TUFLOW
Commercial
Benchmark-setting commercial 1D/2D flood engine with GPU acceleration — dominant in AU/UK flood studies.
Crayfish
StableQGIS plugin for exploring mesh model results — animate TUFLOW, Telemac and HEC-RAS 2D outputs in the GIS.
by Lutra Consulting
- Pricing
- Open Source
- License
- GPL-2.0
- Commercial use
- Permitted
- Ecosystem
- QGIS, MDAL
- Platform
- Windows, macOS, Linux
Install
QGIS → Plugins → Manage and Install Plugins → "Crayfish"About Crayfish
Crayfish, from Lutra Consulting, made QGIS a serious post-processor for flood models: it loads mesh results (TUFLOW, Telemac, ANUGA, HEC-RAS 2D, Basement and more via MDAL), animates depth and velocity, plots time series at points, and exports contours and rasters — the daily post-processing loop, licence-free.
Much of its engine work was upstreamed into QGIS core as the native mesh layer (Lutra also drove MDAL), so modern QGIS handles many formats directly; the plugin still adds the animation and plotting conveniences modellers actually use.
Where it fits in the workflow
TerrainCatchmentRainfallRunoffRoutingHydraulicsMappingReporting
Alternatives to Crayfish
Ranked by the topics, categories and workflow stages they share with Crayfish.
RIVIA
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A modern Python interface for HEC-RAS project parsing, simulation automation, and result visualization.
QGIS
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The free, open-source GIS that has become the default spatial platform for water engineers worldwide.
BASEMENT
Free
ETH Zurich's free 2D hydraulics and morphodynamics simulator — rivers, sediment and hazard mapping.
FastFlood
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Rapid flood modelling in the browser — steady-state inundation estimates in seconds, anywhere on earth.
Flood Modeller
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Jacobs' 1D/2D river and floodplain suite — a UK practice staple with a genuinely useful free tier.