Free Data and Software for Hydrology and Hydraulic

Introduction

In many water-related projects, hydrology and hydraulic analysis is enviable process that need to be properly conducted. In the hydrology analysis, the availability of data is the most concerning issue especially in developing and emerging countries. Basically, data used in the hydrological analysis are as follows:

ü  Rainfall data

ü  Landuse map

ü  Contour/ land surface slope

ü  Soil properties

ü  DEM

Those data are important in the process of setting up the hydrological model. In the hydraulic analysis, data are retrieved from the hydrological model (i.e. hydrographs). Besides that, some data are needed in constructing hydraulic model. Generally data below are required in the hydraulic modelling:
ü  River/ channel cross sections
ü  Detail hydraulic structures (e.g. weir, pump, bridge,      sluice, etc)
ü  Floodplain
ü  Water level and discharge

Sources of Data

As data is essential in hydrology and hydraulic analysis, the availability of its data is important. However, some data are treated as confidential and some of them are subject to commercialization. Fortunately, some organizations and authorities open their source of data. The following are source of data that we can download for free:

1.  USGS EarthExplorer

United States Geological Survey (USGS) provides certain data which is important in hydrology analysis e.g. Aerial Imagery, Digital Elevation, Digital Maps, Land Cover, Radar, etc. Here is the link: http://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/

In order to download the data, it is required to register and then specify the interested location and type of data. If the data is available, the download files will pop out and ready to be downloaded.

2. NASA

Through their project called Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM), NASA has provided daily rainfall data with the grid size of 0.5 x 0.5 degree. Find out the data in the link below:

http://mirador.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/mirador/presentNavigation.pl?tree=project&dataset=3A12%20(Version%20007):%20Monthly%200.5%20x%200.5%20degree%20mean%202A12,%20profile,%20and%20surface%20rainfall&project=TRMM&dataGroup=Gridded&version=007&CGISESSID=2a5b73a32d1c0730451c405e08138767

The other free available rainfall data is provided by NOAA

http://www7.ncdc.noaa.gov/CDO/dataproduct

Software

                 1.    GIS

         Pre and post-processing data is key aspects in measuring the quality of water-related projects. GIS is the only way how to deal with it.  The most powerful and used for GIS processing is ArcGIS. As this software is not free, there are several freeware can be used as alternative.

v        QGIS
QGIS is a powerful tool for GIS processing data. Most of essential tools for hydrological analysis are available in QGIS plugin.

v        GRASS GIS 
If you want to process your LiDAR or remote sensing data, this free software is the most recommended.

v        SAGA GIS
If you want to know the quality of Germany product in GIS tool then this software is the answer.

v        HydroDesktop
If you need to visualize and analyze hydrologic and climate data, this software is suit for it.

2.     Hydrological software

v        HEC-HMS
One of Product of US Army Corp of Engineers is very famous in hydrological modelling. It’s free and provides several hydrological methods which almost applicable in many places.

v        Other hydrology models
If you are interest trying different hydrological model that most of people not familiar with than you can access this link: https://csdms.colorado.edu/wiki/Hydrological_Models

3.          Hydraulic software

v         HEC-RAS
No one deny that this hydraulic software is awesome. The newest version is 5.0 which you can use to simulate 2D flood modelling. If there is free out there why still need to buy??? Ask why..

v         SWMM
SWMM is a 1D stormwater network modelling. It suits for modelling sewer or stormwater network underground.

After all, no matter what software that you are going to use, the most important things how you understand the physical meaning behind it. Thus, interpreting model result is also the important part. The other thing is garbage in garbage out. If you don’t have a good data in terms of quantity and quality, do not try to build the model otherwise it will be just a garbage. Last but not least, do not stop sharing your knowledge even it is just a tiny sand. You never know how it benefits others.

Add in comments if you know more about the available data and free software out there. Thanks!!