The first Symposium on Recent Advances in Problems of Flow and Transport in Porous Media was held in Marrakech in June ''96 and has provided a focus for the utilization of computer methods for solving the many complex problems encountered in the field of solute transport in porous media. This symposium has been successful in bringing together scientists, physicists, hydrogeologists, researchers in soil and fluid mechanics and engineers involved in this multidisciplinary subject. It is clear that the utilization of computer-based models in this domain is still rapidly expanding and that new and novel solutions are being developed. The contributed papers which form this book reflect the recent advances, in particular with respect to new methods, inverse problems, reactive transport, unsaturated media and upscaling. These have been subdivided into the following sections: I. Numerical methods II. Mass transport and heat transfer III. Comparison with experimentation and simulation of real cases This book contains reviewed articles of the top presentations held during the International Symposium on Computer Methods in Porous Media Engineering which took place in Giens (France) in October 1998. All of the presentations and the optimism shown during the meeting provided further evidence that computer modeling is making remarkable progress and is indeed becoming an essential toolkit in the field of porous media and solute transport. I believe that the content of this book provides evidence of this and furthermore gives a comprehensive review of the theoretical developments and applications.
