Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

QUALITATIVE SIMULATION OF RAVANSAR AQUIFER USING MODFLOW

Saeid Shabanlou, Ali Aghaee and Mohsen Soleymani Babersad

Abstract

The purpose of this study is qualitative simulation of Ravansar aquifer located in western part of Iran with area of 370 square kilometers. The tools used in this study for contaminant transport flow simulation is software package of PMWIN (Processing MODFLOW For Windows)and also MT3D computer code for simulating of contaminants such as Nitrate, Sodium and Sulfate. First, we collected information about the software and learned to use PMWIN software package for extracting graphs and graphical maps, then we focused on groundwater flow studies and collecting previous studies about simulating process and conclusion methods of output graphs and maps. After collecting data about aquifer from related organizations in Kermanshah Province and calibration of data then we entered them into the software for process and extract an output file. After reviewing the results of simulation and qualitative analysis of charts and graphs we detected the main sources of pollution and marked them on the map. We concluded that big farms due to the use of chemical fertilizers and urban and rural population centers because of existence of a nonstandard sewage disposal are the main source of pollution. Finally, we simulated the transport flow for longer time periods with more stress periods and extracted the relevant results for drawing an approximate picture for future quality condition of aquifer.