The ParFlow Sand Tank Model: An Educational Resource at the Interface of Hydrology and Computer Science

Abstract:

Physical aquifer models are a very effective teaching tool for hydrology education, but they come with inherent limitations: (1) users require access to physical aquifer model(s), (2) models have a prohibitively high cost to purchase for many educators, (3) models often require trained personnel to deliver instructive lessons, (4) the required time to visualize hydrogeological phenomena and “reset” the system is long, and (5) the static configuration of model materials does not allow for setup variety.

To address these limitations, our team has developed an interactive computer simulation of a physical aquifer model. The ParFlow Sand Tank model was developed through the HydroFrame project, which is made up of a multi-institutional group of hydrologists, modelers, computer scientists, and educators. This project seeks to make national hydrologic simulations and associated educational resources more accessible in the geoscience community and beyond.

The ParFlow Sand Tank model has a game-like browser-based interface but builds upon open source software components developed by Kitware executing the integrated hydrology model ParFlow, using a framework built upon Python scripting language. Our user interface allows participants to dive into the world of hydrology, making decisions about inputs to groundwater aquifer systems such as pumping rates and conductivity, visualizing outputs such as stream flow and saturation, and exploring various factors that impact real environmental systems. This tool has already been used in a variety of educational settings and we feel this emerging educational technology can be used broadly in educational and research-based arenas and can be scaled-up to provide greater accessibility for students and educators, especially in the current academic environment.