Tuesday, May 13, 2008

3-D groundwater visualization for managers


The ASU Decision Theater and the Arizona Water Institute are unveiling Nimue, a software package designed to visualize water resources in 3-D for policy decision making next week at ASU.


According to the announcement, “Nimue
(pronounced nee-moo-ay) has been designed to view groundwater data produced by MODFLOW (MODular three-dimensional finite-difference ground-water FLOW model), a software modeling tool written by the USGS to simulate the flow of groundwater. Although there are several software products that are capable of viewing MODFLOW data, they are typically designed for use by hydrologists and engineers. Nimue is an application specifically designed for the visualization of the relevant scientific information needed by water resource managers. Nimue is open source, free, and compatible with the DT such that groundwater data can be viewed immersively in 3D as well as on a user’s desktop. Open source software allows the executable and its source code to be freely distributed, allowing outside developers to update and enhance the existing code to meet their own needs.”

The software is a product of collaboration among the East Valley Water Forum, the Arizona State University Decision Theater and the University of Arizona Tree-Ring Laboratory, funded by an AWI grant.



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