PATH3D: A Ground-Water Path and Travel-Time Simulator

PATH3D is a general particle tracking program which has been thoroughly tested and widely used. It can be applied to help visualize transient, three-dimensional flow fields, to delineate contaminant capture zones or well-head protection zones, and to evaluate the effectiveness of groundwater remedial scenarios under complex hydrogeological conditions. PATH3D is a valuable extension to ground-water flow models and a practical alternative to contaminant transport models.

Key Features:

• Interfaces with the USGS MODFLOW model. The input and head files of MODFLOW are used directly by PATH3D;
• Applicable in three-dimensional, transient flow fields with the presence of wells, drains, rivers, recharge, evapotranspiration, and a variety of boundary conditions;
• Implemented with an automatic tracking stepsize control procedure to achieve user-specified error criteria with minimum computational effort;
• Written in standard FORTRAN 77 for implementation on any computer platforms.

Availability:

PATH3D was first developed by Chunmiao Zheng at the University of Wisconsin-Madison with support from Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey. An educational version of the program is included with ZBSoft (Click here to download). Commercial versions are available from S.S. Papadopulos & Associates, Inc. and International Groundwater Modeling Center (IGWMC).

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