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In this invited paper I describe some personal views on the research field of conceptual modelling. I argue that the field has become entrenched in some “bad habits” that usually emerge in evolved paradigms and that we need to proactively pursue a dual research strategy incorporating new and different avenues that lead us to novel and impactful research contexts of conceptual modelling. I provide a framework that can guide this exploration and finish with some recommendations about how conceptual modelling research programs could proceed.

Conceptual modelling continues to be an important means for graphically capturing the requirements of an information system. Observations of modelling practice suggest that modellers often use multiple conceptual models in combination, because they articulate different aspects of real-world domains. Yet, the available empirical as well as theoretical research in this area has largely studied the use of single models, or single modelling grammars. We develop a Theory of Combined Ontological Coverage by extending an existing theory of ontological expressiveness of conceptual modelling grammars. Our new theory posits that multiple conceptual models are used to increase the maximum coverage of the real-world domain being modelled, whilst trying to minimize the ontological overlap between the models. We illustrate how the theory can be applied to analyse sets of conceptual models. We develop three propositions of the theory about evaluations of model combinations in terms of users’ selection, understandability and usefulness of conceptual models.

River restoration changes the interaction between groundwater and surface water. Therefore, it is expected to have an impact on ecosystems at the interface between groundwater and surface water. Quantifying and generalizing the level of change of this interaction for different hydrogeological environments is scientifically and practically challenging. In this paper we investigated the impact of different restoration measures and the effect on the interaction of the temporal resolution of the groundwater modeling methodology. The interaction is analysed in the water bodies and wetlands in the valley of the Zwarte Beek, one of the most valuable nature reserves of Flanders. In the past, several changes have been made to the river and drainage system. These adaptations are now considered to be bottlenecks in maintaining a good ecological and hydrological status of its water dependent biotopes. Hence, in the context of the EU Water Framework Directive, it is necessary to (at least partly) restore the initial natural situation. The measures proposed include the reinstatement of old meanders and the removal of a weir. By removing the weir, fish migration is again possible. Reconnecting old meanders increases the habitat diversity. We used transient groundwater modeling to evaluate the impact on the groundwater system of the wetlands. Results indicate that a peat layer, present in most of the wetland, minimizes the effects of the restoration on the groundwater table. The largest changes are confined to the areas near the old meanders and the weir. Steady-state situations do not allow a calculation of average lowest and highest groundwater levels, which are essential for simulating ecological site conditions. Hence, transient simulations with 14 days time steps are required to detect a considerably greater range of groundwater fluctuation than indicated by the seasonal simulation. It is shown that the river restoration project thus resulted in an improvement of the structure of the watercourse rather than the rewetting of the valley. We concluded also that high resolution transient groundwater modeling is an essential step towards river restoration and ecohydrological predictions.

The creation of a contour map of the water table in an unconfined aquifer based on head measurements is often the first step in any hydrogeological study. Geostatistical interpolation methods (e.g., kriging) may provide exact interpolated groundwater levels at the measurement locations but often fail to represent the hydrogeological flow system. A physically based, numerical groundwater model with spatially variable parameters and inputs is more adequate in representing a flow system. Because of the difficulty in parameterization and solving the inverse problem, however, a considerable difference between calculated and observed heads will often remain. In this study the water‐table interpolation methodology presented by Fasbender et al. (2008), in which the results of a kriging interpolation are combined with information from a drainage network and a digital elevation model (DEM), using the Bayesian data fusion framework, is extended to incorporate information from a tuned analytic element groundwater model. The resulting interpolation is exact at the measurement locations whereas the shape of the head contours is in accordance with the conceptual information incorporated in the groundwater‐flow model. The Bayesian data fusion methodology is applied to a regional, unconfined aquifer in central Belgium. A cross‐validation procedure shows that the predictive capability of the interpolation at unmeasured locations benefits from the Bayesian data fusion of the three data sources (kriging, DEM, and groundwater model), compared to the individual data sources or any combination of two data sources.

In an attempt to turn data management into a profitable enterprise, many businesses are seeking to integrate and centralise their data through data warehousing. A data warehouse then allows businesses to turn data into knowledge, and turn knowledge into tangible profits. One key success factor of a data warehouse lies in its ability to integrate data from multiple sources through a unified data model. Within asset management, several such integrated data models have been proposed, however these individually only cover a limited number of areas within asset management data and are not designed with data warehousing in mind. This paper presents the development process of a novel conceptual data warehousing data model that holistically integrates numerous asset management data areas. The comprehensive ethnographic modelling methodology involves a diverse set of inputs (including data model patterns, standards, information system data models, and business process models) that describes asset management data. The outputs of the process were verified by more than 20 experts in asset management and validated against four case studies.

This paper attempts to develop a conceptual model of the process of production and consumption of popular media texts (PMTs) to investigate the relationships between the production elements of PMTs and the ways in which particular production values may appeal to potential tourists in diverse settings. The proposed model presumes that there may be structurally causal relationships between highlighted major elements of PMTs production and patterns of consumption associated with audience involvement, subsequent audience loyalty, and intention to visit the locations depicted in the programming in the context of film-induced tourism. The conceptualised model of the process of production and consumption of PMTs is hypothesised by reviewing previous literature and empirical studies. This paper draws attention to trans-national and interdisciplinary perspectives which will enable researchers to develop new ideas and perspectives in exploring the complicated inter-communication processes between PMTs from the production side with audiences/tourists as consumers, and understanding the relationships and mediation between production and consumption of PMTs and associated tourism.