COUNTING ANGELS ON THE HEAD OF A PIN -- GROUNDWATER MODELING IN THE TRENCHES (Invited Presentation)

Groundwater water models have evolved over the past decades to be sophisticated tools that are routinely used to assist in solving complex groundwater problems. In my experience, managing client’s expectations has become one of the biggest challenges for groundwater consultants. Though models are frequently complex and sophisticated, consultants often struggle to develop groundwater models that provide a useful assist to the decision maker in an cost-effective manner. In addition, modelers struggle to meaningfully convey the uncertainty associated with model calculations, even though powerful tools are available to assist in the evaluation of uncertainty.

In this talk, I will provide examples from my 40 years of experience in developing models as a groundwater consultant that illustrate the power and limitations of groundwater models for assisting in solving complex groundwater problems.