QGISRed is a freeware QGIS plugin developed to assist in building and analyzing hydraulic models of water distribution networks of any complexity, up to the level of detail required by Digital Twins. The plugin works seamlessly with QGIS which enables the user to georeference all network elements, use geographic background layers, edit graphical and alphanumeric data, use geoprocessing tools, visualize data by layers, customize the symbology, etc.

QGISRed relies on an easy-to-use relational database of SHP and DBF files based on the EPANET data model, which has been extended to add new capabilities. Starting from the EPANET data model significantly reduces the learning curve.

In fact, the previous skills required on QGIS are minimum because QGISRed provides numerous tools to help building hydraulic models, to manage demand scenarios and to analyze the results without the need to use the QGIS environment, such as:

Nevertheless, in case the user decides to use the QGIS tools to edit the data, QGISRed provides powerful facilities to detect potential editing errors before simulating the model, or to fill in the missing information.

The development of the new QGISRed plugin is an initiative of the REDHISP Research Group of the Institute of Water and Environmental Engineering (IIAMA) of the Polytechnic University of Valencia, UPV (Spain), led by Professor Fernando Martínez Alzamora. Its implementation is carried out by the WaterPi company under the direction of Néstor Lerma, PhD Eng.

The QGISRed extension for QGIS is an update of the old GISRed application developed by our group for the ArcView 3.1 environment (see launching paper). Currently the name GISRed has been kept concerning to the libraries developed in .net, which are used by QGISRed to improve the processing time and constitutes the core of the GISRed standalone application.

For more information the user can check the official website of QGISRed or the section of QGISRed in the official QGIS plugin repository. Also User’s Manual in English and in Spanish are available.

Requeriments .Net Framework 4.5 - Windows OS.