October 02, 2025

Geological Modeling based on Machine Learning with Python and hatariTools - Tutorial

October 02, 2025/ Saul Montoya

This tutorial covers an applied case of geological unit modeling done on the Queens Mary Reservoir, London, UK based on 266 drillings. The geological model was done in Python with the machine learning library Scikit Learn to create a geological model based on lithology from drillings. The code generates a point cloud of drilling lithologies that are transformed and scaled for a neural network classifier like the Multi-layer Perceptron classifier. To validate the results of the geological model, an analysis of the confusion matrix from the neural network is performed. The tutorial includes a georeferenced 3D visualization and comparison from well lithology and interpolated geology as Vtk format in Paraview.

September 29, 2025

7 tutorials for coupling geological information into groundwater flow models build with Model Muse

September 29, 2025/ Saul Montoya

Next challenges on groundwater modeling facing scenarios of climate change and sustainable groundwater management require the implementation of fully coupled geological models into groundwater flow models. Even though we have dealt with this topic, we still have a lot to do in providing applied cases / tutorials for the hydrogeological unit conceptualization based on geological information with open source codes such as MODFLOW.

September 24, 2025

Groundwater seepage from a water reservoir modeling with Modflow6 and mf6Voronoi - Tutorial

September 24, 2025/ Saul Montoya

Applied case of local groundwater modeling based on a regional groundwater flow to evaluate the interaction of the water reservoir with the groundwater flow system and the seepage rate from the reservoir. The model runs on steady state and shows the procedure to modify original/final surfaces without error on layer thickness.

September 22, 2025

Regional groundwater modeling near a water reservoir using Modflow6 and mf6Voronoi - Tutorial

September 22, 2025/ Saul Montoya

Applied case of groundwater modeling in the area influenced by a water reservoir. This tutorial provides the regional flow conditions that serve as boundary conditions for a refined model of the reservoir's interaction with groundwater.

September 12, 2025

Transient simulation of the trench excavation impact on a coastal aquifer with mf6Voronoi - Tutorial

September 12, 2025/ Saul Montoya

Local scale modeling of a 4 stage trench excavation on a coastal aquifer with mf6Voronoi. The main objective of this modeling work is assessing the impact of the excavation on the nearby groundwater flow regime.

September 10, 2025

7 tutorials of MODFLOW6 and mf6Voronoi for mine related groundwater modeling

September 10, 2025/ Saul Montoya

Mining hydrogeology is one of the most challenging faces of hydrogeology since its evaluations are key components for the mine operation and where groundwater related decisions are needed on a short timeframe. We have developed a series of tutorials that will introduce general groundwater modelers to the specific tasks of mine hydrogeology. This tutorial selection starts from regional modeling and goes into inflow and contaminant transport with different levels of complexity.

September 03, 2025

Groundwater inflows to open pit modeling with faults of 1m using MODFLOW6 and mf6Voronoi - Tutorial

September 03, 2025/ Saul Montoya

Applied example of the simulation of groundwater inflow to a open pit considering faults of 1 meter thickness. The model has 6 stress period, one steady state and 5 transient stress periods representing the pit development over 4 years of a total mine life of 20 years. The tutorial shows the complete process beginning from mesh creation, model construction, water budget analysis and 3d representation.

August 29, 2025

How to do a georeferenced Stiff Diagram with Python 3 and QGIS 3 - Tutorial

August 29, 2025/ Saul Montoya

Stiff Diagrams are a common and powerful tool for the representation of surface water / groundwater main ions. Anion and cation concentrations are represented on equivalent weight (meq/l), and usually cations are represented at the left side and anions at the right side. Traditionally, this diagram is useful for the comparison of the main water chemical components by examination of a series of diagrams, however it was not easy to compare the diagrams with the position of the observacion point.

To enhance the chemical analysis on regional scale this tutorial has coupled the Stiff Diagrams with their position on a QGIS project. The diagramas are generated from a spreadsheet with Python on a Jupyter Notebook and stored a vector file (.svg), then the images files are referenced on a style file (.sld) and uploaded to QGIS3.

August 27, 2025

Inflow modeling to infiltration galleries with MODFLOW6 and mf6Voronoi - Tutorial

August 27, 2025/ Saul Montoya

Infiltration galleries are a low cost and low maintenance option for domestic water supply. The amount of inflow water and the interaction with the water bodies are main concerns on the evaluation and design of infiltration galleries. We have done an applied case of inflow simulation to infiltration galleries with MODFLOW6 based on Voronoi meshes. The example covers all steps from mesh creation, steady state model construction, simulation of infiltration galleries and the inflow calculation per gallery group. Finally a 3D representation of the model geometry, boundary conditions and head distribution is performed on Paraview.

August 22, 2025

Infiltration modeling in the unsaturated zone with MODFLOW6 and mf6Voronoi - Tutorial

August 22, 2025/ Saul Montoya

Applied case of infiltration simulation in the unsaturated zone using the UZF package of MODFLOW 6 on a geospatial Voronoi grid built with mf6Voronoi. The model is in uniform transient regime with 3 layers where infiltration in the unsaturated zone occurs in the first layer. An observation point is inserted at different depths to evaluate the depth-moisture profile over time for different infiltration rates; finally, a 3D representation of the final groundwater table surface is generated, showing the effect of boundary conditions and infiltration.

August 19, 2025

How to create a Geospatial Raster from a projected Reservoir with Python and hatariTools - Tutorial

August 19, 2025/ Saul Montoya

The task to modify geospatial rasters considering future elements can be a complex task with the available GIS tools. We have optimized the way we can represent the surface of future (or current) water reservoirs on a fully geospatial raster. This tutorial shows the complete process to create a geospatial raster (TIF file) based on the contours from the dam and the reservoir extension.

August 14, 2025

Contaminant plume modeling of a mining waste rock dump with MODFLOW 6 and mf6Voronoi - Tutorial

August 14, 2025/ Saul Montoya

This tutorial shows an applied case that covers the discretization of a model using Voronoi grids, taking into consideration the water network, the predictive flow area, and the model boundaries. Based on this mesh, a flow and transport model under steady-state conditions is constructed to simulate the contaminant plume over a period of 50 years, evaluated every 5 years. The model includes piezometers and the development of concentrations over time is evaluated using the Pandas library with Matplotlib. Finally, the entire model geometry, boundary conditions, hydraulic loads, and concentrations are visualized in 3D with Paraview.

August 04, 2025

Contaminant Plume from a Tailings Storage Facility Modeling with MODFLOW6 and mf6Voronoi - Tutorial

August 04, 2025/ Saul Montoya

MODFLOW6 with mf6Voronoi can handle the simulation of specific tasks related to the mine industry. We have already covered the simulation of pit inflows with Voronoi meshes and now we are going to model the seepage from a tailings storage facility. The applied case covers all steps from mesh construction, flow model and transport model. Results are plotted on 2d and exported to 3d in Vtk format.

July 28, 2025

How to reach small discretizations efficiently (till 1m) in MODFLOW6 with mf6Voronoi - Tutorial

July 28, 2025/ Saul Montoya

One of the promises of the Voronoi meshes on MODFLOW6 Disv is the efficient distribution of cell sizes that allows us to reach small sizes on certain areas of high interest like wells while keeping coarse cells on the areas with lower level of interest. This type of meshing has some issues that now are addressed on mf6Voronoi.

July 10, 2025

Developing a regional groundwater model for a mine project with MODFLOW6 and mf6Voronoi - Tutorial

July 10, 2025/ Saul Montoya

Sometimes regional models are required as an input for local models of flow and transport. This is an applied case of the groundwater modeling on the regional scale in the state of Guerrero, Mexico that will be the input for future local models of pit dewatering, and contaminant transport from the tailings dam and waste dump. The groundwater model is built with MODFLOW6 and mf6Voronoi on a series of Jupyter Notebooks and results are plotted with Paraview.

June 30, 2025

Determination of the Depression Cone from an Open Pit with MODFLOW6, Flopy and mf6Voronoi - Tutorial

June 30, 2025/ Saul Montoya

One of the key objectives from groundwater modeling in mining is the determination of pit inflows and the extension of the depression cone. This tutorial shows an applied case of determination of a depression cone from an open pit model built with MODFLOW6, Flopy and mf6Voronoi. The model has faults and the tutorial covers all steps from model import, data processing and export of geospatial data from the depression cone.

June 24, 2025

Implementation of Faults and Zone Budgets on a Open Pit MODFLOW 6 Voronoi Model - Tutorial

June 24, 2025/ Saul Montoya

The interaction of faults with the groundwater flow regimen on an open pit is a challenge on the conceptualization and simulation. Having smaller cells on the faults alignment with higher K can represent the general behaviour of faults and this is possible to simulate with MODFLOW 6 Voronoi models with Flopy and mf6Voronoi package. We have created a tutorial that implements faults on the area of influence from an open pit and defines zone budgets for the pit and drainage network.

June 19, 2025

Leaf Area Calculation from Drone Ortophotos with Python and Scikit-Learn - Tutorial

June 19, 2025/ Saul Montoya

Besides counting crops we can also delineate plants and calculate its leaf area by using methods that fit open or closed splines to lines or edges in an image. These methods are implemented on the Python library Scikit-Image and applied for the delineation of tree canopies over a geospatial raster image. The exercise is developed in a Jupyter notebook and covers all steps from image import, apply grayscale, explore gaussian filter, calculate active contour and export polygons as ESRI shapefile. Finally, there is an histogram generation to determine the distribution of leaf area from plants.

June 11, 2025

Geospatial Crop Recognition from Drone Orthophotos with Python and HatariTools - Tutorial

June 11, 2025/ Saul Montoya

Spatial analysis and machine learning sometimes require massive coding in order to achieve decent results such as identifying plants from a drone orthophoto. We wanted to create a simple workflow for beginner and intermediate Python users to work with these libraries without much pain or frustration. This tutorial has the complete procedure to use a new Python package called hatariTools that recognizes plants from an orthophoto based on sample points and creates intermediate plots and identifies plants as point shapefiles.

June 05, 2025

Representation of Flow Direction Vectors from a Model Muse / MODFLOW6 model with mf6Voronoi - Tutorial

June 05, 2025/ Saul Montoya

This tutorial show the complete workflow to determine flow directions from a MODFLOW model done with Model Muse with the Mf6Voronoi utility FlowVectorGenerator that represent flow direction vectors in a Matplotlib figure. The function works not only with normal Modflow6 Dis models like the generated by Model Muse but also with Voronoi based Modflow6 Disv models. There is a capability to insert background images and other functionalities, however the styling options are closed in order to preserve the artistic style of the plot.

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