Final Activity Report Summary - HEART (Heterogeneous aquifer reactive transport)
The main objective of the IEF project 'Heterogeneous aquifer reactive transport' (HEART) was to study and model contaminant transport in groundwater flows. The question of contaminant transport in heterogeneous geological media has been one of the most debated problems in hydrological science over the last decades. So far, the models that have been validated on the field are able to describe the transfer of inert contaminants in weakly heterogeneous media (Hess et al., 1992), such as relatively homogeneous soils. However, in the wide majority of situations, the geological structures that control contaminant transport are extremely heterogeneous at all scales (from mm to km) and the transported solutes may undergo chemical reactions. Therefore this project focused more specifically on the development of new methods and models to characterise and model transport in highly heterogeneous media.
During the first year, we investigated the influence of high flow heterogeneity on conservative transport, i.e. without chemical reactions. During the second year, we included interactions between chemical reactions and flow heterogeneity.
The project has been generally very successful. Its results are considered to be important steps for modelling reactive transport in geological media. They are published in the highest impact hydrology and physics journals. It is anticipated that the generated publications will have impact for modelling chemical transport in a broad context including groundwater, oceanic and atmospheric flows.
During the first year, we investigated the influence of high flow heterogeneity on conservative transport, i.e. without chemical reactions. During the second year, we included interactions between chemical reactions and flow heterogeneity.
The project has been generally very successful. Its results are considered to be important steps for modelling reactive transport in geological media. They are published in the highest impact hydrology and physics journals. It is anticipated that the generated publications will have impact for modelling chemical transport in a broad context including groundwater, oceanic and atmospheric flows.