R. S. GOVINDARAJU and ARAMACHANDRA RAO School of Civil Engineering Purdue University West Lafayette, IN., USA Background and Motivation The basic notion of artificial neural networks (ANNs), as we understand them today, was perhaps first formalized by McCulloch and Pitts (1943) in their model of an artificial neuron. Research in this field remained somewhat dormant in the early years, perhaps because of the limited capabilities of this method and because there was no clear indication of its potential uses. However, interest in this area picked up momentum in a dramatic fashion with the works...

Formative Assessment and Science Education documents the findings of a research project which investigated the ways in which teachers and students used formative assessment to improve the teaching and learning of science in some New Zealand classrooms. The research documented in this book used the definition of formative assessment as the process used by teachers and students to recognise and respond to students' learning, in order to enhance that learning, during the learning'.
The book contains one detailed case study from the research, as well as cameos of instances of...

This book is an introduction to the statistical analysis of word frequency distributions, intended for linguists, psycholinguistics, and researchers work ing in the field of quantitative stylistics and anyone interested in quantitative aspects of lexical structure. Word frequency distributions are characterized by very large numbers of rare words. This property leads to strange statisti cal phenomena such as mean frequencies that systematically keep changing as the number of observations is increased, relative frequencies that even in large samples are not fully reliable estimators...

Storage reservoirs represent one of the most effective tools for eliminating, or at least for minimizing, discrepancies in the time and space variations of water resources distribution and requirements. In fact, the different - often contradictory - and increasing demands on water resources utilization and control usually can be fulfilled only by building multi-purpose reservoir systems. In this way, the available water resources can be exploited and/or managed in a more rational way. Typically, the construction of a dam across a river valley causes water to accumulate in a reservoir behind...

Africa, the cradle of many old civilizations, is the second largest world continent, and the homeland of nearly one-eighth of the world population. Despite Africa's richness in natural resources, the average income per person, after excluding a few countries, is the lowest all over the world, and the percentage of inhabitants infected with contagious diseases is the highest. Development of Africa to help accommodate the ever-increasing population and secure a reasonable living standard to all inhabitants, though an enormous challenge is extremely necessary. Water is the artery of life,...

The Soil Conservation Service (SCS) curve number (CN) method is one of the most popular methods for computing the runoff volume from a rainstorm. It is popular because it is simple, easy to understand and apply, and stable, and accounts for most of the runoff producing watershed characteristics, such as soil type, land use, hydrologic condition, and antecedent moisture condition. The SCS-CN method was originally developed for its use on small agricultural watersheds and has since been extended and applied to rural, forest and urban watersheds. Since the inception of the method, it has been...

Chittaranjan Ray, Ph. D., P. E. University of Hawaii at Manoa Honolulu, Hawaii, United States Jurgen Schubert, M. Sc. Stadtwerke Dusseldorf AG Dusseldorf, Germany Ronald B. Linsky National Water Research Institute Fountain Valley, California, United States Gina Melin National Water Research Institute Fountain Valley, California, United States 1. What is Riverbank Filtration? The purpose ofthis book is to show that riverbank filtration (RBF) isa low-cost and efficient alternative water treatment for drinking-water applications. There are two immediate benefits to the increased use of RBF:...

The increasing risk of severe droughts and water shortages emphasizes the need for an integrated approach to drought mitigation. However, effective tools for the implementation of such an approach have not been available till now. This book contributes to an improved preparedness for drought in water supply systems, providing tools useful for a better decision making process in drought management. It presents methods and software features of a Decision Support System (DSS) developed within a European research project and consists of three main parts. The first part deals with the advanced...

Conventionally, time series have been studied either in the time domain or the frequency domain. The representation of a signal in the time domain is localized in time, i.e . the value of the signal at each instant in time is well defined . However, the time representation of a signal is poorly localized in frequency, i.e. little information about the frequency content of the signal at a certain frequency can be known by looking at the signal in the time domain . On the other hand, the representation of a signal in the frequency domain is well localized in frequency, but is poorly localized...

We, the editors, have long believed that a strong knowledge of relatively simple economic and engineering concepts is valuable in solving water management problems. The lack of such knowledge has been apparent to us in some of the journal articles, research proposals and books we have reviewed. The articles which have been written concerning specific local water economies and management issues are scattered over a wide variety of journals, making them hard to access. Most of the extensive water resources literature is concerned with large regional water projects or with narrow technical and...