Dr Wolfgang Schmid

Biography

Other Interests

• Use of Machine Learning to distinguish between groundwater factors that lead to irreversible aquifer compaction (informed by InSAR-derived land subsidence) and other surface influences (climate, surface water, soils, terrain, land use, etc). This information can be used to generate inferred datasets that then are used to inform/constrain numerical models.
• Participatory surface-water/groundwater conjunctive use modelling, where one can develop custom socio-economic and management scenarios for the MODFLOW family of codes (in specific the Farm Process, FMP). (Workshop given on that topic at Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna Pisa (SSSAP), Italy in 2018; current interest in applying a participatory model similar to the work of CSIRO Chile to an Australian Case Study).

• Groundwater Modelling workshops:

  • for "Four new Generation MODFLOW Processes relevant to Australia" (Farm Process, Surface-Water Routing Process, Subsidence Package, Groundwater Management Process):
    
    
    
    • 2013: CSIRO, Perth (as IAH Congress Short Course);
    
    
  • Groundwater modelling workshop on “Indus Basin Groundwater Modelling & Management” for Scientists from Pakistan (through CSIRO’s DFAT engagement):
    
    
    
    • 2016, CSIRO, Canberra;
    
    
  • for using MODFLOW One-Water Hydrolgoic Model (OWHM) with the Farm Process (FMP):
    
    
    
    • 2014: Technical University Munich (TUM), Germany;
    
    
    • 2017: TUM, Germany, MODFLOW-OWHM jointly with FREEWAT;
    
    
    • 2018: SSSAP, Pisa, Italy, MODFLOW-OWHM jointly with FREEWAT given at summer school at SSSAP.
    
    
  • Online ICEWaRM workshop on Groundwater modelling with MODFLOW (Free Webinar in 2019).

• General interest in: Conjunctive surface water / groundwater management & modelling, e.g.,;

  • Hydrologic hindcast or forecast models that simulate constrained surface-water and groundwater supply driven by water demand (e.g., irrigation demand) within fully coupled systems of land use, surface-water, and groundwater.
  • Response of water demand/supply to changing conditions by dynamically linking hydrologic models to models that simulate these external changes (e.g., climate changes, droughts, sea level rise, salt water intrusion, land-use changes, resource exploitation, changes in water rights).
  • Dynamic dependency of surface-water/groundwater interaction on changing heads, flows, and aquifer deformation. This includes:
    
    
    
    1. Improved coupling between river system models and MODFLOW groundwater models with focus on (i) coupling to expand SW/GW interaction to demand-supply interaction across the SW-GW model interface; (ii) type of coupling (i.e., tight vs. loose).
    
    
    2. Impacts of aquifer compaction/expansion on surface deformation, deformation-dependent surface-water/groundwater interaction & conjunctive use, and deformation dependency of aquifer-hydraulic properties.
    
    

Professional Areas

• Sustainable water management in Western Australia
• Integrated Basin Modelling in South Asia
• Groundwater modelling
• Numerical modelling of irrigation demand and conjunctive surface-water / groundwater use
• MODFLOW code development (Farm Process for MODFLOW)

Fields of Research

Current Roles

• Project Leader
  Managed Aquifer Recharge in Myalup (two projects: Groundwater scenario modelling (2017-2018) and Hydrogeological Assessment of MAR in Myalup (2022 - present)

• Project Leader
  Appropriate Recharge Model Complexity for groundwater allocation models in Western Australia (2020 - present)

• Project Leader
  Land Subsidence Assessment in New South Wales (two projects: Namoi Basin (2019-2020) & southern inland NSW (2021 - 2022))

• Activity Lead: Groundwater Modelling
  Sustainable water management in Western Australia (e.g., Myalup irrigated area; Transform Pilbara; Peel food zone; Probabilistic assessment of treated wastewater nutrient attenuation)

• Activity Lead: Groundwater Modelling
  Sustainable Development Investment Strategy project on Indus Basin of Pakistan (2015-2017)

• Activity Lead: Groundwater Trend Analysis
  Sustainable Development Investment Strategy project on Brahmani-Baitarni River Basin of India (2014-2016))

Academic Qualifications

Professional Experiences

• 2012-present

  Senior Research Scientist
  CSIRO Land and Water, Canberra (Black Mountain, ACT) & Perth (Floreat, WA), Australia

• Nov 2009-Dec 2011

  Assistant Research Professor
  University of Arizona, Department of Hydrology and Water Resources

• Aug 2004-Oct 2009

  Research Hydrologist
  University of Arizona, Department of Hydrology and Water Resources

• Jan 2000-Aug 2004

  Research Assistant
  National Science Foundation Science & Technology Center SAHRA, University of Arizona, Department of Hydrology and Water Resources

• Feb 1998-Nov 1999

  Consultant Hydrogeologist
  Consortium GTZ (German Technical Cooperation) and Dornier-Consulting, Groundwater Assessment Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (Supervision of two Groundwater Well-Field Development Programs in Al Khazna and Al Ain).

• 1994-1997

  Consultant Hydrogeologist
  Egner Geoanalytik, Tübingen, Germany (projects: groundwater exploration and water supply (mineral & thermal waters); remediation of contaminant sites; geotechnical site suitability assessments for waste disposals)

Achievements and Awards

• 2009

  Kevin J Neese Award - Groundwater Assocation of California
  Major Contributor to the awarded USGS team effort on modelling the “Groundwater Availability of the Central Valley Aquifer,” http://pubs.usgs.gov/pp/1766

• 2013-2016

  Adjunct Faculty Status
  University of Arizona, Department of Hydrology and Water Resources, Tucson, USA

• 2014-2018

  CSIRO Chairman's Medal - Bioregional Assessments CSIRO (awarded 2018)
  CSIRO