Emerging Challenges and “Weird” Models in Hydrogeology

Abstract:

Hydrogeological research and practice have dealt in recent years with problems related to groundwater quantity and quality. Models have been used for water flow, solute transport and, at most, chemical reactions, which were required to address issues such as water resources assessment, artificial recharge, seawater intrusion, impact of public works, and the like. “Weird” (i.e., outside the mainstream practical hydrogeology, restricted to academy) models were virtually restricted to spatial variability of permeability and the problems it imposed on transport (i.e., scale dependence of dispersivity, mixing, etc.). Yet, a broad gap has grown between academy and practical hydrogeology. Energy demands have created a new suite of problems that need to be solved to address CO2 storage, shale gas impacts or enhanced geothermal systems. These require solving mechanical and thermal equations. We contend, and will use example from our own work for illustration, that (1) these problems are not so new (hydrogeologists started working on them some 40 years ago), (2) hydrogeological tools are as needed to solve energy problems as they were for water problems (permeability remains the key parameter for most of them), (3) collaboration with sister Earth Sciences remains essential (the problems are highly coupled and no one can master all disciplines involved). The real challenge is not so much whether hydrogeology can address these problems, it can, as whether hydrogeologists can reduce the gap between academy and practice, which will be strongly stretched by these emerging problems.