In addition to simulating ground-water flow, the scope of MODFLOW has been expanded to incorporate related capabilities such as solute transport and parameter estimation. MODFLOW is currently the most used numerical model in the U.S. Geological Survey for ground-water flow problems. MODFLOW is a three-dimensional finite-difference ground-water model that was first published in 1984. MODFLOW simulates steady and nonsteady flow in an irregularly shaped flow system in which aquifer layers can be confined, unconfined, or a combination of confined and unconfined.
Flow from external stresses, such as flow to wells, areal recharge, evapotranspiration, flow to drains, and flow through river beds, can be simulated. Hydraulic conductivities or transmissivities for any layer may differ spatially and be anisotropic (restricted to having the principal directions aligned with the grid axes), and the storage coefficient may be heterogeneous. Specified head and specified flux boundaries can be simulated as can a head dependent flux across the model's outer boundary that allows water to be supplied to a boundary block in the modeled area at a rate proportional to the current head difference between a "source" of water outside the modeled area and the boundary block.