About the Group

The Scottish Hydraulics Study Group is an inter-disciplinary organisation composed of practising engineers and researchers working in Scotland. The Group aims to promote the discussion and dissemination of all aspects of hydraulics.

The founder members, Peter McCrae, John Crowther and Steve Wallis, met at the University of Strathclyde in 1987. At that time Peter was employed by Babtie Shaw & Morton (now the Babtie Group) and John and Steve worked at the University of Strathclyde. A steering group was formed and the Scottish Hydraulics Study Group was formally launched in February 1988. It is currently in its sixteenth year of activities and has a mailing list of around two hundred members.

From an independent beginning the Group has now affiliated to the Institution of Civil Engineers, via the Glasgow and West of Scotland Local Association and the East of Scotland Local Association. The Group has strong links with the Scottish Hydrological Group, with whom it usually organises at least one joint technical meeting each year. The Group has also collaborated with the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management and with the International Association for Hydraulic Engineering and Research to organise joint meetings. Each year, the Group normally holds four or five evening Technical Meetings, a One-Day Seminar and the Peter McCrae Lecture. The latter event was originally termed a “prestige” lecture, but following Peter’s untimely death in a car crash in December 1989, it was re-named in his memory.

The Group does not charge a membership fee and all technical meetings and the Peter McCrae Lecture are free. However, a charge is made for the Peter McCrae Dinner (which is held after the Lecture) and the One-Day Seminar and the income from these events is used to cover the Group’s annual running costs.

Each year the Group submits a budget to the ICE Treasurer, Glasgow and West of Scotland Association, which is then shared with the East of Scotland Local Association. Group income goes to the Institution of Civil Engineers. The Group has a fund of its own, entitled the Peter McCrae Trust Fund, which is used to cover some of the expenses of the Peter McCrae Lecture. The Fund is in part a donation and partly surplus funds, which the Group had accumulated prior to its affiliation to the Institution of Civil Engineers. The Group has also been permitted by the Institution of Civil Engineers to set up a Hydraulics Prize Fund, from which the Group awards £100 prizes each year to the student completing the best honours project in hydraulics from each of the Scottish universities.

During 2003/4 the Group established this web-site, through which an increasing amount of the Group’s business will be conducted in the coming years.

Activities of the Group

Technical Meetings
At the Technical Meetings the Group encourages the active participation of all those present in lively and lengthy discussions that follow short presentations from one or two invited speakers. The emphasis is on the two-way exchange of information. Speakers are encouraged to provide a written summary of their material for the use of those attending.

Annual Seminars
The One-Day Seminar is of a more traditional format but, again, the Group aims to foster open discussion between invited speakers and delegates, and publishes written proceedings of the meetings. To date, the following seminars have taken place:

1989 Spillways: Design, Modelling & Operation
1990 Ports and Harbours: Design, Modelling & Operation
1991 River and Flood Plain Management
1992 Coastal and Estuarine Pollution: Methods and Solutions
1993 Sediment Transport: Process and Phenomena
1994 Hydro-scientific Data: Analysis and Collection
1995 New Developments in Water Quality Management
1996 Urban Drainage and Flood Control
1997 Water Supply: Sustainability, Quantity & Quality
1998 Highway Hydraulics
1999 Estuary & Coastal Hydraulics
2000 Renovation of Sewers & Water Mains
2001 Environmental River Engineering
2002 Sustainable Urban Drainage
2003 Coastal Flooding
2004 Hydraulic Aspects of Renewable Energy

Peter McCrae Lectures
The Peter McCrae Lecture is a more formal function at which an eminent engineer, scientist or academic is invited to give an address. The speaker may choose to summarise their life's work or to describe developments in an area of hydraulics that they have witnessed or in which they have been a prime mover. The lecture is followed by a reception and by a dinner in honour of the Lecturer. Initially, the lecture was advertised as a “prestige” lecture but when Peter was tragically killed in a car crash in December 1989, the Committee decided to name the lectures after him, as a commemoration. Peter’s father, Kenneth McCrae, was also a water engineer and has so far attended all the lectures. The list of lecturers to date is given below:

1989 Prof Ian Barr (Strathclyde University)
1990 Frank Johnson (Scottish Hydroelectric plc)
1991 Prof Paul Novak (Newcastle University)
1992 John Dunbar (Crouch, Hogg, Waterman)
1993 Prof Roy Halliwell (Heriot-Watt University)
1994 Dr John Townson (Strathclyde University)
1995 Norman Berry (Babtie Group)
1996 Prof Brian Willetts (Aberdeen University)
1997 Ernest Chambers (Glasgow District Council)
1998 Alan Vardy (Dundee University)
1999 Ian Gowans (R H Cuthbertson & Partners)
2000 Graham Thompson (Binnie, Black & Veatch)
2001 Anton Edwards (SEPA)
2002 Dr John Riddell (Consultant, formerly Strathclyde University)
2003 David Banks (formerly, Babtie Group)
2004 Prof Stephen Salter (Edinburgh University)

Email: contact@shsg.org.uk