HOW OBSERVATIONS AND STRUCTURE AFFECT THE GEOSTATISTICAL SOLUTION TO THE STEADY-STATE INVERSE PROBLEM

The solution to the steady-state inverse problem can be expanded into a series of spline functions with weights adjusted to reproduce the ob servations within die observation error. The splines depend on the mod el spatial structure, the ground water flow model, and the location of the observations. This representation of the solution, which is a rig orous and exact expansion, provides insight into the form of the best estimate and explicitly shows how observations and the conceptual mode l may affect the solution.