MODFLOW 6
Gov-PublicVerified
The USGS groundwater model — the world standard for aquifer simulation, rebuilt as a modular multi-model framework.
MODPATH
StableUSGS particle tracking for MODFLOW — pathlines, travel times and capture zones from flow solutions.
by US Geological Survey
- Pricing
- Gov-Public
- License
- US Government (public domain)
- Commercial use
- Permitted
- Ecosystem
- MODFLOW, Python (FloPy)
- Platform
- Windows, Linux, macOS
About MODPATH
MODPATH computes three-dimensional particle pathlines and travel times from MODFLOW flow solutions — forward from sources or backward from wells — which is how practice answers wellhead-protection, capture-zone and source-area questions without running full transport.
Version 7 supports MODFLOW 6 and unstructured grids and is fully scriptable through FloPy, so delineating a 10-year capture zone can be a dozen lines of Python on top of an existing model. (MODFLOW 6's newer PRT model now brings particle tracking into the core framework; MODPATH 7 remains the established standalone.)
Where it fits in the workflow
TerrainCatchmentRainfallRunoffRoutingHydraulicsMappingReporting
Appears in collections
- The Modern MODFLOW Stack
Groundwater modelling entirely on free software — MODFLOW 6, FloPy, PEST++ and friends.
Alternatives to MODPATH
Ranked by the topics, categories and workflow stages they share with MODPATH.
MT3D-USGS
Gov-Public
Multi-species solute transport for MODFLOW — advection, dispersion, sorption and reactions in aquifers.
Visual MODFLOW Flex
Commercial
3D groundwater flow and transport modeling environment for MODFLOW, SEAWAT, and PEST calibration workflows.
FEFLOW
Commercial
DHI's finite-element groundwater platform — unstructured meshes, density-driven flow, heat and mine dewatering.
FloPy
Open SourceVerified
The Python interface to MODFLOW — build, run and post-process groundwater models entirely in code.
Groundwater Vistas
Commercial
Veteran commercial MODFLOW GUI with deep PEST integration — a consultant favourite for calibration-heavy work.