Abstract

An appropriate selection of software is an important problem for professionals interested in performing numerical flow simulation and groundwater modeling. This is due to the huge amount of existing codes with different capabilities and complexities, which are able to quantify the interesting variables in practical hydrogeological situations. Some important factors are: problem type, code capabilities, ease of use, available documentation, economic investment and technical support quality. With the target that the selection can be conducted in the least possible time and with certain guarantees, we offer here a paper where we show two of the more extended and used simulation codes: Visual MODFLOW and FEFLOW 6.0. In this paper we perform a detailed comparative of both codes where we analyze and evaluate the existing differences in some relevant and specific aspects of groundwater modeling for a case of general interest and enough complexity: dewatering characterization of an open pit mine (quarry of limestone) onto a carbonate unconfined aquifer.