Chloé Fandel

Education & Professional History

Brown University, BA; University of Arizona, MSc; PhD

Broadly, I am a hydrogeologist: I try to understand how groundwater moves beneath the earth’s surface, and the relationships between groundwater, humans, and ecosystems. More specifically, I focus on two areas:

1. Karst systems: Unique landscapes where water has dissolved carbonate bedrock to create subterranean passageways, caverns, sinkholes, springs, and beautifully sculpted and fluted rock textures. Karst landscapes are particularly vulnerable to contamination, and it is difficult to predict how water will move through them, so they pose an exciting research challenge. I work in alpine karst systems in Europe, and closer to home, in the local karst systems of the Driftless Region of southeastern Minnesota.
2. Working landscapes: Landscapes that support human livelihoods, such as ranchlands or agricultural lands. These landscapes are often a patchwork of private, state, and federal ownership, but because water ignores ownership boundaries, successful conservation strategies consider the landscape as an ecologically, socially, and economically connected whole.

I use both fieldwork and numerical modeling to try to answer questions that will help guide responsible stewardship of these landscapes.

Textbook

An introduction to fundamental concepts in hydrogeology using analogies, illustrations and examples to demystify the math used to describe groundwater flow. https://doi.org/10.52305/FAAK1755

Videos

Groundwater modeling in alpine karst systems overview video (12 min)

Aridland water harvesting study overview video (3 min):

Journal articles

Fandel, C., Miville, F., Ferré, T.P.A., Goldscheider, N., Renard, P., 2022. The stochastic simulation of karst conduit network geometries using anisotropic fast marching, and its application to a geologically complex alpine karst system. Hydrogeology Journal. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10040-022-02464-x

Fandel, C., Ferré, T., Chen, Z., Renard, P., Goldscheider, N., 2021. A model ensemble generator to explore structural uncertainty in karst systems with unmapped conduits. Hydrogeol J 29, 229–248

Tennevin, G., Emily, A., Mangan, C., Thaon, A.-L., Sollima, D., Chartier, A., Fandel, C., 2020. Structure et drainage profond de l’unité jurassique du Férion (Alpes-Maritimes, France) [Deep structure and drainage in the Férion jurassic unit, Maritime Alps, France]. Annales du Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle de Nice 17.

Norman, L.M., Callegary, J.B., Lacher, L., Wilson, N.R., Fandel, C., Forbes, B.T., Swetnam, T., 2019. Modeling Riparian Restoration Impacts on the Hydrologic Cycle at the Babacomari Ranch, SE Arizona, USA. Water 11, 381.

Fandel, C., Breshears, D.D., McMahon, E., 2018. Implicit assumptions of conceptual diagrams in environmental science and best practices for their illustration. Ecosphere 9.