Analog-based meandering channel simulation

Abstract

Characterizing the complex geometries and the heterogeneity of the deposits in meandering river systems is a long-standing issue for the 3-D modeling of alluvial formations. Such deposits are important sources of accessible groundwater in alluvial aquifers throughout the world and also play a major role as hydrocarbons reservoirs. In this paper, we present a method to generate meandering river centerlines that are stochastic, geologically realistic, connected, and conditioned to local observations or global geomorphological characteristics. The method is based on fast 1-D multiple-point statistics in a transformed curvilinear domain: the succession in directions observed in a real-world meandering river (the analog) is considered as statistical model for multiple-point statistics simulation. The integration of local data is accomplished by an inverse procedure ensuring that the channels pass through a given set of locations while conserving the high-order spatial characteristics of an analog. The methodology is applied on seven real-world case studies. This work demonstrates the flexibility and the applicability of multiple-point statistics outside the standard paradigm that considers the simulation of a 2-D or 3-D variable with spatial coordinates.