Stochastic estimation and simulation of heterogeneities important for transport of contaminants in the unsaturated zone

摘要

The background for this thesis was the increasing risk of contamination of water resources and the requirement of groundwater protection. Specifically, the thesis implements procedures to estimate and simulate observed heterogeneities in the unsaturated zone and evaluates what impact the heterogeneities may have on the water flow. The broad goal was to establish a reference model with high spatial resolution within a small area and to condition the model using spatially frequent field observations, and the Moreppen site at Oslo's new major airport was used for this purpose. An approach is presented for the use of ground penetrating radar in which indicator kriging is used to estimate continuous stratigraphical architecture. Kriging is also used to obtain 3D images of soil moisture. A simulation algorithm based on the Karhunen-Loeve expansion is evaluated and a modification of the Karhunen-Loeve simulation is suggested that makes it possible to increase the size of the simulation lattice. This is obtained by kriging interpolation of the eigenfunctions. 250 refs., 40 figs., 7 tabs.