Abstract:

The identification of contaminant source can not only provide a basis for developing groundwater management plan, but also
be convenient to investigate for responsibility of relevant polluters. First, the sensitivity matrix is used to establish the mathematical
relationship between monitoring data and characteristics of contaminant source. Then, adjoint-state method is applied to derive the
identification model of contaminant source. Second, adjoint-state method is applied to four cases where single or multiple sources exist
in two-dimensional homogeneous or heterogeneous media, the location and strength of contaminant sources can be identified according
to the monitoring data. Finally, the availability and effectiveness of adjoint-state method should be validated by comparing the results
from the adjoint-state method with the real characteristics of the contaminant source. The results show that the adjoint-state method has
good applicability in indentifying contaminant source, which can be used to identify the position and strength of groundwater
contaminant source, and can improve calculation efficiency.

Key words: adjoint-state method, identification of contaminant source, solute transport, sensitivity matrix