Sensor-Driven Localization of Airborne Contaminant Sources via the Sandpile-Advection Model and (1 + 1)-Evolution...

Area of Science:

• Environmental Science
• Computational Modeling
• Emergency Response

Background:

• Crises involving hazardous airborne substances require rapid source identification for effective response.
• Existing methods for source localization often need prior information or are computationally intensive.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a decision-support system for managing hazardous airborne substance release crises.
• To create a source localization method that relies solely on sensor concentration measurements.
• To achieve rapid and accurate identification of contaminant sources without prior data.

Main Methods:

• Integration of a modified Sandpile model with advection.
• Application of the (1 + 1)-Evolution Strategy for inverse problem solving (source localization).
• Utilizing concentration measurements from a distributed sensor network.

Main Results:

• The proposed (1 + 1)-ES Sandpile model effectively reconstructs source parameters.
• Localization accuracy is maintained within the sensor grid's resolution limits.
• The system demonstrates high computational efficiency, completing tests in under 20 minutes on a standard laptop.

Conclusions:

• The developed system offers a promising solution for real-time environmental monitoring and emergency response.
• Its speed, simplicity, and exclusive reliance on sensor data are key advantages.
• Effective management of hazardous airborne substance incidents can be enhanced through this approach.