Chapter 1. Introduction

A tremendous amount of work has been accomplished during the past three decades in developing computer models for use in water resources planning and management. Powerful generalized software packages are playing an increasingly important role in all aspects of water management. With recent advances in computer technology, essentially everyone working in the water resources and environmental field now has convenient access to desktop computers that provide all the hardware capabilities needed to execute a mighty arsenal of available models. Computer modeling is no longer limited solely to organizations that can afford expensive mainframe computers. The purpose of this book is to make available computer programs more accessible to water management professionals. Information is provided to facilitate the identification, selection, and acquisition of software packages for a broad spectrum of water management modeling applications.