FREEWAT: FREE and open source tools for WATer resource management

Presenter : Massimiliano Cannata

Type: Poster

FREEWAT is an HORIZON 2020 project financed by the EU Commission under the call WATER INNOVATION: BOOSTING ITS VALUE FOR EUROPE. FREEWAT main result will be an open source and public domain QGIS integrated modelling environment for the simulation of water quantity and quality in surface water and groundwater with an integrated water management and planning module.

Specific objectives of the FREEWAT project are:

  • to coordinate previous EU and national funded research to integrate existing software modules for water management in a single environment into the GIS based FREEWAT;
  • to support the FREEWAT application in an innovative participatory approach gathering technical staff and relevant stakeholders (in primis policy and decision makers) in designing scenarios for the proper application of water policies.

The core of the FREEWAT platform is the SID&GRID framework (GIS integrated physically-based distributed numerical hydrological model based on a modified version of MODFLOW 2005; Rossetto et al. 2013) in its version ported to the QGIS desktop. Other integrated capabilities in FREEWAT are:

  • a dedicated module for water management and planning;
  • a whole module for calibration, uncertainty and sensitivity analysis;
  • a module for solute transport in the unsaturated zone;
  • a module for crop growth and yield and water requirements in agriculture;
  • tools for dealing with groundwater quality issues;
  • tools for the analysis, interpretation and visualization of hydrogeological data.

The project and its outcomes will be presented and discussed.