Abstract:
Urban areas are a focus of increasing conflict
with regard to water use and water protection. Half of the
world’s population and about 73% of Europeans live in
cities. In Europe numerous urban areas are located in flood
plains of the rivers. Sedimentary media (alluvial sediments,
deltas, etc.) form particular frequently occurring
environments within these valley fills. However,
sedimentary media are normally significant aquifers due to
their high permeability, storage and management ability,
interaction with surface water, etc.
A reliable management of the hydraulic resources in urban
areas can be performed only by using modeling. The
models can provide accurate results if they correctly
reproduce the hydrogeological processes. Nevertheless, it is
well-known that sedimentary media are normally
extraordinarily heterogeneous, which is a paradox as it
leads to simplified models based on the homogeneity of
large zones characterizing the medium. Tools and
methodologies should allow the representation in three
dimensions of the of the geological record heterogeneity
and its spatial distribution as well as the interaction of the
groundwater with the urban infrastructure (water supply
and sewer systems, drainage systems of basements, subway
network, parking lots, etc.). The paper will focus on the
main aspects of these instruments, which are currently
developed within a national research project, that have to
support the 3D hydrogeological modeling.
Within this project is developed a software platform
containing methodologies and tools that facilitate the
integration of the 3D geological models in sedimentary
media into the hydrogeological modeling of flow and
contaminant transport. This is composed by a geospatial
database and a set of tools allowing accurate stratigraphical
analysis. The geospatial database is used for the
management of a large amount of different data types
coming from different sources (geophysical, geological,
hydraulic, and others). Its structure allows storing accurate
and very detailed geological core description that can be
straightforwardly generalized and further upscaled. An
application of this platform is currently developed for the
Moesic aquifer system (Bucharest city Region). This
involves: (1) 3D geological characterization – application
of the methodologies and developments suggested, (2) 3D
parameterization of the Moesic aquifer system (Fratesti
strata, Mostistea, and Colentina), (3) Management of the
hydrogeological data base (tests and hydraulic parameters,
level data, hydrochemical data, etc.), (4) Hydraulic
definition/parameterization of facies and other geological
concepts and, (5) Interaction between underground works
and hydrogeology.