I want to simulate the interaction of an aquifer and Urmia salt lake in Iran. What type of software may be appropriate for these purposes? SEAWAT, SUTRA, HYDRUS, etc? I would like to hear all your suggestions.
Depending on the modelling environmental (i.e. spatial, temporal, or both) you want and what questions you want ask depends on the modeling platform.
I agree with Paul Julian. It seems to me that you probably are concern about SALINITY migration from salt lake water column into coastal aquifer through the Salt Lake Bed Sediment. If this is the case then you may use SEAWAT. Because SEAWAT is a generic MODFLOW/MT3DMS-based computer program designed to simulate three-dimensional variable-density groundwater flow coupled with multi-species solute and heat transport. The program has been used for a wide variety of groundwater studies including those focused on brine migration in continental aquifers as well as those focused on saltwater intrusion in coastal aquifers. Good luck.
SEAWAT is suitable for saline water modeling, if you want to include the unsaturated aquifer, then SUTRA is better, cuz SEAWAT only cover the saturated process. Another choice is FEFLOW, which can do a lot of modeling considering variety of process in both saturated and unsaturated aquifer, density dependent flow and multi-species reactive transport are also included.
I think you should define the area first and then see which model is most appropriate. If you can define the nature of the connection between the lake and the aquifer that could help you clarify the issue: what is the K distribution across the area (homogenous? heterogenous? isotropic?); are there faults/fractures that act as conduits?
One other code not mentioned is MODFLOW-SURFACT. Besides the usual saturated zone modeling capability provided by MODFLOW, SURFACT adds the capability of modeling the unsaturated zone and variable-density modeling. As everyone else has said define your area of interest, develop a conceptual model, and then you can pick your modeling software.
The researchers have correctly advised I guess either MODFLOW or FEFLOW can be used. However you can also try Delft3D that can work effectively for coastal areas as well.
For qualitative and quantitative modelling of coastal aquifer , we used MOD FLOW and used in Krishna and Godavari delta in Southern part of India and results are already published .
You can make use of MODFLOW. Alternatively, you can make use of model described in following paper, wherein the interaction between stream and Flat bay located in Andaman Island is modeled:
B.K. Yadav and Ashok K. Keshari (2007) A coupled mathematical water and salt balance model of Flat bay. Asian J. Water, Environment and Pollution, vol. 4(2), 49-55.
You could use ModelMuse to create a SUTRA model to model saltwater intrusion. The data you mention are not directly used by SUTRA but you might be able to use then to help determine the solute concentration. Some people have also used ModelMuse with SEAWAT by creating the extra input file for SEAWAT manually above and beyond those required for MODFLOW plus MT3DMS.
Python,R,Matlab even excel is sufficient for your data analysis.
If you still not satisfed, go with MODFLOW.
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