Design and Implementation of a Data-Centered Groundwater Modeling System

Author: Bruce Rindahl
Organization: Brown and Caldwell Denver

7535 East Hampden Avenue
Suite 403
Denver, CO 80231-4838
USA

Phone: (303) 743-5492
Fax: (303) 743-5454
brindahl@brwncald.com

As part of a decision support system for the Rio Grande basin, the State of Colorado has designed and implemented a data-centered interface for groundwater modeling. The new interface includes spatial GIS data, the State's relational database, the USGS MODFLOW groundwater model, and several planning and analysis models for water administration. In addition, the interface has provisions for display of groundwater results using a variety of tools including ArcView GIS and ArcExplorer.

This paper will describe in detail the development and implementation of the data-centered interface to groundwater modeling, with particular emphasis on the GIS interaction between the various data sources, models, and display and analysis of results.

By using the existing models and a data-centered approach, the interface has been designed as a versatile system, responding to revised and updated data, comparing historic conditions to potential future scenarios, and allowing interaction and iterations between surface and groundwater models.