A Tree‐Based Direct Sampling Method for Stochastic Surface and Subsurface Hydrological Modeling

Abstract

Abstract Direct sampling (DS) is a versatile multiple‐point statistics method for generating spatial‐temporal geostatistical models. DS is known for being able to address a variety of training images and hence spatiotemporal stochastic modeling problems. One limitation of DS is the central processing unit (CPU) time, mostly attributed to the use of a random search for patterns in the training image. To improve CPU performance, we propose a tree‐based direct sampling (TDS) method. In our method, training patterns are grouped according to their similarities combined with a clustering tree for fast lookup. Rather than patterns, we store locations in our database. During the simulation, TDS applies a tree‐driven search approach. Two objectives, similarity and diversity, are used to rapidly retrieve patterns and prevent trapping into local optima. We also introduce a way to speed up simulation by means of pasting patterns with adaptive size. The performance of our TDS is investigated using a 2‐D benchmark training image. Moreover, we apply the proposed method to two real cases including gap filling the bedrock topography in Antarctica from radar to better understand subglacial hydrology and creating 3‐D groundwater models in the Danish aquifer system. Based on several quantitative evaluations, we find the proposed TDS is comparable to DS in terms of simulation quality, while significantly saves CPU time.