HYDROSCAPE: A new versatile software program for evaluating contaminant transport in groundwater

HYDROSCAPE is a MATLAB®-based software program compiled as an executable file that uses an analytical solution to the advection-dispersion equation (ADE) to solve solute contaminant transport problems. It has an easy-to-use, intuitive user interface that produces high-quality outputs, includes a parameter estimator algorithm, and allows the user to upload maps from Google MapsTM. Furthermore, the ADE solution is modified in two important, novel ways that greatly broaden its application to contaminant transport problems in hydrogeology. The user may: (1) customize the source region; and (2) implement horizontal geological units within the domain (“simple geology”). Through comparisons to numerical simulations, we demonstrate that although our novel simple geology feature is heuristic, because the plume shape, size, mass/volume, and concentrations are similar to numerical simulations, the feature is a useful screening-level tool.