File:  ABSTRACT.TXT

The U.S. EPA's Wellhead Analytic Element Model for Windows, 
or WhAEM, is a free and open source ground water hydrology computer program
optimized for capture zone delineation and protection area mapping in support
of state or tribe Wellhead Protection Programs (WHPP) and Source Water
Assessment Planning (SWAP) for public water supplies in the United States.
WhAEM could also be used for the design of capture zones for pump-and-
treat aquifer remediation.

WhAEM provides the user an interactive computer environment for design and mapping of
protection areas based on radius methods, well in uniform flow solutions, and
geohydrologic modeling methods.  Protection areas are designed and overlaid
upon US Geological Survey Digital Line Graph (DLG), Digital Raster Graphic
(DRG) or other geo-referenced electronic base maps.  Base maps are available for download
using a graphical index map for the State. Geohydrologic modeling for steady
pumping wells, including the influence of hydrological boundaries, such as
rivers, recharge, and no-flow contacts, is accomplished using the analytic
element method, specifically the GFLOW1 solver. WhAEM has on-line help
and tutorials, and supports shapefile and dxf import and export.

The user's manual, "Working with WhAEM:  Capture Zone Delineation for a 
City Wellfield in a Valley Fill Glacial Outwash Aquifer Supporting Wellhead 
Protection'', demonstrates program operation and good modeling practice through a series 
of progressively more complex representations of a wellfield and the surrounding geology.