July 23, 2026

How to Interpolate Over 2 Million Points Quickly and Without Freezing - Tutorial

July 23, 2026/ Saul Montoya

Interpolating large volumes of spatial data through the QGIS graphical interface is often a headache: the process takes too long or, even worse, the program freezes while consuming all system resources. In this tutorial, we will show you how to interpolate nearly 2 million points in less than two minutes using the OSGeo4W Shell and GDAL commands with the IDW method. By creating a virtual layer file (.vrt), you will learn a highly efficient, reliable, and lightweight workflow that enables you to work with millions of data points without being constrained by the limits of the GUI.

July 17, 2026

Plotting Water Surface Elevation from a 2D HEC-RAS Model using Python - Tutorial

July 17, 2026/ Saul Montoya

This tutorial demonstrates how to accurately and efficiently extract the water surface elevation at a specific point from a HEC-RAS 2D unsteady flow model using Python in Jupyter Lab. Since water levels vary across the mesh and native software tools can limit automation, the author teaches how to open HDF5 output files (.hdf), load a point shapefile using GeoPandas, and apply a geospatial index K-d tree to locate the nearest computational cell. Finally, the time series data is processed to generate a water level hydrograph, which is essential for hydrogeological model calibration.

July 02, 2026

Advanced Crop Water Demand Modeling: Simulating ETo, ETc, and ETa with Python and pyfao56 - Tutorial

July 02, 2026/ Saul Montoya

estimations of crop water requirements. This applied case offers a deep dive into modeling crop evapotranspiration using the standardized FAO-56 Dual Crop Coefficient methodology, implemented programmatically through Python.

Using a real-world case study of olive cultivation (Olea europaea) in the hyper-arid coastal desert of Bella Unión (Arequipa, Peru), we will demonstrate how to build an end-to-end hydrological data pipeline. Participants will learn how to integrate spatial data, process satellite-derived and weather station climate parameters, define soil-water-crop constraints, and simulate complex deficit drip-irrigation schedules.

June 30, 2026

Unsteady / transient 2D river flow modeling with HECRAS - Tutorial

June 30, 2026/ Saul Montoya

This applied example demonstrates the simulation of unsteady flow around a river island, guiding you through the complete numerical modeling workflow. It begins with pre-processing, covering spatial data import, boundary condition definition, and computational mesh generation. Next, the setup details importing hydraulic loading data from DSS files and optimizing the computational time step based on the Courant condition to ensure strict numerical stability and convergence. Finally, the example features a comprehensive post-processing review of the simulation results, analyzing velocity fields, water surface profiles (stages), particle tracking, and immersive 3D visualizations.

April 29, 2026

Automatic calibration of pumping test data with MODFLOW6, Model Muse and Pest - Tutorial

April 29, 2026/ Saul Montoya

This tutorial walks hydrogeologists through the full workflow of automatic calibration of pumping test data using MODFLOW 6, ModelMuse, and PEST. A real pumping test scenario — comprising a 6-hour pumping phase and an 18-hour recovery phase — is set up in ModelMuse, where the well is conceptualized as a Multinode Aquifer Well (MAW) boundary condition to accurately represent multilayer aquifer interactions. PEST is then implemented to automatically estimate key hydraulic parameters including hydraulic conductivity, specific storage, and specific yield, eliminating tedious manual calibration and delivering reproducible, optimized results. Whether you're new to parameter estimation or looking to streamline your existing workflow, this tutorial offers a practical, hands-on guide to modern groundwater model calibration.

February 05, 2026

Regional example of seawater intrusion modeling with MODFLOW6 and mf6Voronoi - Tutorial

February 05, 2026/ Saul Montoya

This is an applied example of seawater intrusion modeling using MODFLOW6 and the BUY package. The model is fully geospatial and works with ESRI Shapefiles and rasters (*.tif) as inputs. The model grid is based on Voronoi meshes generated with the Python package mf6Voronoi. Since there are so many concepts involved in the conceptualization of a variable density groundwater flow simulation with MODFLOW6 and Flopy, these cases use a code template from mf6Voronoi that simplifies the model construction and simulation. The applied case also gives us the chance to discuss the main parts of model setup.

December 26, 2025

Machine learning based interpolation for regional water table w. Python and Scikit Learn - Tutorial

December 26, 2025/ Saul Montoya

Having a reasonable spatial distribution of the water table with few observation points is a challenge because the water table can't be above the surface. We wanted to develop a method where the computer learns not only about the position but also the surface to calculate the water table.

This is an applied example of water level interpolation based on a machine learning algorithm in Python with Scikit Learn. The code covers all steps from data compilation, regression formulation, accuracy testing and raster generation.

November 10, 2025

How to import and simulate a MODFLOW6 with Voronoi mesh model into Model Muse - Tutorial

November 10, 2025/ Saul Montoya

Did you know that you can import a Voronoi mesh MODFLOW 6 model created with mf6Voronoi into Model Muse. And you can not only import it, but also apply boundary conditions, solver parameters, review datasets, and simulate groundwater flow.

This tutorial shows a complete applied case for the import of the geometry and hydraulic parameters created with mf6Voronoi into Model Muse. The model is set up with boundary conditions, and simulated with different solver parameters.

November 10, 2025

Coupling geology from a shapefile to a Voronoi mesh MODFLOW6 model - Tutorial

November 10, 2025/ Saul Montoya

A practical approach to set up hydraulic conductivity to a MODFLOW 6 model based on geological polygons. The tutorial show all steps from mesh and model creation, the setup of hydraulic parameters and the 3d representation of the final distribution in Paraview.

November 03, 2025

Modeling of perched aquifers with Modflow6 and mf6Voronoi - Tutorial

November 03, 2025/ Saul Montoya

Applied example for the simulation of "dual" water table on Modflow6 and mf6Voronoi on a geospatial model. The tutorial covers the challenges, techniques and a discussion of the Newton formulation that allows the simulation of a localized water table above a regional water table.

October 28, 2025

Simple example of construction site drainage modeling with MODFLOW6 and mf6Voronoi - Tutorial

October 28, 2025/ Saul Montoya

In mf6Voronoi horizontal flow barriers can be modeled as low k cells with thickness of 1m without compromising the cell amount and model performance. We have developed an applied case of construction site dewatering using horizontal drains and pumping wells that work in parallel over a period of 8 days. The model shows the performance of the drainage schema and exports the final water table as raster and contours.

October 23, 2025

Comprehensive MODFLOW6 and mf6Voronoi Tutorials Collection

October 23, 2025/ Saul Montoya

Our objective is to provide a huge amount of tutorials for differents requirements on groundwater modeling. This is the complete list of MODFLOW6, Flopy and mf6Voronoi categorized by topic.

October 21, 2025

Simple example of seawater intrusion modeling with MODFLOW6 and mf6Voronoi - Tutorial

October 21, 2025/ Saul Montoya

We wanted to present seawater intrusion modeling in its more primitive form, on a simple aquifer conceptualization and aquifer geometry where the user can focus on the code implementation with MODFLOW6 - Buy package, Flopy and mf6Voronoi. We have also developed a precoded template for seawater intrusion that allows users to reduce time.

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.

Blog