title: Risk management of BTEX contamination in ground water--an integrated fuzzy approach.
abstract: Abstract An integrated fuzzy simulation-assessment method (FSAM) was developed for assessing environmental risks from petroleum hydrocarbon contamination in ground water. In the FSAM, techniques of fuzzy simulation and fuzzy risk assessment were coupled into a general framework to reflect a variety of system uncertainties. A petroleum-contaminated site located in western Canada was selected as a study case for demonstrating applicability of the proposed method. The risk assessment results demonstrated that system uncertainties would significantly impact expressions of risk-level outputs. A relatively deterministic expression of the risks would have clearer representations of the study problem but may miss valuable uncertain information; conversely, an assessment under vaguer system conditions would help reveal potential consequences of adverse effects but would suffer from a higher degree of fuzziness in presenting the modeling outputs. Based on the risk assessment results, a decision analysis procedure was used to calculate a general risk index (GRI) to help identify proper responsive actions. The proposed method was useful for evaluating risks within a system containing multiple factors with complicated uncertainties and interactions and providing support for identifying proper site management strategies.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Engineering, University of Regina, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada S4S 0A2.
authors.forename: X S
authors.initials: XS
authors.lastname: Qin
authors.forename: G H
authors.initials: GH
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Y P
authors.initials: YP
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D017143:Fuzzy Logic; D010578:Petroleum / Q000032:analysis*; D018570:Risk Assessment / Q000379:methods; D012308:Risk Management / Q000379:methods*; D014872:Water Movements; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000032:analysis; D014876:Water Pollution / Q000032:analysis* / Q000517:prevention & control; D014881:Water Supply / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D010578:Petroleum; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical