We are happy that our recent work on the topic of large-scale karst system modeling has been published in the Journal of Hydrology X:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2589915522000256
As part of his Ph.D Lysander developed the large-scale dual-domain Hydrogeosphere model to simulate the complex infiltration and long-term groundwater dynamics within the Western Mountain Aquifer system in Israel/Palestine. Due to its enormous size of about 9000km² the simulations were carried out on our high-performance computing cluster still with total computation times of up to several weeks. The model takes into account the distributed surface infiltration characteristics and a fully-coupled phreatic and partially-saturated flow domain within the vadose zone of several hundred meters. Strong pressure contrasts within the dual-domain model and convergence problems for the extrem end members of the Van Genuchten saturation range were the main issue that we had to face while preparing the final model.
We employ the model as an important tool to understand the short- and long-term infiltration dynamics of the vadose zone that is often neglected, yet strongly contributes to the storage properties of aquifer systems and hence their use for water management practices. In upcoming studies (under review) we demonstrate the ability of the model to predict long-term water resources evolution under consideration of various climate-change induced changes of hydrological boundary conditions.
Western Mountain Aquifer Model
JOHX, Bresinsky et al. (2023)