Copulas and their Applications in Water Resources Engineering

This book describes the basic concepts of copulas, and outlines current trends and developments in copula methodology and applications. Detailed case studies with real-world data illustrate the application of copulas to hydrology and water resources engineering, for researchers, professionals and graduate students.

Complex environmental and hydrological processes are characterized by more than one correlated random variable. These events are multivariate and their treatment requires multivariate frequency analysis. Traditional analysis methods are, however, too restrictive and do not apply in many cases. Recent years have therefore witnessed numerous applications of copulas to multivariate hydrologic frequency analyses. This book describes the basic concepts of copulas, and outlines current trends and developments in copula methodology and applications. It includes an accessible discussion of the methods alongside simple step-by-step sample calculations. Detailed case studies with real-world data are included, and are organized based on applications, such as flood frequency analysis and water quality analysis. Illustrating how to apply the copula method to multivariate frequency analysis, engineering design, and risk and uncertainty analysis, this book is ideal for researchers, professionals and graduate students in hydrology and water resources engineering.