🧰 Research Software & Processing Tools

R

Time-series, statistics and reproducible research.

Developer: R Core Team and R Foundation for Statistical Computing

Python

Data processing, automation, modelling and geospatial analysis.

Developer: Python Software Foundation

QGIS

Open-source spatial data preparation and analysis.

Developer: QGIS Project

ArcGIS Desktop (ArcMap)

Developer: Esri

ArcGIS Pro

Developer: Esri

GRASS GIS

Raster, vector, hydrology and terrain processing.

Developer: GRASS Development Team and Open Source Geospatial Foundation — OSGeo

GDAL — Geospatial Data Abstraction Library

Raster and vector conversion and processing.

Developer: Open Source Geospatial Foundation — OSGeo

SWAT+

Watershed hydrology, sediment, nutrient and agricultural management modelling.

Developer: USDA Agricultural Research Service and Texas A&M AgriLife Research

Google Earth Engine

Cloud-scale satellite and geospatial analysis.

Developer: Google

HEC-HMS — Hydrologic Modeling System

Rainfall-runoff, routing and reservoir simulation.

Developer: United States Army Corps of Engineers — Hydrologic Engineering Center

HEC-RAS — River Analysis System

One- and two-dimensional river and floodplain modelling.

Developer: United States Army Corps of Engineers — Hydrologic Engineering Center

SAGA GIS

Developer: SAGA GIS Development Team

WhiteboxTools

Terrain analysis and watershed delineation.

Developer: Whitebox Geospatial Inc.

MATLAB

MATLAB is a numerical computing, programming, modelling and visualization environment used by engineers and scientists for data analysis, algorithm development, mathematical modelling, statistics, image processing and scientific visualization. It can read, analyse and visualize NetCDF, HDF and geospatial raster datasets through its core functions and specialist toolboxes.

Developer: MathWorks

HydroMT-Wflow

Developer: Deltares

WEAP

Developer: Stockholm Environment Institute — SEI

ArcGIS Online

Developer: Esri

Other NetCDF and GeoTIFF Processing Software

A general software collection representing additional desktop, command-line, programming and cloud-based tools capable of reading, converting, analysing or visualizing NetCDF, GeoTIFF, HDF and related environmental and geospatial data formats.

Developer: Various software developers and open-source communities

Panoply Data Viewer

Panoply is a free cross-platform scientific-data viewer developed at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies. It opens and plots georeferenced and multidimensional arrays stored in NetCDF, HDF, GRIB and related scientific formats. It supports maps, vertical sections, time-series plots, animations and graphical export.

Developer: NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies

DHI MIKE SHE

Developer: DHI

HDFView

HDFView is a graphical application for browsing, displaying and editing HDF4 and HDF5 files. It allows users to inspect file hierarchies, datasets, groups, dimensions, attributes and metadata and to modify supported HDF data structures.

Developer: The HDF Group

Deltares Wflow

Developer: Deltares

FutureWater SPHY

Developer: FutureWater

Climate Data Operators — CDO

Climate Data Operators, abbreviated CDO, is an open-source command-line toolkit containing hundreds of operators for processing and analysing climate, weather and other gridded scientific datasets. It supports NetCDF, GRIB and several additional scientific formats and provides selection, aggregation, interpolation, statistics, remapping and time-series operations.

Developer: Max Planck Institute for Meteorology

DHI MIKE+ Rivers

Developer: DHI

NetCDF Operators — NCO

NetCDF Operators, abbreviated NCO, is an open-source collection of command-line programs for manipulating and analysing NetCDF-accessible scientific data. It supports operations such as subsetting, averaging, regridding, concatenation, metadata editing, arithmetic calculations, compression and conversion of NetCDF, HDF and remotely accessible datasets.

Developer: NCO Project

SNAP

Sentinel and Earth-observation processing.

Developer: European Space Agency — ESA

TauDEM

Developer: David G. Tarboton — Utah State University

DHI MIKE 21 and MIKE 3

Developer: DHI

DHI MIKE HYDRO Basin

Developer: DHI

TUFLOW

Developer: BMT

Bentley OpenFlows Water / WaterGEMS

Developer: Bentley Systems

Deltares Delft-FEWS

Developer: Deltares

Deltares Delft3D Flexible Mesh

Developer: Deltares

TELEMAC-MASCARET

Developer: Open TELEMAC-MASCARET Consortium

AquaCrop

Developer: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations — FAO

Autodesk InfoWorks ICM

Developer: Autodesk

Autodesk InfoWorks WS Pro

Developer: Autodesk

Bentley OpenFlows FLOOD

Developer: Bentley Systems

Bentley OpenFlows HAMMER

Developer: Bentley Systems

Bentley OpenFlows Sewer / SewerGEMS

Developer: Bentley Systems

Bentley OpenFlows Storm

Developer: Bentley Systems

CE-QUAL-W2

Two-dimensional longitudinal and vertical hydrodynamic and water-quality model designed for rivers, lakes, reservoirs, estuaries and other long, narrow or vertically stratified water bodies.

Developer: Portland State University and United States Army Corps of Engineers

CROPWAT 8.0

Developer: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations — FAO

Deltares SOBEK

Developer: Deltares

DHI MIKE ECO Lab

Developer: DHI

DHI MIKE+

Developer: DHI

DHI MIKE+ Collection Systems

Developer: DHI

DHI MIKE+ Water Distribution

Developer: DHI

EPA EPANET — Water Distribution System Modelling Software

Developer: United States Environmental Protection Agency — EPA

EPA Storm Water Management Model — SWMM

Developer: United States Environmental Protection Agency — EPA

EPA WASP — Water Quality Analysis Simulation Program

Dynamic water-quality modelling system for rivers, lakes, reservoirs, estuaries and coastal waters, supporting nutrients, dissolved oxygen, algae, pathogens, toxic chemicals, metals, temperature and sediment processes.

Developer: United States Environmental Protection Agency

ETH Zürich BASEMENT

Developer: ETH Zurich Laboratory of Hydraulics, Hydrology and Glaciology

FAO ETo Calculator

Developer: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations — FAO

FLO-2D Pro

Two-dimensional flood-routing model for river, floodplain, urban, alluvial-fan, coastal, mudflow and debris-flow simulations, including storm-drain and sediment-transport applications.

Developer: FLO-2D Software, Inc.

FloPy

Open-source Python package for creating, running, reading and post-processing MODFLOW, MODPATH, MT3D, SEAWAT and related groundwater-model simulations.

Developer: United States Geological Survey

GeoServer

Open-source server for publishing and sharing geospatial data through standards such as WMS, WFS, WCS, WMTS and OGC API services.

Developer: GeoServer Project and Open Source Geospatial Foundation

HEC-DSSVue

Graphical software for viewing, plotting, tabulating, editing, transforming and managing hydrological and hydraulic time-series data stored in HEC-DSS files.

Developer: United States Army Corps of Engineers — Hydrologic Engineering Center

HEC-FIA — Flood Impact Analysis

Flood-consequence assessment software that uses hydraulic depth grids, arrival-time grids and stage hydrographs to estimate structural damage, economic losses, agricultural losses and potential loss of life.

Developer: United States Army Corps of Engineers — Hydrologic Engineering Center

HEC-ResSim — Reservoir System Simulation

Reservoir-system simulation software for analysing single reservoirs and interconnected reservoir systems under flood-management, water-supply, hydropower, environmental-flow and operational constraints.

Developer: United States Army Corps of Engineers — Hydrologic Engineering Center

HEC-SSP — Statistical Software Package

Hydrologic statistical-analysis software supporting flow-frequency, volume-frequency, duration, coincident-frequency, distribution-fitting, correlation and record-extension analyses.

Developer: United States Army Corps of Engineers — Hydrologic Engineering Center

HEC-WAT — Watershed Analysis Tool

Integrated water-resources modelling framework that connects HEC-HMS, HEC-ResSim, HEC-RAS, HEC-FIA and supporting tools for watershed planning, risk analysis and evaluation of project alternatives.

Developer: United States Army Corps of Engineers — Hydrologic Engineering Center

Iber

Two-dimensional free-surface hydraulic model for rivers and estuaries supporting hydrodynamics, rainfall-runoff processes, sediment transport, water quality, habitat analysis and flood mapping.

Developer: GEAMA, FLUMEN, CIMNE and CEDEX

IRRICAD

Developer: Lincoln Agritech Ltd.

IrriMaker

Developer: Model Maker Systems

JupyterLab

Interactive web-based scientific-computing environment combining notebooks, code, equations, maps, visualisations, documentation and reproducible Python, R and Julia data-processing workflows.

Developer: Project Jupyter

LISFLOOD-FP

Raster-based one-dimensional and two-dimensional hydraulic model for simulating river flooding, floodplain flow, urban inundation, dam-break propagation and large-scale flood hazards.

Developer: University of Bristol

ModelMuse

Graphical user interface for preparing, running and visualising MODFLOW, MODPATH, SUTRA, PHAST, MT3D-USGS and related groundwater-flow and solute-transport models.

Developer: United States Geological Survey

MODFLOW 6

Developer: United States Geological Survey — USGS

OpenFOAM

Free and open-source computational-fluid-dynamics software for numerical simulation of fluid flow, turbulence, multiphase processes, sediment transport, hydraulic structures and environmental flows.

Developer: OpenFOAM Foundation

PCRaster

Developer: Utrecht University

PEST++

Model-independent software suite for parameter estimation, automated calibration, sensitivity analysis, uncertainty analysis and management optimisation of groundwater, surface-water and environmental models.

Developer: United States Geological Survey and PEST development community

PostGIS

Open-source spatial database extension for PostgreSQL supporting storage, indexing, querying and analysis of vector, raster, terrain, watershed, river-network and environmental geospatial data.

Developer: PostGIS Project and Open Source Geospatial Foundation

SAPWAT 4

Developer: SAPWAT Development Team — funded by the Water Research Commission of South Africa

USBR SRH-2D

Developer: United States Bureau of Reclamation — USBR

Wageningen SWAP

Developer: Wageningen Environmental Research — WENR

Water Administration System (WAS)

Developer: NB Systems — Dr Nico Benadé

Water Network Tool for Resilience — WNTR

Developer: United States Environmental Protection Agency and Sandia National Laboratories