Introduction to Solute Transport in Heterogeneous Geologic Media

Over the past several decades, analyses of solute migration in aquifers have widely adopted the classical advection-dispersion equation. However, misunderstandings over advection-dispersion concepts, their relationship with the scales of heterogeneity, our observation and interest, and their ensemble mean nature have created furious debates about the concepts' validity. This book provides a unified and comprehensive overview and lucid explanations of the stochastic nature of solute transport processes at different scales. It also presents tools for analyzing solute transport and its uncertainty to meet our needs at different scales. Easy-to-understand physical explanations without complex mathematics make this book an invaluable resource for students, researchers, and professionals performing groundwater quality evaluations, management, and remediation.

Jim Yeh is a Professor in the Department of Hydrology and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Arizona. He is an internationally renowned leader in stochastic/numerical analysis and laboratory/field investigations of flow and solute transport in variably saturated heterogeneous geologic media. He was the lead author of Flow through Heterogeneous Geologic Media (Cambridge University Press, 2015) and pioneered the new generation of aquifer characterization technology: hydraulic tomography.

Yanhui Dong is an Associate Professor in the Key Laboratory of Shale Gas and Geoengineering, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He specializes in fluid flow, reactive transport, and porosity/permeability evolution in porous and fractured geological media with application to the management of groundwater resources, the disposal of high-level radioactive wastes, and the environmental impact assessment of hydrocarbon extraction activities.

Shujun Ye is a Professor in the School of Earth Sciences and Engineering at Nanjing University. She has over twenty years of teaching and research experience in the numerical simulation of groundwater flow, multi-phase flow, mass transport, land subsidence, and Earth fissures. She is the vice-chair of the UNESCO Land Subsidence International Initiative and a member of the Groundwater Technical Committee of the American Geophysical Union. She was the coauthor of Hydrogeology: Strategy of the Disciplines Development in China (Science Press, 2021).