Hydroinformatics is concerned with the application of information, including communication, technologies to problems of the aquatic environment. The Journal of Hydroinformatics is a combined initiative of the Section for Hydroinformatics of the International Association of Hydro-Environment Engineering and Research [IAHR] and the International Water Association [IWA]. The first issue appeared on June 30th 1999.

Hydroinformatics have developed from the practices of numerical modelling, and specifically from the development of so-called ‘fourth generation’ modelling tools from 1985 onwards. These have now become standard instruments of engineering and management practice and are commonly associated with an increasing integration with measuring techniques and instruments, supervisory control and data acquisition [SCADA] systems and other such facilities. At the same time, Hydroinformatics is a sociotechnical activity in that it is involved in both social arrangements necessary for the success of its technical developments and in the fashioning of these developments to suit the social environments in which they will have to function.

The main driving force of Hydroinformatics is creative business enterprise, and one essential part of research in Hydroinformatics is given over to this business-theoretic side. Articles in both the first and the second issues introduce some of the business-theoretic aspects, in the one case in terms of a relatively new and rapidly growing company and in the other case in terms of a more established grouping of companies with a combined annual turnover in this area of around 100 million dollars.

The two major lines of development that at present predominate in hydroinformatics are those of internet-distribution and processing of knowledge for sociotechnical development, on the one side, and data mining for knowledge discovery, on the other side. This dual development thus has ‘knowledge’ as its common feature, reflecting the positioning of hydroinformatics as a postmodern technology, understood as one in which ‘knowers’ are largely supplanted by ‘consumers of knowledge’. It thus corresponds to a situation where knowledge becomes a commodity, and then not just one more kind of commodity like any number of others, but one that enters into all other commodities and services. By these means it becomes possible to provide valuable and highly relevant knowledge to far more persons than ever before, while at the same time providing the means for the reactions of nature to human interventions to be better understood and accommodated.

The first issue of the Journal of Hydroinformatics, was mostly given over to introductions to hydroinformatics as seen from four different points of view. Two technical papers serve to exemplify the range of interests that the journal should come to represent. The second and third issues (October 1999 and January 2000) were dedicated largely to data mining for knowledge discovery. It is anticipated that this addition to the literature will add a new and exciting dimension to the entire area of hydraulics, hydrology and water resources and to their applications.

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