Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Porosity Reviewed: Quantitative Multi-Disciplinary Understanding, Recent Advances and Applications in Vadose Zone Hydrology

  • State-of-the-Art Review
  • Published:
Geotechnical and Geological Engineering Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Porosity—one of the most basic mechanical properties of a medium—has implications in a vast range of disciplines and used for a similar vast range of applications. These include, for instance, the storage and flow of water; the compressible component of earth materials, which can be subjected to consolidation under loading; the variable parameter in the swelling and shrinkage of clays; and possibly a governing parameter in the formation of wetlands and perched water tables. This review notes the relevance of a fourfold quantification of porosity for vadose zone studies, viz. (1) type (matrix or structure), (2) scale (submicro to macro scale), (3) connectivity, and (4) water saturation. This is followed by a review of recent advances in the quantification and description of porosity in porous media (visual and remote sensing methods, porosimetry, geometrical approaches, empirical estimations, densest packing simulations, etc.), the applications to quantification of hydrological parameters, and a brief glimpse into the significance of porosity in a temporary hillslope wetland underlain by Archaean Lanseria gneiss in South Africa. Final comments are made regarding areas where quantification of porosity is problematic.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10
Fig. 11
Fig. 12
Fig. 13
Fig. 14
Fig. 15
Fig. 16
Fig. 17

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Aimrun W, Amin MSM, Eltaib SM (2004) Effective porosity of paddy soils as an estimation of its saturated hydraulic conductivity. Geoderma 121:197–203

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • American Geological Institute (1976) Dictionary of Geological Terms. Anchor Press, USA

    Google Scholar 

  • Bear J (1988) Dynamics of fluids in porous media. Dover Publications, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Bear J (2007) Hydraulics of groundwater. Dover Publications, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Bear J, Cheng AH-D (2010) Modeling groundwater flow and contaminant transport. Springer, Heidelberg

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Berkowitz B (2002) Characterizing flow and transport in fractured geological media: a review. Adv Water Resour 25:861–884

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blatt H, Tracy RJ (1997) Petrology: igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic, 2nd edn. W. H. Freeman and Company, USA

    Google Scholar 

  • Brady NC, Weil RR (1999) The Nature and properties of soils. Prentice Hall, New Jersey

    Google Scholar 

  • Coskun SB, Wardlaw NC (1995) Influences of pore geometry and permeability on initial water saturation—an empirical method for estimating initial water saturation by image analysis. J Petrol Sci Eng 2:295–308

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Craig RF (1999) Soil Mechanics, 6th edn. E & FN Spon, Cornwall

    Google Scholar 

  • Deer W, Howie R, Zussman J (1996) An introduction to the rock-forming minerals. Prentice Hall, New Jersey

    Google Scholar 

  • Dexter (2004) Soil physical quality Part III: unsaturate hydraulic conductivity and general conclusions about S-theory. Geoderma 120:227–239

  • Dexter AR, Richard G (2009) The saturated hydraulic conductivity of soils with n-modal pore size distributions. Geoderma 154:76–85

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dippenaar MA (2012) How we lose ground when earth scientists become territorial: defining “Soil”. Nat Resour Res 21(1):137–142

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dippenaar, M. A., Van Rooy, J. L., Moyo, A., Freëse, R. and Makonto, O. T. (2010). Preliminary Vadose Zone Classification Methodology (Molototsi and Middle Letaba Quaternary Catchments). WRC Report No. KV 243/10. Water Research Commission. Pretoria

  • Dudoignon P, Causseque S, Bernard M, Hallaire V, Pons Y (2007) Vertical porosity profile of a clay-rich marsh soil. Catena 70:480–492

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fetter C (1994) Applied hydrogeology, 3rd edn. Prentice-Hall Inc, New Jersey

    Google Scholar 

  • Fitts CR (2002) Groundwater science. Academic Press, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Flint LE, Selker JS (2003) Use of porosity to estimate hydraulic properties of volcanic tuffs. Adv Water Resour 26:561–571

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fredlund DG, Houston SL, Nguyen Q, Fredlund MD (2010) Moisture movement through cracked clay soil profiles. Geotech Geol Eng 28:865–888

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Furukawa K, Imai K, Kurashigo M (2000) Simulated effect of box size and wall on porosity of random packings of spherical particles. Acta Mech 140:219–231

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Giménez D, Perfect E, Rawls WJ, Pachepsky Ya (1997) Fractal models for predicting soil hydraulic properties: a review. Eng Geol 48:161–183

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gregory AS, Bird NRA, Whalley WR, Matthews GP (2010) Estimating relative hydraulic conductivity from the water release characteristic of a shrinking clay soil. Soil Sci Soc Am J 74(4):1113–1118

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Guéguen Y, Le Ravalec M, Ricard L (2006) Upscaling: effective medium theory, numerical methods and the fractal dream. Pure Appl Geophys 163:1175–1192

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hassanizadeh AM, Celia A, Dahle HK (2002) Dynamic effect in the capillary pressure—saturation relationship and its impacts on unsaturated flow. Vadose Zone J 1:38–57

    Google Scholar 

  • Hilfer R (2002) Review on scale dependent characterization of the microstructure of porous media. Transp Porous Media 46:373–390

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Horn R, Taubner H, Wuttke M, Baumgartl T (1994) Soil physical properties related to soil structure. Soil Tillage Res 30:187–216

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hunt AG (1998) Upscaling in subsurface transport using cluster statistics of percolation. Transp Porous Media 30:177–198

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hunt AG (2004) Percolative transport in fractal porous media. Chaos, Solitons Fractals 19:309–325

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hunt AG, Gee GW (2002) Water-retention of fractal soil models using continuum percolation theory: tests of hanford site soils. Vadose Zone J 1:252–260

    Google Scholar 

  • Istomina VS (1957) Seepage stability of the soil. Translated from Russian, Moscow

    Google Scholar 

  • Jarvis NJ, Zavattaro L, Rajkai K, Reynolds WD, Olsen P-A, McGechan M, Mecke M, Mohanty B, Leeds-Harrison PB, Jacques D (2002) Indirect estimation of near-saturated hydraulic conductivity from readily available soil information. Geoderma 108:1–17

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Keary P (2001) The new penguin dictionary of geology, 2nd edn. Penguin Books, England

    Google Scholar 

  • Knapett JA, Craig RF (2012) Craig’s soil mechanics, 8th edn. Spon Press, Glasgow

    Google Scholar 

  • Kovács G (1981) Developments in water science: seepage hydraulics, vol 10. Elsevier, Sitzungber Oesterr Akad

    Google Scholar 

  • Kutílek M (2004) Soil hydraulic properties related to soil structure. Soil Tillage Res 79:175–184

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lipiec J, Kus J, Słowinska-Jurkiewicz A, Nosalewicz A (2006) Soil porosity and water infiltration as influenced by tillage methods. Soil Tillage Res 89:210–220

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lu N, Likos WJ (2004) Unsaturated soil mechanics. Wiley, New Jersey

    Google Scholar 

  • Mathews T, Matthews GP, Ridgway CJ, Moss AK (1997) Measurement of void size correlation in inhomogeneous porous media. Transp Porous Media 28:135–158

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McFarlane MJ (1976) Laterite and landscape. Academic Press, Kent

    Google Scholar 

  • Mermut AR (2009) Historical development in soil micromorphological imaging. J Mt Sci 6:107–112

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Miguel MG, Bonder BH (2012) Soil-water characteristic curves obtained for a colluvial and lateritic soil profile considering the macro and micro porosity. Geotech Geol Eng 30:1405–1420

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Miller CT, Gray WG (2002) Hydrogeological research: just getting started. Gr Water 40(3):224–231

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moosavi SA, Gohtasbi K, Kazemzadeh E, Aloki Bakhtiari H, Esfahani MR, Vali J (2012) Relationship between porosity and permeability with stress using pore volume compressibility characteristic of reservoir rocks. Arab J Geosci. doi:10.1007/s12517-012-0760-x

    Google Scholar 

  • Moraes MA, De Ros LF (1990) Infiltrated clays in fluvial jurassic sandstones of Reconavo Basin, Northeastern Brazil. J Sediment Petrol 60(6):809–819

    Google Scholar 

  • Moran CJ, McBratney AB (1997) A Two-dimensional fuzzy random model of soil pore structure. Math Geol 29(6):755–777

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Murad MA, Cushman JH (1997) A Multiscale Theory of swelling porous media: II. dual porosity models for consolodation of clays incorporating physicochemical effects. Transp Porous Media 28:69–108

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Murad MA, Moyne C (2008) A dual-porosity model for ionic solute transport in expansive clays. Comput Geosci 12:47–82

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Neuman S (2005) On the tensoral natural of advective porosity. Adv Water Res 28:149–159

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Norton D, Knapp R (1977) Transport phenomena in hydrothermal systems; the nature of porosity. Am J Sci 8:913–936

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pickup GE, Hern CY (2002) The development of appropriate upscaling procedures. Transp Porous Media 46:119–138

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pickup GE, Stephen KD, Ma J, Zhang P, Clark JD (2005) Multi-stage upscaling: selection of suitable methods. Transp Porous Media 58:191–216

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Podgorney RK, Fairly JP (2008) Investigation of episodic flow from unsaturated porous media into a macropore. Vadose Zone J 7(1):332–338

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Romero E, Simms PH (2008) Microstructure investigation in unsaturated soils: a review with special attention to contribution of mercury intrusion porosimetry and environmental scanning electron miscroscopy. Geotech Geol Eng 26:705–727

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • SABS [South African Bureau of Standards] (2009) Profiling, and percussion and core boreholole logging in southern africa for engineering purposes. Draft South African National Standard SANS 633:2009. Government Printer, Pretoria

    Google Scholar 

  • Samardzioska T, Popov V (2005) Numerical comparison of the equivalent continuum, non-homogeneous and dual porosity models for flow and transport in fractured porous media. Adv Water Res 28:235–255

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shaw EM (1994) Hydrology in practice, 3rd edn. Chapman & Hall, Cornwall

    Google Scholar 

  • Shougrakpam S, Sarkar R, Dutta S (2010) An experimental investigation to characterise soil macroporosity under different land use and land covers of Northeast India. J Earth Syst Sci 119(5):655–674

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Skolasińska K (2006) Clogging microstructures in the Vadose Zone—laboratory and field studies. Hydrogeol J 14:1005–1017

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Skvortsova EB, Rukhovich DI, Koroleva PV (2006) Compilation of schematic maps of soil pore space with the use of geoinformation and micromorphometric technologies. Soil Phys 39(11):1217–1227

    Google Scholar 

  • Straughan B (2010) Structure of the dependence of darcy and forschheimer coefficients on porosity. Int J Eng Sci 48:1610–1621

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Taggart I (2002) Effective versus total porosity based geostatistical models: implications for Upscaling and Flow Simulation. Transp Porous Media 46:251–268

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tilke PG, Allen D, Gyllensten A (2006) Quantitative analysis of porosity heterogeneity: application of geostatistics to borehole images. Math Geol 38(2):155–174

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Todd DK, Mays LW (2005) Groundwater hydrology, 3rd edn. Wiley, New Jersey

    Google Scholar 

  • Tsakiroglou CD, Fleury M (1999) Pore Network Analysis of Resistivity Index for Water-wet Porous Media. Transp Porous Media 35:89–128

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tullborg E-L, Larson SÅ (2006) Porosity in crystalline rocks—a Matter of Scale. Eng Geol 84:75–83

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Van Schalkwyk A, Vermaak JJ (2000) The relationship between the geotechnical and hydrogeological properties of residual soils and rocks in the Vadose Zone. Water Res Comm, Pretoria

    Google Scholar 

  • Vervoort RW, Cattle SR (2003) Linking hydraulic conductivity and tortuosity parameters to pore space geometry and pore-size distribution. J Hydrol 272:36–49

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Virgin B, Haslund E, Hilfer R (1996) Rescaling relations between two- and three-dimensional local porosity distributions for natural and artificial proous media. Physica 232:1–20

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vita MC, De Bartolo S, Fallico C, Veltri M (2011) Usage of infinitesimals in the menger’s sponge model of porosity. Appl Math Comput. doi:10.1016/j.amc.2011.06.013

    Google Scholar 

  • Weight WD (2008) Hydrogeology field manual, 2nd edn. McGraw-Hill, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • White RE (1997) Principles and practice of soil science: the soil as a natural resource, 3rd edn. Blackwell Science Ltd, Victoria

    Google Scholar 

  • Witherspoon PA, Wang JSY, Iwai K, Gale JE (1980) Validity of cubic law for fluid flow in a deformable rock fracture. Water Resour Res 16(6):1016–1024

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yanuka M, Dullien FAL, Elrick DE (1985) Percolation processes and porous media. I. geometrical and topological model of porous media using a three-dimensionale joint pore size distribution. J Colloid Interface Sci 112(1):24–41

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Younger PL (2007) Groundwater in the environment: an introduction. Blackwell, Padstow

    Google Scholar 

  • Youngs EG (2008) Steady water flow through unsaturated aggregated porous materials. Transp Porous Media 71:147–159

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

The author wishes to thank the South African Water Research Commission (www.wrc.org.za) for continuous funding of this project (number K5/2052) on cross-disciplinary vadose zone hydrology, as well as all the persons involved in and contributing to the project. Numerous discussions with a wide range of professionals, including soil scientists, geotechnical engineers, geologists and hydrogeologists, resulted in the decision to review the basic concept of porosity and its quantification for application by a widespread audience interested in specifically vadose zone hydrology.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Engineering Geology and Hydrogeology, Department of Geology, University of Pretoria, Private Bag X20, Hatfield, Pretoria, 0028, South Africa

    Matthys A. Dippenaar

Authors
  1. Matthys A. Dippenaar
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Matthys A. Dippenaar.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Dippenaar, M.A. Porosity Reviewed: Quantitative Multi-Disciplinary Understanding, Recent Advances and Applications in Vadose Zone Hydrology. Geotech Geol Eng 32, 1–19 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10706-013-9704-9

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10706-013-9704-9

Keywords

Search

Navigation