EnKF coupled with groundwater flow moment equations applied to Lauswiesen aquifer, Germany

•Traditional EnKF assimilation requires computationally intensive MC simulations.•Coupling EnKF with moment equations (MEs) eliminates this need and inbreeding.•Here we use ME-based EnKF to estimate aquifer transmissivities at a field site.•ME-based results compare favorably with those of numerous MC simulations.•As such, ME-based EnKF requires a lesser amount of computer time. We describe a field application of a new data assimilation method recently proposed by Panzeri et al. (2013, 2014). The method couples a modified Ensemble Kalman Filter (EnKF) algorithm with stochastic moment equations (MEs) governing space–time variations of (theoretical ensemble) mean and covariance values of groundwater flow state variables (hydraulic heads and fluxes). Whereas traditional EnKF entails Monte Carlo (MC) simulations and suffers from inbreeding, our approach obviates both. Synthetic case studies have shown the ME-based approach to be computationally efficient and accurate when compared to MC-based results. Here we use our ME-based method to assimilate drawdown data recorded during cross-hole pumping tests in the heterogeneous alluvial Lauswiesen aquifer near Tübingen, Germany. Our results include an estimate of log transmissivity distribution throughout the aquifer and corresponding measures of estimation error. We validate our calibrated model by using it to predict drawdowns recorded during another pumping test at the site and compare its performance with that of standard MC-based EnKF.