About iMOD

About iMOD

iMOD is freely available and open source software for a wide range of ground water modelling tasks. iMOD consists of user interfaces, pre- and postprocessing software and computational cores based on USGS MODFLOW source code to support analysis of groundwater flow.

Development of iMOD started in 2006. Since the end of 2021 two software products are distinguished: iMOD 5 and iMOD Suite.

 

 

Comparison iMOD 5 and iMOD Suite

The proven technology and expertise of iMOD is consolidated within iMOD 5. iMOD 5 supports structured calculations with MODFLOW2005 and structured MODFLOW 6 and can be coupled to the unsaturated zone model MetaSWAP. The model input and output can be visualised in its fast interactive viewer. 

Important technological innovations will be developed in the new iMOD Suite, whereas iMOD 5 will be maintained the coming years, but will see no big new feature developments. Table 1 and Table 2 respectively provide comparisons between iMOD Suite and iMOD 5 for the components and supported MODFLOW6 packages.

Table 1: Comparison between iMOD Suite and iMOD 5
 iMOD SuiteiMOD 5
computational kernelsMODFLOW 2005, MODFLOW 6, SEAWAT, MT3DMSMODFLOW 2005, MODFLOW 6, SEAWAT, MT3DMS, MetaSWAP
file typesNetCDF, UGRID, shp, tiff, idf, ipf, genidf, ipf, isg, gen
grid typesstructured & unstructuredstructured & nested structured
scripted pre-processingiMOD PythoniMOD Batch
interactive pre-processing(QGIS)iMOD GUI
scripted 2D plotiMOD PythoniMOD Batch
interactive 2D plotiMOD QGIS plugin (& QGIS)iMOD GUI
scripted 3D plotiMOD Python 
interactive 3D plotiMOD 3D VieweriMOD GUI
 
Table 2: Supported MODFLOW6 flow packages in iMOD Suite & iMOD 5
PackageDescriptioniMOD SuiteiMOD 5
DISStructured Discretizationxx
DISVDiscretization by Verticesx 
DISUStructured Discretization  
ICInitial Conditionsxx
OCOutput Controlxx
NPFNode Property Flowxx
HFBHorizontal Flow Barrierxx
STOStoragexx
CSUBSkeletal Storage, Compaction, and Subsidence  
BUYBuoyancy  
CHDConstant-Headxx
WELWellxx
DRNDrainxx
RIVRiverxx
GHBGeneral-Head Boundaryxx
RCHRechargexx
EVTEvapotranspirationxx
MAWMulti-Aquifer Well x
SFRStreamflow Routing x
LAKLake x
UZFUnsaturated Zone Flowxx
MVRWater Mover