2.6.2.7.1 Observations

The GW AEM is designed to simulate the change in the groundwater system due to coal resource development directly, not to simulate historical conditions in the Galilee sedimentary basin. Comparison with historical observations of groundwater pressure or fluxes is therefore not possible or warranted. Fitting a complex model to a limited observation dataset that is not designed to inform such exercise, but designed to monitor water resources, will lead to biased parameter estimates which subsequently will lead to biased model predictions (Doherty and Welter, 2010). In this light, the unconstrained suite of parameters employed here are conservative and less prone to bias.