The Journal of Hydraulic Research 1963-2012: advances over the past 50 years

The Journal of Hydraulic Research (JHR) reaches in 2012 the 50th publication year, so that an adequate look back is appropriate. This paper describes the foundations of both the International Association of Hydro-environment Engineering and Research (IAHR) and its flagship journal JHR. The latter was a significant addition to the then existing hydraulic engineering research journals, and it was well received particularly among the IAHR members. The development of JHR is described in terms of the journal presentation, the editors and the 10 top-cited papers. It is noted that papers mainly with a computational background and with problems in river engineering count in these seminal works. The paper closes with remarks from the author relating to his observations made during the past 5 years while serving as the JHR editor.