Stochastic analysis of groundwater flow in a bounded domain by spectral methods

A saturated flow problem with spatially varying conductivity is studied in a rectangular domain. An expansion of the flow equation with respect to small perturbations of the conductivity is given. Discrete spectra are used to calculate the expected flux across the outflow boundary and its variability. The results obtained are compared with results based on Monte Carlo studies. Another way to deal with heterogeneous soils is to replace the actual conductivity by a smooth, so-called, effective conductivity. A comparison is made between results based on that approach and our results.