GEOSSAV : a simulation tool for subsurface applications

Geostatistical Environment fOr Subsurface Simulation And Visualization (GEOSSAV) is a tool for the integration of hard and soft data into stochastic simulation and visualization of distributions of geological structures and hydrogeological properties in the subsurface. GEOSSAV, as an interface to selected geostatistical modules (bicalib, gamv, vargplt, and sisim) from the Geostatistical Software LIBrary, GSLIB (GSLIB: Geostatistical Software Library and User's Guide, 2nd Edition, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1998, 369pp), can be used for data analysis, variogram computation of regularly or irregularly spaced data, and sequential indicator simulation of subsurface heterogeneities. Sequential indicator simulation, based on various kriging techniques (simple, ordinary, and Bayesian), is suitable for the simulation of continuous variables such as hydraulic conductivity of an aquifer or chemical concentrations at a contaminated site, and categorical variables which indicate the presence or absence of a particular lithofacies. The software integration platform and development environment of GEOSSAV is Tool command language (Tcl) with its graphical user interface, Toolkit (Tk), and a number of Tcl/Tk extensions. The standard Open Graphics Library application programming interface is used for rendering three-dimensional (3D) data distributions and for slicing perpendicular to the main coordinate axis. Export options for finite-difference groundwater models allow either files that characterize single model layers (which are saved in ASCII matrix format) or files that characterize the complete 3D flow model setup for MODFLOW-based groundwater simulation systems (which are saved in block-centered flow package files (User's documentation for MODFLOW-96, an update to the US Geological Survey modular finite-difference ground-water flow model, Geological Survey Open-File Report 96-485, Reston, VA, 1996, 56pp)). GEOSSAV can be used whenever stochastic solutions are preferred to solve site-specific heterogeneity problems, e.g., in the field of hydrology, groundwater, groundwater and/or soil contamination, site remediation, air pollution, and ecology. An example from the Rhine/Wiese aquifer near Basel demonstrates the application of GEOSSAV on geostatistical data analysis and subsurface visualization. GEOSSAV has been successfully tested on Microsoft Windows NT 4.0/2000/XP and on SuSE Linux 7.3. The current version is available at http://www.unibas.ch/ earth/pract.