Investigating the Status of Underground Water in Minab Plain Using Quantitative and Qualitative Models MODFLOW and MT3DMS

Groundwater resources are considered as the second largest fresh water resource of earth after glaciers. Water shortage and lack of proper management of groundwater resources result in droughts and consequent severe water crises around the world as well as Iran. Excessive withdrawal of groundwater from the Minab Aquifer caused that the inlet of the aquifer could not cope with the withdrawal and, as a result, the groundwater level was dropped. Prediction of groundwater flow behavior for optimal management of groundwater resources is one of the objectives of hydrological studies. Thus, the present study considered quantitative and qualitative modeling of the Minab aquifer by using GMS 7.1 which has a special importance in water management. Quantitative modeling of groundwater flow was carried out in MODFLOW code for steady state in October 2002 and for unsteady state during the year of 2002-2003. By calibrating the models, the RMSE and MAE values for determining groundwater levels were estimated as 0.268 and 0.25 meters, respectively. The average annual drop of groundwater level in Minab aquifer was estimated as 0.02 m during a year. The qualitative model of groundwater flow was run for a year period to determine TDS value by using MT3DMS code. After Model calibration, the RMSE and MAE values were estimated as 4.345 ppm and 2.357 ppm. It can be concluded that the current trend of groundwater flow will decrease the groundwater level and increase the aquifer pollution level.