Welcome!

I am Eileen Poeter. You can learn more about me by visiting my Home Page. I thoroughly enjoy modeling ground-water systems. Using math to simulate a physical system is not only of practical value to geohydrologists, but is also intriguing and satisfying.

I offer an opportunity for you to send me email at many places through out the course. Please do not feel obligated to send a message, just send one if you want to discuss an issue, need clarification, have questions, concerns, comments, or think you have found an error in the course pages.

We begin with an overview of the steps in a geohydrologic project which progress from:

developing a conceptual model of your problem to

utilizing analytical models and, when appropriate, to

application of numerical models.

As we proceed, we consider first

steady state, then transient, situations for flow, followed by

transport problems.

Most of the topics in this course could be the subject of an entire semester of course work, consequently we will only "scratch the surface" of each topic. Some might say you are learning enough to be dangerous! The truth is, you are learning enough to be able to continue to teach yourself in the future.

As you will soon discover, the most important aspect of modeling is calibrating your model. This is the process of using field data to develop a model that best represents the system of interest. Once a model is rigorously calibrated, you can define confidence intervals on your predictions. Although this course introduces you to calibration concepts, it is a topic that warrants an entire semester of study. You may wish to study this further on your own given the references and materials that I provide in the last unit, or you may choose to take another modeling course in the future.

The OBJECTIVE of this course is for you to be able to:

* CONCEPTUALIZE ground-water systems and problems

* SET UP and CALIBRATE models of ground-water flow and transport

* EXECUTE models of ground-water flow and transport

* USE THE RESULTS of the modeling to help yourself UNDERSTAND a ground-water system, and

* MAKE PREDICTIONS of how the ground-water system will respond when it is stressed

AFTER COMPLETING the course you will have sufficient knowledge not only to:

* USE MODELS in your work

  but also to:

* CONTINUE TO LEARN about modeling on your own

* CALL UPON BASIC PRINCIPLES to work out your problems, and

* USE NEW SOFTWARE that we do not use in this course

Follow the units sequentially from 1 to 15 and use the material sequentially from left to right.

Electronic communications can be very time consuming. For this reason, I require that you make all email messages as concise as possible. That is, keep your comments and questions short and directly to the point. Spell and grammar check your comments before submitting them. If your email program does not accommodate this, then compose in an editor/word-processor, check, then cut and paste the words into your email.

Use one of the following for your submissions. If you wish to use a different format, please check with me and send a file in that format for me to test my ability to view the material.

     Rich Text Format

     ASCII Text

     Word

     Excel Spread sheet

     Power Point Slide Show

     PDF

     JPEG, TIF, GIF

Please NOTE:
Throughout this course, most of the paths are designed so that you follow a path, reach the end, and click "BACK" the appropriate number of times to return to where you diverted from the main flow. Consequently, if you find yourself at the end of a page with no apparent "place to go next", then click "BACK" until you reach the diversion point. There are a few places that require circular paths and in these areas, links are included at the end of the page to get you to the correct place. Using "BACK" at these locations will carry you through whatever circles you have journeyed before returning you to the original diversion point.