MODPATH — The Complete Guide: Flow Paths and Well Capture Zones from MODFLOW
MODPATH is the USGS particle-tracking model that runs on MODFLOW results. It computes the path each water particle takes through the aquifer and its travel time — forward with the flow or backward against it. The software is in the public domain, and the source code is included in the download.
MODPATH
U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)
Particle tracking on MODFLOW results: flow paths, travel times and well capture zones.
Get it from the vendorWhat you get
- Flow paths — three-dimensional pathlines through the aquifer layers.
- Travel times — how long water takes to move from one point to another.
- Capture zones — where the water pumped by a well comes from.
- Water age and contaminant source — tracking backward from a well or sampling point.
- Broad support — MODFLOW-2005, MODFLOW-USG and MODFLOW 6.
Who it suits
Water engineers and hydrogeologists delineating protection zones around drinking-water wells or tracing the source of contamination. It is a command-line program with no graphical interface, usually set up through ModelMuse or FloPy. On unstructured grids only certain rectangular grid types are supported, and the bundled executables are for Windows.
Related tools
For the flow model — MODFLOW 6. When you need concentrations, not just paths — MT3D-USGS. For running it and displaying pathlines on the model — ModelMuse.
MODFLOW 6
U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)
The world standard for groundwater flow and solute transport modelling, from the USGS.
Get it from the vendorMT3D-USGS
U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)
Groundwater solute and contaminant transport simulator driven by MODFLOW flow results.
Get it from the vendorModelMuse
U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)
The free graphical interface to MODFLOW — build the model with a mouse instead of text files.
Get it from the vendor
FloPy
USGS and FloPy developers
Build, run and post-process MODFLOW groundwater models from a Python script.
Get it from the vendorThe bottom line
MODPATH is the standard tool for capture zones and flow paths on top of MODFLOW — simple in concept, completely free and well supported by helper tools.