Hydrology—The computer revolution continues

Twenty years ago the use of computers in hydrology was minimal and consisted mostly of simple translations of existing pre-computer algorithms. Later, it was realized that these machines could also be used to give more useful answers than were possible with the original algorithms. The race for computer code and algorithm modification was on, and computer usage in hydrology entered its second stage. Hydrology and water resources are now in the third phase of computer usage: problems are being routinely defined that could not even have been conceived without the existence of computers, and solutions and algorithms that are new and more powerful than their pre-computer predecessors are omnipresent.