The initial condition remains the same throughout: in unsat-sat flow conditions you'll notice this the most: you get parameters that are optimzed on your current head distribution. If you run a steady-state with a different head distribution with your calibrated parameters, you're going to get a worse calibration.
[quote author=S Heermann link=topic=2597.msg6142#msg6142 date=1444149169]
I recently used Python to extract parameters and create tables summarizing parameters for a range of "zones"-- it works great. I would like to incorporate it into the parameter estimation process, but I haven't quite figured out how yet. Any thoughts?
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You would need to do is create element selections to define your parameter zones. Not sure if there's an easy way to do that. If you're trying to adjust parameters outside what FePEST has, here's a thread courtesy of Ludwig that has some groundwork on it: http://forum.mikepoweredbydhi.com/index.php/topic,2047.0.html
Not sure if this answers your question.
Hope this helps!
Adam