Markov random field models for high-dimensional parameters in simulations of fluid flow in porous media

We give an approach for using flow information from a system of wells to characterize hydrologic properties of an aquifer. In particular, we consider experiments where an impulse of tracer fluid is injected along with the water at the input wells and its concentration is recorded over time at the uptake wells. We focus on characterizing the spatially varying permeability field which is a key attribute of the aquifer for determining flow paths and rates for a given flow experiment. As is standard for estimation from such flow data, we make use of complicated subsurface flow code which simulates the fluid flow through the aquifer for a particular well configuration and aquifer specification, which includes the permeability field over a grid. This ill-posed problem requires that some regularity be imposed on the permeability field. Typically this is accomplished by specifying a stationary Gaussian process model for the permeability field. Here we use an intrinsically stationary Markov random field which compares favorably and offers some additional flexibility and computational advantages. Our interest in quantifying uncertainty leads us to take a Bayesian approach, using Markov chain Monte Carlo for exploring the high-dimensional posterior distribution. We demonstrate our approach with several examples