Publication – Page 2

Publication: Time-Lapse Seismic and Electrical Monitoring of the Vadose Zone during A Controlled Infiltration Experiment at the Ploemeur Hydrological Observatory, France

in Water (April 2020)
by Lara Blazevic, Ludovic Bodet, Sylvain Pasquet, Niklas Linde, Damien Jougnot, Laurent Longuevergne
https://doi.org/10.3390/w12051230

Abstract

The vadose zone is the main host of surface and subsurface water exchange and has important implications for ecosystems functioning, climate sciences, geotechnical engineering, and water availability issues. Geophysics provides a means for investigating the subsurface in a non-invasive way and at larger spatial scales than conventional hydrological sensors. Time-lapse hydrogeophysical applications are especially useful for monitoring flow and water content dynamics. Largely dominated by electrical and electromagnetic methods, such applications increasingly rely on seismic methods as a complementary approach to describe the structure and behavior of the vadose zone. To further explore the applicability of active seismics to retrieve quantitative information about dynamic processes in near-surface time-lapse settings, we designed a controlled water infiltration experiment at the Ploemeur Hydrological Observatory (France) during which successive periods of infiltration were followed by surface-based seismic and electrical resistivity acquisitions. Water content was monitored throughout the experiment by means of sensors at different depths to relate the derived seismic and electrical properties to water saturation changes. We observe comparable trends in the electrical and seismic responses during the experiment, highlighting the utility of the seismic method to monitor hydrological processes and unsaturated flow. Moreover, petrophysical relationships seem promising in providing quantitative results.

The article was selected in the editor’s choice.

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Publication: Effect of solute concentration on the spectral induced polarization response of calcite precipitation

in Geophysical Journal International Volume 220, Issue 2, February 2020, Pages 1187-1196
by Satoshi Izumoto, Johan Alexander Huisman, Yuxin Wu, Harry Vereecken
https://doi.org/10.1093/gji/ggz515

Abstract

Induced calcite precipitation is used in geotechnics to modify the mechanical and hydrological properties of the underground. Laboratory experiments have shown that spectral induced polarization (SIP) measurements can detect calcite precipitation. However, the results of previous studies investigating the SIP response of calcite precipitation were not fully consistent.

This study aims to investigate how the SIP response of calcite depends on solute concentration to explain the differences in SIP response observed in previous studies. A four-phase experiment with SIP measurements on a column filled with sand was performed. In phase I, calcite precipitation was generated for a period of 12 d by co-injecting Na₂CO₃ and CaCl₂ solutions through two different ports. This resulted in a well-defined calcite precipitation front, which was associated with an increase in the imaginary part of the conductivity (⁠σ′′σ′′⁠). In phase II, diluted solutions were injected into the column. This resulted in a clear decrease in σ′′σ′′⁠. In phase III, the injection of the two solutions was stopped while calcite precipitation continued and solute concentrations in the mixing zone decreased. Again, this decreased σ′′σ′′⁠. Finally, the injection rate of the Na₂CO₃ solution was reduced relative to that of the CaCl₂ solution in phase IV. This resulted in a shift of the mixing zone away from the calcite precipitation front established in phase I and an associated decrease of σ′′σ′′⁠.

These results imply that the SIP response of calcite is highly sensitive to the solute concentration near the precipitates, which may explain previously reported conflicting results.

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Publication: A cross-validation framework to extract data features for reducing structural uncertainty in subsurface heterogeneity

in Advances in Water Resources Vol 133 (November 2019)
by Jorge Lopez-Alvis, Thomas Hermans, Frédéric Nguyen
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.advwatres.2019.103427

Abstract

Spatial heterogeneity is a critical issue in the management of water resources. However, most studies do not consider uncertainty at different levels in the conceptualization of the subsurface patterns, for example using one single geological scenario to generate an ensemble of realizations.

In this paper, we represent the spatial uncertainty by the use of hierarchical models in which higher-level parameters control the structure. Reduction of uncertainty in such higher-level structural parameters with observation data may be done by updating the complete hierarchical model, but this is, in general, computationally challenging.

To address this, methods have been proposed that directly update these structural parameters by means of extracting lower dimensional representations of data called data features that are informative and applying a statistical estimation technique using these features.

The difficulty of such methods, however, lies in the choice and design of data features, i.e. their extraction function and their dimensionality, which have been shown to be case-dependent. Therefore, we propose a cross-validation framework to properly assess the robustness of each designed feature and make the choice of the best feature more objective. Such framework aids also in choosing the values for the parameters of the statistical estimation technique, such as the bandwidth for kernel density estimation.

We demonstrate the approach on a synthetic case with cross-hole ground penetrating radar traveltime data and two higher-level structural parameters: discrete geological scenarios and the continuous preferential orientation of channels.

With the best performing features selected according to the cross-validation score, we successfully reduce the uncertainty for these structural parameters in a computationally efficient way. While doing so, we also provide guidelines to design features accounting for the level of knowledge of the studied system.

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Publication: Application of Stable Isotopes of Water to Study Coupled Submarine Groundwater Discharge and Nutrient Delivery

in Water 11:9 (September 2019)
by Carlos Duque, Soren Jessen, Joel Tirado-Conde, Sachin Karan and Peter Engesgaard
https://doi.org/10.3390/w11091842

Abstract

Submarine groundwater discharge (SGD)—including terrestrial freshwater, density-driven flow at the saltwater–freshwater interface, and benthic exchange—can deliver nutrients to coastal areas, generating a negative effect in the quality of marine water bodies. It is recognized that water stable isotopes (¹⁸O and ²H) can be helpful tracers to identify different flow paths and origins of water. Here, we show that they can be also applied when assessing sources of nutrients to coastal areas.

A field site near a lagoon (Ringkøbing Fjord, Denmark) has been monitored at a metric scale to test if stable isotopes of water can be used to achieve a better understanding of the hydrochemical processes taking place in coastal aquifers, where there is a transition from freshwater to saltwater.

Results show that ¹⁸O and ²H differentiate the coastal aquifer into three zones: Freshwater, shallow, and deep saline zones, which corresponded well with zones having distinct concentrations of inorganic phosphorous. The explanation is associated with three mechanisms: (1) Differences in sediment composition, (2) chemical reactions triggered by mixing of different type of fluxes, and (3) biochemical and diffusive processes in the lagoon bed.

The different behaviors of nutrients in Ringkøbing Fjord need to be considered in water quality management. PO₄ underneath the lagoon exceeds the groundwater concentration inland, thus demonstrating an intra-lagoon origin, while NO₃, higher inland due to anthropogenic activity, is denitrified in the study area before reaching the lagoon.

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Publication: Evaluation of Temperature Profiling and Seepage Meter Methods for Quantifying Submarine Groundwater Discharge to Coastal Lagoons: Impacts of Saltwater Intrusion and the Associated Thermal Regime

in Water 11:8 (August 2019)
by Joel Tirado-Conde, Peter Engesgaard, Sachin Karan, Sascha Müller and Carlos Duque
https://doi.org/10.3390/w11081648

Abstract

Surface water-groundwater interactions were studied in a coastal lagoon performing 180 seepage meter measurements and using heat as a tracer in 30 locations along a lagoon inlet. The direct seepage meter measurements were compared with the results from analytical solutions for the 1D heat transport equation in three different scenarios: (1) Homogeneous bulk thermal conductivity (K_e); (2) horizontal heterogeneity in K_e; and (3) horizontal and vertical heterogeneity in K_e.

The proportion of fresh groundwater and saline recirculated lagoon water collected from the seepage experiment was used to infer the location of the saline wedge and its effect on both the seepage meter results and the thermal regime in the lagoon bed, conditioning the use of the thermal methods.

The different scenarios provided the basis for a better understanding of the underlying processes in a coastal groundwater-discharging area, a key factor to apply the best-suited method to characterize such processes. The thermal methods were more reliable in areas with high fresh groundwater discharge than in areas with high recirculation of saline lagoon water.

The seepage meter experiments highlighted the importance of geochemical water sampling to estimate the origin of the exchanged water through the lagoon bed.

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