Spatial variability and uncertainty in groundwater flow parameters: A geostatistical approach

Abstract

A geostatistical approach is proposed for characterizing the uncertainty about the transmissivity field of an aquifer and analyzing its effect on predicted head values. A new methodology is developed, which couples conditional simulation and groundwater flow modeling. Conditional simulation is used for generating different two‐dimensional transmissivity fields that all have the same spatial variability as the true field and are consistent with the measured T values at well locations. Two case studies are presented in order to illustrate the method, and conclusions are drawn for future investigation.