Home Institution: Faculty of Geosciences, Utrecht
Host Institution: University of Malta, Faculty of Geosciences
Duration of stay(days): 15
Objectives: The main goals are to build 3D stochastic geological model of Israel continental shelf (or part of it), to use it as input into a numerical groundwater model to study salinity trends in past glacial-interglacial cycles, to combine open-source tools such as Python scripts and imod-WQ parallel code, and to create a procedure that can be replicated (and adjusted) for other study areas during the OFF-SOURCE project.
Summary of the work:
The STSM was oriented towards an exchange both in applicant’s learning of stochastic geological modelling which is the host institute’s expertise (Task 1.3) as well as in the opposite direction where the applicant can share his knowledge on setting up large scale groundwater salinity models using the imod-WQ parallel code (Task 1.4).
An increased access to parallel codes such as imod-WQ and high-performance computational facilities in recent years enables building large scale 3D groundwater salinity models in coastal regions. Such models can provide valuable information for local, regional, national or even international water management bodies and policy makers by providing a better understanding of past, present and future groundwater conditions in a region of interest. A good understanding and representation (i.e., model) of regional geological settings is a crucial step towards a reliable and more accurate groundwater models. The level of geological information and data varies globally from regions with full 3D geological models (e.g., the Netherlands) to countries where almost no (or very limited amount) geological information (or very limited amount) such as boreholes is openly available. The latter can be circumnavigated by creating a set of stochastic geological models that can be based on varied number and type of geological inputs. However, the difference in groundwater salinity (and overall groundwater flow conditions) between groundwater models based on different geological models with varying degree of complexity and geological data input is not yet known. Therefore, in this STSM we focus on creating a set of geological models ranging from purely conceptual to geological models based on both borehole and geophysical data. To conduct this study, we selected the coastal region of Israel since it is well studied and we have access to large amount of geological data thanks to local contacts and institutes. At present we are still finalising the set of geological model scenarios and are moving towards implementing the imod-WQ Python tools to build the groundwater salinity models.
