Introduction / background to automated data preparation approaches

A deeper understanding of the hydrologic process is imperative to solve water related problems and to better plan and manage city water infrastructure. Advanced computer models are essential in helping us understand such relationships. However, preparing such models requires huge investments of time and resources, much of which are concentrated on acquisition and curation of data.

In this course, we will discuss the use of free and open source platforms for simplified access to hydrological data and its pre-processing. This approach helps us leverage the ongoing digital transformation we are experiencing in the field of water engineering. The example datasets include data that are crucial for hydrologic models such as climatic and geographic data.