VISUAL BLUEBIRD
Visual BlueBird is a multi-engine graphical user interface for the modeling of single-layer 2-Dimensional steady state groundwater flow in heterogeneous aquifers by the analytic element method. The primary numerical engine is the public domain code SPLIT, which supplies such features as particle tracking, capture-zone delineation, and parameter estimation. Visual BlueBird allows for conceptual models to be easily digitised and solved with little effort. Visual BlueBird supports base maps and topographic inputs in .shp, .bna, .dem, and .grd format and interfaces with Golden Software's Surfer(R) program.
Visual BlueBird has a highly intuitive windows style user interface designed for simplicity of use. Most input is easily entered with a mouse click, and only advanced users will ever have to manually modify the input file. A multitude of viewing/zooming features (including point values and cross sections) is available, and output is attained with the click of a button, and easily sent to Golden Software's Surfer 7.0 or 8.0. Extensive calibration features within the interface itself allow interpolated observed heads and deviation from model heads to be viewed instantly. The interface, as well as the engine, has been designed with regional scale capabilities, and can import up to 5 base maps in various formats, as well as digital elevation models, which may be used to automatically pick off river elevations. An object manager allows for easy access to all of the elements in the model.
Split, the primary numerical engine for Visual BlueBird, supplies the following high-order elements, which can meet boundary conditions to extremely high precision:
Visual BlueBird/Split is available for free via download from http://www.groundwater.buffalo.edu/software/