Hydraulic tomography is a state-of-the-art method for inferring hydraulic conductivity fields using head data. We employed geostatistical inversion using synthetically generated head and flux data individually and jointly in a steady-state experiment. We designed 96 inversion scenarios to better understand the relative merits of each data type. For the typical case of a small number of observation points, we find that flux data provide a better resolved hydraulic conductivity field compared to head data when considering data with similar signal-to-noise ratios. This finding is further confirmed by a resolution analysis. When considering a high number of observation points, the estimated fields are of similar quality regardless of the data type. In terms of borehole boundary conditions, the best setting for flux and head data are constant head and constant rate, respectively, while joint inversion results are insensitive to the borehole boundary type. When considering the same number of observations, the joint inversion of head and flux data does not offer advantages over individual inversions. When considering the same number of observation points and, hence, twice as many observations, the joint inversion performs better than individual inversions. The findings of this paper are useful for future planning and design of hydraulic tomography tests comprising flux and head data.

水力断层扫描是一种使用水头数据推断水力传导率场的最先进方法。我们在稳态实验中单独和联合使用合成生成的水头和通量数据进行地质统计反演。我们设计了 96 个反转场景，以更好地了解每种数据类型的相对优点。对于少量观测点的典型情况，我们发现当考虑具有相似信噪比的数据时，通量数据与水头数据相比提供了更好的解析水力传导率场。分辨率分析进一步证实了这一发现。当考虑大量观察点时，无论数据类型如何，估计的字段都具有相似的质量。在钻孔边界条件方面，通量和水头数据的最佳设置分别是恒定水头和恒定速率，而联合反演结果对井眼边界类型不敏感。当考虑相同数量的观测时，水头和通量数据的联合反演不比单独反演更具优势。当考虑相同数量的观察点并因此观察两倍的观察值时，联合反演比单独反演表现更好。本文的发现对于未来规划和设计包含通量和水头数据的水力断层扫描测试很有用。当考虑相同数量的观察点并因此观察两倍的观察值时，联合反演比单独反演表现更好。本文的发现对于未来规划和设计包含通量和水头数据的水力断层扫描测试很有用。当考虑相同数量的观察点并因此观察两倍的观察值时，联合反演比单独反演表现更好。本文的发现对于未来规划和设计包含通量和水头数据的水力断层扫描测试很有用。