Identification of unknown contaminant source(s) in terms of location and strength in space and time for remediation purposes have been central issues in environmental management. The source often occurs in the form of a spillage on the surface or a leakage from underground tanks and pipelines. Generally the only input data that could be possibly obtained for such problems is a concentration profile or release histories at one or more observation wells downstream along the direction of groundwater flow. The problem essentially involves solution of an inverse groundwater flow and transport problem through modeling.

For more details:

Rao, S V N. (2006) A computationally efficient technique for source identification problems in 3D aquifers using ANN and simulated annealing Springer: Environmental Forensics Journal, Vol. 7, 3, 233-240.