Introduction

Abstract

In engineering as well as in other fields such as the natural sciences, environmental science or economics, many processes exist for which ordered sequences of observed values are available. Examples of the latter include the settlement of a bridge measured at specific points in time, traffic loads on roads, snow depths measured over many years, the height of wheat stalks, the diameter of tree trunks or the production output in industry. The observed values, i.e. settlements, traffic loads, snow depths etc., exist for a past observation period. Under certain conditions these constitute a time series.