COMPUTATIONAL ASPECTS IN USE OF ENTROPY THEORY IN PREDICTING WATER-QUALITY LEVELS AT DISCONTINUED STATIONS

The computational aspects of using a new, entropy-based, theory to pre dict water quality values at discontinued water quality monitoring sta tions are discussed. The main computational issues addressed are the l evel of discretization used in converting the continuous probability d istribution of water quality values to the discrete levels required fo r the entropy function, and the choice of the interval of time for whi ch to assign the value of the water quality (period of time averaging) through the entropy function. Unlike most cases of entropy applicatio ns involving discretization of continuous functions the results of usi ng entropy theory to predict water quality values at discontinued moni toring stations in this application appear to be insensitive to the ch oice of the level of discretization even down to tile very coarse leve l discretization associated with only eight intervals. However, depend ing on the length of record available the choice of the time interval for which the water quality values are assigned (period for time avera ging) appear to have a significant impact on the accuracy of the resul ts.