Premium
Debates—Stochastic subsurface hydrology from theory to practice: Why stochastic modeling has not yet permeated into practitioners?
Author(s) -
SanchezVila X.,
FernàndezGarcia D.
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
water resources research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.863
H-Index - 217
eISSN - 1944-7973
pISSN - 0043-1397
DOI - 10.1002/2016wr019302
Subject(s) - hydrogeology , nondeterministic algorithm , stochastic modelling , relevance (law) , stochastic process , computer science , field (mathematics) , management science , operations research , geology , mathematics , engineering , geotechnical engineering , theoretical computer science , statistics , law , political science , pure mathematics
We address modern topics of stochastic hydrogeology from their potential relevance to real modeling efforts at the field scale. While the topics of stochastic hydrogeology and numerical modeling have become routine in hydrogeological studies, nondeterministic models have not yet permeated into practitioners. We point out a number of limitations of stochastic modeling when applied to real applications and comment on the reasons why stochastic models fail to become an attractive alternative for practitioners. We specifically separate issues corresponding to flow, conservative transport, and reactive transport. The different topics addressed are emphasis on process modeling, need for upscaling parameters and governing equations, relevance of properly accounting for detailed geological architecture in hydrogeological modeling, and specific challenges of reactive transport. We end up by concluding that the main responsible for nondeterministic models having not yet permeated in industry can be fully attributed to researchers in stochastic hydrogeology.