Clifford I Voss, Ph.D.
Dr. Clifford Voss is a USGS Emeritus Scientist with the Water Resources Mission Area with over 40 years of project management, implementation, field and research experience in groundwater systems.
Dr. Clifford Voss is a USGS Emeritus Scientist with over 40 years of project management, implementation, field and research experience in groundwater systems. He deals with theoretical, field and practical issues in quantitative hydrogeology including: physics of subsurface fluids, computer model development and application to scientific evaluation of hydrogeologic systems, groundwater resources development and protection, coastal/island groundwater resources, subsurface energy production/storage, subsurface waste isolation, and cold-regions hydrology.
Dr. Voss is recognized as an international expert on groundwater modeling. He consults extensively on groundwater system evaluation and management, and lectures internationally on these and related subjects. The practical methodology and codes that Voss and his colleagues have developed (SUTRA and SutraSuite) are in standard use worldwide in subsurface assessment, aiding in quantity-quality management of groundwater resources and in evaluation of human impacts on the subsurface environment. These codes also allow development of a deeper understanding of important hydrogeologic processes.
His current interests involve: subsurface flow/transport in heterogeneous hydrogeologic media, cold-regions hydrology, development and application of practical methodology and subsurface hydrology simulation codes (SUTRA and SutraSuite) with freeze/thaw for study of ground-ice and permafrost in cold regions and associated code-benchmark development, flow and transport in variable-density subsurface fluids (seawater, brine, hot/cold groundwater), inverse modeling, network design, optimization of groundwater management, use of isotopes in characterizing subsurface systems, and the climate/ecology/society/water nexus.
Dr. Voss has conducted many crucial subsurface resource understanding and management studies, including: nuclear waste repository siting safety and performance (Sweden, Germany, Japan), coastal aquifer and seawater intrusion management (Hawaii USA, other USA, and worldwide), transboundary aquifer management (Nubian Aquifer of Egypt, Libya, Chad, Sudan); sustainability of arsenic-free groundwater supply (Bengal Delta Aquifer of India, Bangladesh); discovering the dynamics of cold-regions hydrologic systems (Canada, China, Greenland/Denmark, Sweden, USA).
Dr. Voss is Executive Editor of "Hydrogeology Journal" the official journal of the International Association of Hydrogeologists (since 1994).
Science and Products
Airborne electromagnetic imaging of discontinuous permafrost
Airborne electromagnetic and magnetic geophysical survey data of the Yukon Flats and Fort Wainwright areas, central Alaska, June 2010
Editor’s message: Groundwater modeling fantasies - Part 2, down to earth
Exchange of groundwater and surface-water mediated by permafrost response to seasonal and long term air temperature variation
Editor’s message: Groundwater modeling fantasies - Part 1, adrift in the details
Three-dimensional benchmark for variable-density flow and transport simulation: matching semi-analytic stability modes for steady unstable convection in an inclined porous box
Controls on groundwater flow in the Bengal Basin of India and Bangladesh: Regional modeling analysis
Estimation of regional-scale groundwater flow properties in the Bengal Basin of India and Bangladesh
Evaluation of the sustainability of deep groundwater as an arsenic-safe resource in the Bengal Basin
Simulation of ground-water flow in the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia and West Virginia, using variable-direction anisotropy in hydraulic conductivity to represent bedrock structure
Groundwater flow with energy transport and water-ice phase change: Numerical simulations, benchmarks, and application to freezing in peat bogs
Quasi-horizontal circulation cells in 3D seawater intrusion
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Airborne electromagnetic imaging of discontinuous permafrost
The evolution of permafrost in cold regions is inextricably connected to hydrogeologic processes, climate, and ecosystems. Permafrost thawing has been linked to changes in wetland and lake areas, alteration of the groundwater contribution to streamflow, carbon release, and increased fire frequency. But detailed knowledge about the dynamic state of permafrost in relation to surface and groundwaterAuthorsB. J. Minsley, J.D. Abraham, B. D. Smith, J. C. Cannia, C.I. Voss, M.T. Jorgenson, Michelle Ann Walvoord, B.K. Wylie, L. Anderson, L.B. Ball, M. Deszcz-Pan, T.P. Wellman, T. A. AgerAirborne electromagnetic and magnetic geophysical survey data of the Yukon Flats and Fort Wainwright areas, central Alaska, June 2010
In June 2010, the U.S. Geological Survey conducted airborne electromagnetic and magnetic surveys of the Yukon Flats and Fort Wainwright study areas in central Alaska. These data were collected to estimate the three-dimensional distribution of permafrost at the time of the survey. These data were also collected to evaluate the effectiveness of these geophysical methods at mapping permafrost geometrAuthorsLyndsay B. Ball, Bruce D. Smith, Burke J. Minsley, Jared D. Abraham, Clifford I. Voss, Beth N. Astley, Maria Deszcz-Pan, James C. CanniaEditor’s message: Groundwater modeling fantasies - Part 2, down to earth
Simplicity is the final achievement. After one has played a vast quantity of notes and more notes, it is simplicity that emerges as the crowning reward of art. (Frédéric Chopin, a musician and composer, quoted in If Not God, Then What? by Fost 2007)Despite the dubious developments discussed in part 1 of this Editor’s Message (Voss 2011), groundwater modeling really does represent the state of theAuthorsClifford I. VossExchange of groundwater and surface-water mediated by permafrost response to seasonal and long term air temperature variation
Permafrost dynamics impact hydrologic cycle processes by promoting or impeding groundwater and surface water exchange. Under seasonal and decadal air temperature variations, permafrost temperature changes control the exchanges between groundwater and surface water. A coupled heat transport and groundwater flow model, SUTRA, was modified to simulate groundwater flow and heat transport in the subsurAuthorsS. Ge, J. McKenzie, C. Voss, Q. WuEditor’s message: Groundwater modeling fantasies - Part 1, adrift in the details
Fools ignore complexity. Pragmatists suffer it. Some can avoid it. Geniuses remove it. …Simplicity does not precede complexity, but follows it. (Epigrams in Programming by Alan Perlis, a computer scientist; Perlis 1982).A doctoral student creating a groundwater model of a regional aquifer put individual circular regions around data points where he had hydraulic head measurements, so that each regiAuthorsClifford I. VossThree-dimensional benchmark for variable-density flow and transport simulation: matching semi-analytic stability modes for steady unstable convection in an inclined porous box
This benchmark for three-dimensional (3D) numerical simulators of variable-density groundwater flow and solute or energy transport consists of matching simulation results with the semi-analytical solution for the transition from one steady-state convective mode to another in a porous box. Previous experimental and analytical studies of natural convective flow in an inclined porous layer have shownAuthorsClifford I. Voss, Craig T. Simmons, Neville I. RobinsonControls on groundwater flow in the Bengal Basin of India and Bangladesh: Regional modeling analysis
Groundwater for domestic and irrigation purposes is produced primarily from shallow parts of the Bengal Basin aquifer system (India and Bangladesh), which contains high concentrations of dissolved arsenic (exceeding worldwide drinking water standards), though deeper groundwater is generally low in arsenic. An essential first step for determining sustainable management of the deep groundwater resouAuthorsH.A. Michael, C.I. VossEstimation of regional-scale groundwater flow properties in the Bengal Basin of India and Bangladesh
Quantitative evaluation of management strategies for long-term supply of safe groundwater for drinking from the Bengal Basin aquifer (India and Bangladesh) requires estimation of the large-scale hydrogeologic properties that control flow. The Basin consists of a stratified, heterogeneous sequence of sediments with aquitards that may separate aquifers locally, but evidence does not support existencAuthorsH.A. Michael, C.I. VossEvaluation of the sustainability of deep groundwater as an arsenic-safe resource in the Bengal Basin
Tens of millions of people in the Bengal Basin region of Bangladesh and India drink groundwater containing unsafe concentrations of arsenic. This high-arsenic groundwater is produced from shallow (<100 m) depths by domestic and irrigation wells in the Bengal Basin aquifer system. The government of Bangladesh has begun to install wells to depths of >150 m where groundwater arsenic concentrations arAuthorsHolly A. Michaela, Clifford I. VossSimulation of ground-water flow in the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia and West Virginia, using variable-direction anisotropy in hydraulic conductivity to represent bedrock structure
Ground-water flow was simulated using variable-direction anisotropy in hydraulic conductivity to represent the folded, fractured sedimentary rocks that underlie the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia and West Virginia. The anisotropy is a consequence of the orientations of fractures that provide preferential flow paths through the rock, such that the direction of maximum hydraulic conductivity is orienAuthorsRichard M. Yager, Scott C. Southworth, Clifford I. VossGroundwater flow with energy transport and water-ice phase change: Numerical simulations, benchmarks, and application to freezing in peat bogs
In northern peatlands, subsurface ice formation is an important process that can control heat transport, groundwater flow, and biological activity. Temperature was measured over one and a half years in a vertical profile in the Red Lake Bog, Minnesota. To successfully simulate the transport of heat within the peat profile, the U.S. Geological Survey's SUTRA computer code was modified. The modifiedAuthorsJ.M. McKenzie, Clifford I. Voss, D. I. SiegelQuasi-horizontal circulation cells in 3D seawater intrusion
The seawater intrusion process is characterized by the difference in freshwater and seawater density that causes freshwater to float on seawater. Many confined aquifers have a large horizontal extension with respect to thickness. In these cases, while buoyancy acts in the vertical direction, flow is confined between the upper and bottom boundaries and the effect of gravity is controlled by variatiAuthorsE. Abarca, J. Carrera, X. Sanchez-Vila, Clifford I. Voss - Software