WMS has evolved to the point that there are many tools and different ways to accomplish the same thing. For this reason it is a good idea to have an understanding of the "big picture" on how WMS can best be used to develop and run hydrologic models. While this section outlines the fundamental concepts that are needed to efficiently use WMS, the tutorials provide an excellent way to cement your understanding of how it operates.
The distinguishing difference between WMS and other applications designed for setting up hydrologic models like HEC-1 and TR-20 is its unique ability to take advantage of digital terrain data for hydrologic model development. WMS uses three primary data sources for model development: