Software tools for sustainable water resources management: the GIS-integrated FREEWAT platform

This paper aims at presenting the open source and public domain FREEWAT platform capabilities for water resource management, including: (i) pre-processing modules to facilitate the preparation of input data, (ii) modelling tools for the analysis of several processes aimed at supporting water resource management, and (iii) post-processing tools to present results.
The FREEWAT platform is based on open source solutions to perform an integrated coupling between the QGIS desktop software, surface and subsurface model engines, mostly based on fully distributed and numerically-based codes developed by the USGS, and other software applications, and the SpatiaLite spatial database. The development of the FREEWAT platform was supported by the main needs and priorities expressed by relevant stakeholders from the water sector involved in the early stage of the project.