Fluid Flow and Contamination in Porous Media for Hydrological and Water Resources Applications

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue of Hydrology, titled ‘Fluid Flow and Contamination in Porous Media for Hydrological and Water Resources Applications’, invites submissions aiming to enhance our knowledge and understanding of the between hydrochemical parameters interactions and groundwater. The submissions should explore the impact of these parameters on the quality and quantity status of aquifer systems, map the spatio-temporal patterns of driving factors in groundwater processes, and contribute to the formulation of water policies.

Submissions to this Special Issue may cover a range of topics related to any application in which the underlying mechanism is fluid flow in porous networks. Typically, such topics are approached via the use of the following techniques:

1. Physical and/or statistical modelling and/or experiments to estimate aquifer properties and to describe the governing processes.
2. Machine learning (ML) and multivariate statistical tools for classification and estimation purposes.
3. The Optimization techniques of water resources allocation.

Applications where fluid and contaminant movement in porous granular media serves as the fundamental process encompass scenarios like employing hydraulic barriers to control seawater intrusion or introducing fluids to address groundwater pollution and decontaminate groundwater. Applications may be also related to processes such as fluid flow through leaching into groundwater, artificial ground freezing to control groundwater movement, CO₂ sequestration, the fluidization of sands, and alterations in groundwater levels during recharge or discharge, the classification of quality status based on hydrochemical parameters, and the estimation of water quality index via machine learning methods. Additional examples of fluid injection into an aquifer comprise fluid disposal, the artificial recharge of conventional and/or unconventional water resources via the vadose zone, the direct injection of water through wells, and the simulation of fluid transport through porous media via physical and/or surrogate models.

The mechanical and hydraulic properties of the porous medium, including strength, porosity, and hydraulic conductivity, as well as fluid properties (e.g., viscosity and solids concentration) and design parameters (e.g., flow rate and boundary conditions), play a significant role in these applications.

Specific applications of these techniques include, but are not limited to, the following:

• The classification of sampling locations via hydrochemical data.
• The identification of suitable regions for groundwater recharge.
• Aquifer storage and recovery.
• The subsurface transportation of fluids.
• Hydraulic barriers design for seawater intrusion.
• Subsurface dams or cut-off walls design to control seawater intrusion.
• The decontamination of groundwater and soil.
• Artificial ground freezing.
• The cementation of porous media to generate the specimens of customizable properties.
• The geological storage of carbon dioxide.
• Biological and biochemical processes in porous media.

Dr. Charalampos Konstantinou
Dr. Constantinos Panagiotou
Dr. Amimul Ahsan
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Hydrology is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.