A number of physical (e.g. flow and transport), chemical (e.g. red-ox reactions) and biological (e.g. bio-mineralization) mechanisms are critical to the fate of geologic media where rocks, liquids, gases and bacteria are in close interactions. The characterization and modeling of the complex interplay between these mechanisms is fundamental to our understanding of subsurface processes occurring in contaminant transport and remediation in groundwater and the vadose zone, in the geological storage of energy, CO2 and H2, as well as in enhanced oil and gas recovery. The increasing need to understand the evolution of such coupled processes in subsurface environments has motivated the development of novel experimental approaches, from laboratory to field, that are capable of quantifying the physical, chemical and biological properties of heterogeneous structures at different scales. Detailed experimental investigation and evidence of complex subsurface processes allow testing and validating new measurement techniques, and provide datasets with sufficient resolution to make the validation of coupled processes theories and numerical models possible.

The objective of this session is to discuss novel improvements in our understanding of coupled subsurface processes based on innovative methods allowing the quantification of relevant phenomena and their underling mechanisms such as the dynamics of single and multiphase flows, conservative and reactive transport, chemically-driven or biologically-mediated processes, and bacterial dynamics and biofilm growth, in heterogeneous porous and fractured media. Contributions may include, for example, experiments featuring high resolution measurements with novel sensors, analytical and imaging techniques, advanced in-situ single- and/or cross-borehole hydraulic tests, (hydro)geophysical techniques, strategies for borehole/borehole interval sealing, or inverse model techniques. We particularly encourage integrative multi-physic methods, i.e. hydraulic, chemical or heat methods aiming to elucidate the heterogeneity of flow, transport and related processes. Ideas for future strategies related to experimental methods, interpretation of existing data, and associated theoretical/numerical modeling, are particularly welcome.