Do you prefer using GUIs or FloPy (Python) for groundwater flow modelling? Why? I have been using GUIs (Groundwater Vista and Visual modflow) for the last 6-7 years. However, people seem to prefer running MODFLOW through FloPy (Python) than the previously developed GUIs. Why is that? I started studying Python and FloPy this year. But, I still didn't get the difference? They all are tools to run MODFLOW. Can you share me your views?
Well, both GUIs and FloPy are used to generate the input files, running the executable program and post-processing the results. The Flopy is more flexible. With The help of many powerful Python packages, we can accomplish many works which may be scarcely possible with GUIs. For example, I can couple Flopy with ANN program to optimize some parameters conveniently, as both of them have the ready-made Python packages. However, the geographical processing module in Flopy is insufficient with some complex practical problems by now. We coupled Flopy with Arcpy (an API of ArcGIS for Python) to solve the problem.
Generally speaking, if it is a more practical problem, I would like to recommend to solve the problem with GUIs, as the friendly and intuitive operation. If you want to use the hydrology model with the purpose of scientific research, I think Flopy is better.
Dear Haile Arefayne
Experinced Groundwater modelers usually prefer using command line tools like python over GUIs for setting and running MODFLOW. Those tools are usually more flexible in making changes. Moreover, GUIs can sometime have issues in handling some MODFLOW packages especially with large regional models and it would then require a big deal of experience with the GUI details to overcome those issues. However, GUIs, like Groundwater Vistas, are very commonly used along with command line tools for generating input files and post- processing.
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