Groundwater Modelling and the Scientific Method: Part 2

This is the second of a two-part series recorded by John Doherty. The first video is philosophical. The second video provides real-world examples of the philosophy at work.

Two examples are discussed. Both of these are the subject of GMDSI worked example reports. The first example illustrates how, through simultaneous history-matching of six aquifer tests, the effects of both stratigraphy and structure on groundwater flow can be revealed.

The second example addresses the difficult problem of contaminant source identification. It shows that innovative use of particle tracking in inverse problem formulation can support a history-matching process in which both heads and contaminant concentration measurements contribute to the calibration dataset. Two maps are produced. The first depicts the probability that a contaminant released at different locations escapes detection. The second maps the probability of their being no contaminant source at different locations. These maps summarise the totality of information that can be gleaned from the existing history-matching dataset. It is shown how acquisition of further data can be optimised.