Short review of some methods for groundwater flow assessment in fractured rock masses

Abstract

Water flow in fractured rock masses is a key issue in many typical environmental and engineering problems. Still, aquifers in fractured rocks are devoted much less attention than those in porous media, as they are considered less important from the point of view of water research, but also because rock masses are a very complex medium (heterogeneous, anisotropic and discontinuous), and therefore its modelling is a quite hard task. This paper proposes a review on recent researches concerning groundwater flow in fractured rock masses. In particular, the main issues involved in the reconstruction of the hydrogeological conceptual model are addressed, mainly for fissured and partly for karsts rocks, and the following choice of the most suitable modeling approach is critically discussed, through applicative examples.