Modeling Herbicides Movement in Railway Embankments in Germany
Description
The input dataset for the groundwater contamination modeling project is structured to capture spatial, temporal, and chemical variability across five railway embankment sites in Germany: Burgdorf, Krefeld, Ingolstadt, Oftersheim, Weinböhla and a reference site (control with a homogeneous layer). Each site includes multiple simulation scenarios to reflect different herbicide application strategies and environmental conditions. The “site_12m” configuration represents full embankment-wide pesticide application, while “site_6m” simulates application limited to the upper 6 meters of the embankment. Temporal dynamics are incorporated through the “site_6y” setup, which spans six years of simulation time (2018–2024) to capture seasonal variation and long-term trends. For each site and scenario, selectors define the properties of four herbicidal compounds: glyphosate, its metabolite AMPA, flumioxazin, and flazasulfuron. These selectors include compound-specific parameters such as sorption coefficients, degradation rates, and mobility characteristics.
Files
Steps to reproduce
To reproduce the study, two approaches are available: using the graphical user interface (GUI) or executing the solver directly via the command line. If using the GUI, the user must manually input all relevant data from the provided folders, ensuring that each parameter is correctly assigned according to the site-specific and compound-specific configurations. This includes setting up the domain geometry, boundary conditions, and reactive transport parameters for each scenario using the files on the folders. Alternatively, the study can be reproduced by directly running the solver externally using the executable file. In this case, the user must configure the correct path to the input folders and launch the model through the command line, allowing the solver to process the pre-organized data and execute the simulations automatically. Each site has to have a spatial discretization located on the folders site_12m or site_6m, a temporal discretization on the folder site_6y and the descripition of all the parameters regrading each herbicide located at the folder site_selectors. If you wish to only run one herbicide that also possible, then you only select and use the parameters describing the respective contaminant inside of the folder site_selectors.
Institutions
- Technische Universitat Bergakademie Freiberg