Prepared by the Subcommittee on Uncertainty and Reliability Analyses in Design of Hydraulic Structures of the Technical Committee on Probabilistic Approaches to Hydraulics of ASCE. This report contains 13 papers presenting the application of reliability analysis to the design and safety of hydraulic structures. Several recent major failures of engineering systems have raised public concern on the safety and reliability of engineering struct.ures. Decades ago, a quantitative evaluation of the reliability of structures was not possible and engineers used safety factors that were determined mainly through experience and judgement. Recent advances in probability methods and computers make it feasible to evaluate the contributions of various technologic and natural factors to the safety and reliability of structures.ØThe first four papers in this report discuss techniques pertinent to reliability and uncertainty analyses. The next nine papers explore how these techniques can be applied to dam safety, coastal floods, and hydraulic structures. The report concludes with a reprint of an article by Vrijling on the Eastern Scheldt Storm Surge Barrier of the Delta Project in the Netherlands and the use of reliability analysis for sewer design.

Since application of reliability analysis to hydraulic engineering covers a wide scope of sub-fields, this report presents a glimpse of some of the topics pertinent to the design and safety of hydraulic structures. The first four papers discuss various techniques pertinent to reliability and uncertainty analyses.

Failure of hydrosystems, such as dams, levees, storm sewers, or pollution control systems, pose threats to the public safety and health as well as potentially inflict enormous damages on properties and environments. Many failures of hydrosystems are mainly attributed by the existence of various uncertainties, including inherent natural randomness and the lack of complete understanding of involved geophysical processes. It is therefore essential to systematically quantify the degree of uncertainty for the problem in hand so that reliability assessment and risk-based design of hydrosystems can be made. The conventional approach of frequency analysis of heavy rainfalls or large floods consider only portion of the uncertainties involved in hydrosystem engineering problems. Over the past two decades or so, there has been a steady growth on the development and application of uncertainty analysis techniques in hydrosystems engineering and other disciplines. The aim of this book is to bring together these uncertainty analysis techniques in one book and to demonstrate their applications and limitations for a wide variety of hydrosystem engineering problems.

With the expansion of new technologies, materials, and the design of complex systems, the expectations of society upon engineers are becoming larger than ever. Engineers make critical decisions with potentially high adverse consequences. The current political, societal, and financial climate requires engineers to formally consider the factors of uncertainty (e.g., floods, earthquakes, winds, environmental risks) in their decisions at all levels. Uncertainty Modeling and Analysis in Civil Engineering provides a thorough report on the immediate state of uncertainty modeling and analytical methods for civil engineering systems, presenting a toolbox for solving problems in real-world situations. Topics include Neural networks Genetic algorithms Numerical modeling Fuzzy sets and operations Reliability and risk analysis Systems control Uncertainty in probability estimates This compendium is a considerable reference for civil engineers as well as for engineers in other disciplines, computer scientists, general scientists, and students.

This is the first book to integrate reliability analysis and risk assessment with the planning, design, and management of hydrosystems (dams, levees, storm sewers, etc.). Requiring only a basic knowledge of probability and statistics, readers will be able to determine how hydrosystem structures will perform under various circumstances.

35 leading multi-disciplinary scientists with international reputations provide reviews of topical areas of research on uncertainty and reliability related aspects of water resource systems. The volume will be valuable for graduate students, scientists, consultants, administrators, and practising hydrologists and water managers.