HEC-RAS
FreeVerified
The world's most used hydraulic model: free 1D/2D river analysis, sediment, water quality and flood mapping.
SRH-2D
ActiveThe US Bureau of Reclamation's free 2D river model — FHWA's preferred engine for bridge hydraulics.
by US Bureau of Reclamation
- Pricing
- Free
- License
- US Government (public domain)
- Commercial use
- Permitted
- Ecosystem
- SMS (Aquaveo)
- Platform
- Windows
About SRH-2D
SRH-2D (Sedimentation and River Hydraulics — 2D), developed by Yong Lai at the US Bureau of Reclamation, solves depth-averaged flow on flexible meshes with strong wetting-drying behaviour and sediment/mobile-bed capability. FHWA adopted it as the preferred 2D engine for bridge and culvert hydraulic design, which made it a fixture in US transportation projects.
The engine is free; in practice most users run it through Aquaveo's commercial SMS interface for mesh building and visualisation, which is the main cost consideration when comparing it against HEC-RAS 2D.
Where it fits in the workflow
TerrainCatchmentRainfallRunoffRoutingHydraulicsMappingReporting
Appears in collections
- Alternatives to HEC-RAS
Free and commercial hydraulic engines worth knowing when HEC-RAS is not the answer.
Alternatives to SRH-2D
Ranked by the topics, categories and workflow stages they share with SRH-2D.
BASEMENT
Free
ETH Zurich's free 2D hydraulics and morphodynamics simulator — rivers, sediment and hazard mapping.
Delft3D FM
Open Source
Deltares' open flexible-mesh suite for rivers, estuaries and coasts — hydrodynamics to morphology.
openTELEMAC
Open Source
EDF's open-source finite-element suite for free-surface flow — 2D/3D rivers, estuaries, waves and sediment.
Flood Modeller
Freemium
Jacobs' 1D/2D river and floodplain suite — a UK practice staple with a genuinely useful free tier.
Iber
Free
Free Spanish 2D hydraulic model — flow, turbulence, sediment and habitat modules behind a full GUI.