Keith John Beven (born 23 July 1950) is a British

hydrologist Hydrology () is the scientific study of the movement, distribution, and management of water on Earth and other planets, including the water cycle, water resources, and environmental watershed sustainability. A practitioner of hydrology is calle ...

and distinguished

Emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

Professor in Hydrology at

Lancaster University Lancaster University (legally The University of Lancaster) is a public university, public research university in Lancaster, Lancashire, Lancaster, Lancashire, England. The university was established in 1964 by royal charter, as one of several pla ...

. According to Lancaster University he is the most highly cited hydrologist. In 2017, Beven was elected a member of the

National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Engineering is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy ...

for contributions to the understanding of hydrological processes and development of the foundations of modern hydrological modeling.

Education

Beven was educated at Chislehurst and Sidcup Grammar School, graduated with a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

degree in geography from the

University of Bristol , mottoeng = earningpromotes one's innate power (from Horace, ''Ode 4.4'') , established = 1595 – Merchant Venturers School1876 – University College, Bristol1909 – received royal charter , type ...

in 1971 and was awarded a PhD from the

University of East Anglia The University of East Anglia (UEA) is a public research university in Norwich, England. Established in 1963 on a campus west of the city centre, the university has four faculties and 26 schools of study. The annual income of the institution f ...

(UEA) in 1975 for research on

catchment hydrology Catchment hydrology is the study of hydrology in drainage basins. Catchments are areas of land where runoff collects to a specific zone. This movement is caused by water moving from areas of high energy to low energy due to the influence of gravit ...

supervised by Keith Clayton.

Career and research

Beven worked at the

University of Leeds , mottoeng = And knowledge will be increased , established = 1831 – Leeds School of Medicine1874 – Yorkshire College of Science1884 - Yorkshire College1887 – affiliated to the federal Victoria University1904 – University of Leeds , ...

(1974–1977) and the Institute of Hydrology, Wallingford (1977–1979 and 1982–1985). He was an assistant professor at the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United S ...

from 1979 to 1982 and joined

in 1985. He has held visiting positions at the

University of California, Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Barbara County, California, Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduate ...

(1996) and

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * École, Savoi ...

(EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland (1997);

KU Leuven KU Leuven (or Katholieke Universiteit Leuven) is a Catholic research university in the city of Leuven, Belgium. It conducts teaching, research, and services in computer science, engineering, natural sciences, theology, humanities, medicine, l ...

, Belgium (1999–2000) and

Uppsala University Uppsala University ( sv, Uppsala universitet) is a public university, public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the List of universities in Sweden, oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in opera ...

and the

Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences The Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, or Swedish Agricultural University (Swedish: ''Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet'') (SLU) is a university in Sweden. Although its head office is located in Ultuna, Uppsala, the university has several c ...

(SLU) Uppsala, Sweden as Konung Carl XVI Gustafs Gästprofessor i Miljövetenskap in 2006–2007. His main research interests are in hydrological modelling and understanding the prediction uncertainties associated with environmental models. He was the originator with Mike Kirkby of the TOPMODEL Concepts and the originator of the Generalised Likelihood Uncertainty Estimation (GLUE) methodology. GLUE has been applied to a wide variety of fields including rainfall-runoff modelling, flood inundation, water quality modelling, sediment transport, recharge and groundwater modelling, vegetation growth models, aphid populations, forest fire and tree death modelling. He is working on novel modelling of flow and transport on hillslopes and in catchments, modelling the impacts of climate and land management on flood runoff and flood frequency, nonparametric estimation of the rainfall-flow nonlinearity, and flood forecasting. He has published 10 books and over 350

peer review Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people with similar competencies as the producers of the work (peers). It functions as a form of self-regulation by qualified members of a profession within the relevant field. Peer review ...

ed papers.

Awards and honours

Beven has received several awards and honours including: * Elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

in 2017, the first hydrologist elected since Charles Pereira in 1969 *Foreign member of the US

(2017) *Horton Award of the

American Geophysical Union The American Geophysical Union (AGU) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization of Earth, atmospheric, ocean, hydrologic, space, and planetary scientists and enthusiasts that according to their website includes 130,000 people (not members). AGU's act ...

(1991) *Fellow of the

(1995) *John Dalton Medal of the

European Geophysical Society The European Geosciences Union (EGU) is a non-profit international union in the fields of Earth, planetary, and space sciences whose vision is to "realise a sustainable and just future for humanity and for the planet." The organisation has headq ...

(2001) *Linnaeus Lecture Award at

(2002) *Langbein Lecture Award of the

(2004) *

King Carl XVI Gustaf Professorship in Environmental Science The King Carl XVI Gustaf Professorship in Environmental Science is a prestigious, selective appointment awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, to one or two people annually. it began in 1996. Elected Professors spend one year at a Swedis ...

(2006) *

International Association of Hydrological Sciences The International Association of Hydrological Sciences (IAHS) is a non-profit non-governmental scientific organisation committed to serving the science of hydrology and the worldwide community of hydrologists. The IAHS was established in 1922, ...

(IAHS)/

World Meteorological Organization The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for promoting international cooperation on atmospheric science, climatology, hydrology and geophysics. The WMO originated from the Internati ...

(WMO) /

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

International Hydrology Prize (2009) * Robert E. Horton Medal of the

(2012) *President's Prize of the

British Hydrological Society The British Hydrological Society (BHS) was formed in 1983 to advance interest and scholarship in scientific and applied aspects of hydrology and encourage member involvement in relevant national and international professional activities, drawing it ...

(2013) *Honorary DSc,

(2015)

Publications

*K.J. Beven and P. Carling (Eds.). 1989. ''Floods: hydrological sedimentological and geomorphological implications''. Wiley, Chichester (). *K.J. Beven and I.D. Moore (Eds.). 1992. ''Terrain Analysis and Distributed Modelling in Hydrology''. Wiley, Chichester () *K.J. Beven and M.J. Kirkby (Eds.). 1993. ''Channel Network Hydrology''. Wiley, Chichester. () *K.J. Beven, P.C. Chatwin and J.H. Millbank (Eds.). 1994. ''Mixing and Transport in the Environment''. Wiley, Chichester. () *K.J. Beven. (Ed.), 1997. ''Distributed Modelling in Hydrology: Applications of TOPMODEL''. Wiley, Chichester. () *K.J. Beven. 2001. ''Rainfall-Runoff Modelling: The Primer''. Wiley, Chichester ( *K.J. Beven. 2006. ''Benchmark papers in Streamflow Generation Processes''. IAHS Press, Wallingford, UK (with selection, introduction and commentaries on papers) () *K.J. Beven, 2009. ''Environmental Modelling: An Uncertain Future?'' Routledge: London () http://www.uncertain-future.org.uk *E.M. Shaw, K.J. Beven, N.A. Chappell and R. Lamb. 2010. ''

Hydrology in Practice ''Hydrology in Practice'' is a hydrology textbook by British hydrologist Elizabeth M. Shaw. The book was originally published in 1983 by Van Nostrand Reinhold (UK) Co. Ltd. and the most recent fourth edition was published in July 2010 by CRC Pres ...

'', 4th Edition, Spon: London. () *K.J. Beven. 2011. ''Mallerstang Magic: Images of the Mallerstang Valley''. Blurb Books, 36pp small format o
large format
*K.J. Beven. 2012. ''Mallerstang in Panorama: Panoramic Images of the Mallerstang Valley''. Blurb Books, 42pp small format o
large format
*K.J. Beven. 2012. ''Mallerstang in Mono: Black and White Images of the Mallerstang Valley''. Blurb Books. 50pp small format o
large format
*K.J. Beven. 2012. ''Rainfall-Runoff Modelling: The Primer'' (2nd Edition). Wiley-Blackwell: Chichester, UK. *K.J. Beven and J.W. Hall (Eds.). 2014. ''Applied Uncertainty Analysis for Flood Risk Management''. World Scientific: Singapore.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beven, Keith John 1950 births Living people People educated at Chislehurst and Sidcup Grammar School Alumni of the University of Bristol Alumni of the University of East Anglia Academics of Lancaster University University of Virginia faculty Fellows of the American Geophysical Union Fellows of the Royal Society British hydrologists Foreign associates of the National Academy of Engineering