Education

Integral to high-end decision-support modelling is harvesting of information from data, and quantification of the predictive consequences of data insufficiency. This often requires conjunctive use of numerical simulation and simulator partner software.

Integral to GMDSI’s mission is the provision of training resources for use of model partner software, particularly software that is supplied with the PEST and PEST++ suites. Resources such as these are available from nowhere else.

Education that GMDSI provides is both informal and informal. Formal education is provided through short courses, webinars, videos and worked examples. Informal exchange of knowledge is provided through the building of a world-wide community of like-minded individuals.

Education and community-building activities in which GMDSI engages are not meant for modelers alone. GMDSI sees part of its mission as raising awareness in the groundwater model community at large of what modelling can, and cannot, achieve in supporting important environmental and operational decisions. It is hoped that this can enable managers and bureaucrats to commission the building of a groundwater model for the right reasons, and for decision stakeholders to view the outcomes of groundwater modeling from the right perspective.