AN INTERNET-BASED, VIRTUAL REALITY TUTORIAL DEMONSTRATING THE SIMULATION OF SEASONAL CHANGES IN SURFACE AND GROUND-WATER FLOW FOR MIRROR LAKE, NEW HAMPSHIRE

Surface and ground-water flow patterns are dynamic and subject to change with respect to seasonal variations in precipitation and evapotranspiration. Simulations that calibrate to long-term averages do not consider these changes. Therefore, it is important to compare separate, seasonal and, short-term average simulations in order analyze such change. The need for in-depth surface and ground-water simulation tutorials is common in most universities, therefore an interactive virtual reality website designed to teach ground-water modeling can be beneficial. Seasonal changes in the Mirror Lake watershed boundary, and ground-water equipotential field, will be analyzed and the results incorporated into an internet-based, virtual reality tutorial for advanced hydrogeological concepts. Mirror Lake, located at the eastern end of the Hubbard Brook Forest Experimental Forest in central New Hampshire, is a kettle lake within a thin (0-30m) deposit of glacial drift overlaying Devonian and Silurian aged metamorphic and igneous rocks. The model area is approximately 10 km2 and includes several streams, namely parts of Hubbard Brook and the Pemigewasset River. Using a finite-difference numerical model, two simulations are separately calibrated to over 130 well and peizometer measurements. Short-term averages of these measurements (approximately two weeks) are used to simulate two types of seasonal, surface and ground-water flow in the, (1) wet season and (2) dry season. The wet season simulation is based on a short-term average of late spring measurements, while the dry season simulation is based on early fall. The differences in the watershed boundary, the ground-water equipotential field, and the water balance between the two simulations are analyzed. The results are incorporated into a Virtual Reality Machine Language (VRML) tutorial website. This site will require the student to select from a range of parameters and will output a respective simulation result in return. Accurate and inaccurate simulations will be available as outputs, so the student must select the correct configuration of parameters in order to receive an accurate simulation.