on the premises of the Laborat6rio Nacional de Engenharia Civil (LNEC) in Lisbon, Portugal, from 4th to 15th July 1988, and of which this book is one of the main outputs. It is divided into 11 chapters, corresponding to 28 lectures that cover five areas: fundamentals of physical modelling, river models, hydraulics of structures, maritime hvdraulics and densi ty models. -- Hodelling is obviously dependent on the knowledge of the phe­ nomena that are being modelled. This book is therefore also a book on hydraulic engineering in general and not only on phv­ sical, modelling. The text also refers to mathematical modelling, experimental methods in hydraulics and observation of nature and prototypes.