After some initial technical difficulties on the first days of virtual sessions a Zoom framework has been used to host the sessions instead of the BBB one. Nevertheless, as both of our sessions were on Wednesday and Friday we fortunately did not experience any problems and could rely on the (by then) experienced assistants that were of great help for the success of the conference. Both of our sessions attracted a surprising high number of visitors considering the new format and the multitude of sessions that were available. Our session on preferential flow in the soil sciences section was of great importance as it was dedicated to scientific achievements of Peter Germann who sadly passed away not long ago. Keith Beven as one of his long-term colleagues and friends gave a very moving talk about his career and their friendship. Our session in the hydrological science section was a great mixture of various aspects, e.g. flows in fractured-porous media, surface-subsurface coupling dynamics and geophysical methods that provided deeper insights into the internal structure and flow processes.

Torsten Noffz, Florian Rüdiger and Lysander Bresinsky gave great presentations about their current work. Torsten presented modeling results that aim at incorporating preferential infiltration processes at catchment scales using commonly available hydraulic data. Florian demonstrated how preferential flows in laboratory-scale sandstone fracture networks can be modeled under consideration of both flow domains and long-term storage capacities of the porous matrix. Lysander presented his recent developments of a large-scale multi-continuum flow model of the Wester Aquifer Basin (Israel) which provides and unprecedented level of detail with respect to the spatial resolution and recovery of physical infiltration and surface-subsurface coupling processes. My own presentation focussed on some recent advancements in understanding the link between dispersive dynamics during infiltration in fracture networks and detailed flow processes within the network at fracture intersections.

All of the pico presentation and uploaded material can be found online:

SSS6.12 Key physical factors and processes affecting non-uniform and preferential flows in porous media

HS8.3.1 Subsurface structures and complex dynamics in heterogeneous soils, fractured-porous media, and at rock–soil interfaces: from laboratory experiments and field recognition to numerical representation

Hope to see you in person at EGU 2022!

AGU 2019, Vienna

vEGU 2021, Virtual