Introduction to MODFLOW

Packages
v.1.5 released on 20/09/2019

Laura Foglia1, Iacopo Borsi2, Giovanna De Filippis3, Rudy Rossetto3

1. Technical University Darmstadt (Germany) & UC Davis, California

2. TEA Sistemi S.p.A. – Pisa (Italy)
3. Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna – Pisa (Italy)
 DOCUMENTATION LICENSES

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Except where otherwise noted,

this slides are licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License:
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FREEWAT - Free and Open Source Software Tools for Water Resource Management
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant
agreement No 642224
 DATA LICENSES

Please attribute FREEWAT with a link to

http://www.freewat.eu/

Except where otherwise noted,

data used in this tutorial are licensed under a
Open Database License:
http://opendatacommons.org/licenses/odbl/1.0/

Any rights in individual contents of the databases are

licensed under the Database Contents License:
http://opendatacommons.org/licenses/dbcl/1.0/
FREEWAT - Free and Open Source Software Tools for Water Resource Management
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant
agreement No 642224
 This lecture presents an introduction to
MODFLOW Packages, highlights the
important features and mainly provides
references to the most useful literature
and webpages! It does not pretend to
be a complete MODFLOW manual!

FREEWAT - Free and Open Source Software Tools for Water Resource Management
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant
agreement No 642224
 GroundWater Flow (GWF) Packages
Packages represent a type of system feature.

Some examples:
– Package that defines model layers and properties:
• Layer-Property Flow (LPF) Package
• BCF Package
– One of the two needs to be defined
– Packages used to add/remove water at a specified rate:
• Well (WEL)
• Recharge (RCH)
– Packages that add/remove water based on head in the
aquifer:
• General-Head Boundary (GHB)
• River (RIV)
•…
1
 How processes and packages interact

GWF Process OBS Process

LPF Package Define K and S properties, No observations are now

possibly using parameters. defined for the LPF
Calculate contributions to Package. Possible
the matrix equations observations are internal
flows.

RIV Package Define river properties, River gain and loss

possibly using parameters. observations can be
Calculate contributions to defined.
the matrix equations.

In MODFLOW, subroutines are named using the three-letter identifiers

for processes and packages. For example, GWF1LPF6RP
2
MODFLOW Packages

3
 Packages from
required MODFLOW88/96

required

head
dependent
BCs

1 is required
& PCG2
4
 How do the Packages work?

Some examples:

1) WEL package

2) RIV package

3) DRAIN package

4) GHB package

5) LAK package

6) SFR package
5
Head-dependent boundaries

Generally use
many cells to
define a feature.
Here, shaded
cells are used to
simulate flow to
compare to
measured flow
Q2-Q1.
Other cells
would be used to
define the rest of
the river.
From Hill, 2000
6
 Packages for head-dependent
boundaries implemented in FREEWAT

Q = C h where C is the Conductance term

• River Package (RIV)

• Drain Package (DRN)
• General Head Boundary (GHB) Package
• ET Package (EVT and ETS)
• Streamflow routing Package (SFR)
• Lake Package (LAK)
• Unsaturated zone flow package (UZF)
• …
7
 MODFLOW RIV Package/1
http://water.usgs.gov/ogw/modflow/MODFLOW-2005-Guide/index.html?riv.htm

Field setting

Representation
in the model

8
 MODFLOW RIV Package/2

MODFLOW RIV Package simulates river/aquifer seepage, depending on

the head gradient between the river and the groundwater system.

The riverbed is made of low permeability material and the water level in
the model cell stays above its bottom.

The flow between the river and the aquifer in reach n is given by:
Qn=CRIVn(HRIVn-hi,j,k),

where:
CRIVn is the conductance of the
riverbed material (user-defined);
HRIVn is the river stage (user-defined);
hi,j,k is the head at the node of the cell.

9
 MODFLOW RIV Package/3

CRIVn depends on the hydraulic conductivity of the riverbed and on its

geometry, according to the following equation:
CRIVn = Kn Ln Wn / Mn (1)

where:
Kn is the hydraulic conductivity
of the riverbed material;
Ln is the length of reach;
Wn is the width of the river;
Mn is the thickness of
the riverbed.

Figure from Harbaugh AW (2005) MODFLOW-2005, the U.S. Geological Survey modular ground-water model – the Ground-Water Flow Process. U.S.
Geological Survey Techniques and Methods, 6-A16.
10
 MODFLOW RIV Package/4

RIV Package with hn below RBOTn (hn<RBOTn):

river loosing water toward the aquifer

Cell center

11
 MODFLOW RIV Package/5
Summary of river/aquifer conditions:
Stage above water table

Stage below water table

Water table below river bed

12
 MODFLOW DRN Package/1
http://water.usgs.gov/nrp/gwsoftware/modflow2000/MFDOC/

13
 MODFLOW DRN Package/2

MODFLOW DRN Package

simulates drain/aquifer
seepage, depending on
the head gradient
between the drain and
the groundwater system.
The DRN differs from RIV
because the drain is only
allowed to gain water
and it is never loosing
water.
Q = C (hijk-d)
where d = head in the drain.
Q = 0 if hijk<d
14
 MODFLOW DRN Package/3

Similar to other head dependent packages:

Drain
head  in element i,j,k (L)

leakage rate

drain elevation

leakage rate=0

No leakage into drain Leakage into drain

Leakage into a drain 15

 MODFLOW EVT Package/1

Allows ET only when

water table depth is
shallow

Can allow ET only from

uppermost cells

16
 MODFLOW EVT Package/2

Evapotranspiration Maximum ET rate

extinction depth
head  in element i,j,k (L)

SURF=ET surface elevation

EXDP=
EXEL=extinction elevation

ET rate=0

Evapotranspiration (ET)

17
 MODFLOW GHB Package/1

Boundary cell
hB
L

Q= C (hB-h)
C = Conductance = K A/L
K is the hydraulic conductivity of the aquifer between the
model and the lake;
A is the area of the boundary cell, perpendicular to flow. 18
 MODFLOW GHB Package/2

Concept similar to RIV and DRAIN

http://water.usgs.gov/nrp/gwsoftware/modflow2000/MFDOC/index.ht
ml?ghb.htm

General head boundary

head  in element i,j,k (L)

slope=conductance between
element and boundary

Flow into the element Flow out of the element

Flow to a general head boundary

19
 Streamflow-Routing Package (STR)/1

Q
Prudic, 1989
See Anderson and Woessner, 1992, p.127

STR allows for dynamic interchange of

groundwater and streamflow; solves
for stream stage.

Manning’s Equation:

d = (Q n / C w S1/2)3/5
n is Manning’s Roughness coefficient

20
 Streamflow-Routing Package (STR)/2
Prudic et al., 2004
RIV and SFR comparison

RIV SFR
Qsw Qtri Qsri

Hriv Qdiv hs
Qsro
Qriv QL

hi,j,k
ha

21
 Streamflow-Routing Package (STR)/3

SFR package: basic concepts

1. SFR is much less a boundary
50%
condition than the RIV package
2. Stream dimensions and
starting and ending heights are
defined
3. Stream Stage interpolated
between two points
4. Diversions based on known
fluxes or statistic distribution
5. Inflow to each stream segment
can be defined, we use a
previous streamflow regression

SFR is solving the Gauckler–

Manning–Strickler equation and
calculating the actual discharge in
the river 22
 MODFLOW LAK Package/1

(Cheng and Anderson, GW,1993)

(Council, 1998)
(Merritt and Konikow, 2000)

Solves for lake levels

Other packages:
• Wetland Module • MODBRANCH
(Restrepo et al., GW,1998) (Swain, 1993)
23
 MODFLOW LAK Package/2

Change in Storage = Outflow - Inflow

Change in lake level = Change in Storage/Area

24
 MODFLOW RCH Package/1

MODFLOW Recharge (RCH) Package simulates areally-distributed direct

recharge to groundwater, usually used for rainfall recharge.

The user must define, for each SP, the recharge flux to be applied to the
map area, in units of length per time [L/T]. This recharge flux is then
multiplied internally by the area of each cell, to get the recharge flow rate
at each cell, then expressed as a fluid volume per unit time [L3/T].

The user must also specify if the areal recharge has to be applied:
(1) to the upper model layer,
(2) to the uppermost variable-head cell in each vertical column, or
(3) to any cell in each vertical column belonging to the user-defined
model layer.

25
 MODFLOW RCH Package/2

One value assigned to

each vertical column
RCH can be assigned to
the uppermost cell or
to a specified layer

26
 MODFLOW WEL Package/1

MODFLOW WEL Package simulates wells that withdraw water from or add
water to the aquifer at a constant rate during a SP.

The user must define, for each stress period,

row, column and layer number of the cell in which
the well is located and its extracted/recharge
flow rate (Q).

Q is expressed as a fluid volume per unit time [L3/T].

Negative values for Q are used to indicate well

pumping, whereas positive values for Q indicate a
recharge well.

27
 MODFLOW WEL Package/2
Pumping wells
– List input: layer, row , column, rate (negative means flow out of the
ground-water system)
– Rate can be defined using parameters
– Problem to be considered: If a well intersects many model layers,
how much water comes from each layer?

28
 Zone Budget

Not a package, but a

separate program
Specify groups of cells as
“zones” and zonebudget
calculates water balance on
each zone

29
 Observations Packages/1

MODFLOW’s Observation Process allows simulated values

to be compared to observations.

For example we can use the following observations

– Head observations
• At a cell
• Changes in head over time
– Flow observations
• Over the reach of a feature represented by the RIV
Package
30
 Observations Packages/2
Heads
10 0 0 50 1.E+30 NH,MOBS,MAXM,IUHOBSV,HOBDRY
(HOB in name file)
1. TOMULTH (below, lay,r,c,ts,roff,coff,toff,obs)
hd01.ss 1 3 1 1 0.0 0.0 0.0 101.80
hd02.ss 1 4 4 1 0.0 0.0 0.0 128.12
hd03.ss 1 10 9 1 0.0 0.0 0.0 156.68
. . .
River Gain hd10.ss 2 18 6 1 0.0 0.0 0.0 142.02
(RVOB in 1 18 1 50 NQxx,NQCxx,NQTx
name file) 1.00000E+00 TOMULTxx
1 18 NQOBxx,NQCLxx
flow01.ss 1 0.0 -4.4 ts,toff,obs
Output file 1 1 1 1.00 lay,r,c,factor
(“data 50 ex8._os” in name file) . . .
1 18 1 1.00

"SIMULATED EQUIVALENT" "OBSERVED VALUE" "OBSERVATION NAME"

100.209701538086 101.800003051758 hd01.ss
126.954444885254 128.119995117188 hd02.ss
. . . 31
-4.41627883911133 -4.40000009536743 flow01.ss
 Execute MODFLOW

If you run MODFLOW from FREEWAT, you do not really

need to know this detail, but in case you have to rerun
MODFLOW without going through the development in
FREEWAT…

Basically, need to provide the name file filename on the

same line (this is often done in a batch file)
MODFLOW_2005.exe test.nam

32
 Model results

Possible results:
– Heads at each active cell in the grid at each time step
– Global budget (check for overall solution accuracy)
– Flows at each cell face
– Simulated equivalents to observations

Use FREEWAT to visualize the results!

GW_CHART can help as well in the visualization of the

overall water budget.

33
 If you need any assistance, please contact
Laura Foglia, UC Davis (Davis, California) - [email protected]
Iacopo Borsi , TEA Sistemi SpA – [email protected]
Giovanna De Filippis – Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna (Pisa - Italy) -
[email protected]
Rudy Rossetto, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna (Pisa - Italy) – [email protected]
FREEWAT development received funding from the following projects:

1. Hydrological part was developed starting from the project SID&GRID, funded by Regione Toscana through EU POR-FSE 2007-2013
(sidgrid.isti.cnr.it) (2010-2013)
2. Porting of SID&GRID under QGIS has been performed through funds provided by Regione Toscana to Scuola Superiore S.Anna -
Project Evoluzione del sistema open source SID&GRID di elaborazione dei dati geografici vettoriali e raster per il porting negli
ambienti QGis e Spatialite in uso presso la Regione Toscana (CIG: ZA50E4058A) (2015)
3. Saturated zone solute transport simulation capability has been developed within the EU FP7-ENV-2013-WATER-INNO-DEMO
MARSOL. MARSOL project received funding from the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme for Research, Technological
Development and Demonstration under grant agreement n. 619120 (www.marsol.eu) (2014-2017)
4. FREEWAT was developed within the EU H2020 project FREEWAT - Free and Open Source Software Tools for Water Resource
Management. FREEWAT project received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme
under grant agreement n. 642224 (www.freewat.eu) (2015-2017)
5. Integration of SFT (StreamFlow Transport) and LKT (Lake Transport) packages of MT3D-USGS is being performed at Scuola
Superiore Sant'Anna within the project SMAQua (SMart ICT tools per l'utilizzo efficiente dell'AcQua) - co-financed by Regione Toscana,
ASA S.p.A. and ERM Italia S.p.A. (2018-2020)