George Baxter

Abstract

This paper summarizes the innovative approach to setting environmental flows proposed by Baxter in 1961, describes its immediate impact across both engineering and fisheries disciplines and explores the reasons why his approach was not adopted in river flow regulation and management in the UK. Yet, the basic approach was to be used world-wide by the end of the century. Several barriers constrained innovation in flow regulation in England during the 1960s: the overwhelming pollution problems; serious concerns about water shortage and food security, not least in the context of the severe 1959 drought; the influence of the 1963 Water Resources Act and the legacy of previous legislation; the limited availability of both river flow data and biological data; and the lack of awareness of human impacts on the environment. The paper also provides lessons for promoting environmental science into policy and practice to advance the implementation of environmental flows.