GroMoPo Metadata for Rio Salado MODFLOW model

The Rio Salado catchment covers 170,000km2 of the Buenos Aires province, Argentina. The area suffers from persistent flooding situations that affect a large proportion of the catchment and hence imposes a severe constraint in the existing production levels and in the realisation of the fall economic potential of the region. The complexity of the landscape and the delicate groundwater-surface water interaction in a large dune field area made it essential to develop different approaches to model such interaction, as part of the study for an Integrated Master Plan for the whole basin. An approach using MODFLOW proved to be useful at a regional and prefeasibility level to generate flood risk maps and estimate net benefits for different drainage schemes. However ISISMOD, a groundwater model coupled with a surface water model proved to be a key water resource management tool to support feasibility studies and the detailed design of a drainage network capable of removing flood waters without detriment to the wetlands and fresh groundwater lenses of the area during dry periods.