MT3D-USGS — The Complete Guide: Simulating Groundwater Contaminant Plumes with MODFLOW
MT3D-USGS is the USGS solute-transport simulator. It takes the flow field computed by MODFLOW and works out how a contaminant or dissolved substance spreads through the aquifer over time. It extends the well-known MT3DMS, sits in the public domain, and ships with its source code.
MT3D-USGS
U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)
Groundwater solute and contaminant transport simulator driven by MODFLOW flow results.
Get it from the vendorWhat you get
- Saturated-zone transport — advection, dispersion and diffusion of solutes.
- Unsaturated zone — transport through the soil above the water table.
- Streams and lakes — solute exchange between surface water and the aquifer.
- Chemical reactions — sorption, decay and other reactions.
- Pump-and-treat — recirculation between extraction and injection wells.
How you work with it
First build and run a flow model, then define contaminant sources and transport boundary conditions. There is no graphical interface, so input is prepared in ModelMuse or FloPy. MODFLOW 6 results are supported on structured grids only. The current version dates from 2019 and has not been updated since, and the bundled executables are for Windows.
Related tools
For the flow model itself — MODFLOW 6. For flow paths and travel times — MODPATH. For preparing input and viewing results — 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 vendorMODPATH
U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)
Particle tracking on MODFLOW results: flow paths, travel times and well capture zones.
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
MT3D-USGS is the natural choice for contaminant transport on top of MODFLOW. It is neither new nor friendly, but it is free, documented and widely recognised.