Elizabeth M. Shaw

Elizabeth Mary Shaw (14 February 1928 – 25 April 2013) was a British hydrologist and author of the popular textbook Hydrology in Practice.

Life and education

Elizabeth Shaw was born at Hebburn on Tyne, UK, in 1928. In her childhood, she lived and went to school in Durham, UK. She gained her bachelor's degree in Geography from Bedford College in London, in 1949. In 1953 she began a postgraduate course in hydrology at Durham University, during which she spent two years measuring rainfall and run-off over the Upper Weardale catchment where she lived.

She died 25 April 2013. There, she worked with Professor Peter Wolf as part of the hydrology section (formed in 1956) of the Civil Engineering Department. Shaw was recruited as the department started to award master's degrees in hydrology, starting 1964–65. At Imperial, she developed new analytical techniques to design rain gauge networks for accurate estimation of areal average rainfall.

Elizabeth Shaw's life and work is featured in the History of Hydrology Wiki.

Hydrology in Practice

Elizabeth Shaw's greatest career achievement was as author of the popular textbook "Hydrology in practice", first published in 1983 and now in its fourth edition. The textbook covers hydrological measurements, analysis, modeling and applications, and is aimed at hydrology students in engineering and practice, particularly in the UK. It includes methods for use of the Flood Estimation Handbook, that offers guidance from the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology on standard methods for rainfall and river flood frequency estimation in the UK.

The textbook is described by the publisher as "likely to be the course text for every undergraduate/MSc hydrology course in the UK". The third edition was described as "an excellent compendium of techniques and methods of hydrological measurement and data analysis" in a review published by Hydrological Sciences Journal. It was also reviewed by the Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society and the Journal of Hydrology, and the textbook is featured by the History of Hydrology Wiki. Hydrology in Practice is widely used and recommended by universities and academic institutions, for example being suggested as an exam reference by the American Institute of Hydrology, and recommended as a hydrology reading highlight by Dartmouth College.