Environmental models, including groundwater flow and transport models, have traditionally been developed to address specific, narrowly defined issues. As these issues become broader and scientific understanding of the interconnectivity of different systems grows, models become more complex in an attempt to include multifaceted systems as processes. Model integration, i.e. linking existing individual models, is widely used as an alternative to building very complex multi-process models or frameworks.
A variety of methodologies have been developed, including object-oriented concepts, component-based modelling techniques and modelling frameworks, as well as the emerging use of integrated modelling platforms and metadata support for modelling semantics.
Associated with the development of these new modelling tools comes a requirement for better quantification of the error embedded in individual models and understanding how it is propagated through the modelling framework.
This workshop will present different approaches to integrated modelling and provide examples of applications that have been, or are being, developed. The focus will be on groundwater flow and transport modelling, including examples from water resources planning, consideration of surface water-groundwater interactions as well as the representation of groundwater in large-scale Earth System Models. Error propagation and uncertainty will be discussed within the wider context of model coupling.
Programme overview:
- Talk 1: Model integration: challenges, current approaches and a glimpse of the future - Andrew Hughes (BGS) + case studies Adam Cambridge (Atkins), Chris Jackson & David MacDonald (BGS) - all tbc
- Talk 2: Invited speaker - Being pragmatically uncertain: lessons learnt from UncertWeb and MUCM - Dan Cornford (Ashton University)
- Talk 3: Water Resources East: dynamic integration of groundwater and surface water models in an innovative water resources simulator - Lindsay McMillan (Mott MacDonald) & James Tomlinson (Atkins)
- Modeller's Fair - poster session
- Unconference Taster - A new meeting format in which the discussion topics are defined by teh participants prior to/during the event. This means that there is no pre-set programme, instead, questions are proposed and voted on by the meeting participants using a simple app (see website for more information)