Abstract
Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) is rapidly growing in recent times and has changed the way in which licensing costs, sharing and distributions of software programs are managed globally. To a large extent, FOSS offers the cheapest and most effective solutions for technology transfer in software programs towards researchers and students worldwide. FOSS offers software free of charge online, including source code and all the information needed to allow easy adaptability to specific user needs. The research examines the benefits of transforming proprietary, public domain and free modelling codes and software for better river management and development. In order to achieve this goal, a conceptual framework called Hydrological Software Forum (HSF) is developed. The role of the HSF to ensure effective sharing and knowledge transfer among students and researchers has also been identified. It is hope that the adoption of HSF can help bring a new revolution to the development and use of modelling codes and software for river applications.
Highlights
Rivers and streams are the engine of growth and survival for ecosystems, different industries and our everyday life
There are few hydrological applications available at sourceforge.net; other hydrological models and software have been dubbed as Public Domain and free codes
To accrue the benefits of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) for river applications, the research proposes a Hydrological Software Forum (HSF) structure that can be used as a guide to adopting FOSS for hydrology
Summary
Rivers and streams are the engine of growth and survival for ecosystems, different industries and our everyday life. Computer models are generally repackaged as software to provide a user-friendly environment for river based moved from solely proprietary codes/software to a mix of proprietaries, or/and Free and Open Source Software (FOSS). The adoption of FOSS for river based modelling and related applications promotes cross-boundary learning, collaboration and sharing of experiences among students and researchers and gives developers the chance to getting more community support as compared to proprietary hydrological software. It must be mentioned that this list is only to emphasise the presence of public domain and free river applications but is not based on any preference or ranking; or is the intention to iterate all the free and public domain river applications in this paper This means that these models and software follow the similar principles of FOSS, allowing users to modify and redistribute code. Does the benefit of moving to FOSS truly give the needed motivation and reward for developers?
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