Bridging the Divides Across Ground Water Modeling Communities through a New Object-Oriented Conceptual Ground Water Data Model

Groundwater models utilize a variety of numerical techniques based upon the Analytic Element Method, the Finite Difference Method and the Finite Element Method.  Currently, there is a lack of data interoperability between groundwater models that employ different mathematics, data types, and legacy input/output file formats. Yet in spite of the difference, existing groundwater modeling methods are all founded in the same fundamental hydrologic properties of mass, flux, pathways, and residence time.  These fundamental groundwater system concepts are distilled and serve as the basis of designing a new object-oriented conceptual groundwater data model, which represents a groundwater system as a series of aquifer layers with defined aquifer properties and water boundary conditions. The data model provides a central storage mechanism to structure and organize groundwater datasets. With built-in database management capabilities, well-defined domain, relationships, and topological rules, spatial data models improve data storage efficiency and enforce data integrity. Case studies illustrate the new conceptual groundwater data model’s utility as an effective mechanism for structuring and organizing groundwater datasets and storing a conceptual model of groundwater, and its flexibility to support groundwater models across existing modeling techniques.