FONT SIZE
S
M
L
COLOR
Normal
1
2
3

FRMO Top

Home > International Partnerships > Collaborative Research > To what extent can we reveal the actual situation of groundwater flow and pore air flow using diverse observational data and numerical model?

Update:October 9, 2026

Main content starts here.

To what extent can we reveal the actual situation of groundwater flow and pore air flow using diverse observational data and numerical model?

1. Partners

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (U.S.)

2. Research

FY 2026–2028 Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (KAKENHI)

3. Lead Researcher

IWAGAMII, Sho (Department of Disaster Prevention, Meteorology and Hydrology)

4. Background

In hydrological research on rainfall-runoff processes, there are still unexplained processes that cause rapid runoff responses to rainfall. Furthermore, with the remarkable increase in heavy rain disasters in recent years, the development of rainfall-runoff models based on a deeper understanding of rainfall-runoff processes has become an urgent priority from the perspective of disaster prevention. We are focusing on the role of pore air pressure as one of the processes that may contribute to rapid runoff responses and the occurrence of floods. And therefore, it is important to elucidate the movement of both water flow and air flow underground.

5. Research Goal

Pore air pressure behavior obtained from previous observations have shown variations at different locations, and the relationships among measurements were unclear. Therefore, if we can use numerical simulations to model the three-dimensional movement of water and air, we can clarify the relationships among the observed values and identify previously unrecognized movements, which will help the understanding of the role of pore air pressure in the rainfall-runoff process. Our objective is to elucidate the “actual situation” of water flow and air flow, including a quantitative assessment of pore air.

6. Research Strategy

In research on groundwater in mountainous watersheds (forested watersheds), information on groundwater in bedrock layers, particularly that obtained from deep boreholes, is limited. It is not easy to obtain a wide range of actual data of bedrock groundwater in three dimensions. And therefore, it is considered quite difficult to gain the actual situation of the bedrock groundwater. In the East River watershed in Colorado, USA, where a rich diverse data on geology and water quality, unlike which can be found in Japan, has been collected. Hence it is possible to develop a detailed numerical simulation model based on these diverse observational data to elucidate the relationship between water flow and air flow during rainfall-runoff process to reach a deeper understanding of the actual situations.