About Aquifer Explorer

What it includes

• 7 scroll-based lessons — from the Regional Picture to What You Can Do, including a 3D scrolly cross-section and a decade-by-decade contamination timeline.
• 6 interactive tools — Travel Time (Darcy), Pump Test (Theis), Plume Simulator, Water Budget, Breach Check, and Wellfield Stress Test.
• Live USGS monitoring data — real water levels from 500+ USGS wells in Shelby County, fetched directly from the National Water Information System (public domain).
• Address lookup — geocode any Memphis-area address to see recharge zone status, distance to nearest breach, and which wellfield serves it.
• Real 3D geological model — the CAESER GMS v2.1 Shelby County model rendered in-browser via Draco-compressed meshes.
• Explore map — toggleable layers: breaches, wellfields, recharge zone, USGS monitoring wells, Memphis Sand extent.
• 5 printable worksheets — aligned to TN science standards for classroom use.
• Full Spanish translation — 14 ES pages covering all lessons, tools, and explore.
• 3 audience modes — Public (advocacy), Learning (classroom hooks + worksheets), Research (methodology + DOI citations + data downloads).

The data

All scientific data comes from public sources. No private or proprietary data is used.

• USGS NWIS — groundwater monitoring wells, water levels, discrete measurements. Public domain (U.S. Government Work).
• USGS MERAS (SIR 2009-5172) — regional Mississippi Embayment aquifer study.
• CAESER — GMS v2.1 geological model, breach identification research (published, publicly accessible).
• TDEC — contamination site data from Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation.
• EPA — Superfund site profiles for Shelby County.
• OpenStreetMap — geocoding via Nominatim (with identifying User-Agent per usage policy).

The engine

The 3D aquifer viewer, map layers, scrolly lesson engine, and UI components are open-source (MIT) and maintained by Ledsign. The POA content, domain, and branding belong to Protect Our Aquifer. Built with Next.js, React, Three.js, MapLibre GL, and Tailwind CSS.

For researchers

Switch to Research mode (via the mode switcher in the header) to see methodology panels, assumptions, academic citations with DOIs, and data download links on every lesson and tool.

For teachers

Switch to Learning mode to see TN science standards alignment, lesson durations, and worksheet links on every lesson. Visit /classroom for the full teacher resource page with all 5 worksheets and usage guides.

Questions or errors?

Found an error? Want to add a lesson? Contact POA or Ledsign.