The reconstruction of groundwater parameters from head data in an unconfined aquifer

The estimation of groundwater flow parameters from head measurements and other ancillary data is fundamental to the process of modelling a groundwater system. In an unconfined aquifer, the problem is more complex because the governing equation for the well heads, the Boussinesq equation, is non-linear. We consider here a new method that allows for the simultaneous computation of the unconfined groundwater parameters as the unique minimum of a convex functional.