Overview of TUFLOW 2025
TUFLOW is a sophisticated 1D/2D hydrodynamic modeling software suite developed by BMT (now part of Jacobs), widely used for flood risk assessment, coastal engineering, stormwater management, and environmental impact studies. The TUFLOW 2025 release (version 2025.0.0 and subsequent updates) represents a major coordinated update across the entire product line, including TUFLOW Classic/HPC, TUFLOW FV (flexible unstructured mesh solver), and the brand-new TUFLOW CATCH module. This release, announced in early 2025, introduces a unified versioning system (year.minor.patch) and focuses on enhanced simulation capabilities, better integration, and user workflows.
The suite is designed for simulating complex water flows, sediment transport, water quality, and now pollutant exports, making it a go-to tool for engineers, consultants, and researchers tackling climate-adaptive infrastructure and flood resilience.
Key New Features and Enhancements
The 2025 release emphasizes backward compatibility where possible, but some updates (e.g., new default parameters or infiltration methods) may alter results in existing models—test runs are recommended for upgrades. Here’s a breakdown of highlights:
Core Updates Across the Suite
- Unified Versioning and Release Schedule: All products now follow a year-based major version (e.g., 2025.0.0), with minor releases adding features/bug fixes (e.g., 2025.1.0) and patches for stability (e.g., 2025.0.1). This ensures consistent updates and easier tracking.
- Simulation Management: New tools for handling events, scenarios, and variables, allowing more flexible “what-if” modeling without rebuilding entire setups.
- Improved Groundwater and Infiltration Modeling (in 2025.1.0 and later):
- Relative saturation for groundwater flux calculations.
- Soil moisture-dependent horizontal conductivity.
- New HPC infiltration approach for more accurate subsurface flow.
- Mathematical Operations in Control Files: Support for expressions (via ExprTK library) to enable procedural variables and dynamic calculations directly in .tcf files.
- 1D-2D Integration Enhancements (in 2025.2.0): Link 1D channels (e.g., ESTRY or SWMM) to 2D groundwater layers via SX connections, ideal for modeling green infrastructure like detention basins with subsurface drainage.
