TELEMAC-MASCARET — The Complete Guide: Free River, Lake and Coastal Modelling on Unstructured Meshes
TELEMAC-MASCARET is an open-source hydrodynamic modelling system, originally developed at EDF and maintained today by a consortium of European organisations. It is based on finite elements and finite volumes on an unstructured mesh — so you can refine the mesh exactly where it matters, around a bridge, a pier or a marina.
TELEMAC-MASCARET
EDF / Consortium
Hydrodynamic system for rivers and coasts on unstructured meshes — flow, waves, sediment and quality.
Get it from the vendorWhat you get
- TELEMAC-2D and 3D — depth-averaged or three-dimensional flow, including flooding.
- MASCARET — a one-dimensional model for rivers and channels.
- Waves — TOMAWAC for spectral waves and ARTEMIS for wave penetration into harbours.
- Sediment and morphology — the GAIA module for bed evolution.
- Water quality — temperature, salinity and pollutants.
What to know
Work is based on steering files and Python scripts, and the mesh is built in an external tool — for example BlueKenue or SALOME. Results open in ParaView or QGIS. It is a system for people willing to work without a complete graphical interface.
Related tools
For routine river analysis with a friendly interface — HEC-RAS. For coasts and ports — Delft3D. For two-dimensional flow around bridges — SRH-2D.
HEC-RAS
US Army Corps of Engineers
1D/2D hydraulic model for rivers, bridges and culverts, with floodplain mapping. The world standard.
Get it from the vendor
Delft3D
Deltares
Coastal and marine engineering — currents, waves, sediment transport and shoreline morphology.
Get it from the vendorSRH-2D — 2D Flow and Sediment Transport Model
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation
Two-dimensional hydraulic model for streams and rivers, including sediment transport and bed morphology.
Get it from the vendorSWAN
Delft University of Technology
Nearshore wave model for shallow water — essential input for jetty and breakwater design.
Get it from the vendorThe bottom line
TELEMAC-MASCARET is a broad, professional system, free for commercial work too, suited to projects with complex geometry where local accuracy matters.