No. 114 irculation August 2012 BHS 2012 in DUNDEE ...a very hydrological occasion A rather damp field trip ending to a great meeting – you should have been there! CIRCULATION – THE NEWSLETTER OF THE BRITISH HYDROLOGICAL SOCIETY 1 The 11th BHS National Symposium held in Dundee this year, was a typical BHS ‘do’ — lots of good presentations, and a welcome chance to network in congenienal surroundings at the excellent West Park Centre. A key feature of the event was of course our Penman lecture given this year by Keith Beven on “Here we have a system in which liquid water is moving; let’s just get at the physics of it” (Penman 1965). A paper based on the Keith’s ecture will be included in a Special Issue of Hydrology Research which will comprise extended and enhanced versions of about a dozen of the Symposium Proceedings papers. This SI is being Guest Edited by Andrew Black and should be published in online preview mode by August 2013. The Dundee weather wasn’t too kind to us but this did not daunt delegates from enjoying the reception on board RRS Discovery before the Symposium Dinner. Our After Dinner speaker was Prof Paul Jowitt of Heriot-Watt University who welcomed us all to Dundee, the City of Discovery and the Dandy, Dundee Cake and the Dundee Courier. The six great J’s of Dundee, he said, are “Jam, Jute, Journalism .........Jinneering, Jenetics .....and the reason we’re all here tonight: the Jeneralised Unit Hydrograph....” Paul gave a great speech, too long to reproduce in full here, but we’ve taken the liberty of pulling out some of the plums, as follows: “Hydrology is in the news. 2012 is not only the year of the 11th National Symposium, but 2012 seems like the year of hydrology. Hydrologists on the TV at every meteorological and hydrological turn - droughts, floods, leakage the only thing that’s missing is pestilence. The BHS has come a long way since Exeter in 1982 and the IAHS Exeter Symposium on the Optimal Allocation of Water Resources. Someone organised a side event to see whether there was a need for a UK-wide hydrological society. Of course, Scotland had one already, the Scottish Hydrology Group. There were about 200 attendees at the Exeter Symposium, and there are at least 400 people who have claimed to have been at the meeting which conceived BHS. I think I was one of them.... 2 CIRCULATION – THE NEWSLETTER OF THE BRITISH HYDROLOGICAL SOCIETY You can gauge the success and The Key Equations: Continuity; Bernoulli; Force- impact of BHS in various ways. Momentum Equation; Navier Stokes Equations….. It has 1100 members drawn from And traditionally, the key water engineering applications across the spectrum of hydrology such as open channel flow; river management; power activity, from engineering hydrology generation, water resources, supply and distribution; to environmental hydrology, from floods; droughts; sediment transport; water quality hydrological processes to water modelling and management. resources. It is the Institution of Civil But these were no longer enough: we were entering Engineers’ second largest Associated the realm of Hydro Environmental Engineering – at Society. scale. There is a new agenda: increasingly, real problems Since its inception, BHS has have either impacts that need to account for (non- organised 11 National Symposia, commensurate) socio-enviro-economic effects, or which 3 International Conferences, and account for large scale heterogeneity. This requires trans- perhaps most vital of all, it now disciplinary and/or large scale systems models . organises the Peter Wolf Early Career In 40 minutes, Jim Dooge outlined the whole agenda. Hydrologist’s Event and supports When I last saw him before he died in 2010 he told young hydrologists in other ways me he was writing his memoirs at the request of the through scholarships and travel Royal Irish Academy. We will all have to wait now grants. This support is vital, not least while someone helps finish the job to then learn of Jim’s in the wake of the vacuum created role in drafting the Dublin Principles on Water at the by the loss of NERC studentships for International Conference on Water and the Environment MSc programmes in Hydrology. It (ICWE) in January 1992. was no accident that these courses The essence of the Dublin Principles were that: provided a generation of hydrological expertise working across the globe. Fresh water is a finite and vulnerable resource, BHS has more active young members essential to sustain life, development and the than any learned society I know. environment; Maybe it helps that hydrology is in Water development and management should be based many ways, still a young science.” on a participatory approach, involving users, planners But it isn’t just about size, he and policy makers at all levels; went on, citing the 5th National Women play a central role in the provision, Symposium held at Heriot Watt management and safeguarding of water; with Prof Jim Dooge as the Penman Water has an economic value in all its competing Lecturer who was also one of BHS’s uses, and should be recognised as an economic good. Honorary Fellows. When he came to receive an Twenty years later, the issues of water security loom Honorary Doctorate at Heriot-Watt, ever larger, and many of them come back to hydrological I asked him to give a seminar to the failure - including the long term but inexorable closing of Water Resources MSc students. He the gap between water availability and demand - drought/ started by showing some pictures of loss of headroom etc. And at the other hydrological Babylonian clay tablets describing extreme, there are issues of water excess. Both are water management and then linked wrapped up in the issues of climate change and the that to present day issues, including impact of human activity. water security. He covered not The problems we face are at both national and only the science of water, but also international scales. In the UK there are the water the scales of scientific enquiry. resources issues in the south east. Here in Scotland, Traditionally, water management we are attempting to develop the concept of the Hydro problems operate at a scale where Nation, which addresses the water and energy nexus. water can be treated as a continuum At the international scale, the issues are perhaps with no memory and where a few key even more stark, for example, the water infrastructure scientific/engineering principles can gap between rich and poor, which in terms of reservoir be applied: storage capacity provides 6000 m3/per person in North Mass Balance; Archimedes; Energy America and 38 m3/per person in Ethiopia. Balance; Newton’s Laws… Hydrology is no longer an academic subject of purity, CIRCULATION – THE NEWSLETTER OF THE BRITISH HYDROLOGICAL SOCIETY 3 but one which has to confront the issues of the time and platform for a sustainable future for help deal with the self-inflicted environmental and social succeeding generations has never had crises caused by human behaviour. a more important moral, economic, This is why the role of BHS is so vital, why the social and environmental imperative. outcomes from this and earlier BHS symposia and As hydrologists, as civil engineers, conferences are so important, and why its support for as hydraulic engineers, as dam young hydrologists is so essential. engineers, this is our job. Now is the time to focus on working with the powers of nature for the use and benefit of society. Providing the Now is the time to deliver.” President’s piece Travel I hope those of you who managed to get to the Symposium in Dundee enjoyed it and found it grants worthwhile. I thought the mix of presentations was Travel grants are awarded excellent – no matter what your area of expertise from the Society’s general you are likely to have found something new - and funds to help BHS members the atmosphere was very relaxed and friendly. It whose travel expenses to was a great credit to all those who helped in the attend scientific meetings organization (not me, I hasten to add!) and I am are not met by an employer. very grateful to everyone involved who managed Applicants should have been to pull off an excellent meeting in a relatively short members of the Society for at time. least six months. The amount If there was one thing that could have been better will depend on the nature and it was the mix of members who were present. One location of the meeting and of the Society’s main aims is to facilitate exchange the case put forward. between its academic and practitioner members, Priority is given to members and there were few of the latter at Dundee. I guess under 35 or retired from this is a sign of the times – I know few practitioners employment, who are can afford to spend time away from fee-earning presenting papers and activities – but it is a short-term view and without who have not previously that interaction we will all end up the poorer. received support from BHS. One resolution I came away from Dundee with Success ful applic ants will was to start organizing the 2014 Symposium earlier, be expected to write a short and to make it more accessible so we can get a report for Circulation. Travel greater mix of membership attending. I welcome grant applications should be any views on venue or format – please email me at made to the Hon Treasurer at [email protected]. least two months before the Finally – an apology for suggesting in my last conference or meeting.