Hydraulic, hydrologic and water resources engineers have been concerned
for a long time about failure phenomena. One of the major concerns is
the definition of a failure event E, of its probability of occurrence
PtE), and of the complementary notion of reliability. However, as the
stochastic aspects of hydraulics and water resources engineering were
developed, words such as "failure," "reliability," and "risk" took on
different meanings for different specialists. For example, "risk" is
defined in a Bayesian framework as the expected loss resulting from a
precisely defined failure event, while according to the practice of
stochastic hydraulics it is the probability of occurrence of a failure
event. The need to standardize the various concepts and operational
definitions generated numerous exciting discussions between the
co-editors of this book during 1983-84 when L. Duckstein, under
sponsorship of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (FRG), was working
with E. Plate at the Institute of Hydrology and Water Resources of the
University of Karlsruhe. After consulting with the Scientific Affairs
Division of NATO, an organizing committee was formed. This comittee --
J. Bernier (France), M. Benedini (Italy), S. Sorooshian (U. S. A. ), and
co-directors L. Duckstein (U. S. A. ) and E. J. Plate (F. R. G. ) --
brought into being this NATO Advanced Study Institute (ASI). Precisely
stated, the purpose of this ASI was to present a tutorial overview of
existing work in the broad area of reliability while also pointing out
topics for further development.
