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Applied Civil Engineering Risk Analysis pp 11–22Cite as

Data Analysis/Sample Statistics

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Abstract

Statistics is a means of interrogating past events. If we have some data on previous events, statistics are a set of tools that allow us to quantify the trends of these past events. Data in Civil Engineering is often scarce due to the unique nature of the engineered features (e.g., bridges, buildings, levees, tunnels, pipelines), but there are situations where we can assume that the data is similar enough in its variability, which is termed homoscedastic, to represent the same type of engineering problem. In these cases we need to estimate the trends of an occurrence of some event related to the engineered feature. How do we quantify uncertainty given some observations?

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Notes

  1. 1.

    A variable will be denoted in this text by a capital letter, X, whereas a specific numerical value of that variable will be denoted by a lower case letter, x. When a variable assumes a specific value we can describe it as X = x.

  2. 2.

    Metric units will be used throughout this text, with a preference for SI units. Using SI units is consistent with the rest of the world (only the US still uses English units), helps greatly in minimizing computational errors, and is far easier to use and understand. The goal is that someday the US will move out of the past and adopt the SI system once and for all.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA, USA

    Robb Eric S. Moss

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  1. Robb Eric S. Moss
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Correspondence to Robb Eric S. Moss .

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Moss, R.E.S. (2020). Data Analysis/Sample Statistics. In: Applied Civil Engineering Risk Analysis. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-22680-0_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-22680-0_2

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-22679-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-22680-0

  • eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)

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