ACEMS Virtual Public Lecture - Just how much water is down there, and will it last?

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Water is a precious resource - under increasing global pressure and vulnerability due to rising populations and changing climate patterns.  Modelling can offer critical insights into the nature and sustainability of this resource so that effective and equitable decisions can be made regarding its usage. 

Professor Louise Ryan presents various approaches to modelling underground aquifers, which are a significant water source for many parts of Australia.  While she will briefly review the classical process-based approaches based on hydro-geological theory, her focus will be more data-driven approaches including dynamic regression modelling that draw on the theory of time series, as well as machine learning approaches such as neural network models and their extensions to the time series domain.  We will see that there are advantages and disadvantages to the various approaches and that this is an area with rich opportunity for further methodological exploration. 

Louise will be joined by Dr Stephanie Clark, post-doctoral fellow at the University of Technology Sydney.

The presentation draws on work done in collaboration with Professor Rob Hyndman and Mr Mitchell O'Hara-Wild, Monash University and Dr Dan Pagendam, CSIRO.

45 minute presentation followed by Q & A.