CE 397 Statistics in Water Resources

Help with Questions

Spring 2008

I would appreciate your help in bringing together datasets and statistical procedures that can help to answer the questions that I have posed for each week of lectures.   Here are the questions:

Topic Questions

1.       How do we visualize data and determine their statistical characteristics?

·         Time series, maps, histograms, X-Y plots, Box and Whisker plots, parametric and non-parametric statistics.

2.      How do we describe a dataset by a probability distribution?

·         Determining parameters, fitting distributions, regular and log distributions.

3.      Is a body of data statistically homogeneous?

·         Is one subset of the data different from another?

4.      How do we deal with correlation?

·         Of one variable with another?  In time?  In space?

5.      How do we deal with trends?

·         Trends due to population growth.

6.      How do we deal with cyclical variations?

·         Diurnal and seasonal cycles.

7.      What is the relationship between flow and water quality?

·         Flow, concentration and load and their interrelationships.

8.      How do we characterize hydrologic extremes?

·         Order statistics, frequency analysis

9.      How do we statistically characterize variations in space?

·         Geostatistics, kriging, variograms

10.  How do we characterize spatial patterns that vary in time?

·         Severe storms

The class is divided into groups to help deal with topics 2-10.   What I would like each group to do is to research out computer methods that can be used by the class to deal with that question, a dataset that can be used to illustrate that question, and draft a short exercise using the computer methods to do the data analysis.   I would like to have this information in hand by the Tuesday of the week in which this question is to be addressed in class.  For those available, I would like to meet with you in my office to discuss how best to proceed after class.  Where possible, I would like to use Excel, SAS and ArcGIS as the computational systems in the class.

Topic

Dates

Question

Students

1

Jan 27 - 29

How do we visualize and characterize data?

None

2

Feb 3 - 5

How are data described by probability functions?

None

3

Feb 10 -12

Is a dataset homogeneous?

Brigit Afshar, Bryan Barnett, Brett Buff, Virginia Smith

4

Feb 17 - 19

How do we deal with correlation?

Eliora Bujari, Brad Eck, Bryan Enslein, Eric Hersh

5

Feb 24 - 26

How do we deal with trends?

Ashlynn Stillwell, Patrick Frasier, Cody Hudson

6

Mar 3 - 5

How do we characterize diurnal and seasonal cycles?

Matt Jordan, Solaleh Khezri, Brandon Klenzendorf

7

Mar 24 -26

How are flow and water quality related?

Maelle Limouzin, Kate Marney, Laura Reed

8

Mar 31- Apr 2

How large are hydrologic extremes?

Samuel Sandoval, Patrick Sejkora, James Seppi

9

Apr 7- 9

How do we statistically characterize patterns in space?

John Shaw, Ruth Haberman, Yao You

10

Apr 14 -16

How do we characterize patterns in space and time?

Fernando Salas, Clark Siler, Ahmad Tavakoly