We adapted the spatially distributed, tracer-aided model, STARR, to a permafrost-influenced catchment in the Yukon Territory, Canada, with a time-variable implementation of field capacity to capture thaw layer spatio-temporal dynamics. We applied a multi-criteria calibration with multi-year field data. This study demonstrates the value of the integration of isotope data in a spatially distributed model to quantify catchment water storage and age dynamics in a permafrost-influenced environment.

This study examines the evaporation sources of precipitation falling over the Yangtze River valley on China's east coast. The summer monsoon rainfall causes large seasonal and interannual variations which affect a large population. We found that evaporation from surrounding land regions is important, supplying more than half of the summertime precipitation. Extreme dry and wet summers are connected to contributions from specific land and ocean regions.

Flooding from rivers is a huge and costly problem worldwide. Computer simulations can help to warn people if and when they are likely to be affected by river floodwater, but such predictions are not always accurate or reliable. Information about flood extent from satellites can help to keep these forecasts on track. Here we investigate different ways of using information from satellite images and look at the effect on computer predictions. This will help to develop flood warning systems.

Paleovalleys often form productive aquifers in the semiarid and arid areas. A methodology based on deep learning is introduced to automatically generate high-resolution 3-D paleovalley maps from low-resolution electrical conductivity data derived from airborne geophysical surveys. It is validated by borehole logs and the surface valley indices that the proposed method in this study provides an effective tool for regional-scale paleovalley mapping and groundwater exploration.

We evaluated the system-scale understanding of the propagation of the oxygen isotope signal (δ¹⁸O) of rain through soil and xylem to leaf water in a temperate drought-prone grassland. Biweekly δ¹⁸O observations of the water pools made during seven growing seasons were accurately reproduced by the ¹⁸O-enabled process-based model MuSICA. While water uptake occurred from shallow soil depths throughout dry and wet periods, leaf water ¹⁸O enrichment responded to both soil and atmospheric moisture.

We find that Nash–Sutcliffe (NSE)-based model calibrations result in poor reproduction of high-flow events, such as the annual peak flows that are used for flood frequency estimation. The use of Kling–Gupta efficiency (KGE) results in annual peak flow estimates that are better than from NSE, with only a slight degradation in performance with respect to other related metrics.

This paper analyzes differences in the performance of the indirect and direct mapping method to derive 3-D soil hydraulic maps. Maps of saturated water content, field capacity and wilting point are presented for a 5775 km² catchment at 100 m resolution. Advantages and disadvantages of the two methods are discussed. The absolute difference in soil water retention values is less than 0.025 cm³ cm⁻³ between maps derived with indirect and direct methods for 65–86 % of the catchment.

Most commercial automatic rain samplers are costly and do not prevent evaporation from the collection bottles. Hence, we have developed a microcontroller-based collector enabling timer-actuated integral rain sampling. The simple, low-cost device is robust and effectively minimizes post-sampling evaporation. The excellent performance of the collector during an evaporation experiment in a lab oven suggests that even multi-week field deployments in warm climates are feasible.

This study investigates whether higher temporal and spatial resolution of rainfall can lead to improved model performance. Four rainfall datasets were used to drive lumped and distributed HBV models to simulate daily discharges. Results show that a higher temporal resolution of rainfall improves the model performance if the station density is high. A combination of observed high temporal resolution observations with disaggregated daily rainfall leads to further improvement of the tested models.

This study presents a comparison of flood properties over multiple Mediterranean and desert catchments. While in Mediterranean areas floods are related to rainfall amount, in deserts we observed a strong connection with the characteristics of the more intense part of storms. Because of the different mechanisms involved, despite having significantly shorter and more localized storms, deserts are able to produce floods with a magnitude comparable to Mediterranean areas.

River systems that support high biodiversity profiles are conservation priorities worldwide. Understanding river ecosystem thresholds to low-flow conditions is important for conservation practices. In this study, the groundwater components for a hydrological model were distributed to provide daily baseflow and streamflow estimates needed for reserve determination. The modelling approach was applied to a RAMSAR lake system under threat by agricultural expansion and climatic fluctuations.

The long-term study of precipitation, flows, flood or drought mechanisms, in the Réal Collobrier research Watershed, located in South-East France, in the Mediterranean forest, improves knowledge of the water cycle and is unique tool for understanding of how catchments function. This study shows a small decrease in rainfall and a marked tendency towards a decrease in the water resources of the catchment in response to climate trends, with a consistent increase in drought severity and duration.

This study presents an in-depth evaluation of the Intermediate Complexity Atmospheric Research (ICAR) model for high-resolution precipitation fields in complex topography. ICAR is evaluated with data from weather stations located in the Southern Alps of New Zealand. While ICAR underestimates rainfall amounts, it clearly improves over a coarser global model and shows potential to generate precipitation fields for long-term impact studies focused on the local impact of a changing global climate.

Hydrological forecasting allows hydropower system operators to make the most efficient use of the available water as possible. Accordingly, hydrologists have been aiming at improving the quality of these forecasts. This work looks at the impacts of improving systematic errors in a forecasting scheme on the hydropower generation using a few decision-aiding tools that are used operationally by hydropower utilities. We find that the impacts differ according to the hydropower system characteristics.

We find that the stable isotopic compositions of mobile and matrix bound soil water are continuously different over 8 months. Long-term data further show that these isotopic differences result from the refilling of small soil pores by isotopically depleted rains during low soil moisture conditions. Thus, subsurface water is not well mixed, but flow velocities and storage in soils are highly variable; this has important implications for ecohydrological studies and soil hydrological modeling.

Guayaquil, the commercial capital of Ecuador, is located along the Guayas River. The city is among the most vulnerable cities to future flooding ascribed to climate change. Fluvial sedimentation is seen as one of the factors contributing to flooding. This paper describes the dominant processes in the river and the effects of past interventions in the overall sediment budget. This is essential to plan and design effective mitigation measures to face the latent risk that threatens Guayaquil.

Tide–river dynamics play an essential role in large-scale river deltas as they exert a tremendous impact on delta morphodynamics, salt intrusion and deltaic ecosystems. For the first time, we illustrate that there is a critical river discharge, beyond which tidal damping is reduced with increasing river discharge, and we explore the underlying mechanism using an analytical model. The results are useful for guiding sustainable water management and sediment transport in tidal rivers.