Lessons and Tutorials for Using the Interactive Groundwater Model 3.5.6 (IGW) to Simulate Groundwater Remediation

Introduction

This website provides lessons and tutorials designed to help students learn about analytical contaminant transport equations and groundwater remediation. They were designed for Oregon State University's Groundwater Remediation course (ENVE554) and were developed by OSU Professor Lewis Semprini and graduate students Carmen Nale and Chaithanya Vuppala.

The lessons and tutorials on this website emphasize computer simulations as a way to visualize and understand the physical processes involved in groundwater remediation. The tutorials contain step-by-step instructions to help students run the simulations in a free, windows-based model called Interactive Groundwater Model (IGW). IGW was developed by Dr. Shu-Guang Li and Dr. Qun Liu at Michigan State University and is a real-time, interactive software system for unified deterministic and stochastic groundwater modeling. Detailed information on the IGW model (including downloads, documentation, tutorials, and a forum) can be found at the Michigan State IGW website at: http://www.egr.msu.edu/igw/. Please refer to the Michigan State website for questions about installation and operation of the model.

Please note that the lessons and tutorials on our website were designed for IGW version 3.5.6 -- we recommend using this version of the software to ensure compatability between the step-by-step instructions and what you see on your computer screen.

Overview of Lessons and Tutorials

This web page contains the following lessons and tutorials:

Model Setup

A Short description of IGW version 3.5.6 and the setup needed to run these lessons and tutorials.

Lesson 1. Groundwater Divide

This example uses IGW to illustrate the Dupuit equation that describes flow at a groundwater divide.

• 1.1. Lesson Introduction
• 1.2. Simulation in IGW
• 1.3. Step-by-Step Tutorial

Lesson 2. 1D and 2D Models for Continuous and Instantaneous Contaminant Source

These simulations model the instantaneous and continuous source equations that describe the transport of a source released into an aquifer. The examples also include a sensitivity analysis for both instantaneous and continuous source simulations.

• 2.1. Lesson Introduction
• 2.2. Instantaneous Sources
  • 1D and 2D Models
  • Sensitivity Analysis
• 2.3. Continuous Sources
  • 1D Model and 2D Model
  • Sensitivity Analysis
• 2.4. Step-by-Step Tutorial

Lesson 3. Pump and Treat at the St. Joseph Superfund Site, Michigan, USA

This set of simulations apply IGW to a pump and treat example from the Saint Joseph Superfund site in Michigan, USA. The example shows how IGW can be used to quickly develop a site model and visualize model simulation results. It also compares IGW model results to those obtained by Tiedeman and Gorelick (1993)* when they developed optimal pump-and-treat remediation schemes with the powerful, 3D model, MODFLOW. The St. Joseph example contains the following sections:

• 3.1. Lesson Introduction
• 3.2. Sensitivity Analysis
  • Justification of Final Baseline Values
  • Site Variability
• 3.3. Pump-and-Treat Remediation
  • Ten Well Solution
  • Two Well Solution
• 3.4. Comparison of IGW to MODFLOW Pump-and-Treat Simulations
• 3.5. Summary
• 3.6. Step-by-Step Tutorial

*Tiedeman, C., and S.M. Gorelick, 1993, Analysis of uncertainty in optimal groundwater contaminant capture design, Water Resources Research, 29(7), 2139-2153.