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Abstract

The History of Hydrology has seen very distinct times and habits throughout Antiquity (no flow equations and intuitive perception), the Golden Age of Physics and Mathematics (the Geniuses of the Renaissance, their long lasting wakes and filiations), the Computer Science Era (the rise of numerical methods, also as elements of understanding) then the All-published Era up to present days (which complicates the identification of major trends and historical perspectives). Contributions arising from the fields of Mathematics, Hydrology, Hydraulics, Friction modelling and Erosion modelling have gathered, intersected and intertwined across time, according to their order of appearance, the recognition, naming and exploration of the physical processes at play, the quest for knowledge, the operational objectives assigned to the scientists in the frame of civil and environmental engineering, and serendipity.Historical trends, key figures and turning or tilting points compose the comprehensive picture presented here as a historical fresco from which emerges a principle of organization with multiple secondary branches, either extinct (abandoned research paths) or of uncertain destiny (recent promising advances). However, the inverse chronological problem is ill-posed according to the definition given by the French mathematician Hadamard (1902), as moving backwards along the timeline makes you encounter several types of "topological" accidents, (i) non-scientific or poorly documented contributions, (ii) multiple sources of knowledge (iii) sudden changes of paradigm thus of predecessors.Leaning on hundreds of references, we propose an overall interpretation scheme with an original focus on the (underestimated) role of friction modelling.