Some current methods to represent the heterogeneity of natural media in hydrogeology

We have known for a long time that the material properties of the subsurface are highly variable in space. We have learned that this variability is due to the extreme complexity and variation with time of processes responsible for the formation of the earth's crust, from plate tectonics to erosion, sediment transport, and deposition, as well as to mechanical, climatic, and diagenetic effects. As geologists, we learned how to "read" this complex history in the rocks and how to try to extrapolate in space what we have understood. As physicists, we then learned that to study flow processes in such media we must apply the laws of continuum mechanics. As mathematicians using analytical methods, we learned that we must simplify by dividing this complex continuum into a small number of units, such as aquifers and aquitards, and describe their properties by (constant) equivalent values. In recent years, as numerical modelers, we learned that we now have the freedom to "discretize" this complex reality and describe it as an ensemble of small homogeneous boxes of continuous media, each of which can have different properties. How do we use this freedom? Is there a need for it? If the answer is "yes," how can we assign different rock-property values to thousands or even millions of such little boxes in our models, to best represent reality, and include confidence levels for each selected rock property? As a tribute to Professor Eugene S. Simpson, with whom the first author of this paper often discussed these questions, we present an overview of three techniques that focus on one property, the rock permeability. We explain the motivation for describing spatial variability and illustrate how to do so by the geostatistical method, the Boolean method, and the genetic method. We discuss their advantages and disadvantages and indicate their present state of development. This is an active field of research and space is limited, so the review is certain to be incomplete, but we hope that it will encourage the development of new ideas and approaches.     

Knowledge based systems for risk assessment of the subsurface of contaminated sites

Computer-based risk evaluation methods are practical tools to compare automatically and evaluate contaminated sites. HYDRISK is an example of adequate knowledge-based systems: HYDRISK evaluates hydrogeological properties and chemical criteria relevant to contaminant transport with respect to the necessary remedial actions. It works at a high investigative level and enables geologists and engineers to draw differentiated conclusions for selecting remediation methods for the contaminated site. HYDRISK emphasizes space and time dependent aspects of the contaminant transport. It is supported by a geographic information system (GIS) to display the evaluation results. Some ideas on considering the spatiotemporal variability of relevant parameters by means of geostatistical methods and numerical models will be given.     

A dual-continuum model (TOUGH2) for characterizing flow and discharge in a mechanically disrupted sandstone overburden

Underground hard coal mining usually disrupts the mechanical equilibrium of rock sequences, creating fractures within minor permeable rocks. The present study employs a dual-continuum model to assess how both fractured and porous sandstone media influence the percolation process in postmining setups. To test the approach, the software TOUGH2 was employed to simulate laminar fluid flow in the unsaturated zone of the Ibbenbüren Westfield mining area. Compared to other coal mining districts in Germany, this area is delineated by the topography and local geology, leading to a well-defined hydrogeological framework. Results reveal good agreement between the calculated and measured mine water discharge for the years 2008 and 2017. The constructed model was capable of reproducing the bimodal flow behavior of the adit by coupling a permeable fractured continuum with a low-conductivity rock matrix. While flow from the fractured continuum results in intense discharge events during winter months, the rock matrix determines a smooth discharge limb in summer. The study also evaluates the influence of individual and combined model parameters affecting the simulated curve. A detailed sensitivity analysis displayed the absolute and relative permeability function parameters of both continua among the most susceptible variables. However, a strong a priori knowledge of the value ranges for the matrix continuum helps to reduce the model ambiguity. This allowed for calibration of some of the fractured medium parameters for which sparse or variable data were available. However, the inclusion of the transport component and acquisition of more site-specific data is recommended to reduce their uncertainty.

     

An ArcGIS® Approach to Include Tectonic Structures in Point Data Regionalization

Point data derived from drilling logs must often be regionalized. However, aquifers may show discontinuous surface structures, such as the offset of an aquitard caused by tectonic faults. One main challenge has been to incorporate these structures into the regionalization process of point data. We combined ordinary kriging and inverse distance weighted (IDW) interpolation to account for neotectonic structures in the regionalization process. The study area chosen to test this approach is the largest porous aquifer in Austria. It consists of three basins formed by neotectonic events and delimited by steep faults with a vertical offset of the aquitard up to 70 m within very short distances. First, ordinary kriging was used to incorporate the characteristic spatial variability of the aquitard location by means of a variogram. The tectonic faults could be included into the regionalization process by using breaklines with buffer zones. All data points inside the buffer were deleted. Last, IDW was performed, resulting in an aquitard map representing the discontinuous surface structures. This approach enables one to account for such surfaces using the standard software package ArcGIS^®; therefore, it could be adopted in many practical applications.