October 13, 2017

Tutorial: Area of Study AsterDEM Download and Basin - Stream Delineation in QGIS

October 13, 2017/ Saul Montoya

QGIS is a open source software for spatial analysis and data representation. There are many tools from QGIS for the hydrological/hydrogeological evaluation and modeling. This time we have made a tutorial with the whole procedure of the download process for a AsterDEM only on the extension of an area of study. The DEM was later reprojected on QGIS and processed to get the channel network and drainage basins. The tutorial has the purpose to show how simple is the process of working with QGIS and Processing.

October 11, 2017

Multiple Well Configuration in MODFLOW with Model Muse Tutorial

October 11, 2017/ Saul Montoya

Modflow with Model Muse are a powerful set of softwares developed by the USGS for groundwater modeling. Model Muse is very handy when working with GIS files but sometimes there are some specific requirements about the hydrogeologic features to conceptualize. This time we have prepared a tutorial about the multiple well configuration on a regional groundwater model. The tutorial deals with the model construction and configuration of 182 pumping wells on a 84km x 54km area in the north of Mexico.

September 22, 2017

How to insert a Geological Fracture on a Hydrogeological Model with MODFLOW and Model Muse

September 22, 2017/ Saul Montoya

Model Muse is a software for the pre and post data processing of hydrogeological 3D model in MODFLOW. Both Model Muse and MODFLOW are developed by the USGS (usgs.gov). Model Muse is designed to work with objects and datasets, a powerful model construction methodology that allows the quick setup of boundary conditions, a simple way of progressive refinement and interesting features as inserting geological fractures on the numerical model.

This tutorial show the whole procedure for the conceptualization of several fractures based on some known fracture information as a point on the fractures, the azimuth and elevation. The tutorial deals with the theorethical determination of the fracture plane equation, the construction of a dataset with the desired equation plus the implementation of object that represents the fracture with the relevant hydrogeological features.

August 16, 2017

Tutorial Infiltration Gallery for Water Supply Modeling with MODFLOW and Model Muse

August 16, 2017/ Saul Montoya

Tutorial for the simulation of filtration galleries close to a river. Modeling done with MODFLOW, Model Muse and QGIS.

August 03, 2017

Tutorial of a Cross Seccion of Water Quality with MODFLOW, MT3DMS y QGIS

August 03, 2017/ Saul Montoya

Groundwater flow modeling depends on GIS data, and its output is compatible with a sort of GIS tools. In order to do analysis or representation from contaminant transport modeling it is needed a sort of commands, formats, tools and plugins from a stack of programs as ModelMuse and QGIS.

This tutorial is not only a example of water quality representation, it is as well a discussión on the main parts of modeling construction and simulation.

July 16, 2017

How to insert a Geological Contact in MODFLOW with MODEL MUSE

July 16, 2017/ Saul Montoya

Model Muse and QGIS makes possible to deal with geological data for the groundwater flow model cocntstruction. A diverse group of tools are required to process and insert geological features as contacts or faults. This tutorial show the whole procedure from the ground up to build the model geometry and insert a geological contact as the interfase within two layers.

July 02, 2017

Tutorial to Georeference Google Searches with Python and QGIS

July 02, 2017/ Saul Montoya

To carry out a series of studies and investigations we have to know both name and location of certain places. This may be available through some web pages, however the use of data is limited and advance geoprocessing tools on softwares as QGIS can not be used. There are several services or APIs that can bring you the spatial location of Google searches. In this tutorial we will use the Google Maps API for the location of Hospitals in a radius of 5 kilometers from a point in Miraflores, Lima. Only open source software tools have been used for this tutorial.

June 24, 2017

Recharge Estimation by Daily Precipitation with MODFLOW UZF and Python

June 24, 2017/ Saul Montoya

The processes of the superficial and groundwater water cycle are related to the precipitation (shape and intensity) and the dynamic of soil moisture. This dynamic of soil moisture is determined by the type of soil and the root zone in a daily, or even hourly, temporal scale. These phenomena have not been considered or studied in conventional hydrogeology text books, maybe because of their intensive use of modeling tools and complex conceptualizations and validations.

June 19, 2017

Modeling of Soil Erosion with Landlab in Python – Open Source Software

June 19, 2017/ Saul Montoya

Soil erosion is the movement of the upper soil layers caused by processes related to water or wind. Soil erosion can occur slowly on the surface, however, soil alterations caused by human activity can increase this rate in 10 to 40 times. The evaluation of soil erosion is important to estimate the impact of human activities and the planning of remediation plans.

This article introduces the Landlab environment, which is developed in Python, as well as a practical example of soil erosion modeling on slopes over time.

June 12, 2017

Development of Web Maps with Open Source Software and Free Repositories – Case Study: Geological Risks of Peru

June 12, 2017/ Saul Montoya

The problems and challenges in water resources management, the environment protection, risk prevention and many subjects related to the human activity require transmitting data in a practical and updated way. The web maps are a good solution since many of these data are associated to a location and the Internet is a great tool available for many. The development of web maps is relatively new but necessary to implement for many uses like data diffusion, the understanding of problematic and decision making.

June 09, 2017

Using GRIDGEN V 1.0 to Generate Unstructured Grids

June 09, 2017/ Saul Montoya

GRIDGEN is a program developed by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) to create unstructured grids to be used in numerical models such as MODFLOW-USG.

The use of unstructured grids has advantages, like the capacity of refining specific areas. However, its design and manipulation is more complicated than in structured grids. The most complex step is the creation of input data, specifically the ones related to cell connectivity. For this reason, GRIDGEN is an useful tool that helps to simplify the process.

June 08, 2017

Modeling of Air Pollution caused by Atmospheric Effluents (Chimneys) with OpenFOAM

June 08, 2017/ Saul Montoya

The preservation of air quality requires the characterization and evaluation of impacts produced by point sources that emit contaminants and its interaction with wind, climate conditions and zone geometry. Current evaluation tools as AERMOD only offer 2D evaluation with Gaussian dispersion, while the nature of air contaminant dispersion is a 3D phenomenon with thermodynamic components and interactions with terrain geometry.

June 08, 2017

Determination of Mining Projects Areas with Satellite Imagery and QGIS

June 08, 2017/ Saul Montoya

Our current working conditions require access to spatial information in short periods of time. Work planning tasks or quoting of services require data of distances, areas, proximities, medium elevations, among others. The data can be given by clients, organizations or by field monitoring, but they may not be available at the required moment. The use of geoprocessng tools of satellite imagery reduces the required time to have this information. Since QGIS is open source and the Landsat, MODIS and Aster images are free, this type of geoprocessing is versatile, economic and friendly for any user with basic/intermediate QGIS knowledge.

May 29, 2017

Tutorial: How to convert MODFLOW-2005 files to MODFLOW-6 format

May 29, 2017/ Saul Montoya

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) has just released a new MODFLOW version: MODFLOW-6. This one comes with new functionalities to make it easier to create input files and perform simulations. Among the downloaded MODFLOW-6 files, there is an executable file to convert MODFLOW-2005 files to the new MODFLOW-6 format. In this tutorial we will show you how to do this.

May 29, 2017

How to generate a legend on map canvas in QGIS with PyQGIS - Tutorial

May 29, 2017/ Saul Montoya

QGIS is a powerful and user friendly GIS software. The user can represent points and style them according to the measured values. This tutorial deals with the legend representation on map canvas for a better geospatial data analysis.
Legend representation is done with just 6 lines of code on PyQGIS, the Python tool of QGIS.

May 24, 2017

Modeling of Mine Tailings Dam Failure with OpenFOAM - Tamboraque Site - Videos

May 24, 2017/ Saul Montoya

Tailings dams are supposed to last forever but they fail regularly due to a series of factors related to the construction and maintenance of the mine site. Accoring the cronology of mayor tailings dam failures of WISE Uranium Proyect there has been one mayor failure in 2017, two on 2016 and the last one in South America was on 2015 in Minas Gerias - Brasil.

This article show the numerical modeling of a tailings dam failure relate to the Tamboraque site in Peru andes. The model represents the dynamic transport of tailings material as a non-newtonian fluid. Model was developed using high-end open source software as OpenFOAM, Salome Platform and QGIS.

May 19, 2017

Modeling Mixing Zones with OpenFOAM

May 19, 2017/ Saul Montoya

A mixing zone is an area where an effluent discharge undergoes initial dilution and is extended to cover the secondary mixing in the ambient waterbody.

A mixing zone is an allocated impact zone where water quality criteria can be exceeded as long as acutely toxic conditions are prevented.

Here we will talk about the advantages of using OpenFOAM to model Mixing Zones.

May 18, 2017

Learn about MODFLOW's latest version: MODFLOW 6

May 18, 2017/ Saul Montoya

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) has just released the latest MODFLOW version: MODFLOW 6. It is the sixth core version of MODFLOW to be released by the USGS (previous core versions were released in 1984, 1988, 1996, 2000, and 2005).

May 17, 2017

Tutorial to Generate Orthophotos from Drone Images with WebODM

May 17, 2017/ Saul Montoya

Drone imagery is a powerful for geospatial analysis on small scales and high resolutions. The availability to take drone images and the open source tools available allow the user to generate orthophotos with resolutions of less than 1 meter and fully compatible with SIG softwares as QGIS.

This tutorial show the procedure to make an orthophoto with WebODM based on drone images from a pinneapple field.