Harr, A Civil
Action. (OPTIONAL)
This is a best-selling non-fiction novel that happens to be a legal
thriller about a major court case involving a series of deaths which may
have been linked to groundwater contamination. It was awarded the title of Best Non-Fiction
Novel of 1995. I think you will enjoy it and it will provide us with some
very interesting topics of discussion. Also, our term project will involve
building a model of the groundwater flow system described in the book.
The book has been made into a movie starring John Travolta. But, of
course, the book is always better than the movie.
McDonald and Harbaugh, A Modular Three-Dimensional
Finite-Difference Groundwater Model, U.S.G.S. (FREE)
This is the reference manual for MODFLOW, a model we will discuss in great detail. The
manual is public domain (not copyrighted). Click on the link above to get an electronic
copy. This is the entire manual minus most of the FORTRAN source code.
Anderson and Woessner, Applied Groundwater Modeling, Academic Press (SUGGESTED).
This is a good textbook on groundwater modeling. The focus is less on fundamental
theory and more on practical applications. The material matches this class quite well and
it should be a good reference book for you in your future modeling careers. There
should be a new edition coming out soon so you may want to make sure it is out before you
buy a copy.
I used to require this book for this course but it is quite expensive and the students
complained. I have a fairly extensive set of lecture notes that I rely on now
instead.
