Abstract
Shallow water waves are governed by a pair of non-linear partial differential equations. We transfer the associated homogeneous and non-homogeneous systems, (corresponding to constant and sloping depth, respectively), to the hodograph plane where we find all the non-simple wave solutions and construct infinitely many polynomial conservation laws. We also establish correspondence between conservation laws and hodograph solutions as well as Bäcklund transformations by using the linear nature of the problems on the hodogrpah plane.