Numerical groundwater modelling in karst

The success of translating a conceptual site model for a karst site into a numerical groundwater model will depend on both the experience of the user and the capabilities and limitations of the selected computer program. Despite its numerous advantages, even MODFLOW – probably the most widely used, tested and verified modelling program currently available – has conceptual limitations that many karst hydrogeologists have to deal with on a routine basis while searching for an equivalent porous medium approach that may work. This includes assigning very high values of hydraulic conductivity to those model cells known, or suspected, to contain highly transmissive conduits, or assigning an unreasonable, very low effective porosity to the model cells with virtual ‘conduits’ to simulate high groundwater velocities. A new version of MODFLOW called MODFLOW-USG (UnStructured Grid) has been developed and released to the public domain. This new version retains full compatibility with previous versions of MODFLOW while taking advantage of unstructured grids and finite volume numerical solutions. It enables hydrogeologists to accurately translate even the most complex conceptual site models in karst into a numerical environment, thus eliminating the need for various surrogate modelling solutions based on an equivalent porous medium approach.