An alternative conceptual model of groundwater flow

Abstract

By means of examples from finite mathematics and probability theory the relation between analytic and numerical methods in groundwater flow is investigated; as a result a conceptual model of groundwater flow is developed, based on probability and a particulate description of the interstitial water. The model seems to merge with the standard model of groundwater flow in the finite-difference approximation to the diffusion equation and to be capable of explaining some results of the standard model in a direct way. The model gives an interesting insight into the nature of the stability criterion for the explicit finite-difference technique.