PILOT POINT METHODOLOGY FOR AUTOMATED CALIBRATION OF AN ENSEMBLE OF CONDITIONALLY SIMULATED TRANSMISSIVITY FIELDS .2. APPLICATION

This paper, the second in a two-part series, presents the application of a methodology to assess spatial variability of the transmissivities within a regional aquifer in the vicinity of the Waste Isolation Pilo t Plant (WIPP), the Culebra dolomite. An innovative aspect of this met hodology is the generation of an ensemble of conditional simulations o f the transmissivity field which preserve the statistical moments and spatial correlation structure of the measured transmissivity field and honors the measured transmissivity values at their locations. Each si mulation is then calibrated, using an iterative procedure, to match an exhaustive set of steady state and transient pressure data. A fully a utomated inverse algorithm using pilot points as parameters of calibra tion was employed. The application of this new methodology to the Cule bra dolomite flow system produced 70 conditional simulations which wer e consistent with all the measured transmissivity and head data at the site. Based on an analysis of the calibrated transmissivity fields, t he spatial variability of the transmissivity fields was increased as a result of the calibration process. This increase is in part due to th e addition of a high-transmissivity feature to each of the transmissiv ity fields which is needed to match both steady state and transient st ate head data.