Philosophy

Motivation

Analytical solutions for streamflow depletion or drawdown from pumping wells are being used to quickly screen proposed high-capacity pumping impacts. Python implementations of these solutions can be easier for analysts to access compared to FORTRAN-based solutions. Python also can be faster and provide a more robust option compared to spreadsheet implementations of the solutions.

What pycap-dss does

The package defines classes for analysis of the potential responses of water levels and stream depletion resulting from pumping of a high-capacity well. The user performs analysis for a specific location for analysis of streamflow depletion or drawdown. The project class also allows for the analysis of several pumping wells at the same time.

The code is designed in a modular way such that new depletion or drawdown solutions can be cleanly added and then called by the higher-level objects.

The underlying analytical solutions also are available as internal functions of the wells class using the underscore notation to indicate that these are typically called from within the class. For example direct access to the Theis (1935) drawdown solution is provided by wells.theis_drawdown(T,S,time,dist,Q) function.

What pycap-dss doesn’t do

This package does not include all possible analytical solutions for drawdown or stream depletion due to wells. This package is not a replacement for numerical or other modeling approaches in situations with complex hydrogeologic conditions.