W. N. McClean – pioneer of Scottish hydrometry

W. N. McClean was a pioneer in the development and publication of river flow measurements in Scotland using current metering and chart recorders to produce runoff records for the River Garry, 1913–1915. In 1929 McClean began to establish a much more extensive hydrometric network comprising rainfall and runoff stations throughout the Ness, Lochy, Spey and Aberdeenshire Dee basins. This work was pursued with remarkable vigour until 1949 and was partly instrumental in establishing the UK Inland Water Survey in 1935. The flow record on the Dee commenced in 1929 and, still operational today, is one of the longest continuous runoff records in the UK. McClean’s data were collected at a time when many of the catchments were little modified by human interventions. They constitute a unique record of the natural runoff regime for this part of the British uplands and include two of the largest UK floods ever reported.