From a conversation with a specialist in soil subsidence we came to the conclusion about which was the most critical hydrogeological data needed for a numerical model. There is a proposed list of required data on this link, but when we plan a hydrogeological study which is critical? Data about the groundwater flow regime and the hydrogeological environment is always scarce. And there are even more complications on the data gathering because these data depend on a number of institutions and shareholders that could not be willing to share it because there is a mainstream idea

Hydrogeologist need to support the industry in a modular manner where hydrogeological concepts and evaluations has to be understood by all the related stakeholders in order to conduct an industrial activity with a clear sense of pumping / water level performance and changes in water quality with time.

Dear FREEWAT Users,

We wish to inform you that a new version of the FREEWAT plugin (v.1.1.1) is available since December the 4th 2018.

Besides fixing some minor bugs (thanks to Iacopo Borsi – TEA SISTEMI SpA) notified by the FREEWAT Users, this release includes:

•  an enhancement of the Multi-Node Well package (MNW2) of MODFLOW (thanks to Giovanna De Filippis – Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna);

•  two new packages for solute exchange with surface water bodies (e.g., rivers, lakes). This is now accomplished in FREEWAT through the integration of the Streamflow Transport (SFT) and Lake Transport (LKT) packages of MT3D-USGS (thanks to Giovanna De Filippis – Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna).

A list of the bugs fixed is available in the plugin folder.

On a conversation with a colleague we have discussed the potential of selling groundwater modeling through the Internet. The idea (that is not so new) to develop groundwater models from remote areas optimizing the human resources, logistics and time involved on the evaluations its kind of the next step in numerical modeling but it has some arguments to be discussed for its implementation. From the management point of view, if we focus on mass production from and if we take into account theoretical concepts of business administration the idea of outsourcing tasks can be ideal for the success of a company or industry; however from the hydrogeological point of view there are serious complexities on the groundwater flow regime analysis, limitations on the input data and skills deficiencies that put the hydrogeological evaluation in risk if we work a groundwater model online.

In a global world we can make video call to almost anywhere for a reasonable price and our need/disponibility of broadband is always increasing but our ideas are not well conected and the group ideas are more distant than religion beliefs, therefore the method of developing a groundwater model could be of great importance in the quality of the groundwater evaluation through numerical modeling. This article discuss some key aspects of developing a groundwater model as a product (MAAP) and review its advantages and limitations.

If we compare the amount of hydrologist vs. the amount of hydrogeologist, we can see that there is a gap in between the number of specialists in surface water and groundwater. Traditionally, the hydrology as a academic course is related to surface hydrology while the underground hydrology (hydrogeology) has been scarcely treated in typical undergraduate or graduate studies. As a comparison with then chicken and the egg, the lower or less popular academic opportunities in hydrogeology has produced a limited number of groundwater specialist who deal with a limited sort of groundwater studies.

Maybe confined or unconfined aquifer are terms that would sound familiar from your first hydrogeology class, however it´s a simple definition about the location of the hydraulic head over the vertical limits of your aquifer. It might be that you have employed those terms in different reports, or maybe you have seen this aquifer classification on some environmental impact assessments or geological reports, but which is the relevance of this classification on the groundwater flow? This article talks about the comparison of the the confined / unconfined aquifer condition based on numerical modeling with some discussion about the convertible character of the aquifer.

GRIDGEN is a program developed by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) to create unstructured grids to be used in numerical models such as MODFLOW-USG.

The use of unstructured grids has advantages, like the capacity of refining specific areas. However, its design and manipulation is more complicated than in structured grids. The most complex step is the creation of input data, specifically the ones related to cell connectivity. For this reason, GRIDGEN is an useful tool that helps to simplify the process.

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) has just released the latest MODFLOW version: MODFLOW 6. It is the sixth core version of MODFLOW to be released by the USGS (previous core versions were released in 1984, 1988, 1996, 2000, and 2005).

Constructing and calibrating numerical models can be a challenging task in terms of time, available data and professional abilities of the modeler. Since this work is usually done alone, there are many questions about the conceptualization of the physical environment, the construction of the model and the calibration with observed data. Based on the questions asked by some attendees of our webminars, we have written this article for all the confused hydrogeological modelers.