Groundwater-modeling papers published by NGWA advisory panel

Each written to improve groundwater modeling and its application to professionals, five white papers recently produced by the NGWA Groundwater Modeling Advisory Panel have been approved by the NGWA Board of Directors and are now posted on the Association’s website. The papers are:

• Applications of Groundwater Modeling for Decision-Making in Water Management and Engineering with Water Supply and Remediation Case Studies
• A Decision Framework for Minimum Levels of Model Complexity
• Integrated Surface Water-Groundwater Modeling
• A Stepwise Approach to Groundwater Modeling
• Uncertainty in Groundwater Modeling.

The NGWA Groundwater Modeling Advisory Panel was formed in early 2016 with the goal of advancing the state of groundwater modeling through cooperative information exchange and outreach to groundwater professionals.

The nearly 40 prominent groundwater modelers who form the panel identified 33 topics of interest and categorized them into five groups for development. The papers were written as discussion documents and underwent peer review before being finalized and approved by the board.

These papers address questions of:

• How should decision-makers consider groundwater modeling in project development and solution?
• How should the complexity of the subsurface be considered in developing groundwater models?
• What considerations should be made in moving from simple to more complex model development?
• How can uncertainty be included in modeling to inform decisions for groundwater supply and remediation?
• What approaches can be followed to address interaction of groundwater and surface water in decisions?

Modeling groundwater in the subsurface environment provides a view and insight of what cannot be easily seen nor readily observed. The U.S. Geological Survey anticipates future modeling demands will be greater, especially addressing multidisciplinary factors and applied to landscape-level science as scientific questions and resource issues become more complex.

The NGWA Groundwater Modeling Advisory Panel believes sharing their knowledge and experience will assist both long-time practitioners and newly graduated modelers in applying their skills and expertise. Its members also hope modelers will bring questions forward for consideration and development in future groundwater modeling practice discussion papers.