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Hydrology Software Support Team

The TIPS Hydrology Success Team provides leadership and direction to the SMCRA Hydrology Program by delivering software, training, and technical guidance to our customers on hydrology-related issues. Our customers include OSMRE, State, and Tribe hydrologists, and federal state SMCRA programs.

Focus Areas

The Team provides support in three (3) hydrologic-related areas. These areas are listed below with examples of mining-related evaluations enabled by our TIPS software:

  • Modeling groundwater flow and mine pool seepage
  • Fate and transport of chemical constituents
  • Characterizing aquifers through evaluation of slug and pumping tests

  • Watershed modeling; peak flow analysis
  • Design sediment basins and drainage control structures
  • Surface and groundwater interaction

  • Modeling AMD treatment scenarios and costs
  • Characterizing mine water; reaction paths
  • Water quality plots including Piper and Stiff Diagrams

Team Members

The TIPS Hydrology Workgroup includes members from the States and OSMRE who work together to provide services to TIPS customers.

Software and Freeware

Customer Interests and Needs: If you have hydrology-related needs that you do not see addressed, please contact any member of the TIPS Hydrology Support Team.

AMDTreat+PHREEQC - Acid mine drainage pollution abatement sizing and cost estimating software.

AQTESOLV - A suite of tools estimate aquifer parameters to analyze movement and quantity of groundwater, and to evaluate pump/slug well test results.

The Geochemist's Workbench - A collection of sophisticated modules for simulating and solving aqueous geochemistry problems.

Groundwater Modeling System (GMS) - Groundwater model system that converts map data into MODFLOW, MODPATH, and MT3D grid data to solve groundwater flow problems.

Groundwater Vistas - Groundwater Vistas is a graphical interface for building, running and analyzing numeric flow models in MODFLOW, MODPATH, and MT3D

HEC-RAS - HEC-RAS is used to evaluate impacts of floodplain encroachment (flood analysis); for example, delineating the approximate limits of the 100-year floodplain. Effects of structures such as bridges, culverts, and weirs, in the flood plain can be assessed. RUSLE - Soil loss prediction software which includes a suite of modules for determining soil loss factors.

SEDCAD - A suite of curve number-based watershed rainfall-runoff models, RUSLE-based sediment yield analysis, and channel and hydraulic structure design utilities.

Note: OSMRE accepts no responsibility for the content on external websites linked from this page. Links are provided "as is" for convenience only. When you click any of the links on this page you will leave the TIPS web site.

FSWEPP (USDA Forest Service)

GSFLOW (USGS) - Coupled Groundwater and Surface-water FLOW model based on the USGS Precipitation-Runoff Modeling System (PRMS) and Modular Groundwater Flow Model (MODFLOW-2005).

HYSEP (USGS) - HYSEP performs hydrograph separation, estimating the groundwater, or base flow, component of streamflow. The program provides an automated and consistent method for estimating base flow. Any of the three hydrograph-separation techniques of Pettyjohn and Henning (1979) can be used: fixed interval, sliding interval, or local minimum.

MODFLOW and Related programs: MODFLOW is the USGS's three-dimensional (3D) finite-difference groundwater model. MODFLOW is considered an international standard for simulating and predicting groundwater conditions and groundwater/surface-water interactions.

National Streamflow Statistics (USGS) - To provide simple methods of estimating streamflow statistics, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has developed and published regression equations estimating the magnitude and frequency of floods for every State, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and a number of metropolitan areas in the United States, and regression equations for estimating other streamflow statistics are available for many states. These equations have been compiled into the National Streamflow Statistics (NSS) Program.

PHREEQC – USGS software for Speciation, Batch-Reaction, One-Dimensional Transport, and Inverse Geochemical Calculations.

RORA (USGS) - The computer program RORA estimates groundwater recharge using the recession-curve-displacement method. The method is based on the change in total potential groundwater discharge that is caused by each recharge event.

RUSLE - Soil loss prediction software which includes a suite of modules for determining soil loss factors.

StreamStats (USGS) - StreamStats is a Web-based tool that allows users to obtain streamflow statistics, drainage-basin characteristics, and other information for user-selected sites on streams.

Visual MINTEQ (USGS) - a freeware chemical equilibrium model for the calculation of metal speciation, solubility equilibria, sorption etc. for natural waters. It combines state-of-the-art descriptions of sorption and complexation reactions with easy-to-use menus and options for importing and exporting data from/to Excel.

WEPP (National Soil Erosion Research Laboratory) - The Water Erosion Prediction Project (WEPP) model is a process-based, distributed parameter, continuous simulation, erosion prediction model.

Other software sources/lists: USGS Water Resources General Software Page

Additional Resources

Wyoming Hydrology Database

Wyoming has offered to share their Hydrology Database Shell and associated Data Submittal Spreadsheets with other states and the federal programs. This Shell has empty tables already set up where information on groundwater, surface water and precipitation monitoring sites, groundwater level elevation, stream flow, field water quality, lab water quality and precipitation data can be stored. We hope our work and experience in this area may help other programs.

Data Submittal Spreadsheets

Other Resources