Biography

I am a “Royal Society – Newton International Fellow” working in the project “Monitoring and coupled hydrogeophysical modelling of saltwater intrusion in heterogeneous aquifers” with Dr. Jean-Christophe Comte. The main objective of the project is to develop a hydrogeophysical mathematical modelling approach for robust quantification of groundwater flow and salt transport in coastal aquifers using geophysical methods.

Previously, I worked for 2 years in the numerical modelling of water flow and contaminant transport in two flooded underground coal mines in Spain, within the EU funded project MERIDA ("Management of Environmental RIsks During and After mine closure"). MERIDA had a total value of 3.8 million Euros and partners included Central Mining Institute (Poland), Imperial College London and University of Exeter (UK), INERIS (France) and DMT (Germany). Results of the study included the development of a methodology to implement in a FEM the complex geometrical network of mine workings to further solve, coupled, flow and transport equations in mine conduits and porous media .

Between 2011 and 2017 I worked as hydrogeologist and geophysicist in several projects including the evaluation for new uses of abandoned coal mines (coal bed methane, CO2 geological storage, geothermal energy), geophysical and hydrogeological characterisation of mine tailings or the groundwater modelling of coastal aquifers with companies such as HUNOSA, Orovalle Minerals or ArcelorMittal. I have also participated in geophysical surveys for archaeological and forensic studies.

My PhD Thesis (University of Oviedo, 2016) aimed to integrate microgravity observations with well-testing data analysis to improve the identification of aquifer characteristics and the estimation of hydraulic parameters by using a coupled hydrogeophysical approach. 

In 2014 I was awarded the Mathematical Geosciences Student Award from the International Association for Mathematical Geosciences (IAMG).

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Research Interests

• Use of geophysical methods for near-surface characterization in environmental, mining, geotechnical, engineering, archaeological and forensic applications.
• Numerical modelling of fluid flow and transport in saturated and variable saturated porous media.
• Finite element multiphysical modelling (mainly for hydrogeophysical applications).

Current Research

My current research aims to develop an integrated hydrogeophysical mathematical modelling approach for quantification of groundwater flow and salt transport in coastal heterogeneous aquifers using geophysical methods.  

Some of the objectives of the project are:

• To develop a coupled hydrogeophysical model, using the finite element software COMSOL Multiphysics®, that mathematically links the distribution of hydraulic properties and dynamics of flow and transport in porous media with geophysical observations.
• To assess the ability and accuracy of electrical geophysical methods to capture the spatiotemporal patterns of induced saltwater intrusion in real heterogeneous aquifers.
• To evaluate the uncertainty associated with the use of empirical petrophysical relationships traditionally utilized in hydrogeophysical studies.
• To assess the resolution achievable in field conditions using survey configurations (arrays, electrode spacing and distribution of profiles) for both saltwater intrusion patterns and subsurface properties.

Research Grants

Royal Society - Newton International Fellowship 2018: Monitoring and coupled hydrogeophysical modelling of saltwater intrusion in heterogeneous coastal aquifers (2019-2021)

IAMG Mathematical Geosciences Student Award 2014: Study of the gravity anomaly produced by a pumping test in an unconfined aquifer: coupled modeling and survey optimization.

External Responsibilities

• International Association of Hydrogeologists (IAH)
• European Association of Geoscientists and Engineers (EAGE)
• International Association for Mathematical Geosciences (IAMG)
• European Geosciences Union (EGU)

Publications 

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