A mathematical morphology contribution to study some aspects of hydrogeological systems

In order to study groundwater flow and contaminant transport it is importan t to model the aquifer heterogeneities in terms of the spatial distribution of its hydrostratigraphic units. These units can vary strongly in thicknes s and can also be geometrically anisotropic and present different features concerning their neighbourhood relationships. In this paper a contribution of mathematical morphology is presented to study several aspects of hydroge ological systems, namely to create regular bodies, to identify flow paths i n media and to establish a graph of vicinity relationships between hydrostr atigraphic units. The developed methodologies are tested on a real case stu dy in the aquifer system of Tejo river. (C) 2001 Published by Elsevier Scie nce Ltd.