RESTON, VA — The US Geological Survey (USGS) has released a new software model that simulates groundwater and surface water interaction.

According to an April 2 press release from the USGS, the Ground-water and Surface-water FLOW (GSFLOW) model accounts for climatic conditions, runoff across land surfaces, subsurface flow and storage, and the connections among terrestrial systems, streams, lakes, wetlands and groundwater.

“GSFLOW can be used to analyze many complex water-resource questions faced by society that increasingly involve understanding the connectivity of surface water and groundwater,” Robert M. Hirsch, USGS associate director for water, said in the release.

GSFLOW is applicable to watersheds that range from a few square miles to several thousand miles, and for time periods that range from months to several decades. It is based on an older system called the USGS Precipitation-Runoff Modeling System (PRMS) and the USGS Modular Ground-Water Flow Model (MODFLOW-2005). Among the enhancements to the newer version are improved simulation of watershed-scale processes and enhanced representation of soil-zone and unsaturated-zone hydrologic processes, according to the release.

GSFLOW is available free to all users at the USGS Web site.

Initial applications of GSFLOW are under way in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, California and Nevada through the USGS Cooperative Water Program, the release said.

It is expected that the software will be useful to the USGS as it attempts to complete a comprehensive census of the nation’s water resources, a project that is an important part of the federal Water for American Initiative.

To read the full press release, click here.

To obtain more information or a free copy of GSFLOW, click here.

For related information on this story, click here.