TUFLOW 2025.0.0 Release

We are excited to announce the release of the 2025 TUFLOW product suite. This marks the inaugural coordinated release of our complete product suite and includes TUFLOW Classic/HPC, TUFLOW FV and our newest product TUFLOW CATCH.  TUFLOW CATCH extends TUFLOW Classic/HPC to include pollutant export simulation. It also links TUFLOW Classic/HPC directly with TUFLOW FV to support seamless whole-of-catchment hydraulic and water quality analysis.

The new release executable downloads are available from the TUFLOW website.

Key updates and features are described below, with further details provided within each product’s documentation, noted following.

Versioning

All TUFLOW products now operate under a common versioning system. This system uses a year.minor.patch convention. In the new system:

• The year corresponds to the major version number e.g. 2025.0.0. Major releases are the only releases that will admit the possibility of material changes to results (for example, due to default parameter value changes). There will be one major release per year
• Minor releases contain new features and bug fixes, and will increment the minor version number, e.g. 2025.1.0
• Patch releases are bug fixes only and increment the patch version number, e.g. 2025.0.1

The Major release will be consistently incremented across all products however Minor and Patch numbering may vary across the TUFLOW suite within a Major release cycle. This revised versioning approach better supports a range of planned features and upgrades, including release of Linux versions of all our products.

This release is 2025.0.0.

Release Schedule

To align with the new versioning system and to more effectively deliver functionality to our users, TUFLOW has moved to a scheduled release. More details will follow shortly.

Documentation

Further to the above versioning and release schedule enhancements we have implemented a major change to the way TUFLOW is documented. Previously, user manuals were released periodically (on roughly a 5-year cycle), and all intermediate software updates were documented in release notes. This presented a sometimes opaque means for users to access and exploit new functionality. 

In response to user feedback, we have enhanced our documentation approach so that we now publish a new user manual with each software release, to Year.Minor version number. The new user manual includes complete documentation for the relevant version of the software, including new features and changes to existing functionality. It will rarely include description of bug fixes. Rather, the new manual is now accompanied by a succinct changelog to highlight the feature changes and describe bug fixes between each release version.  This changelog will also clearly state whether the current release includes changes to results or backwards compatibility issues.

To facilitate the more frequent manual update schedule we have committed to an online hosting format. This documentation change has already been completed for TUFLOW Classic / HPC, TUFLOW CATCH and the TUFLOW Water Quality Module. For users who prefer working in a pdf format, a pdf version can be exported via the “export to pdf” button in the top menu options in the online document. By its nature, the pdf version cannot accommodate the interactive content of each manual’s webpage, but does include all written content.

The format migration is in progress for TUFLOW FV, and is scheduled for completion during 2025. Until the migration is complete, TUFLOW FV temporarily remains on the prior manual/release notes format. Links to the respective product manual and changelog /release note documents are provided below. This being the first release of TUFLOW CATCH, it does not have a changelog.   

• TUFLOW Classic / HPC manual
• TUFLOW Classic/HPC changelog
• TUFLOW CATCH manual
• TUFLOW FV manual
• TUFLOW FV release notes

Licensing

Recognising that TUFLOW CATCH users often (but not always) require the complete TUFLOW suite for linked TUFLOW HPC / FV models, we have introduced an enhanced module licensing arrangement. Specifically, GPU and AD module licences can now be accessed by either TUFLOW Classic/HPC or TUFLOW FV, and are no longer tied to a specific member of the TUFLOW product suite. This avoids the need for users to purchase duplicate copies of what are otherwise the same functionality to complete a TUFLOW CATCH project.  

TUFLOW CATCH

TUFLOW CATCH is TUFLOW’s newest product. It coordinates and links the simulation of TUFLOW Classic/HPC (catchment processes) and TUFLOW FV (receiving waterway processes) to support seamless whole-of-catchment environmental simulation. Specifically, it:

• Extends TUFLOW Classic/HPC to include multiple methods for the simulation of grid based (cell by cell) pollutant generation and subsequent transport (including settling) in both surface and subsurface domains. This pollutant generation and transport does not resort to lumped top-down assumptions or methods
• Automatically links TUFLOW Classic/HPC with TUFLOW FV in space and time to transfer flow and pollutant predictions from catchment to receiving water at high spatial and temporal resolution
• Supports application under version control so that a team of modellers can individually work on different aspects of a TUFLOW CATCH model (e.g. TUFLOW Classic/HPC modellers work on catchment simulation and TUFLOW FV modellers work on receiving waterway simulation) and easily and periodically merge workflows when required
• Can have its catchment and receiving results viewed simultaneously in QGIS using a bespoke plugin developed by TUFLOW

Full details are provided within the online TUFLOW CATCH manual.  TUFLOW CATCH won Queensland state and Australian national stormwater research and innovation awards in 2024. Its first published peer reviewed report is available here.

TUFLOW Classic/HPC

The primary Major 2025.0.0 feature of TUFLOW Classic/HPC is its integration with TUFLOW CATCH.  This is a step change in functionality offered by TUFLOW and now allows hydraulic modellers to move into pollutant simulation and broader whole-of catchment studies. 

Other features include:

• Tracer advection is now supported in ESTRY. All ESTRY channel types and 1D/2D linking methods are supported. Dispersion of tracers is not yet supported. Similar 1D tracer advection simulation is not yet offered within TUFLOW CATCH models, but is imminent
• Quadtree HQ boundary processing improvement
• GPKG database write optimisation
• Support for additional EPA SWMM time series datasets within TUFLOW SWMM

The full list of changes is detailed in the changelog.

TUFLOW FV

The major 2025.0.0 feature of TUFLOW FV is the addition of Event, Scenario and Variable simulation management features. These parallel those features of the same name already available within other TUFLOW products. Specifically:

• Events. These allow running multiple event combinations (e.g. magnitude, duration, temporal patterns, climate change) using a single set of control files rather than creating a new set of control files for every simulation
• Scenarios. These provide the framework to allow the simulation of different model configurational options (e.g. proposed bathymetric changes) from a single top level control file, rather than needing to create separate control files for each scenario
• Variables. These are used to assign a user-specified value (that typically appears in multiple locations in a set a control files) to a string variable

The 2025.0.0 release of TUFLOW FV also allows for decoupling of the specification of boundary condition block header information so that, for example, hydrodynamic, tracer, sediment and water quality boundary header information can be specified separately. This removes the ordering dependence of one on another.

A range of minor bug fixes have also been made, as detailed in the release notes.

We hope you enjoy the 2025.0.0 TUFLOW suite. If you have any questions, please email support@tuflow.com

The TUFLOW Team