Quantifying distribution and transport of contaminated sediments in the St. Clair River: The GIS approach (Ontario, Michigan).
Due to historic discharges and accidental spills from a massive complex of refineries and chemical facilities located on the Canadian shore of the St. Clair River, south of the City of Sarnia, a variety of toxic chemicals have accumulated in bottom sediments. The highest level of contamination was consistently found in the narrow strip of sediments adjacent to the industrial complex (Study Area #1), with the estimated planar area of 75,000 m 2 (18 acres). To assess spatial distribution of the sediment contamination, an integrated Total Sediment Quality Score (TSQS), based on chemistry, toxicity and assemblage of benthic organisms, was developed. TSQS was assigned to each of the 39 sampling stations within the Study Area #1, and subjected to a novel, automated, computer-intensive, two-dimensional, anisotropic, inverse distance weighing (IDW) interpolation procedure. The IDW parameters were optimized via cross-validation, and the uncertainty of the predictions was estimated with a jackknife resampling technique. The procedure was refined with the acoustic sediment profiles, which allowed for the representation of highly patchy and heterogenic distribution of fine sediments in the area of study. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Paper copy at Leddy Library: Theses & Major Papers - Basement, West Bldg. / Call Number: Thesis1998 .T65. Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 39-02, page: 0473. Adviser: John Alexander McCorquodale. Thesis (M.A.Sc.)--University of Windsor (Canada), 1998.
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