Identification of moving pointwise sources in an advection–dispersion–reaction equation

Abstract

We consider the inverse problem of identifying a moving source in a linear advection–dispersion–reaction equation. The main application, but not the only one, is the identification of an environmental pollution source in a river. An identifiability result is established and an identification method proposed using measurement records at two locations, one upstream and the other downstream from the source. Finally, numerical simulations are performed to assess the identification process.