A hydraulic barrier design teaching module based on HELP 3.04 and HELP model for Windows v2.05

Educational use of environmental software offers opportunities and challenges to both software developers and educators. Desirable attributes for educational environmental software have recently been discussed in Jennings (1997). Jennings (1997)and Jennings and Kuhlman (1997)went on to illustrate many of these attributes using the groundwater bioremediation code BIO1D and the air pollution transport code GAUSSIAN MODELS 1.1. This paper continues the exploration of educational applications of environmental software by examining both a public domain and proprietary code built around EPAʹs Hydrologic Evaluation of Landfill Performance (HELP) analysis package. The first, HELP 3.04, is a revised version of HELP intended to be more user-interactive than its predecessors. The second, HMfW v2.05, makes use of proprietary user interfaces to provide superior problem definition and result visualization in a pseudo-CAD working environment. Examples generated with both codes are presented to explore the nature of modern user interfaces, and to examine how desirable features might differ between student and professional users. Example simulations are also presented to illustrate how these codes can be used in ways that transcend their original intent to teach about hydraulic barrier design and performance.