Delineating Well Head Capture Zones and Source Water Protection Areas

Delineating Well Head Capture Zones and Source Water Protection Areas

Protection of groundwater resources requires the delineation of the capture zone for all municipal water supply wells and a combination of GIS analysis of aquifer protection and groundwater modeling. Visual MODFLOW can be used to define the particle tracks that flow from recharge area to each wellfield (often referred to as a WellHead Protection Area (WHPA). The data are often organized in GIS, and Visual MODFLOW makes it easy to integrate GIS data into the model, and present study results in the GIS system.

whpa

 

Any version of MODFLOW will work for the groundwater flow calculation; if you are encountering dry cells, you may want to use MODFLOW-NWT. MODPATH is used with backwards particle tracking for delineating capture zones.

whpa2whpa1

 

Online References using Visual MODFLOW

Note: Waterloo Hydrogeologic does not imply endorsement of software from the authors of these publications/reports (and their associated organization/company).

TitleRegion
Subwatershed Study, City of Hamilton, Mid-Spencer CreekCanada
Hydrogeological Investigation
Keywords: Groundwater characterization, septic systems
Canada

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