2.6.2.1.1 Background and context

The groundwater modelling in bioregional assessments (BAs) has a very specific objective: to probabilistically evaluate potential drawdown and changes in surface water – groundwater flux relevant to the surface water modelling in the coal resource development pathway (CRDP) relative to the baseline at specified locations in the landscape to inform the impact and risk analysis reported in product 3-4 (impact and risk analysis).

The modelling is focused on the change in hydrogeological stress and the hydraulic properties, rather than on reproducing historical conditions or predicting future state variables of the system, such as groundwater levels or fluxes. The main rationale for this approach is that in confined groundwater systems, and to a lesser extent in unconfined systems, the response in groundwater level or flux is linear with respect to the change in stress – that is, a doubling of the pumping rate will result in a doubling of drawdown (Reilly et al., 1987; Rassam et al., 2004). If a system behaves linearly, it means that changes are additive, which is known as the principle of superposition (Reilly et al., 1987). The biggest implication of this is that the change to the system due to a change in stress is largely independent of current or initial conditions. The most well-known example is the interpretation of a pumping test; the drawdown is only a function of the hydraulic properties of the aquifer, not of the initial conditions.

By applying the principle of superposition, predictive modelling puts the primary focus on quantifying changes in groundwater levels and fluxes caused by changes in hydrogeological stress and the hydraulic properties, rather than on reproducing historical conditions or predicting future state variables of the system, such as groundwater levels or fluxes. This is because the primary objective of modelling is a probabilistic quantification of changes in drawdown and fluxes caused by additional coal resource development especially considering the limited availability of historical groundwater monitoring information from the deep sedimentary basins in the region.

The probabilistic aspect of the analysis implies that modelling does not provide a single best estimate of the change, but rather an ensemble of estimates based on user-defined probability distributions of input parameters. This allows results to be presented either as a probability of exceeding a threshold drawdown (e.g. 2 m) or as a percentile of drawdown (e.g. 95th percentile).

To generate these ensembles of predictions, a large number of model parameter sets will be evaluated for the surface water and groundwater models. The range of parameters reflects both the natural variability of the system and the uncertainty in the understanding of the system as of September 2015. During the uncertainty analysis, these parameter combinations are filtered in such a way that only those that are consistent with the available observations and the understanding of the system are used to generate the ensemble of predictions. When no relevant observations are available, the prior parameter combinations are not constrained. The details are documented in companion submethodology M09 (as listed in Table 1) for propagating uncertainty through models (Peeters et al., 2016).

It is not possible to capture all uncertainty in the understanding of the system in the parameterisation of the numerical models. It is, therefore, inevitable that there will be a number of assumptions and model choices necessary to create the models. This is often referred to as structural or conceptual model uncertainty. These assumptions are introduced and briefly discussed in Section 2.6.2.3 about model development. The qualitative uncertainty analysis in Section 2.6.2.8.2 further provides a systematic and comprehensive discussion of these assumptions. This discussion focuses on the rationale behind the assumptions and the effect on the predictions.

A precautionary approach is adopted in making modelling choices and assumptions to reduce the likelihood of under estimating the hydrological changes arising from coal resource development (e.g. using a wide parameter range when little measured information exists). However, an overly conservative estimate of impact is not desirable either. If there are sound reasons to believe that predicted hydrological changes are unrealistically high (e.g. in comparison to earlier modelling efforts in the subregion) the assumptions will be revisited as part of the model development process. This precautionary approach allows us to be very confident in areas that are ruled out of having any potential impacts due to drawdown.

The effect on predictions is crucial in justifying assumptions. In a conservative numerical modelling analysis the precautionary principle is adopted: impacts are over estimated rather than under estimated. Wherever possible, this precautionary principle is adopted and if it can be shown that an assumption over estimates – not under estimates – impacts, the assumption is considered appropriate for the specific purpose of this modelling. This approach is also adopted by the US Environmental Protection Agency (US Environmental Protection Agency, 2004).

The stochastic approach to modelling uncertainty also enables a comprehensive sensitivity analysis to identify the model parameters or aspects of the system that are most influential on the predictions – and others that have little or no effect on the predictions. This information can guide future data collection and model development or inform the regulatory process.

This product reports only the drawdown due to coal resource development. The drawdown due to additional coal resource development is particularly emphasised, and drawdown under baseline and under the CRDP are also reported for context. Only for these predictions is it ensured that all the model assumptions are valid and conservative. In addition to that, the parameter distributions are tailored to these predictions. This means that this product will not present simulated historical groundwater levels or potentiometric surfaces.

In deterministic groundwater modelling (i.e. simulation of current and future aquifer states over the entire model domain based on a single parameter set), this information, together with calibration results, are used to build confidence in the model predictions. This is based on the premise that a model that can accurately reproduce historical states, such as groundwater levels, will be able to make accurate predictions. The work by, among others, Moore and Doherty (2005) and Doherty and Welter (2010) have shown that this premise is not universally valid and very dependent on the type and nature of the observations and the type and nature of the predictions. In extremis, matching historical observations can lead to an increase in predictive uncertainty (White et al., 2014). In order to safeguard the analysis from these pitfalls, while still ensuring the model is consistent with available relevant observations, the sensitivity analysis is focused on identifying the parameters the predictions are sensitive to and, should observations be available, identifying which parameters can be constrained by observations. In the uncertainty analysis a set of rules or objective functions is defined, if relevant observations are available, that needs to be satisfied before a particular parameter combination is considered suitable to make predictions. An example of such a rule is that the mismatch between simulated and observed groundwater levels is less than a predefined threshold or that the surface water – groundwater flux is within a specified range.

This approach to modelling is a departure from the traditional approach focused on deterministic aquifer simulation reflected in the Australian groundwater modelling guidelines (Barnett et al., 2012). The report structure therefore does not adhere fully to the reporting structure recommended in the guidelines. This product starts with an overview of the groundwater modelling methods as applied to the Namoi subregion (Section 2.6.2.1.2), in which a high-level overview is provided of the conceptualisation, modelling approach, interaction with the surface water model and uncertainty analysis in relation to the other companion documents for this subregion and the BA submethodologies. The methods section is followed with a review of the existing groundwater models (Section 2.6.2.2). Section 2.6.2.3 to Section 2.6.2.6 describe the development of the model, boundary conditions, implementation of the CRDP and the parameterisation of the model. In these sections, model choices and assumptions are discussed. The available observations, as well as the type and location of the predictions, are presented in Section 2.6.2.7. This section also includes the sensitivity analysis of the model parameters to observations and predictions. The probabilistic estimates of drawdown are presented in Section 2.6.2.8. This section also provides an in-depth formal discussion of the justification of assumptions and their effect on predictions. The final section, Section 2.6.2.9, does not only contain the conclusions of the model, but also the limitations and opportunities to reduce predictive uncertainty.

Last updated:
6 December 2018
Thumbnail of the Namoi subregion

Product Finalisation date

2018
PRODUCT CONTENTS

ASSESSMENT