One of the most significant challenges faced by hydrogeologic modelers is the disparity between the spatial and temporal scales at which fundamental flow, transport, and reaction processes can best be understood and quantified (e.g., microscopic to pore scales and seconds to days) and at which practical model predictions are needed (e.g., plume to aquifer scales and years to centuries). While the multiscale nature of hydrogeologic problems is widely recognized, technological limitations in computation and characterization restrict most practical modeling efforts to fairly coarse representations of heterogeneous properties and processes. For some modern problems, the necessary level of simplification is such that model parameters may lose physical meaning and model predictive ability is questionable for any conditions other than those to which the model was calibrated. Recently, there has been broad interest across a wide range of scientific and engineering disciplines in simulation approaches that more rigorously account for the multiscale nature of systems of interest. In this article, we review a number of such approaches and propose a classification scheme for defining different types of multiscale simulation methods and those classes of problems to which they are most applicable. Our classification scheme is presented in terms of a flowchart (Multiscale Analysis Platform), and defines several different motifs of multiscale simulation. Within each motif, the member methods are reviewed and example applications are discussed. We focus attention on hybrid multiscale methods, in which two or more models with different physics described at fundamentally different scales are directly coupled within a single simulation. Very recently these methods have begun to be applied to groundwater flow and transport simulations, and we discuss these applications in the context of our classification scheme. As computational and characterization capabilities continue to improve, we envision that hybrid multiscale modeling will become more common and also a viable alternative to conventional single-scale models in the near future.

Soils lie at the interface between the atmosphere and the subsurface and are a key component that control ecosystem services, food production, and many other processes at the Earth’s surface. There is a long-established convention for identifying and mapping soils by texture. These readily available, georeferenced soil maps and databases are used widely in environmental sciences. Here, we show that these traditional soil classifications can be inappropriate, contributing to bias and uncertainty in applications from slope stability to water resource management. We suggest a new approach to soil classification, with a detailed example from the science of hydrology. Hydrologic simulations based on common meteorological conditions were performed using HYDRUS-1D, spanning textures identified by the United States Department of Agriculture soil texture triangle. We consider these common conditions to be: drainage from saturation, infiltration onto a drained soil, and combined infiltration and drainage events. Using a k-means clustering algorithm, we created soil classifications based on the modeled hydrologic responses of these soils. The hydrologic-process-based classifications were compared to those based on soil texture and a single hydraulic property, Ks. Differences in classifications based on hydrologic response versus soil texture demonstrate that traditional soil texture classification is a poor predictor of hydrologic response. We then developed a QGIS plugin to construct soil maps combining a classification with georeferenced soil data from the Natural Resource Conservation Service. The spatial patterns of hydrologic response were more immediately informative, much simpler, and less ambiguous, for use in applications ranging from trafficability to irrigation management to flood control. The ease with which hydrologic-process-based classifications can be made, along with the improved quantitative predictions of soil responses and visualization of landscape function, suggest that hydrologic-process-based classifications should be incorporated into environmental process models and can be used to define application-specific maps of hydrologic function.

Methane leakage due to compromised hydrocarbon well integrity can lead to impaired groundwater quality. Here we use a three‐dimensional, multiphase (vapor and aqueous), multicomponent (methane, water, salt), numerical model (TOUGH2 EOS7C) to investigate hydrogeological conditions that could result in groundwater contamination from natural gas wellbore leakage that migrates upward toward a freshwater aquifer. The conceptual model used for the simulations assumes methane leakage at 20–30 m below groundwater. We perform 180 simulations for a sensitivity analysis, examining (1) multiphase flow parameters related to storage, capillarity, and relative permeability, including porosity (ϕ), initial fluid‐phase saturation (SL), and van Genuchten n and α, (2) geostatistical variations in intrinsic permeability (ki), and (3) methane source‐zone pressure. Simulated mean ki values are 10−18 and 10−13 m2 with variances of 1 and 5 m4. Simulated source‐zone pressures range from just over ambient hydrostatic pressure at the depth of leakage (100 kPa) to the maximum pressure that steel casings are commonly rated to withstand (20,340 kPa). ki, initial SL, ϕ, and van Genuchten's n and α were the most important parameters in determining the volume of methane reaching groundwater during a given time period. Multiphase parameterization of formations underlying freshwater aquifers and overlying hydrocarbon production zones is fundamental to assessing aquifer vulnerability to methane leakage.

Methane leakage from hydrocarbon wells plays an important role in the groundwater‐quality impacts of hydrocarbon development and presents a more likely hazard than hydraulic fracturing or formation fluids. Methane released from contaminated water wells has been linked with combustion risks and degraded water quality. Potentially, methane can serve as a precursor to other fluids associated with hydrocarbon extraction, such as volatile organics. In this review, we surveyed studies relating to contamination of drinking‐water aquifers by methane gas from leaking hydrocarbon wells. Challenges associated with linking methane in groundwater to hydrocarbon extraction are identified, highlighting the need for groundwater‐quality and well‐integrity databases. Science‐based policy recommendations are made, including deeper surface casings and greater cement coverage for wells with deviated wellbores, remediation of faulty abandoned wells, and increased gas‐migration monitoring. We suggest four hypotheses to quantify risks to groundwater quality from methane leakage. First, differentiation between thermogenic methane occurring in groundwater due to natural migration and thermogenic methane present due to hydrocarbon development can be used to alleviate the need for baseline measurements of methane in groundwater. Second, methane newly discovered in freshwater aquifers is unlikely to have originated from leaks beginning decades ago. Third, pertaining to the zone separating methane leakage from groundwater, relative permeability will have a larger impact on plume diameter than heterogeneity in intrinsic permeability. Fourth, thermogenic methane in groundwater will serve as a precursor to benzene, toluene, ethybenzene, and xylene (BTEX) under conditions where methane and BTEX coexist in a hydrocarbon reservoir and leakage is transported primarily in the aqueous phase. This article is categorized under: Engineering Water > Sustainable Engineering of Water Science of Water > Water Quality