Aquaveo 2025 Year in Review: Advancing Water Modeling and User Success

2025 was an amazing year for Aquaveo. From major software releases to global collaboration and rewarding consulting work, Aquaveo continued to strengthen its role in water modeling and geospatial solutions. Here’s a look back at the year’s biggest achievements.

Major Software Releases

Aquaveo kicked off 2025 with the release of SMS 13.4 in January, delivering meaningful improvements to meshing workflows, model support, and visualization. A major highlight was the expansion of 2D mesh and unstructured grid tools, including new options to refine, relax, merge, and repair meshes, giving users greater control over mesh quality and model stability. SMS 13.4 also added new and expanded support for hydraulic and coastal models, with updates to CMS-Flow, SRH-2D, and SCHISM, including additional structure types, improved boundary condition handling, and enhanced plotting and diagnostics. Rounding out the release were usability and visualization enhancements, such as persistent graphics window settings, linear raster contours, and new view controls, making it easier for users to analyze results and produce consistent, publication-quality outputs.

In August, Aquaveo launched AHGW Pro for ArcGIS Pro 3.4–3.5, providing a modernized groundwater analysis workflow for ArcGIS Pro users. This update improved compatibility, performance, and long-term support for GIS-based hydrogeologic modeling.

August also brought updates to CityWater, Aquaveo’s cloud-based water distribution network analysis tool, adding stability improvements and expanded functionality. 

To close out the year, Aquaveo released GMS 10.9 in December, delivering one of the most significant updates in the product’s history. Most notably, MODFLOW 6 is no longer in beta in GMS, providing users with production-ready workflows, improved stability, and a more streamlined interface for building advanced groundwater models. GMS 10.9 also introduced support for MODFLOW 6 Groundwater Energy (GWE) models, enabling simulation of subsurface heat transport for applications such as geothermal systems, thermal energy storage, and climate-resilient groundwater studies. In addition, the release added PFAS transport support for MODFLOW-USG, allowing modelers to evaluate emerging contaminant transport in complex, unstructured grids—an increasingly important capability for environmental assessment and regulatory compliance.

Community Collaboration and Open-Source Support

In July, Aquaveo partnered with the Tethys Geoscience Foundation to help organize and run the Tethys Summit. This event brought together researchers, engineers, students, environmental professionals, and open-source software contributors. The summit advanced global collaboration in open-source geoscience modeling, reinforcing Aquaveo’s commitment to accessible scientific tools.

Consulting, Support, and Training

Aquaveo’s Consulting team completed a wide range of modeling and environmental projects in 2025, supporting clients including Commercial Dive British Virgin Islands, the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, and the City of Bluffdale, Utah. The team also provided hourly modeling support for dozens of users worldwide.

Training remained a core part of Aquaveo’s mission. This year, the team taught over 20 professional courses covering SMS, GMS, WMS, and AHGW, helping users strengthen their modeling expertise.

The Year Ahead

At Aquaveo, we are excited for 2026! We are planning to make the coming year amazing with new product features, tackling challenging modeling projects, and charging forward with our mission to provide solutions for modeling and visualizing groundwater and surface-water hydrology and hydraulics. Keep following Aquaveo to see what’s to come!