Pseudo-potentials, nonlocal symmetries and integrability of some shallow water equations

Zero curvature formulations, pseudo-potentials, modified versions, ``Miura transformations'', and nonlocal symmetries of the Korteweg--de Vries, Camassa-- Holm and Hunter--Saxton equations are investigated from an unified point of view: these three equations belong to a two--parameters family of equations ``describing pseudo-spherical surfaces'', and therefore their basic integrability properties can be studied by geometrical means.