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Book review |
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This is the first in a series of collections of Benchmark Papers in Hydrology being published by the IAHS. The aim of the series is to define and create a world repository of the benchmark papers that have contributed to current thinking in key areas in hydrology (analogous to the Benchmark Papers in Geology published in the 1970 s and 1980 s). For this volume, Keith Beven has selected 31 papers that illustrate the development of our understanding of how water flows across and through hill slopes, starting with two classic papers by Robert Horton through to a 1984 paper by Bob Gillham. The focus of his selection is on papers that have shaped conceptual understanding of processes (as opposed to papers describing attempts to model these processes). Beven provides a thoughtful 8 page introduction and then a short commentary at the start of each of the papers to set the paper in its context. The papers are arranged chronologically, rather than being grouped by topic, to avoid the implication that individual processes can be viewed in isolation.
Whilst most of the relevant concepts had been appreciated pre-1945, it was Horton's classic paper of that year that first presents a fully developed theoretical analysis of hill slope erosional development based on surface runoff. This provided subsequent investigators with a framework on which to design (and test) their investigations, leading to a wave of further developments in the 1950 s and 1960 s which are well represented in this volume. The
