Proceedings of the International Conference on Hydrology and Water Resources, New Delhi, India, December 1993, 1996 Surface-Water Hydrology Water Science and Technology Library Series, Vol. 16

Water is vital to life, maintenance of ecological balance, economic development, and sustenance of civilization. Planning and management of water resources and its optimal use are a matter of urgency for most countries of the world, and even more so for India with a huge population. Growing population and expanding economic activities exert increasing demands on water for varied needs--domestic, industrial, agricultural, power generation, navigation, recreation, etc. In India, agriculture is the highest user of water. The past three decades have witnessed numerous advances as well as have presented intriguing challenges and exciting opportunities in hydrology and water resources. Compounding them has been the growing environmental consciousness. Nowhere are these challenges more apparent than in India. As we approach the twenty­ first century, it is entirely fitting to take stock of what has been accomplished and what remains to be accomplished, and what accomplishments are relevant, with particular reference to Indian conditions.

Section 1: Investigation of Hydrologic Processes.- Profess Studies in Forest Hydrology: A Worldwide View.- Modelling Evapotranspiration of Dune Vegetation.- Paleohydrology of Quaternary River Systems of North Bihar Plains, India.- Modelling the Effects of Climate Change on the Hydrologic Response of a Mountain Watershed.- Operational Hydrology Aspects of Desertification.- Spatial Estimation Techniques for Precipitation Analysis — Application to a Region in India.- Section 2: Hydrological Measurements.- Design Criteria for the Improvement of Hydrometeorological Data Acquisition Systems: Automation of Sicily Networks.- A New Automatic Rainfall Sensor.- An Automatic Electronic Infiltrometer.- Section 3: Dynamics of Overland Flow.- Modeling Surface Runoff with Kinematic, Diffusion, and Dynamic Waves.- Computational Aspects in Kinematic Modelling.- Effect of Vedernikov Number on Overland Flow Dynamics.- Section 4: Modeling Basin Response.- Complexity, Uncertainty, and Systematic Error in Hydrologic Models.- The Most Probable Hydrologic Response of Fractal River Networks.- Bayesian Unit Hydrographs.- Predicting Runoff Using Artificial Neural Networks.- Use of Digital Elevation Model in Runoff Modeling.- Section 5: Flood Routing.- Physically Based Linear Flood Routing Modeling.- Reliability of the Muskingum Method for the Prediction of Flood Wave Propagation.- Stratified Muskingum Routing in Natural Channels.- Transfer Function Models for Hydrologic Flood Routing.- Effect of Cross-Sectional Shape on Free-Surface Instability.- Flow Resistance Estimation for Large-Scale Roughness.- Warning of Application of the Chezy-Manning Formula Regardless of Channel Shape.- Section 6: Stochastic Modeling of Stream Flow.- Streamflow Analysis and Synthesis by Pattern RecognitionTechniques.- Moment Evolution of the Outflow Rate from Nonlinear Conceptual Reservoirs.- Comparative Study of Stochastic Models for Seasonal Streamflow Generation.- Adaptivity in Stochastic Modelling and Forecasting.- Short Term Daily Row Prediction for Tropical Watershed.- Role of the Rainfall Input in the Real Time Flood Forecasting.- Changes in Flow Characteristics of the River Murray in the Last 100 Years.- Section 7: Flood Frequency Analysis.- On the Statistical Frequency Analysis of Hydrological Extremes.- Estimation of Extreme Floods with Particular Reference to Southern Africa.- Functional Relationships and Asymptotic Properties of Distributions of Interest in Hydrologic Frequency Analysis.- Frequency Analysis of Upper Cauvery Flood Data by L-Moments.- Flood Prediction by Use of Partial Duration Series.- Comparison of Five Distributions for Suitability in Flood Frequency Analysis in Bangladesh.- Investigation of Potential Flash Floods for Ungaged Region Using the Kriging Method.- Section 8: Drought Analysis.- A Stochastic Characterization of Palmer Drought Severity Index.