Physically Based Groundwater Vulnerability Assessment Using Sensitivity Analysis Methods

Beaujean, Jean; Lemieux, Jean‐Michel; Dassargues, Alain; Therrien, René; Brouyère, Serge

doi:10.1111/gwat.12132

Cited by 14 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…Aquifer analogues consist of centimetreresolution data obtained from detailed investigation of geological formations at outcrops. Although aquifer analogues are rare, they have been widely used in different subsurface fields (Höyng et al, 2015;Beaujean et al, 2014;Finkel et al, 2016). The Herten analogue is a well known and rigorously generated 2D outcrop (Bayer et al, 2015a).…”

Section: Herten Aquifer Data Set Descriptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

RHEA v1.0: Enabling fully coupled simulations with hydro-geomechanical heterogeneity

Bastias¹,

Rau

Blum

2021

Geosci. Model Dev.

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Abstract. Realistic modelling of tightly coupled hydro-geomechanical processes is relevant for the assessment of many hydrological and geotechnical applications. Such processes occur in geologic formations and are influenced by natural heterogeneity. Current numerical libraries offer capabilities and physics couplings that have proven to be valuable in many geotechnical fields like gas storage, rock fracturing and Earth resources extraction. However, implementation and verification of the full heterogeneity of subsurface properties using high-resolution field data in coupled simulations has not been done before. We develop, verify and document RHEA (Real HEterogeneity App), an open-source, fully coupled, finite-element application capable of including element-resolution hydro-geomechanical properties in coupled simulations. To extend current modelling capabilities of the Multiphysics Object-Oriented Simulation Environment (MOOSE), we added new code that handles spatially distributed data of all hydro-geomechanical properties. We further propose a simple yet powerful workflow to facilitate the incorporation of such data to MOOSE. We then verify RHEA with analytical solutions in one and two dimensions and propose a benchmark semi-analytical problem to verify heterogeneous systems with sharp gradients. Finally, we demonstrate RHEA's capabilities with a comprehensive example including realistic properties. With this we demonstrate that RHEA is a verified open-source application able to include complex geology to perform scalable, fully coupled, hydro-geomechanical simulations. Our work is a valuable tool to assess challenging real-world hydro-geomechanical systems that may include different levels of complexity like heterogeneous geology and sharp gradients produced by contrasting subsurface properties.

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Section: Herten Aquifer Data Set Descriptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

RHEA v1.0: Enabling fully coupled simulations with hydro-geomechanical heterogeneity

Bastias¹,

Rau

Blum

2021

Geosci. Model Dev.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Although aquifer analogs are rare, they have been widely used in different subsurface fields (Höyng et al, 2015;Beaujean et al, 2014;Finkel et al, 2016). The Herten analog is a well-known and rigorously generated 2D outcrop (Bayer et al, 2015).…”

Section: Herten Aquifer Dataset Descriptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

RHEA v1.0: Enabling fully coupled simulations with hydro-geomechanical heterogeneity

Bastias¹,

Rau²,

Blum³

2021

Preprint

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Abstract. Realistic modelling of tightly coupled hydro-geomechanical processes is relevant for the assessment of many hydrological and geotechnical applications. Such processes occur in geologic formations and are influenced by natural heterogeneity. Current numerical libraries offer capabilities and physics couplings that have proven to be valuable in many geotechnical fields like gas storage, rock fracturing and Earth resources extraction. However, implementation and verification of full heterogeneity of subsurface properties using high resolution field data in coupled simulations has not been done before. We develop, verify and document RHEA (Real HEterogeneity App), an open-source, fully coupled, finite-element application capable of including element-resolution hydro-geomechanical properties in coupled simulations. We propose a simple, yet powerful workflow to allow the incorporation of fully distributed hydro-geomechanical properties. We then verify the code with analytical solutions in one and two dimensions, and propose a benchmark semi-analytical problem to verify heterogeneous systems with sharp gradients. Finally, we demonstrate RHEA's capabilities with a comprehensive example including realistic properties. With this we demonstrate that RHEA is a verified open-source application able to include complex geology to perform scalable, fully coupled, hydro-geomechanical simulations. Our work is a valuable tool to assess challenging real world hydro-geomechanical systems that may include different levels of complexity like heterogeneous geology with several time and spatial scales and sharp gradients produced by contrasting subsurface properties.

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“…Groundwater vulnerability might be also considered in the framework of the system of environmental indicators, known as the DPSIR model (Driving forces, Pressures, State, Impacts, and Responses) (EEA, 2003;Kristensen, 2004) applied for the integrated analysis of the social-economic and environmental aspects in the field of sustainability assessment (Bottero, 2011). An example of such an approach was presented by Beaujean et al (2014), based on vulnerability assessment of the calculation of a series of sensitivity coefficients for a user-defined groundwater state (S), for which several physically based indicators, which relate impacts (I) to pressures (P), were proposed.…”

Section: Concept Of Groundwater Vulnerabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Indeed, as appears from the preceding discussion, groundwater vulnerability has not been defined as a physical property that could be unambiguously quantified by application of a standardized procedure. Recently, there is an increasing understanding of the need for the stricter, physically based, and operational understanding of vulnerability based on the quantitative representation of the physical processesthattakeplaceinthehydrogeological systems (Focazio et al, 2002;Popescu et al, 2008;Yuetal.,2010;Beaujean et al, 2014). It needs to be emphasized that in the concept of vulnerability, only qualitative (chemical) aspects of the water body are assessed.…”

Section: Concept Of Groundwater Vulnerabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Toward operational methods for the assessment of intrinsic groundwater vulnerability: A review

Wachniew

Żurek

Stumpp

et al. 2016

Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Technology

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consumption and groundwater-dependent ecosystems as two receptors with respect to which groundwater should be protected from deterioration and chemical pollution. From this perspective it is even more appropriate to assess groundwater vulnerability not for the whole groundwater body but for particular receptors like abstraction wells or groundwater-dependent ecosystems.A fundamental difficulty in assessing groundwater vulnerability is the complexity of groundwater systems. The intertwined processes of groundwater flow and pollutant transport occur in three spatial dimensions, in the inherently heterogeneous and anisotropic geological media, over a great range of distances and times, and are typically nonstationary. Also, the pressures on groundwater quality have complex or unknown spatial and temporal distribution characteristics. The vulnerability of a particular groundwater receptor is therefore a complex function of the following:spatial and temporal distribution of pressures, for example, location of source areas of pollution, pollutant loads, fertilization levels, location of pumping wells and their pumping regimes, patterns of land-use change; distribution of water flow paths in the groundwater body; dilution, retardation, attenuation, and transformations of contaminants in the subsurface that affect their levels at the receptor; rates at which impacts of pressures propagate along the flow paths, that is, time lags associated with the responses of the receptor to the commencement or cessation of pressures. The task of assessing groundwater vulnerability can thus be seen as essentially equivalent to predicting contaminant concentrations within the groundwater body or at the groundwater receptors. A direct and comprehensive assessment of groundwater vulnerability is in most cases not feasible due to insufficient availability of monitoring data and the inherent complexity of groundwater systems. Instead, groundwater vulnerability indicators are defined, quantified, and mapped in order to reflect the actual or to predict the potential severity of human-induced deterioration in groundwater quality. Furthermore, because of time lags inherent to the groundwater flow and contaminant transport, responses in groundwater quality to changes in contaminant inputs may not be visible over short periods of time of the order of years that are typically considered by policy makers, ground-water managers, and the general public. Setting up of deadlines for the improve-ment of surface water quality-as, for example, in programs of measures required by the Water Framework Directive-involves consideration of such time lags (Witczak et al., 2007;Fenton et al., 2011;Aquilina et al., 2012;Hamilton, 2012; Herrman et al., 2012; Stumpp et al., not published yet).This work presents different understandings of the groundwater vulnerability concept and gives an overview of methods for assessing the intrinsic vulnerability. Among those, only the physically based methods can provide physically meaningful and operational indicators of the i...

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Physically Based Groundwater Vulnerability Assessment Using Sensitivity Analysis Methods

Cited by 14 publications

References 20 publications

RHEA v1.0: Enabling fully coupled simulations with hydro-geomechanical heterogeneity

RHEA v1.0: Enabling fully coupled simulations with hydro-geomechanical heterogeneity

RHEA v1.0: Enabling fully coupled simulations with hydro-geomechanical heterogeneity

Toward operational methods for the assessment of intrinsic groundwater vulnerability: A review

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