Revisiting the motives for hydroinformatics

Abstract

Since Mike Abbott established hydroinformatics about 30 years ago, the field has been characterized by tremendous growth in both research and practice. With its natural dependence on developments in information and communication technologies, the expansion and diversity of hydroinformatics concepts and applications have hardly been surprising. Such developments have brought some issues of concern within the hydroinformatics community, mainly associated with apparent loss of some foundational principles. This chapter attempts to clarify the current situation by revisiting the main motivations for hydroinformatics, as originally proposed and later developed by Abbott. It also re-introduces and re-interprets the main aspects of the field, with the hope that such a re-interpretation will be useful for the future growth and development of the subject. Hydroinformatics originated as an engineering discipline, specifically linked to hydraulic engineering and to the development and use of numerical models from within the field of computational hydraulics. This initiated the central idea that modelling in hydroinformatics is motivated by applications in the real world. The union of fourth-generation modelling systems with artificial intelligence, was originally regarded as being the essence of hydroinformatics. The initial emphasis of the subject was on developing models of our natural aquatic environment and man-made water infrastructure that were more reliable, leading to improved support for decision making. As a consequence, improving model generation and application for decision support became central, and the field of hydroinformatics was established as a technology for enabling transparent knowledge creation, mobilization and sharing among different stakeholders participating in water- and environmental decision making. Aiming at transforming decision-making processes (and not only supporting existing ones), hydroinformatics identified the Internet as the key platform for introducing environments that would enable the conjunctive use of different 'knowledges' (scientific, as well as social/cultural/narrative knowledge). These last aspects are ongoing motivations for hydroinformatics to continue its development as a technology with the responsibilities of caring for the aquatic environment and improving human well-being.