SUBSURFACE INSIGHTS LLC — Department of Energy SBIR Phase II: 20a

Description

Remediation and long term management of contaminated sites is likely torequire hundreds of billions of dollars. Effective remediation of these sites requires actionable understanding on coupled surface/ subsurface system behavior and water, heat, contaminant and nutrient fluxes at these sites. A similar understanding is needed for water resource management and agriculture. How Problem is Addressed: A cloud based predictive assimilation framework (PAF) is being developed which will provide timely and actionable information on current and future coupled surface/subsurface processes and system behavior to stakeholders. This software is being constructed such that it will be broadly applicable to a range of needs (contaminated sites, water resource management, agriculture). The framework ingests, manages and assesses observational data from multiple sources and processes this data using inversion and prediction methods to then deliver data and information to stakeholders in a timely manner. Efforts in Phase II: In Phase II software was developed which provides information on processes in the saturated zone. This software is operational. Plans for Phase IIB: In Phase IIB we will expand the data processing and parameter estimation capabilities of this framework as well as the underlying software architecture to ingest remote sensing data and provide information on coupled surface/subsurface processes. Commercial Applications and Other Benefits: The framework will provide a predictive understanding of terrestrial ecosystems. The framework will provide a low cost solution to environmental characterization and monitoring and monitoring for water resources and agriculture