iCRAG PhD GW3.1PhD4
Quantitative assessment of the impact of faults, fractures and related karst networks
on groundwater flow.
Groundwater flow and transport within Irish bedrock is dominated by fault and fracture
related permeability within otherwise relatively impermeable crystalline or hard sedimentary
rocks of Precambrian to Carboniferous age. A feature of flow systems characterised by
conductive fractures is the highly heterogeneous nature of flow even on the scale of
individual sites leading to difficulties in applying isotropic continuum approaches to practical
issues associated with environmental and hydrogeological assessments. Recent work has
provided a better understanding and conceptualisation of the different faults and fractures
which control flow within Irish groundwater systems (Moore & Walsh 2013) and an improved
conceptual and quantitative basis for incorporating structural geological constraints in Irish
groundwater studies and for understanding the flow and transport behaviour of Irish
fractured aquifers. Despite these advances there is a great deal more work required to
permit more routine assessments of the impact of faults, fractures and related karst networks
on groundwater flow. This PhD study will be directed towards providing those advances.
Further quantitative analysis of faults and fractures are required, and will provide incremental
improvements in the parameterization of flow models. Better constraints are required of the
nature of karstification of different types of fracture system in different areas and depths.
More progress also needs to be made in the development of better methods for the
incorporation of fracture attributes in flow models and in the application of these methods to
groundwater flow in circumstances where high quality flow data are available. These
advances would improve our predictive capabilities for groundwater flow within different
sequences around Ireland and within similar fracture-controlled flow systems elsewhere.
Applications are invited from candidates who have a BSc in a relevant geoscience area, with
an MSc in hydrology or hydrogeology. The successful candidate will join a large applied
geoscience research centre, iCRAG, in the UCD School of Geological Sciences at University
College Dublin: iCRAG is national research centre with a presence in all of the Irish research
institutions involved in Geosciences. The position is fully funded for four years with a
scholarship of €18K/year. To apply please submit a full CV and contact details for 3
academic referees, together with a letter of motivation, to Prof. John Walsh at
john.walsh@ucd.ie from whom further particulars may also be requested: the application
deadline is 10th April. iCRAG is funded under the SFI Research Centres Programme and is
co-funded under the European Regional Development Fund.