As a research software platform, iEnvironment has been proposed to support open and big data sharing and reuse for researchers working on surface water issues. Research software refers to software development tools that accelerate discovery and simplify access to digital infrastructures. Although research software platforms are becoming increasingly more innovative and powerful, this increasing complexity hides a greater risk of failure as unplanned and untested program scenarios arise. As systems age and are maintained by different programmers the risk of a change impacting the overall system increases. In contrast, systems that are built with less emphasis on program code and more emphasis on the metadata that describes the application can be more readily changed and maintained by individuals who are less technically skilled but are often more familiar with the application domain. Such systems can also be tested using automatically generated testing regimes.