Saturated Flow

The saturated zone data is generally written to a dfs3 file. In the map view, there is a combo box where you can specify the layer that you want to view.

Saturated Zone Drainage

The rate of saturated zone drainage is controlled by the drain elevation and the drain time constant. However, the destination of the drainage water is controlled by the drain levels and the drain codes, which determine if the water flows to a river, a boundary, or a local depression. The algorithm for determining the drainage source-recipient reference system is described in Groundwater drainage (V1 p. 61).

During the preprocessing, each active drain cell is mapped to a recipient cell. Then, whenever drainage is generated in a cell, the drain water will always be moved to the same recipient cell. The drainage source-recipient reference system is displayed in the following two grids

Drainage to local depressions and boundary - This grid displays all the cells that drain to local depressions or to the outer boundaries. All drainage from cells with the same negative value are drained to the cell with the corresponding positive code. If there is no corresponding positive code, then that cell drains to the outer boundary, and the water is simply removed from the model. Cells with a value of zero either do not generate drainage, or they drain to a river link.

Drainage to river - This grid displays all of the cells that drain to river links. All drainage from cells with the same negative value are drained to the cell with the corresponding positive code. Cells with a value of zero either do not generate drainage, or they drain to a the outer boundary or a local depression.