GFLOW groundwater flow model of the St. Louis River Basin, Minnesota

A two-dimensional, steady-state groundwater flow model of the St. Louis River Basin (SLRB) was developed using the analytic-element computer code, GFLOW, to provide an understanding of the regional groundwater flow system. In analytic-element models significant streams and lakes in the model domain are represented as linesink elements. Analytic-element models, such as the SLRB regional model, can be a screening model which provides a simplified version of a hydrologic system, completed ahead of a more complex modeling effort. For this study, the regional screening model was refined to focus on extensive ditching in the central SLRB, a wetland-rich area to the south of the Iron Range. Two smaller models were developed in this area—a [...]