Barrois Karsts project

The limestones of Barrois are marked by significant karstification. Karst systems, which are very common in limestone rocks, are characterized by the presence of a complex network of interconnected underground drains that strongly control fluid flows in the massif. Understanding and modeling the hydrogeological functioning of the Barrois limestones therefore requires integrating the karst network into the flow simulation.

The objective of the Barrois Karsts project is to design a simulator that can generate a set of possible geometries for the Barrois karst network, taking into account the geological information and field data, which are abundant in the area of interest. These drain networks will then be used in the distributed numerical models developed by the CHYN laboratory at the University of Neuchâtel and can thus be integrated into an inverse approach.

This project is part of Augustin GOUY’s thesis, co-supervised by BRGM, which will be defended in March 2025.