent flow and transport models to evaluate saltwater intrusion conditions in coastal aquifers. These models will be integrated with multi-objective optimization algorithms to determine the optimal pumping rates and optimal locations of pumping wells in coastal aquifers. The study is conducted in two phases. In the first phase, which will be completed by November 2002, screening level models, which utilize analytical methods will be used to analyze the problem. In phase two, numerical methods will be employed to solve the problem for more complex environments. These computational tools will be extremely useful in planning future activities in coastal aquifers or they may be used by managers to evaluate alternative management practices at a given site.

Abstract: Multimedia Environmental Simulation Laboratory (MESL) has a cooperative agreement with the US Department of Health and Human Services (USDHHS) for the past twelve years. The purpose of this cooperative agreement is to aid this federal agency in their modeling needs in multimedia environmental pathway analysis and site specific applications of these models. Under the umbrella of this cooperative agreement, USDHHS is involved with environmental health issues, exposure of populations to environmental contaminants, exposure -dose reconstruction and risk analysis studies, GIS platform integrated model development and applications. The multimedia environmental pathways of interest include: Air, Subsurface, Surface, Indoor, Plant and Animal pathways. Thus, under this project, MESL program has worked on modeling studies in superfund sites over a dozen states within the US and has the task and obligation of providing modeling expertise throughout the US territories, as well as at sites in other countries as the needs arise.

Analysis of Coastal Georgia Ecosystem Stressors Using GIS Integrated Remotely Sensed Imagery and Modeling: A pilot study for the lower Altamaha River Basin
     Mustafa Aral (Georgia Technical University)