Coming Soon!
A modern conceptualization of contaminant transport in subsurface media is predicated on heterogeneous hydrogeologic settings. This textbook departs from prior works by embracing heterogeneity in physical properties governing transport, diffusion as a critical process, dispersion as a weak process, natural assimilation processes, and provides alternatives to widely employed advective dispersive models. The primary conceptualization is transmissive zones interspersed with low permeability (low-k) zones. Transport in transmissive zones is dominated by advection with weak hydrodynamic mixing and diffusion. Transport in low-k zones is dominated by diffusion with slow advection. Exchanges between transmissive and low k zones are dominated by diffusion. Reactions, that can be consequentially different in transmissive and low-k zones, modify transport. Conceptualizations built on idealized heterogeneous representative volumes provide an improved basis for understanding and managing anthropogenic contaminants in the subsurface. The intended audience is college students and practitioners with a basic knowledge of hydrogeology interested in managing contaminants in natural subsurface media.