On the occasion of the Inaugural Address of Professor Dimitri Solomatine and the Valedictory address of Professor Roland Price, UNESCO-IHE organised a 1-day Symposium “Hydroinformatics in Transition”. It took place in Delft on Friday 16th May 2008 at UNESCO-IHE.
Hydroinformatics became a recognised field of technology, research and education during the last 10 years. Major technological institutions have taken this technology on board. Hydroinformatics systems are coming to the offices of consultants and water managers, and increasing number of Master courses appeared in various countries.
The term “Hydroinformatics” was introduced by Professor Michael Abbott of UNESCO-IHE in his seminal 1991 publication. With its origins in computational hydraulics, hydroinformatics was established as a technology born out of the beneficial integration of numerical modelling and communication and information technology devices and computer sciences to solve water-related problems. It has both a technological and a social dimension, ranging from the analysis of data from the real world to building and operating safe and reliable computational models, and to the development and implementation of decision support systems.
Hydroinformatics is clearly now in transition from its experimental and pioneering phase to being a widely accepted and recognised technology and an important area of research.
There is also a transition at the place where the foundation for Hydroinformatics was laid: UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education in Delft. Professor Roland Price who was leading the core of Hydroinformatics for more than 10 years retires and Professor Dimitri Solomatine takes over his position.