Welcome to HydroModPy’s !#
HydroModPy was initiated in 2018 to streamline the deployment of hydrological models in catchments across the crystalline basement regions of Normandy and Brittany, France. The platform integrates a wide range of open-source packages (FloPy, WhiteBoxTools, etc.), making them easily accessible and shareable among scientific communities.
The development of HydroModPy was driven by two primary objectives:
First, it automates the extraction and discretization of watersheds from Digital Elevation Models (DEMs), while adding essential data available (e.g. piezometry, hydrography, geology) from local data to national and global databases. This ensures a standardized process for setting up and running simulation batches across different watersheds with uniform input data.
The second goal is to facilitate the visualization and comparison of results from the various modeling programs included within the platform. In addition to its scientific applications, HydroModPy also serves as a valuable educational tool, enabling students and researchers to explore hydrogeological modeling in a practical context.
Abstract for the congress IAH 2024
The need for predictive models increases as the pressure of global change intensifies. Regional-scale modeling of shallow unconfined aquifers (10-100 m depth) remains challenging, especially in complex basement aquifers. Controlled both by topography and geology, groundwater flows are organized from hillslope to catchment scale. It is particularly the case in crystalline regions with low aquifer volumes and wet climates, resulting in significant subsurface-surface interactions with very few information available to constrain models.
To address this, we present HydroModPy, an application developed in Python as a toolbox for automatic deployment of groundwater flow models. HydroModPy integrates geospatial processing (WhiteBoxTools) with groundwater flow and transport simulation tools (MODFLOW and MODPATH via FloPy). It is designed to call other groundwater flow solvers, facilitate multi-site deployment, integrate pre- and post-processing functions such as catchment extraction from a DEM and an advanced representation of head and flow results. Emphasis is placed on integrating aquifer geometry complexities and hydraulic properties heterogeneity (compartmentalization, exponential decay, implementation of a 3D geological model, etc.).
HydroModPy’s user-friendly Python interface allows for testing and exploring various aquifer models across different geomorphological contexts and recharge conditions. Ongoing improvements include methods for calibrating and estimating hydraulic properties using multiple datasets such as hydrographic network maps, streamflow, and piezometric level data. HydroModPy is developed as an open-source toolkit. It is currently being used in climate change effects on groundwater-dependent ecosystems and water resource management issues. Collaborative development should enhance the modeling capacity of near-surface aquifers, facilitate their extension to the regional scale for predictive purposes.
Guides#
News & timeline
Breaking changes, release notes, and conference highlights.
Installation
Pip, conda, and offline installation paths plus verification steps.
Examples
Notebook gallery showing quick demos, calibration workflows, and teaching material.
API reference
Browse the package tree exactly as in hydromodpy/ (watershed, modeling,
display, pyhelp, and tooling APIs).
Contributors
Development guidelines, testing expectations, and release process.
Install#
pip install hydromodpy
For detailed instructions see the installation guide. If you plan to add new features, check the contributor setup.
Research use and citation#
If HydroModPy supports your work, please cite:
Gauvain, A., Abhervé, R., Coche, A., Le Mesnil, M., Roques, C., Bouchez, C., Marçais, J., Leray, S., Marti, E., Figueroa, R., Bresciani, E., Vautier, C., Boivin, B., Sallou, J., Bourcier, J., Combemale, B., Longuevergne, L., Aquilina, L., & de Dreuzy, J.-R. (2025). HydroModPy – a Python toolbox for deploying catchment-scale shallow groundwater models. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences. In preparation.
Linked publications#
Abhervé, R., Roques, C., de Dreuzy, J.-R., Van Der Veen, T., Dumaine, L., Chatton, E., Brunner, P., Aquilina, L., & Servière, L. (2025). Projected climate change impacts on groundwater-surface water connectivity in a compartmentalized mountain headwater bedrock aquifer. Water Resources Research, 61(10). https://doi.org/10.1029/2025WR040083
Marti, E., Leray, S., & Roques, C. (2024). Catchment landforms predict groundwater-dependent wetland sensitivity to recharge changes. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences Discussions. https://doi.org/10.5194/HESS-2024-381
Floriancic, M. G., Abhervé, R., Bouchez, C., Martinez, J. J., & Roques, C. (2024). Evidence of Groundwater Seepage and Mixing at the Vicinity of a Knickpoint in a Mountain Stream. Geophysical Research Letters, 51. https://doi.org/10.1029/2024GL111325
Le Mesnil, M., Gauvain, A., Gresselin, F., Aquilina, L., & de Dreuzy, J. (2024). Characterizing coastal aquifer heterogeneity from a single piezometer head chronicle. Journal of Hydrology, 131859. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2024.131859
Abhervé, R., Roques, C., de Dreuzy, J.-R., Datry, T., Brunner, P., Longuevergne, L., & Aquilina, L. (2024). Improving calibration of groundwater flow models using headwater streamflow intermittence. Hydrological Processes, 38(6). https://doi.org/10.1002/hyp.15167
Abhervé, R., Roques, C., Gauvain, A., Longuevergne, L., Louaisil, S., Aquilina, L., & de Dreuzy, J.-R. (2023). Calibration of groundwater seepage against the spatial distribution of the stream network to assess catchment-scale hydraulic properties. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 27(17), 3221–3239. https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-27-3221-2023