Republican River Compact Administration Groundwater Model
User Manual (DRAFT) V12s 1.0


The process of running the RRCA Groundwater Model for a particular year is largely automated. When the directory structure is set up as here all the programs used to create various data files, the MODFLOW-2000 model, and accounting post-processors are run in sequence without any need for user intervention.

For every new year, a number of data preparation steps are required. These steps can be summarized as follows:

  1. Update annual precipitation data and add to precipitation data file;
  2. Update end of month reservoir stage and add to reservoir file;
  3. Extract daily minimum and maximum temperature and precipitation data, run ET calculation and update monthly maximum ET file;
  4. Update Colorado county pumping, acres and efficiencies, and monthly surface water diversions by ditch;
  5. Update Kansas data files;
  6. Update Nebraska groundwater, surface water and commingled groundwater and surface water data files, and canal leakage files.

Once these data preparation steps have been completed, an automated procedure is used to process the data and run the model. The specific steps performed by this procedure can be summarized as follows:

  1. Create sub-directories for precipitation and state data;
  2. Create year specific input files with mkinp;
  3. Extract starting heads from previous run with mkshead;
  4. Create ET package with mket;
  5. Create stream package with mkstr;
  6. Run Colorado pre-processors mkgw and mksw;
  7. Run Kansas pre-processors pumprechv5 and swrechv2;
  8. Run Nebraska pre-processors mknedat and mknecanal;
  9. Run Republican River pre-processor rrpp;
  10. Run MODFLOW-2000;
  11. Create county summaries with mkcty;
  12. Run accounting post-processor acct.

The mechanics of running the various programs are quite straight forward and numerical problems are quite rare. Since the process involves running programs with a minimum of user intervention, the possibility for human error is quite small.

The bulk of the effort in performing the update is concentrated in the preparation of the data files and checking the input data and results. Comparison of the data and results for each year with previous years may reveal errors or inconsistencies in the data.

The following sections describe the above steps in more detail.
Model Units
Directory Structure
Programs
Static Files
Precipitation Data Entry
Colorado Data Entry
ET Data Entry
Stream Data Entry
Kansas Data Entry
Nebraska Data Entry
Running the Model