Introduction to Statistical Inference and Applications

This book is designed for students from various backgrounds who need to understand data and aspire to develop new methods for data analysis especially with applications to solving environmental problems. The book contains eight lessons called chapters. Each chapter is divided into numbered sections which end with practice problems to test your understanding of the information.Statistical inference includes procedures to generalize information from a sample to a larger population from which the sample was taken. It includes procedures ranging from sampling, calculating an index from the sample, statistical test of hypothesis and decision making. Unlike descriptive statistics, the goal of most research is not just to establish a certain number of indicators on a given sample but rather to make meaningful decisions based on parameter estimation and corresponding hypothesis testing.