The HEC-WAT software application is based on a framework designed to support a flexible integration of multiple software applications. The HEC-WAT framework supports three major functions:

Plugin Architecture

The plugin API allows for the flexible integration of individual pieces of software within HEC-WAT without requiring special code to support the individual software.

Watershed Systems Approach

The HEC-WAT software allows the US. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) to meet its flood risk management mission through a holistic and comprehensive systems-based approach facilitated by the following three capabilities.

Model Linking Editor

The Model Linking Editor allows users to define how model outputs map to model inputs in subsequent models - these linkages show HEC-WAT how to run the models sequentially as an integrated system of models.

Managing Computational Sequence

The HEC-WAT overarching framework allows automated computation of complex models in sequence. It is designed to support to support water resources studies in an integrated systems-based approach. These compute sequences can be reproduced with varied boundary conditions through the Flood Risk Analysis (FRA) compute option.

Reporting Output

The HEC-WAT framework displays results from multiple models run in concert through behaviors provided by the plugins.

Flood Risk Analysis

The FRA compute option supports the evaluation of risk based metrics for a watershed while treating the watershed as a system. The FRA compute option provides the user a nested Monte Carlo simulation to perform risk assessments that keeps natural variabilities separated from knowledge uncertainties. The HEC-WAT software also allows a user to perform plan comparisons or system performance analyses while incorporating risk analysis methods.