MINE - A Game for the Analysis of Regional Water Policies in Open-Pit Lignite Mining Areas

The game MINE has been developed for the analysis of regional water policies in open-pit lignite mining areas. It is implemented for a GDR test area. The purpose of the game is above all to teach decision makers and their staff in mining regions in order to get a better understanding of the complex interrelated socio-economic processes with respect to water management in such regions. The game is designed to be played by five groups of players representing municipal and industrial water supply, agriculture, environmental protection and lignite mining. Two versions are available, one in BASIC for simple micro-computers as the Apple II combined with a gaming board, another one in FORTRAN for the VAX or ALTOS combined with sophisticated color graphics. The paper describes the game, its practical application and first experiences in playing the game

Contaminant Plume Migration in an Aquifer: Finite Element Modeling for the Analysis of Remediation Strategies: A Case Study

Groundwater resources are becoming more and more endangered of being depleted by over-exploitation and of being polluted as a consequence of environmentally insensitive economic activities and population growth in many regions and countries of the world. Causes and consequences of quantitative and qualitative changes in groundwater states can be separated by decades and centuries. Once contaminated or depleted, groundwater resources may be permanently impaired. This fact becomes especially obvious in the case of groundwater pollution by hazardous wastes. Necessary remediation strategies may be extremely time and money consuming. Therefore, the optimal design of such remediation strategies is of great importance. The paper describes the results of a case study dealing with historical and predictive modeling of the migration of a real contaminant plume in an alluvial aquifer threatening the nearby operating extraction wells for municipal water supply. As a modeling case study it primarily aims at modeling and examining current and intended remediation strategies. The consequences and benefits of a hydraulic barrier in continuous or intermittent operation and their combination with pumpage from interception wells are investigated and discussed. For these purposes a horizontal plane transport model based on a finite element approach has been developed and applied. The model has been tested and calibrated through a history matching procedure comparing model computations with observed field data, where hydrodynamic dispersivities are identified as principal parameters. The obtained prognostic results allow several practical conclusions on the design of remediation strategies. The used finite element model simulator FEFLOW has proved to be a convenient and powerful tool in modeling the complex flow and transport processes of the contaminant plume. It demonstrates the abilities in prospective simulations for decision purposes

MINE-NEC - A Game for the Analysis of Regional Water Policies in Open-Pit Lignite Mining Areas: An Improved Implementation for the NEC PC-8201A

The game MINE was developed for the analysis of regional water policies in open-pit lignite mining areas. It is implemented for a GDR test area. The purpose of the game is above all to teach decision makers and their staff in mining regions in order to get a better understanding of the complex interrelated socio-economic processes with respect t o water management in such regions. The game is designed to be played by five groups of players representing municipal and industrial water supply, agriculture, environmental protection and lignite mining. In this paper an improved BASIC version for the portable NEC PC-8201A microcomputer is introduced

A Nonlinear Dynamic Interactive Decision Analysis and Support System (DIDASS/N)

The Interactive Decision Analysis group at IIASA has developed a decision analysis and support system, called "DIDASS". Based on the Reference Point Approach for multicriteria analysis, it is an attempt to combine the analytical power of the "hard" computer model with the qualitative assessments of the decision maker. In general, DIDASS is capable of dealing with both linear and nonlinear problems. Theoretical and practical tests for solving nonlinear problems of regional water policies in open-pit mining areas have elucidated the need for an especially designed nonlinear DIDASS version. Following the presentation of the extended nonlinear version, DIDASS/N is described. DIDASS/N has been developed in collaboration between the Interactive Decision Analysis Group and the Regional Water Policies Project at IIASA. DIDASS/N has been written in FORTRAN 77. The use of operating-system-dependent statements or commands has been avoided

Local versus global equilibration near the bosonic Mott-superfluid transition

We study the response of trapped two dimensional cold bosons to time dependent lattices. We find that in lattice ramps from 11 (superfluid, $\hbar/U_{\text{i}} = 3$ms, $\hbar/J_{\text{i}} = 45$ms) to 16 recoils (Mott, $\hbar/U_{\text{f}} = 2$ms, $\hbar/J_{\text{f}} = 130$ms) the local number fluctuations remains at their equilibrium values if ramps are slower than 3 ms. Global transport, however, is much slower (1s), especially in the presence of Mott shells. This separation of timescales has practical implications for cold atom experiments and cooling protocols.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figs. 6 subfigure

Decision Support System Mine -The Management Model

The Decision Support System MINE has been developed for the analysis of regional water policies in open-pit lignite mining areas. It is based on a two-level model approach. The first-level planning model is used for the estimation of rational strategies of long-term development applying dynamic multi-criteria analysis. Therefor simplified submodels are used for a rough time discretization (yearly time steps and larger). The second-level management model considers managerial/operational aspects for shorter time steps (monthly and yearly) employing more comprehensive submodels. It is a classic simulation model. For selected submodels stochastic simulation (Monte Carlo method) is used in order to consider random inputs (e.g. hydrological inflow and water demand). This model serves for the verification of strategies obtained in the planning model, for the verification of simplified submodels used in the first-level model, and for the specification of strategies. Starting with the description of the position of the management model within the DSS MINE the structure of the management model is given. The used submodels for surface water/groundwater interaction and water quality are described. In the Appendix computer subroutines of some submodels are given being suitable for a more general application

Universality class of quantum criticality in the two-dimensional Hubbard model at intermediate temperatures (t2/U≪T≪tt^2/U\ll T\ll t)

We show that the dilute Fermi gas quantum critical universality class quantitatively describes the Mott/metal crossover of the two-dimensional Hubbard model for temperatures somewhat less than (roughly half) the tunneling but much greater than (roughly twice) the superexchange energy. We calculate the observables expected to be universal near the transition --- density and compressibility --- with numerically exact determinantal quantum Monte Carlo. We find they are universal functions of the chemical potential. Despite arising from the strongly correlated regime of the Hubbard model, these functions are given by the weakly interacting, dilute Fermi gas model. These observables and their derivatives are the only expected universal static observables of this universality class, which we also confirm by verifying there is no scaling collapse of the kinetic energy, fraction of doubly occupied sites, and nearest neighbor spin correlations. Our work resolves the universality class of the intermediate temperature Mott/metal crossover, which had alternatively been proposed to be described by more exotic theories. However, in the presence of a Zeeman magnetic field, we find that interplay of spin with itinerant charge can lead to physics beyond the dilute Fermi gas universality class.Comment: Main text: 4 pages, 2 figures (6 panels). Supplementary info.: 2 pages, 3 figures (7 panels

Development of Simplified Models of Water Quality in Lignite Mining Areas

The development of complex decision support model systems for the analysis of regional water policies for regions with intense socio-economic development effecting and being affected by the water resources system is of increasing importance. One of the most illustrative examples are regions with open-pit lignite mining. Such model systems have to be based on appropriate submodels e.g. for water quality processes. The paper describes submodel for groundwater and surface water quality with special regard to open-pit lignite mining regions. We consider the discharge of acid ferruginous water into rivers as having the most important impact on water quality in open-pit lignite mining areas. One goal of the model system is the choice of the necessary degree of purification for mine water treatment plants, taking into account self-purification in rivers and remaining pits as well as the water quality demand of down-stream water users. Based on comprehensive water quality models, the development of which is described in the paper, the possibilities for the derivation of reduced models are described. Those model have been elaborated for groundwater, as the source of pollution, mine water treatment plants as control units, river sections with an intake of acid ferruginous water, and remaining pits, which can also serve as effective control units. Related with each other, these models form the complex system model, a system of differential equations. They were numerically solved. The computer program is included in the paper

Analysis of Regional Water Policies in Open-Cast Mining Areas - A Conception

In the GDR more than two-thirds of the total output of primary energy is based on lignite extracted exclusively by strip-mining. Mining results in significant environmental and resource use conflicts between different users in such regions. This paper describes the concept of a study on the analysis of Regional Water Policies in Open-Cast Mining Areas in collaboration with institutes in the GDR. The study is directed at the development and implementation of methods and models for analyzing the use of water resources and environmental problems in open-cast mining areas. The study is one of a network of national studies concerned with environmental and resource policies carried out in several National Member Organization (NMO) countries within the IIASA Program "Institutions and Environmental Policies." Based on the problem definition the research topics are characterized, a few methodological approaches outlined and the working plan presented

Exploring Pd adsorption, diffusion, permeation, and nucleation on bilayer SiO₂/Ru as a function of hydroxylation and precursor environment: From UHV to catalyst preparation

The hydroxylation-dependent permeability of bilayer SiO2 supported on Ru(0001) was investigated by XPS and TDS studies in a temperature range of 100K to 600K. For this, the thermal behavior of Pd evaporated at 100K, which results in surface and sub-surface (Ru-supported) binding arrangements, was examined relative to the extent of pre-hydroxylation. Samples containing only defect-mediated hydroxyls showed no effect on Pd diffusion through the film at low temperature. If, instead, the concentration of strongly bound hydroxyl groups and associated weakly bound water molecules was enriched by an electron-assisted hydroxylation procedure, the probability for Pd diffusion through the film is decreased via a pore-blocking mechanism. Above room temperature, all samples showed similar behavior, reflective of particle nucleation above the film and eventual agglomeration with any metal atoms initially binding beneath the film. When depositing Pd onto the same SiO2/Ru model support via adsorption of [Pd(NH3)4]C2 from alkaline (pH12) precursor solution, we observe notably different adsorption and nucleation mechanisms. The resultant Pd adsorption complexes follow established decomposition pathways to produce model catalyst systems compatible with those created exclusively within UHV despite lacking the ability to penetrate the film due to the increased size of the initial Pd precursor groups