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Revision of the Australian Groundwater Modelling Guidelines

The South Australian Department for Environment and Water (DEW) is leading a project to develop new national groundwater modelling guidelines. The guidelines are aimed at groundwater decision-makers, including managers who commission models, government regulators, and others who use model results. They will also support groundwater modelling professionals.

This page will help you:

understand the background
learn about the project scope and timeframes
get involved and attend events
find resources

The project will produce two documents: a set of guidelines aimed at decision-makers and a report of recommendations for further work. This project is consulting with stakeholders from all states and territories to develop these.

The guidelines for decision-makers will be clear, practical and, as much as possible, avoid the use of jargon.

They will discuss topics such as:

the capabilities and limitations of groundwater modelling
how to identify the question that the model will address
data needs
hydrogeological conceptualisation
model construction
scenario design
pitfalls
interpretation of model results including uncertainty estimates.

The guidelines will support the development and review of groundwater models that are transparent, defendable, robust and repeatable.

The recommendation document will discuss what further work is required to improve groundwater modelling for management purposes across Australia. It will identify areas where more detailed technical guidance is needed, outside the scope of the guidelines for decision-makers. It will recommend actions, projects and research topics.

The project is jointly funded by the Australian Government ($1.5 million) and the South Australian Government ($405,000). Australian Government funding is provided through the National Water Grid Fund. It is overseen by the National Water Grid, National Groundwater Sub-Committee and the Groundwater Modelling Guidelines Revision Steering Committee.

FAQs

Groundwater is a critical water source for much of Australia, providing water via springs, wells and rivers. It is vital to many ecosystems, especially in regions with low rainfall. Town water supply, irrigation and industry may rely on groundwater and can impact its quantity and quality.

Groundwater modelling simulates groundwater flow and sometimes water quality or temperature. The simulations can illustrate past conditions or allow us to consider possible futures and management options. The simulations have become a major tool for water planning, environmental management, and environmental impact assessments.

Groundwater modelling guidelines describe best practice. Guidelines were developed for the Murray-Darling Basin Commission in 2001 (Middlemis et al.,2001) Groundwater Flow Modelling Guideline and for the National Water Commission in 2012 (Barnett et al.,2012) Australian Groundwater Modelling Guidelines.

These guidelines have since been supplemented by:

Explanatory Notes Information Guidelines from the Independent Expert Scientific Committee on Unconventional Gas and Large Coal Mining Development (IESC).
Guidelines developed by the government of NSW Guidelines for Groundwater Documentation for SSD-SSI-Projects
Materials developed for the Groundwater Management Decision Support Initiative (GMDSI).
Most of those resources were developed for groundwater modellers and much remains valid. See the Resources section on this page.

However there remains a gap in accessible guidance for decision-makers who are also not groundwater modellers: water managers and industry proponents who commission models, regulators who must review environmental impact assessments, and others who want to understand and use model results after they have been published.

Since the 2012 guidelines were developed, there has been significant development in computing power and supporting software. In many cases, the questions that models are being used to inform have also become more complex. However it is often the case that the data available to support the investigations has not noticeably increased in complexity or quantity. These are some of the issues that the guidelines will address.

Consequently, there is a need for clear, practical guidelines to support end-users.

Early this year, technical experts were surveyed on existing guidelines, what they excelled at and how they could be improved upon. Our thanks to those who contributed responses. Since then, we have begun small-group discussions with groundwater modelling experts around Australia; these will continue during 2025. We are also holding a special session at the Congress of International Association of Hydrogeologists in Melbourne in September.

Wider consultation will begin soon, with workshops for state/territories and for different kinds of stakeholder. More details will be available soon on this website.

The guidelines team will consider all of the input we receive through consultation and will draft documents. These will be reviewed by selected groundwater modelling experts, selected stakeholders, and the Steering Committee. After revision, the final documents must be approved by the National Water Grid Fund. Both the guidelines and the recommendations report will be publicly available.

Timelines will be made available here soon.