CEE7430 Homework 1:  What is Stochastic Hydrology

1. Review the syllabus and reading list for this class and write a few sentences on each of the topics listed in the syllabus telling me:
   1. Name recognition.  Do you know what it is?
   2. Is this topic of interest or importance to you? 
   3. Are you familiar with any of the reading material?  Do you know of other reading material on the topic that we should refer to?
   4. Have you already learned about this in another class?
   Please also let me know any topics that you think should be part of this class, but have not been listed.  We will probably (almost certainly) not be able to cover each topic so I will use your responses to guide decisions on the depth and topics to cover.
      
2. Please let me know your level of expertise or familiarity with the following computational systems:
   1. Splus
   2. R
   3. MATLAB
   4. Mathematica
   5. Maple
   6. Fortran
   7. C/C++
   8. Visual Basic
   Your responses will be used to decide how much explicit help with computational details I need to give to get things started and which computational system to primarily use in this class. 
      
3. Read the following three items.

• Pegram, G. G. S., (1989), "Why stochastic hydrology," The Civil Engineer in South Africa, 31(10): 345-356. [PDF]
• Chapter 2 in Loucks, D. P., E. van Beek, J. R. Stedinger, J. P. M. Dijkman and M. T. Villars, (2005), Water Resources Systems Planning and Management: An Introduction to Methods, Models and Applications, UNESCO, Paris, 676 p, http://hdl.handle.net/1813/2804
• Bras, R. L. and I. Rodriguez-Iturbe, (1985), Random Functions and Hydrology, Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA, 559 p.  Chapter 1, pages 1-13.
  
  Write an abstract summary of these three pieces.  Your total writing should not exceed three pages.  In an abstract summary you should first state briefly the facts, i.e. the key points that each piece makes.  Then you need to provide your interpretation.  In these abstract summaries I am looking for thoughtful insight and interpretation, not simply restatement or repetition of what is in the paper. With these specific papers I am looking for you to summarize the philosophy and modeling methodology that serves as a basis for stochastic hydrology as given or discussed in these pieces.  You should also comment on any commonalities or disagreements.  At this stage do not concern yourselves too much with mathematical detail that you do not grasp.  There will be plenty of mathematical detail later in the course.  Focus on the conceptual and philosophical basis given by these writings.