This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: [Sanchez-Vila, X., and D. Fernàndez-Garcia (2016), Debates—Stochastic subsurface hydrology from theory to practice: Why stochastic modeling has not yet permeated into practitioners?, Water Resour. Res., 52, 9246–9258, doi:10.1002/2016WR019302], which has been published in final form at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2016WR019302/abstract. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving

We address modern topics of stochastic hydrogeology from their potential relevance to real modeling efforts at the field scale. While the topics of stochastic hydrogeology and numerical modeling have become routine in hydrogeological studies, nondeterministic models have not yet permeated into practitioners. We point out a number of limitations of stochastic modeling when applied to real applications and comment on the reasons why stochastic models fail to become an attractive alternative for practitioners. We specifically separate issues corresponding to flow, conservative transport, and reactive transport. The different topics addressed are emphasis on process modeling, need for upscaling parameters and governing equations, relevance of properly accounting for detailed geological architecture in hydrogeological modeling, and specific challenges of reactive transport. We end up by concluding that the main responsible for nondeterministic models having not yet permeated in industry can be fully attributed to researchers in stochastic hydrogeology.

Peer Reviewed