BASEMENT
Free
ETH Zurich's free 2D hydraulics and morphodynamics simulator — rivers, sediment and hazard mapping.
11 tools · Topic
River & Channel Modelling Tools
1D river models remain the backbone of long-reach flood studies and bridge hydraulics. This page lists the 1D, 2D and coupled 1D-2D engines used in river engineering, from HEC-RAS and its Python controller to commercial suites and open finite-element codes.
Delft3D FM
Open Source
Deltares' open flexible-mesh suite for rivers, estuaries and coasts — hydrodynamics to morphology.
Flood Modeller
Freemium
Jacobs' 1D/2D river and floodplain suite — a UK practice staple with a genuinely useful free tier.
HEC-RAS
FreeVerified
The world's most used hydraulic model: free 1D/2D river analysis, sediment, water quality and flood mapping.
MIKE+
Commercial
DHI's unified platform for rivers, urban drainage and distribution networks — successor to MIKE 11/MIKE URBAN.
RAS Commander
Open Source
Python automation for HEC-RAS 6.x: batch runs, parallel execution and HDF results extraction.
RIVIA
Open Source
A modern Python interface for HEC-RAS project parsing, simulation automation, and result visualization.
SRH-2D
Free
The US Bureau of Reclamation's free 2D river model — FHWA's preferred engine for bridge hydraulics.
TUFLOW
Commercial
Benchmark-setting commercial 1D/2D flood engine with GPU acceleration — dominant in AU/UK flood studies.
WEAP
Freemium
Integrated water resources planning and policy analysis framework for basin-scale supply and demand modeling.
openTELEMAC
Open Source
EDF's open-source finite-element suite for free-surface flow — 2D/3D rivers, estuaries, waves and sediment.