A coupled groundwater-flow-modelling and vulnerability-mapping methodology for karstic terrain management

A coupled groundwater-flow-modelling and vulnerability-mapping methodology for the management of karst aquifers with spatial variability is developed. The methodology takes into consideration the duality of flow and recharge in karst and introduces a simple method to integrate the effect of temporal storage in the unsaturated zone. In order to investigate the applicability of the developed methodology, simulation results are validated against available field measurement data. The criteria maps from the PaPRIKa vulnerability-mapping method are used to document the groundwater flow model. The FEFLOW model is employed for the simulation of the saturated zone of Palaikastro-Chochlakies karst aquifer, in the island of Crete, Greece, for the hydrological years 2010–2012. The simulated water table reproduces typical karst characteristics, such as steep slopes and preferred drain axes, and is in good agreement with field observations. Selected calculated error indicators—Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE), root mean squared error (RMSE) and model efficiency (E′)—are within acceptable value ranges. Results indicate that different storage processes take place in different parts of the aquifer. The north-central part seems to be more sensitive to diffuse recharge, while the southern part is affected primarily by precipitation events. Sensitivity analysis is performed on the parameters of hydraulic conductivity and specific yield. The methodology is used to estimate the feasibility of artificial aquifer recharge (AAR) at the study area. Based on the developed methodology, guidelines were provided for the selection of the appropriate AAR scenario that has positive impact on the water table.     

Model-based optimization of source locations for 3D acoustic seismic full-waveform inversion

Besides classical imaging techniques, full-waveform inversion is an increasingly popular method to derive elastic subsurface properties from seismic data. High-resolution velocity models can be obtained, and spatial sampling criteria are less strict than for imaging methods, because the entire information content of the seismic waveforms is used. As high operational costs arise from seismic surveys, the acquirable data volume is often limited by economic criteria. By selecting optimal locations for seismic sources, the information content of the data can be maximized, and the number of sources and thus the acquisition costs can be reduced compared with standard acquisition designs. The computation of such optimized designs for large-size 3D inverse problems at affordable computational cost is challenging. By using a sequential receiver-wise optimization strategy, we substantially reduce the computational requirements of the optimization process. We prove the applicability of this method by means of numerical 3D acoustic examples. Optimized source designs for different receiver patterns are computed for a realistic subsurface model, and the value of the designs is evaluated by comparing checkerboard inversion tests with different acquisition designs. Our examples show that inversion results with higher accuracy can be obtained with the optimized designs, regardless of the number of sources, the number of receivers, or the receiver distribution. Larger benefits of the optimized designs are visible when a sparse receiver geometry is used.