Researcher

Wes Kitlasten

Earth Sciences New Zealand
(Formerly GNS Science)

Wes is a senior groundwater modeller with 10 years of experience in U.S. federal government (5 years), academic research (4 years), and independent (1 year) organizations. Wes has a broad range of modelling experience ranging from fluid flow and stable isotope transport in hydrothermal metamorphic systems, heat transport, soil erosion, watershed processes, surface water-groundwater interactions, water allocation, and groundwater dependent wetlands.

Wes’ current research efforts include building and history matching a national scale groundwater model that simulates groundwater head and gains and losses in streams across New Zealand. Wes is also helping develop mythologies to rapidly produce “child” models of smaller areas of interest in a consistent and repeatable way to help support a range of management decisions.