Research

Hereinafter are listed some of the research themes I have been working on. If you want to know more, you can read the references, and also contact me .

HR aquifer analogs

Herten aquifer analog

High-resolution reconstruction of three-dimensional sedimentary aquifer analogs.

For more info:

  • Bayer, P.; Huggenberger, P.; Renard, P. & Comunian, A. Three-dimensional high resolution fluvio-glacial aquifer analog: Part 1: Field study - Journal of Hydrology, 2011, 405, 1-9. DOI: 10.1016/j.jhydrol.2011.03.038

  • Comunian, A.; Renard, P.; Straubhaar, J. & Bayer, P. Three-dimensional high resolution fluvio-glacial aquifer analog - Part 2: Geostatistical modeling - Journal of Hydrology, 2011, 405, 10-23. DOI: 10.1016/j.jhydrol.2011.03.037

  • Kessler, T.; Comunian, A.; Oriani, F.; Renard, P.; Nilsson, B.; Klint, K. & Bjerg, P. Modeling Fine-Scale Geological Heterogeneity - Examples of Sand Lenses in Tills - Groundwater, Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 2013, 51, 692-705. DOI: 10.1111/j.1745-6584.2012.01015.x - pdf

  • dell’Arciprete, D.; Bersezio, R.; Felletti, F.; Giudici, M.; Comunian, A. & Renard, P. Comparison of three geostatistical methods for hydrofacies simulation: a test on alluvial sediments - Hydrogeology Journal, Springer Berlin / Heidelberg, 2012, 20, 299-311 DOI: 10.1007/s10040-011-0808-0 - pdf

  • Bayer, P.; Comunian, A.; Höyng, D. & Mariethoz, G. High resolution multi-facies realizations of sedimentary reservoir and aquifer analogs - Scientific Data, Nature publishing group, 2015, 2 DOI: 10.1038/sdata.2015.33 - pdf

  • A.Comunian, L.De Micheli, C.Lazzati, F.Felletti, F.Giacobbo, M.Giudici, R.Bersezio (2015) “Hierarchical simulation of aquifer heterogeneity: implications of different simulation settings on solute transport modeling” (2015) - Hydrogeology Journal DOI: 10.1007/s10040-015-1343-1 - pdf

  • A.Pickel, J.D.Frechette, A.Comunian and G.S.Weissmann (2015) “Building a Better Training Image with Digital Outcrop Models” - Journal of Hydrology 531(part 1) DOI: 10.1016/j.jhydrol.2015.08.049

3D MPS with 2D slices

An application of the s2Dcd

Development of approaches to obtain 3D multiple-point statistics (MPS) simulations from 2D slices (i.e. outcrops). For this purpose we developed a wrapper code that, using an external MPS simulation engine, implements the sequential 2D simulation with conditioning data (s2Dcd) algorithm.

For more info:

  • Comunian, A.; Renard, P. & Straubhaar, J. 3D multiple-point statistics simulation using 2D training images Computers & Geosciences, 2012, 40, 49-65 DOI: 10.1016/j.cageo.2011.07.009

  • Kessler, T.; Comunian, A.; Oriani, F.; Renard, P.; Nilsson, B.; Klint, K. & Bjerg, P. Modeling Fine-Scale Geological Heterogeneity - Examples of Sand Lenses in Tills - Groundwater, Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 2013, 51, 692-705. DOI: 10.1111/j.1745-6584.2012.01015.x - pdf

  • N.Gueting, J.Caers, A.Comunian, J.Vanderborght, A.Englert, Reconstruction of Three-Dimensional Aquifer Heterogeneity from Two-Dimensional Geophysical Data - Mathematical Geosciences DOI: 10.1007/s11004-017-9694-x - pdf

Probability aggregation methods

Probability aggregation

Very often, in geosciences, there is the need to aggregate probabilistic information coming from different sources. For example, the probability of a event \(E\) “rain tomorrow” given the information coming from two different data sets or models \(P(E|D_1)\) and \(P(E|D_2)\). Then, the challenge is to find a good approximation for \(P(E|D_1,D_2)\). In the following reference we try to provide some guidelines to tackle this problem.

For more info:

  • Allard, D.; Comunian, A. & Renard, P. Probability aggregation methods in geoscience - Mathematical Geosciences, Springer-Verlag, 2012, 44, 545-581 DOI: 10.1007/s11004-012-9396-3 - pdf

Simulation of meander centerlines

Probability aggregation

The concept of training image goes beyond the “classical” 2D pixel maps or 3D geocellular models. For example, one can consider the orientation of a meander centerline as a 1D training image, which can then be used to simulate meanders with similar statistical properties.

For more info:

  • Mariethoz, G.; Comunian, A.; Irarrazaval, I. & Renard, P. Analog-based meandering channel simulation Water Resources Research, 2014, 50, 836-854, DOI: 10.1002/2013WR013730 - pdf




Inverse problems in hydrogeology

Hybrid inversion method

For more info:

  • A.Comunian, M.Giudici “Hybrid Inversion Method to Estimate Hydraulic Transmissivity by Combining Multiple-Point Statistics and a Direct Inversion Method” - Mathematical Geosciences - DOI: 10.1007/s11004-018-9727-0 - pdf - link

  • A.Comunian, M.Giudici “Improving the robustness of the Comparison Model Method for the identification of hydraulic transmissivities” - Computers & Geosciences - DOI: 10.1016/j.cageo.2021.104705 - pre-print









Time series reconstruction/analysis

Evaporation reconstruction

For more info:

  • A.Comunian, M.Giudici, L.Landoni, S.Pugnaghi “Improving Bowen-ratio estimates of evaporation using a rejection criterion and multiple-point statistics” - Journal of Hydrology - DOI: 10.1016/j.jhydrol.2018.05.050