Water geochemistry modeling - Environmental concepts and applications

The geochemistry of water, whether natural or resulting from industrial activities, represents a complex set of reactions in solution, dissolution and precipitation of minerals, and reactions at interfaces. It involves species as diverse as dissolved acids, bases, complexing agents and redox couples, solid phases making up rocks and geosynthetic materials, colloids carrying mobility and organic matter. Understanding, quantifying and predicting such aquatic environments requires a modeling approach based on experimental databases and sophisticated numerical methods. However, the use of hydrogeochemical software remains intuitive. It is increasingly integrated into studies applied to laboratory experiments, water resource management, mining and waste storage sites, and environmental impact assessments.

The aim of this document is to provide an overview of the physico-chemical concepts and mathematical laws underpinning geochemical water modelling, together with concrete examples of typical applications to environmental problems and water resource management. A table is dedicated to the distribution of thermodynamic software and databases.