Analytic-Element Modeling of Supraregional Groundwater Flow: Concepts and Tools for Automated Model Configuration
Publication: Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 12, Issue 1
Abstract
The analytic-element method (AEM) is an appealing technique for modeling steady-state groundwater flow at the supraregional scale (defined here as ) because the computational demand is determined primarily by the number of modeled hydrologic features and not constrained by the size of the domain. In this paper, we introduce AEM to practitioners unfamiliar with the approach and present modeling concepts and new tools designed to facilitate the automated processing of AEM models containing thousands of hydrologic features. Topics include assignment of element types for surface water features, automated simplification of lines and polygons, conversion of polygonal elements to less computationally demanding circles and ellipses, iterative solution algorithms for models that include nonlinear resistance elements, software implementation, and integration of AEM simulators with calibration utilities and GIS. Software implementation of the concepts and tools is discussed and demonstrated for a case study of Wisconsin’s Northern Highland Lakes region.
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Acknowledgments
This research was supported by Grant No. R82-7961 from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Science to Achieve Results (STAR) Program and Grant No. NSFBES0202077 from the National Science Foundation (NSF). This paper has not been subjected to any EPA or NSF review and therefore does not necessarily reflect the views of either Agency, and no official endorsement should be inferred. James Craig, Shawn Matott, and Karl Bandilla received support from the National Science Foundation Integrated Graduate Education and Research Training (IGERT) program in Geographic Information Science.
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Published In
Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 12 • Issue 1 • January 2007
Pages: 83 - 96
Copyright
© 2007 ASCE.
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Received: Aug 1, 2005
Accepted: May 19, 2006
Published online: Jan 1, 2007
Published in print: Jan 2007
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