Annual-Report-2019

KNOWLEDGE’S FRONTIERS IN WATER
UNSATURATED HYDROGEOSYSTEMS: INTERFACE
DYNAMICS, HETEROGENEITIES & COUPLINGS
LE STUDIUM WORKSHOP
Dr Mohamed Azaroual
ARD 2020 PIVOTS PROGRAMME
Earth Sciences Institute of Orléans (ISTO)
/ University of Orléans, CNRS, French
Geological Survey (BRGM) - FR
Prof. Lionel Mercury
ARD 2020 PIVOTS PROGRAMME
Earth Sciences Institute of Orléans (ISTO)
/ University of Orléans, CNRS, French
Geological Survey (BRGM) - FR
The understanding of the behavior of the Critical Zone (CZ) in response to
the global changes requires the integration of geological, geochemical
and biological cycles and their couplings at different and relevant timespace
scales. The O-ZNS platform (Observatory of the Vadoze Zone (VZ)
of the Beauce carbonate aquifer) is a part of the PIVOTS regional program
(Innovation Platforms for the
valorisation and optimization
of environmental technologies:
https://plateformes-pivots.eu/
) with a main objective directed
to the understanding of mass
and heat transfer mechanisms
and the fate of pollutants in the
CZ compartments. The O-ZNS
observatory consists of a well
prospecting the entire thickness of
the VZ up to the water table, with a
finite diameter of ~ 4 m and a depth
of ~ 20 m. The site is located in the
Beauce region, in a heterogeneous
carbonaceous formation, with
a typical sequence (from top to
bottom): ground/cryoturbated
limestone / limestone marl / fractured micritic limestone. The well will be
equipped with environmental monitoring, soil, and subsoil imaging tools in
order to understand reactive transport phenomena and exchanges of mass
and heat between phases (water - rock – gas) throughout the continuum
«Soil - Unsaturated Zone - Capillary Fringe - Aquifer.
The field acquisitions of long-term environmental data target are crucial to
identify the fingerprints of complex and coupled physical, physicochemical
and microbiological processes as well as their role in fixation, degradation and
/ or transfer of pollutants in the VZ. This obviously requires multidisciplinary
skills, complementary methods and result joint interpretations as well as
renewed theoretical approaches. The development of O-ZNS platform aims
to build a large and sustainable partnerships (academic, industrial, state
agencies, etc.), at national and international scales, in a collaborative way
that guarantees the continuity between the academic research, industrial
needs and the academic training of young engineers and researchers.
Earth, Ecology & Environment Sciences 2019
Beyond the equipment itself, O-ZNS aims also at becoming a place to
discuss the scientific issues related to unsaturated geological media. This
can be either naturally developed within the CZ compartments, or created
by industrial purposes at various depths in the underground for CO 2
and
energy vectors storage and extraction of non-wetting energy substances
where the active interfaces between phases play a key role in mass and
energy exchanges inducing important petrophysical evolutions of targeted
reservoirs and geological structures.
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