Development of experimental, monitoring, and mathematical methods to quantify water fluxes and transport in heterogeneous aquifer system models

The present study provides experimental and mathematical methods for the understanding and quantification of the water fluxes and solute transport in heterogeneous layered porous groundwater systems characterised by differences in hydraulic conductivities.

On the one hand, multi-layered porous groundwater systems with different hydraulic conductivities are characterised by a heterogeneous flow field, which causes a heterogeneous mass transport. On the other hand, extreme differences in hydraulic conductivities create regions of immobile water which influence the mass transport. These two different structural heterogeneities ¿ variable hydraulic conductivities and immobile/stagnant water zones ¿ were investigated experimentally in different laboratory aquifer models.