Publicly accessible software for groundwater modelling and analysis

Practitioners of hydrogeology and groundwater engineering have access to a range of topical software that may be freely used, modified and redistributed. Many of these software may be obtained at no cost using the Internet. Implementing publicly accessible software achieves software reuse and rapid prototyping, may reduce the cost of software acquisition and development, and provides authors with increased flexibility in the distribution of their products. Software that are useful within groundwater studies include operating systems, editors, language compilers, models and components such as mathematical subroutines and routines for discretization and plotting and visualization. Public distribution of software may achieve personal and corporate objectives and should be undertaken with due regard for issues such as the potential impact on subsequent commercial deployment of the software. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.