Pump-and-treat (PAT) techniques are often applied to the
remediation of dissolved chemicals from shallow aquifers. A
related management problem typically consists of the selection
of the pumping policy and the most appropriate treatment
method,in order to minimize the cost of remediation
while meeting a set of technical, economic and social constraints.
Contaminant flow and transport models combined
with optimization algorithms are used to tackle the management
problem (Freeze and Gorelick, 1999; Mayer et al., 2002).