abstract = "The computer-controlled operating environments of such
facilities as automated factories, nuclear power
plants, telecommunication centres and space stations
are continually becoming more complex.The situation is
similar, if not even more apparent and urgent, in the
case of water. Water is not only mankind's most
valuable natural resource, but one which is in
increasingly limited supply. The fresh water is the
vita! natural resource which supports all environmental
activities, that is, natura! economy, and all human
socio-economic activities, that is, the artificial
economy. The pressure for a sustainable control and
exploration of water and thus for the peaceful
co-existence of human- and hydro-economies, is not only
a human, socio-economic pressure, but it is the
question of life and death!
Hydroinformatics - the nascent technology concerned
with the flow of information related to the flow of
fluids and all that they convey - is probably the best
possible answer yet proposed to the problem of the
control of the waters, the very arteries and veins of
the biosphere. This work addresses some of the central
issues within hydroinformatics paradigm. It focuses on
ttie analysis of decentralised and distributed
computation, as well as the issues of design of
individual computatiorial agents using evolutionary
algorithms.",