Towards the hydraulics of the hydroinformatics era

Hydroinformatics is the study of the flows of knowledge and data related to the flow of water and all that it transports, together with interactions with both natural and man-made, or artificial, environments (Abbott, 1991). Hydraulics, understood as the study of flows of water, more recently extended to include the transport of matter in all its forms with these flows, is accordingly central to hydroinformatics. Without hydraulics, no hydroinformatics! From this situation it may at first appear as though hydroinformatics provides only a new periphery to hydraulics: a new way of transmitting hydraulics knowledge and data to society. In practice, however, the way in which hydraulics is viewed and practised is itself now changing as a result of its incorporation into the new paradigm that hydroinformatics provides. The first purpose of the present paper is to introduce some of the changes that are currently proceeding in hydraulics under the influence of developments occurring in hydroinformatics. The second purpose is to indicate the consequences of these changes for the application of hydraulics within society, and thus for the future direction of hydraulics and hydroinformatics themselves.