Process stratigraphy: from numerical simulation to lithology prediction

Process-based stratigraphic models provide attractive tools to simulate sedimentary system dynamics spanning a wide range of spatial and temporal scales and segments of the sediment routing system while allowing full access to the model responses, i.e. the spatial distribution of lithologies as a function of the intervening processes and environmental conditions at the time of deposition. Apart from improving our understanding regarding the evolution of sedimentary systems under pre-specified allogenic forcing mechanisms and intrinsic dynamics, process-based stratigraphic models can be used to improve basin-fill history reconstructions and increase the geological credibility of static reservoir models by integrating regional information to local-scale heterogeneities. The realism and predictive power of the model responses and geological model realizations may be quantitatively assessed by comparison with the geophysical/geological data available.