The hydrological system is concerned with water and its interconnections.   It can be as large as the entire hydrological cycle, or as small as the trapping of methane in a water molecule to produce methane hydrate.   The mechanism of producing an output from a hydrological system depends upon the nature of the inputs it receives, the nature of the physical laws governing the system behaviour and the nature of the system itself.   In the systems approach, the complex details governed by physical laws are either simplified or not considered at all but instead, a relationship between the inputs and corresponding outputs is sought.  In ancient times, hydrological modelling in water management has been achieved through conventional wisdom, or natural intelligence, without much technological inputs.  In recent years, there has been a paradigm shift from natural intelligence to artificial intelligence.  Such artificial intelligence approaches include the application of artificial neural networks, support vector machines, fuzzy logic systems, deep learning, and their combinations.  In this presentation, an attempt will be made to highlight the advances in the application of artificial intelligence techniques in hydrological modelling.

A. W. Jayawardena is currently an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering of the University of Hong Kong where he has been teaching for many years.  In the past, he has been a Visiting Professor at Chu Hai College of Higher Education in Hong Kong, a Technical Advisor to the Research and Development Centre of Nippon Koei Co. Ltd, Japan, the Research and Training Advisor to the International Centre for Water Hazard and Risk Management (ICHARM) under the auspices of UNESCO, Japan, and concurrently a Professor in the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS), Japan, Guest/Visiting Professor of Beijing Normal University, Hohai University, and Tsinghua University of China, Honorary Professor in the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Sciences of the University of Hong Kong, and an Adjunct Professor of Vellore Institute of Technology, India. He has authored the books ‘Environmental and Hydrological Systems Modelling’, “Fluid Mechanics, Hydraulics, Hydrology and Water Resources for Civil Engineers” and “Water for Life: Drinking Water, health, food, energy nexus” published by Taylor and Francis Group and has over 200 publications. His awards include a visiting international fellowship of the Environmental and Water Resources Institute (EWRI) of the American Society of Civil Engineers (2002), International Award of the Japan Society of Hydrology and Water Resources (2013),  Invitational fellowship of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (2018), and UNESCO-IHP Regional Steering Committee Asia-Pacific Award (2023).