Modelling groundwater exchange between the hydrogeological units of Erftscholle, Rurscholle, and Venloer Scholle by coupling large scale groundwater models

摘要

three large-scale groundwater models were developed for the purpose of water resources management during open pit mining activities. the area of interest is a part of the Lower Rhine embayment, the modelling areas cover the geological units ( blocks) of the Venlo terrain, the Rur terrain and the Erft terrain, which are separated by geologic faults. the groundwater interchange between the three blocks is modelled by setting shared boundary conditions at which the interchange was equilibrated in an iterative process. by coupling the three models numerically using finite beam elements, the process of adjusting the boundary conditions can be avoided. the beam elements only model the interchange paths between the blocks, but not the block-separating faults themselves. therefore, this method is appropriate for large-scale modelling, because arbitrary interchange paths can be modelled without describing the faults in detail.