Notably, in recent years, there has been a push to develop open-source tools for design and simulation of various systems in fields such as water and wastewater, Their open-source nature allows these tools to be freely used and continuously developed by the general community, and some of these tools have integrated (or are built with extendable capacities for) advanced statistical analyses, sustainability characterization, and multi-objective optimization (e.g., ). These features are especially beneficial for early-stage technologies which have not been included in commercial simulators and with higher levels of uncertainties due to the lack of data. However, despite their advantages, these open-source tools can be difficult to adopt (e.g., due to the lack of graphic user interfaces) and challenging to maintain without a central supporting organization. Therefore, laying the groundwork for community-led platforms is vital to the long-term success of these tools, which could be realized via collaborative platforms (e.g., GitHub, 239 GitLab 240 ) and preparation of easy-to-access documentation.