We were proud to learn that Cathy Atkinson has been awarded the Beven Prize for the Best Hydrology Dissertation by Lancaster University. Cathy undertook her dissertation placement with the NRFA over the summer of 2015 as part of the MSc in Data Science for the Environment at Lancaster University.
Cathy's work provided valuable insights into the structure of the UK’s river flow monitoring network. By comparing river flow time series and applying principles from graph theory (the kind of maths that makes on-line social networks tick), Cathy was able to identify stations that have similar flow patterns and, on the other hand, select stations which are like no other station in the network.
We will be able to use Cathy's results to improve the way we look for similar stations, which will help us for example during data validation or data infilling, and allow us to improve our web services too.
So once again, a big thank you and congratulations to Cathy!
