We have developed an applied groundwater modeling case on the mesoscale that covers the most relevant physical process that affect the underground flow regime. Numerical simulation was constructed on Modflow 6 and Model Muse 4 on steady state conditions with variable hydraulic conductivity with depth to represent interbedded low conductivity layers. The tutorial cover all the steps of model and boundary condition setup, working with spatial data, analysis of water balance and review of water levels on piezometers.

Note: This is a base case for a coming webinar in sensibility analysis with MODFLOW 6, Python and the Flopy and Salib libraries. More information of this event will be posted on our social networks.

This tutorial has the complete process to insert piezometers as a HOB package into a regional groundwater flow in Modflow6. Original location, surface elevation and screen elevation are in csv format that was converted to shapefile in order to be imported by Model Muse 4. The tutorial also covers a Python script to represent the plot of calculated-observed heads with the NRMSE value as a header.

Groundwater can’t be seen (because its on the ground, obviously) and groundwater flow is extremely hard to understand unless we have a bigger scope of the theory and main features of the hydrogeological flow regime. One of the limitations for the understanding is the lack of interactive tools that provides user friendly environments for the representation of recharge zones, discharge zones, wells, wetlands, and other hydrogeological features.

We have developed a tutorial for the web representation of a MODFLOW model main features and head results in a combined process with the use of the Hataripy library, Paraview, Python and Steno3D.

Learning groundwater modeling is a challenge for the complexities of the codes, the lack or scarce piezometric and water quality data, the heterogeneity of the porous media and the few resources to explore complete and applied groundwater models with different boundary conditions and predictive scenarios.

Just few websites had uploaded complete groundwater flow models in MODFLOW and are accessible to the general public. We have to admit that most of the websites come from public institutions in the US. We hope that in a near future we can have more resources to get model reports and the complete MODFLOW model.

It might be that you are a talented groundwater modeler and very proficient with Python and Flopy that you start to realize that you don´t need to work in Windows anymore and want to migrate your favorite groundwater modeling code to other nice, soft, and warm Linux-based operating systems. Or, it might be the case that you want to configure and run MODFLOW models as a part of a webapp or in a web server. For the reasons mentioned before and other reasons that modern world could bring to us, a compiled version of MODFLOW in Linux is needed.

There isn’t as well a clear definition of applied hydrogeology, that following the literal meaning should be the hydrogeology in practice. We like the definition of applied hydrogeology as the real world hydrogeology, as the hydrogeology of non-homogeneous, non-infinite, non-isotropic and even non-porous media; applied hydrogeology is the hydrogeology that goes behind the book, far away from the “aquifer, aquitard, aquiclude” classification. Applied hydrogeology is the part of hydrogeology that solve problems, the science that tells us if the groundwater remediation will work, if a industrial complex will have water on the coming decade, or when the salinitization from the pumping well will overcome the reverse osmosis plant capacity.

Perception and interest on the groundwater resources are of high initial interest but long term low popularity, that is why normal and plain hydrogeologist need to promote an innovative perspective of the relation from human society with the groundwater resources as a strong part for every environmental protection plan and sustainable management policy elaboration.

This article has a list of aquifers around the globe, with special characteristics where a normal audience can see how water can exist below surface, how people have interacted with the aquifer

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.