Articles | Volume 25, issue 7
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-25-4159-2021
© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-25-4159-2021
© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| 
22 Jul 2021
Research article |
| 22 Jul 2021
| 22 Jul 2021
Conditioning ensemble streamflow prediction with the North Atlantic Oscillation improves skill at longer lead times
Irish Climate Analysis and Research UnitS (ICARUS), Department of Geography, Maynooth University, Maynooth, Co. Kildare, Ireland
Conor Murphy
Irish Climate Analysis and Research UnitS (ICARUS), Department of Geography, Maynooth University, Maynooth, Co. Kildare, Ireland
Shaun Harrigan
Forecast Department, European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), Reading, UK
Ciaran Broderick
Flood Forecasting Division, Met Éireann, Dublin 9, Ireland
Dáire Foran Quinn
Irish Climate Analysis and Research UnitS (ICARUS), Department of Geography, Maynooth University, Maynooth, Co. Kildare, Ireland
Saeed Golian
Irish Climate Analysis and Research UnitS (ICARUS), Department of Geography, Maynooth University, Maynooth, Co. Kildare, Ireland
Jeff Knight
Met Office Hadley Centre, Exeter, UK
Tom Matthews
Department of Geography and Environment, Loughborough University, Loughborough, UK
Christel Prudhomme
Forecast Department, European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), Reading, UK
Department of Geography and Environment, Loughborough University, Loughborough, UK
UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH), Wallingford, UK
Adam A. Scaife
Met Office Hadley Centre, Exeter, UK
College of Engineering, Mathematics, and Physical Sciences, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK
Nicky Stringer
Met Office Hadley Centre, Exeter, UK
Robert L. Wilby
Department of Geography and Environment, Loughborough University, Loughborough, UK
Related authors
Simon Noone, Alison Brody, Sasha Brown, Niamh Cantwell, Martha Coleman, Louise Sarsfield Collins, Caoilfhionn Darcy, Dick Dee, Seán Donegan, Rowan Fealy, Padraig Flattery, Rhonda McGovern, Caspar Menkman, Michael Murphy, Christopher Phillips, Martina Roche, and Peter Thorne
Geosci. Commun., 2, 157–171, https://doi.org/10.5194/gc-2-157-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/gc-2-157-2019, 2019
Short summary
Short summary
The Global Land and Marine Observations Database aims to produce a comprehensive land-based meteorological data archive and inventory. Data sources contained stations in incorrect locations; therefore, we developed the Geo-locate project, enlisting the help of undergraduate geography students. The project has resolved 1926 station issues so far. Due to the success of the Geo-locate project, we encourage other organizations to engage university students to help resolve similar data issues.
Wilson Chan, Katie Facer-Childs, Maliko Tanguy, Eugene Magee, Burak Bulut, Nicky Stringer, Jeff Knight, and Jamie Hannaford
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-2369, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-2369, 2025
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Hydrology and Earth System Sciences (HESS).
Short summary
Short summary
The UK Hydrological Outlook river flow forecasting system recently implemented the Historic Weather Analogues method. The method improves winter river flow forecast skill across the UK, especially in upland, fast-responding catchments with low catchment storage. Forecast skill is highest in winter due to accurate prediction of atmospheric circulation patterns like the North Atlantic Oscillation. The Ensemble Streamflow prediction method remains a robust benchmark, especially for other seasons.
Katherine Egan, Calum Baugh, Rebecca Emerton, Christel Prudhomme, Daniele Castellana, and Sebongile Hlubi
Abstr. Int. Cartogr. Assoc., 9, 8, https://doi.org/10.5194/ica-abs-9-8-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/ica-abs-9-8-2025, 2025
Gwyneth Matthews, Hannah L. Cloke, Sarah L. Dance, and Christel Prudhomme
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2024-3989, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2024-3989, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
Forecasts provide information crucial for managing floods and for water resource planning, but they often have errors. “Post-processing” reduces these errors but is usually only applied at river gauges, leaving areas without gauges uncorrected. We developed a new method that uses spatial information contained within the forecast to spread information about the errors from gauged locations to ungauged areas. Our results show that the method successfully makes river forecasts more accurate.
Aleena M. Jaison, Lesley J. Gray, Scott M. Osprey, Jeff R. Knight, and Martin B. Andrews
Weather Clim. Dynam., 5, 1489–1504, https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-5-1489-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-5-1489-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Models have biases in semi-annual oscillation (SAO) representation, mainly due to insufficient eastward wave forcing. We examined if the bias is from increased wave absorption due to circulation biases in the low–middle stratosphere. Alleviating biases at lower altitudes improves the SAO, but substantial bias remains. Alternative methods like gravity wave parameterization changes should be explored to enhance the modelled SAO, potentially improving sudden stratospheric warming predictability.
Maximillian Van Wyk de Vries, Tom Matthews, L. Baker Perry, Nirakar Thapa, and Rob Wilby
Geosci. Model Dev., 17, 7629–7643, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-7629-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-7629-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
This paper introduces the AtsMOS workflow, a new tool for improving weather forecasts in mountainous areas. By combining advanced statistical techniques with local weather data, AtsMOS can provide more accurate predictions of weather conditions. Using data from Mount Everest as an example, AtsMOS has shown promise in better forecasting hazardous weather conditions, making it a valuable tool for communities in mountainous regions and beyond.
Margarita Choulga, Francesca Moschini, Cinzia Mazzetti, Stefania Grimaldi, Juliana Disperati, Hylke Beck, Peter Salamon, and Christel Prudhomme
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 28, 2991–3036, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-2991-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-2991-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
CEMS_SurfaceFields_2022 dataset is a new set of high-resolution maps for land type (e.g. lake, forest), soil properties and population water needs at approximately 2 and 6 km at the Equator, covering Europe and the globe (excluding Antarctica). We describe what and how new high-resolution information can be used to create the dataset. The paper suggests that the dataset can be used as input for river, weather or other models, as well as for statistical descriptions of the region of interest.
Lisa Degenhardt, Gregor C. Leckebusch, and Adam A. Scaife
Weather Clim. Dynam., 5, 587–607, https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-5-587-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-5-587-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
This study investigates how dynamical factors that are known to influence cyclone or windstorm development and strengthening also influence the seasonal forecast skill of severe winter windstorms. This study shows which factors are well represented in the seasonal forecast model, the Global Seasonal forecasting system version 5 (GloSea5), and which might need improvement to refine the forecast of severe winter windstorms.
Larissa van der Laan, Anouk Vlug, Adam A. Scaife, Fabien Maussion, and Kristian Förster
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-387, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-387, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Usually, glacier models are supplied with climate information from long (e.g. 100 year) simulations by global climate models. In this paper, we test the feasibility of supplying glacier models with shorter simulations, to get more accurate information on 5–10 year time scales. Reliable information on these time scales is very important, especially for water management experts to know how much meltwater to expect, for rivers, agriculture and drinking water.
Matthew D. K. Priestley, David B. Stephenson, Adam A. Scaife, Daniel Bannister, Christopher J. T. Allen, and David Wilkie
Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 23, 3845–3861, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-23-3845-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-23-3845-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
This research presents a model for estimating extreme gusts associated with European windstorms. Using observed storm footprints we are able to calculate the return level of events at the 200-year return period. The largest gusts are found across NW Europe, and these are larger when the North Atlantic Oscillation is positive. Using theoretical future climate states we find that return levels are likely to increase across NW Europe to levels that are unprecedented compared to historical storms.
Louise J. Slater, Louise Arnal, Marie-Amélie Boucher, Annie Y.-Y. Chang, Simon Moulds, Conor Murphy, Grey Nearing, Guy Shalev, Chaopeng Shen, Linda Speight, Gabriele Villarini, Robert L. Wilby, Andrew Wood, and Massimiliano Zappa
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 27, 1865–1889, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-27-1865-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-27-1865-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
Hybrid forecasting systems combine data-driven methods with physics-based weather and climate models to improve the accuracy of predictions for meteorological and hydroclimatic events such as rainfall, temperature, streamflow, floods, droughts, tropical cyclones, or atmospheric rivers. We review recent developments in hybrid forecasting and outline key challenges and opportunities in the field.
Philip E. Bett, Adam A. Scaife, Steven C. Hardiman, Hazel E. Thornton, Xiaocen Shen, Lin Wang, and Bo Pang
Weather Clim. Dynam., 4, 213–228, https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-4-213-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-4-213-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
Sudden-stratospheric-warming (SSW) events can severely affect the subsequent weather at the surface. We use a large ensemble of climate model hindcasts to investigate features of the climate that make strong impacts more likely through negative NAO conditions. This allows a more robust assessment than using observations alone. Air pressure over the Arctic prior to an SSW and the zonal-mean zonal wind in the lower stratosphere have the strongest relationship with the subsequent NAO response.
Katherine Dooley, Ciaran Kelly, Natascha Seifert, Therese Myslinski, Sophie O'Kelly, Rushna Siraj, Ciara Crosby, Jack Kevin Dunne, Kate McCauley, James Donoghue, Eoin Gaddren, Daniel Conway, Jordan Cooney, Niamh McCarthy, Eoin Cullen, Simon Noone, Conor Murphy, and Peter Thorne
Clim. Past, 19, 1–22, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-19-1-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-19-1-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
The highest currently recognised air temperature (33.3 °C) ever recorded in the Republic of Ireland was logged at Kilkenny Castle in 1887. This paper reassesses the plausibility of the record using various methods such as inter-station reassessment and 20CRv3 reanalysis. As a result, Boora 1976 at 32.5 °C is presented as a more reliable high-temperature record for the Republic of Ireland. The final decision however rests with the national meteorological service, Met Éireann.
Shaun Harrigan, Ervin Zsoter, Hannah Cloke, Peter Salamon, and Christel Prudhomme
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 27, 1–19, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-27-1-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-27-1-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
Real-time river discharge forecasts and reforecasts from the Global Flood Awareness System (GloFAS) have been made publicly available, together with an evaluation of forecast skill at the global scale. Results show that GloFAS is skillful in over 93 % of catchments in the short (1–3 d) and medium range (5–15 d) and skillful in over 80 % of catchments in the extended lead time (16–30 d). Skill is summarised in a new layer on the GloFAS Web Map Viewer to aid decision-making.
Kieran M. R. Hunt, Gwyneth R. Matthews, Florian Pappenberger, and Christel Prudhomme
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 26, 5449–5472, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-5449-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-5449-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
In this study, we use three models to forecast river streamflow operationally for 13 months (September 2020 to October 2021) at 10 gauges in the western US. The first model is a state-of-the-art physics-based streamflow model (GloFAS). The second applies a bias-correction technique to GloFAS. The third is a type of neural network (an LSTM). We find that all three are capable of producing skilful forecasts but that the LSTM performs the best, with skilful 5 d forecasts at nine stations.
Peter Hitchcock, Amy Butler, Andrew Charlton-Perez, Chaim I. Garfinkel, Tim Stockdale, James Anstey, Dann Mitchell, Daniela I. V. Domeisen, Tongwen Wu, Yixiong Lu, Daniele Mastrangelo, Piero Malguzzi, Hai Lin, Ryan Muncaster, Bill Merryfield, Michael Sigmond, Baoqiang Xiang, Liwei Jia, Yu-Kyung Hyun, Jiyoung Oh, Damien Specq, Isla R. Simpson, Jadwiga H. Richter, Cory Barton, Jeff Knight, Eun-Pa Lim, and Harry Hendon
Geosci. Model Dev., 15, 5073–5092, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-5073-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-5073-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
This paper describes an experimental protocol focused on sudden stratospheric warmings to be carried out by subseasonal forecast modeling centers. These will allow for inter-model comparisons of these major disruptions to the stratospheric polar vortex and their impacts on the near-surface flow. The protocol will lead to new insights into the contribution of the stratosphere to subseasonal forecast skill and new approaches to the dynamical attribution of extreme events.
Gwyneth Matthews, Christopher Barnard, Hannah Cloke, Sarah L. Dance, Toni Jurlina, Cinzia Mazzetti, and Christel Prudhomme
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 26, 2939–2968, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-2939-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-2939-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
The European Flood Awareness System creates flood forecasts for up to 15 d in the future for the whole of Europe which are made available to local authorities. These forecasts can be erroneous because the weather forecasts include errors or because the hydrological model used does not represent the flow in the rivers correctly. We found that, by using recent observations and a model trained with past observations and forecasts, the real-time forecast can be corrected, thus becoming more useful.
Samuel O. Awe, Martin Mahony, Edley Michaud, Conor Murphy, Simon J. Noone, Victor K. C. Venema, Thomas G. Thorne, and Peter W. Thorne
Clim. Past, 18, 793–820, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-793-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-793-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
We unearth and analyse 2 decades of highly valuable measurements made on Mauritius at the Royal Alfred Observatory, where several distinct thermometer combinations were in use and compared, at the turn of the 20th century. This series provides unique insights into biases in early instrumental temperature records. Differences are substantial and for some instruments exhibit strong seasonality. This reinforces the critical importance of understanding early instrumental series biases.
Andy Jones, Jim M. Haywood, Adam A. Scaife, Olivier Boucher, Matthew Henry, Ben Kravitz, Thibaut Lurton, Pierre Nabat, Ulrike Niemeier, Roland Séférian, Simone Tilmes, and Daniele Visioni
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 2999–3016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-2999-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-2999-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Simulations by six Earth-system models of geoengineering by introducing sulfuric acid aerosols into the tropical stratosphere are compared. A robust impact on the northern wintertime North Atlantic Oscillation is found, exacerbating precipitation reduction over parts of southern Europe. In contrast, the models show no consistency with regard to impacts on the Quasi-Biennial Oscillation, although results do indicate a risk that the oscillation could become locked into a permanent westerly phase.
Adam A. Scaife, Mark P. Baldwin, Amy H. Butler, Andrew J. Charlton-Perez, Daniela I. V. Domeisen, Chaim I. Garfinkel, Steven C. Hardiman, Peter Haynes, Alexey Yu Karpechko, Eun-Pa Lim, Shunsuke Noguchi, Judith Perlwitz, Lorenzo Polvani, Jadwiga H. Richter, John Scinocca, Michael Sigmond, Theodore G. Shepherd, Seok-Woo Son, and David W. J. Thompson
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 2601–2623, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-2601-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-2601-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Great progress has been made in computer modelling and simulation of the whole climate system, including the stratosphere. Since the late 20th century we also gained a much clearer understanding of how the stratosphere interacts with the lower atmosphere. The latest generation of numerical prediction systems now explicitly represents the stratosphere and its interaction with surface climate, and here we review its role in long-range predictions and projections from weeks to decades ahead.
Hadush Meresa, Conor Murphy, Rowan Fealy, and Saeed Golian
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 25, 5237–5257, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-25-5237-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-25-5237-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
The assessment of future impacts of climate change is associated with a cascade of uncertainty linked to the modelling chain employed in assessing local-scale changes. Understanding and quantifying this cascade is essential for developing effective adaptation actions. We find that not only do the contributions of different sources of uncertainty vary by catchment, but that the dominant sources of uncertainty can be very different on a catchment-by-catchment basis.
Joaquín Muñoz-Sabater, Emanuel Dutra, Anna Agustí-Panareda, Clément Albergel, Gabriele Arduini, Gianpaolo Balsamo, Souhail Boussetta, Margarita Choulga, Shaun Harrigan, Hans Hersbach, Brecht Martens, Diego G. Miralles, María Piles, Nemesio J. Rodríguez-Fernández, Ervin Zsoter, Carlo Buontempo, and Jean-Noël Thépaut
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 13, 4349–4383, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-4349-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-4349-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
The creation of ERA5-Land responds to a growing number of applications requiring global land datasets at a resolution higher than traditionally reached. ERA5-Land provides operational, global, and hourly key variables of the water and energy cycles over land surfaces, at 9 km resolution, from 1981 until the present. This work provides evidence of an overall improvement of the water cycle compared to previous reanalyses, whereas the energy cycle variables perform as well as those of ERA5.
Louise J. Slater, Bailey Anderson, Marcus Buechel, Simon Dadson, Shasha Han, Shaun Harrigan, Timo Kelder, Katie Kowal, Thomas Lees, Tom Matthews, Conor Murphy, and Robert L. Wilby
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 25, 3897–3935, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-25-3897-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-25-3897-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
Weather and water extremes have devastating effects each year. One of the principal challenges for society is understanding how extremes are likely to evolve under the influence of changes in climate, land cover, and other human impacts. This paper provides a review of the methods and challenges associated with the detection, attribution, management, and projection of nonstationary weather and water extremes.
Shaun Harrigan, Ervin Zsoter, Lorenzo Alfieri, Christel Prudhomme, Peter Salamon, Fredrik Wetterhall, Christopher Barnard, Hannah Cloke, and Florian Pappenberger
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 12, 2043–2060, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-2043-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-2043-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
A new river discharge reanalysis dataset is produced operationally by coupling ECMWF's latest global atmospheric reanalysis, ERA5, with the hydrological modelling component of the Global Flood Awareness System (GloFAS). The GloFAS-ERA5 reanalysis is a global gridded dataset with a horizontal resolution of 0.1° at a daily time step and is freely available from 1979 until near real time. The evaluation against observations shows that the GloFAS-ERA5 reanalysis was skilful in 86 % of catchments.
Paolo De Luca, Gabriele Messori, Robert L. Wilby, Maurizio Mazzoleni, and Giuliano Di Baldassarre
Earth Syst. Dynam., 11, 251–266, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-11-251-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-11-251-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
We show that floods and droughts can co-occur in time across remote regions on the globe and introduce metrics that can help in quantifying concurrent wet and dry hydrological extremes. We then link wet–dry extremes to major modes of climate variability (i.e. ENSO, PDO, and AMO) and provide their spatial patterns. Such concurrent extreme hydrological events may pose risks to regional hydropower production and agricultural yields.
Lucy J. Barker, Jamie Hannaford, Simon Parry, Katie A. Smith, Maliko Tanguy, and Christel Prudhomme
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 23, 4583–4602, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-23-4583-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-23-4583-2019, 2019
Short summary
Short summary
It is important to understand historic droughts in order to plan and prepare for possible future events. In this study we use the standardised streamflow index for 1891–2015 to systematically identify, characterise and rank hydrological drought events for 108 near-natural UK catchments. Results show when and where the most severe events occurred and describe events of the early 20th century, providing catchment-scale detail important for both science and planning applications of the future.
Simon Noone, Alison Brody, Sasha Brown, Niamh Cantwell, Martha Coleman, Louise Sarsfield Collins, Caoilfhionn Darcy, Dick Dee, Seán Donegan, Rowan Fealy, Padraig Flattery, Rhonda McGovern, Caspar Menkman, Michael Murphy, Christopher Phillips, Martina Roche, and Peter Thorne
Geosci. Commun., 2, 157–171, https://doi.org/10.5194/gc-2-157-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/gc-2-157-2019, 2019
Short summary
Short summary
The Global Land and Marine Observations Database aims to produce a comprehensive land-based meteorological data archive and inventory. Data sources contained stations in incorrect locations; therefore, we developed the Geo-locate project, enlisting the help of undergraduate geography students. The project has resolved 1926 station issues so far. Due to the success of the Geo-locate project, we encourage other organizations to engage university students to help resolve similar data issues.
Eric Sauquet, Bastien Richard, Alexandre Devers, and Christel Prudhomme
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 23, 3683–3710, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-23-3683-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-23-3683-2019, 2019
Short summary
Short summary
This study aims to identify catchments and the associated water uses vulnerable to climate change. Vulnerability is considered here to be the likelihood of water restrictions which are unacceptable for agricultural uses. This study provides the first regional analysis of the stated water restrictions, highlighting heterogeneous decision-making processes; data from a national system of compensation to farmers for uninsurable damages were used to characterize past failure events.
Katie A. Smith, Lucy J. Barker, Maliko Tanguy, Simon Parry, Shaun Harrigan, Tim P. Legg, Christel Prudhomme, and Jamie Hannaford
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 23, 3247–3268, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-23-3247-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-23-3247-2019, 2019
Short summary
Short summary
This paper describes the multi-objective calibration approach used to create a consistent dataset of reconstructed daily river flow data for 303 catchments in the UK over 1891–2015. The modelled data perform well when compared to observations, including in the timing and the classification of drought events. This method and data will allow for long-term studies of flow trends and past extreme events that have not been previously possible, enabling water managers to better plan for the future.
Louise J. Slater, Guillaume Thirel, Shaun Harrigan, Olivier Delaigue, Alexander Hurley, Abdou Khouakhi, Ilaria Prosdocimi, Claudia Vitolo, and Katie Smith
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 23, 2939–2963, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-23-2939-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-23-2939-2019, 2019
Short summary
Short summary
This paper explores the benefits and advantages of R's usage in hydrology. We provide an overview of a typical hydrological workflow based on reproducible principles and packages for retrieval of hydro-meteorological data, spatial analysis, hydrological modelling, statistics, and the design of static and dynamic visualizations and documents. We discuss some of the challenges that arise when using R in hydrology as well as a roadmap for R’s future within the discipline.
Lila Collet, Shaun Harrigan, Christel Prudhomme, Giuseppe Formetta, and Lindsay Beevers
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 22, 5387–5401, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-5387-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-5387-2018, 2018
Short summary
Short summary
Floods and droughts cause significant damages and pose risks to lives worldwide. In a climate change context this work identifies hotspots across Great Britain, i.e. places expected to be impacted by an increase in floods and droughts. By the 2080s the western coast of England and Wales and northeastern Scotland would experience more floods in winter and droughts in autumn, with a higher increase in drought hazard, showing a need to adapt water management policies in light of climate change.
Rebecca Emerton, Ervin Zsoter, Louise Arnal, Hannah L. Cloke, Davide Muraro, Christel Prudhomme, Elisabeth M. Stephens, Peter Salamon, and Florian Pappenberger
Geosci. Model Dev., 11, 3327–3346, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-11-3327-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-11-3327-2018, 2018
Short summary
Short summary
Global overviews of upcoming flood and drought events are key for many applications from agriculture to disaster risk reduction. Seasonal forecasts are designed to provide early indications of such events weeks or even months in advance. This paper introduces GloFAS-Seasonal, the first operational global-scale seasonal hydro-meteorological forecasting system producing openly available forecasts of high and low river flow out to 4 months ahead.
Maliko Tanguy, Christel Prudhomme, Katie Smith, and Jamie Hannaford
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 10, 951–968, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-10-951-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-10-951-2018, 2018
Short summary
Short summary
Potential evapotranspiration (PET) is necessary input data for most hydrological models, used to simulate river flows. To reconstruct PET prior to the 1960s, simplified methods are needed because of lack of climate data required for complex methods. We found that the McGuinness–Bordne PET equation, which only needs temperature as input data, works best for the UK provided it is calibrated for local conditions. This method was used to produce a 5 km gridded PET dataset for the UK for 1891–2015.
Louise Arnal, Hannah L. Cloke, Elisabeth Stephens, Fredrik Wetterhall, Christel Prudhomme, Jessica Neumann, Blazej Krzeminski, and Florian Pappenberger
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 22, 2057–2072, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-2057-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-2057-2018, 2018
Short summary
Short summary
This paper presents a new operational forecasting system (driven by atmospheric forecasts), predicting river flow in European rivers for the next 7 months. For the first month only, these river flow forecasts are, on average, better than predictions that do not make use of atmospheric forecasts. Overall, this forecasting system can predict whether abnormally high or low river flows will occur in the next 7 months in many parts of Europe, and could be valuable for various applications.
Shaun Harrigan, Christel Prudhomme, Simon Parry, Katie Smith, and Maliko Tanguy
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 22, 2023–2039, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-2023-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-2023-2018, 2018
Short summary
Short summary
We benchmarked when and where ensemble streamflow prediction (ESP) is skilful in the UK across a diverse set of 314 catchments. We found ESP was skilful in the majority of catchments across all lead times up to a year ahead, but the degree of skill was strongly conditional on lead time, forecast initialization month, and individual catchment location and storage properties. Results have practical implications for current operational use of the ESP method in the UK.
Conor Murphy, Ciaran Broderick, Timothy P. Burt, Mary Curley, Catriona Duffy, Julia Hall, Shaun Harrigan, Tom K. R. Matthews, Neil Macdonald, Gerard McCarthy, Mark P. McCarthy, Donal Mullan, Simon Noone, Timothy J. Osborn, Ciara Ryan, John Sweeney, Peter W. Thorne, Seamus Walsh, and Robert L. Wilby
Clim. Past, 14, 413–440, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-14-413-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-14-413-2018, 2018
Short summary
Short summary
This work reconstructs a continuous 305-year rainfall record for Ireland. The series reveals remarkable variability in decadal rainfall – far in excess of the typical period of digitised data. Notably, the series sheds light on exceptionally wet winters in the 1730s and wet summers in the 1750s. The derived record, one of the longest continuous series in Europe, offers a firm basis for benchmarking other long-term records and reconstructions of past climate both locally and across Europe.
Neal Butchart, James A. Anstey, Kevin Hamilton, Scott Osprey, Charles McLandress, Andrew C. Bushell, Yoshio Kawatani, Young-Ha Kim, Francois Lott, John Scinocca, Timothy N. Stockdale, Martin Andrews, Omar Bellprat, Peter Braesicke, Chiara Cagnazzo, Chih-Chieh Chen, Hye-Yeong Chun, Mikhail Dobrynin, Rolando R. Garcia, Javier Garcia-Serrano, Lesley J. Gray, Laura Holt, Tobias Kerzenmacher, Hiroaki Naoe, Holger Pohlmann, Jadwiga H. Richter, Adam A. Scaife, Verena Schenzinger, Federico Serva, Stefan Versick, Shingo Watanabe, Kohei Yoshida, and Seiji Yukimoto
Geosci. Model Dev., 11, 1009–1032, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-11-1009-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-11-1009-2018, 2018
Short summary
Short summary
This paper documents the numerical experiments to be used in phase 1 of the Stratosphere–troposphere Processes And their Role in Climate (SPARC) Quasi-Biennial Oscillation initiative (QBOi), which was set up to improve the representation of the QBO and tropical stratospheric variability in global climate models.
Kristian Förster, Florian Hanzer, Elena Stoll, Adam A. Scaife, Craig MacLachlan, Johannes Schöber, Matthias Huttenlau, Stefan Achleitner, and Ulrich Strasser
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 22, 1157–1173, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-1157-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-1157-2018, 2018
Short summary
Short summary
This article presents predictability analyses of snow accumulation for the upcoming winter season. The results achieved using two coupled atmosphere–ocean general circulation models and a water balance model show that the tendency of snow water equivalent anomalies (i.e. the sign of anomalies) is correctly predicted in up to 11 of 13 years. The results suggest that some seasonal predictions may be capable of predicting tendencies of hydrological model storages in parts of Europe.
Victoria A. Bell, Helen N. Davies, Alison L. Kay, Anca Brookshaw, and Adam A. Scaife
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 21, 4681–4691, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-21-4681-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-21-4681-2017, 2017
Short summary
Short summary
The research presented here provides the first evaluation of the skill of a seasonal hydrological forecast for the UK. The forecast scheme combines rainfall forecasts from the Met Office GloSea5 forecast system with a national-scale hydrological model to provide estimates of river flows 1 to 3 months ahead. The skill in the combined model is assessed for different seasons and regions of Britain, and the analysis indicates that Autumn/Winter flows can be forecast with reasonable confidence.
Katja Matthes, Bernd Funke, Monika E. Andersson, Luke Barnard, Jürg Beer, Paul Charbonneau, Mark A. Clilverd, Thierry Dudok de Wit, Margit Haberreiter, Aaron Hendry, Charles H. Jackman, Matthieu Kretzschmar, Tim Kruschke, Markus Kunze, Ulrike Langematz, Daniel R. Marsh, Amanda C. Maycock, Stergios Misios, Craig J. Rodger, Adam A. Scaife, Annika Seppälä, Ming Shangguan, Miriam Sinnhuber, Kleareti Tourpali, Ilya Usoskin, Max van de Kamp, Pekka T. Verronen, and Stefan Versick
Geosci. Model Dev., 10, 2247–2302, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-10-2247-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-10-2247-2017, 2017
Short summary
Short summary
The solar forcing dataset for climate model experiments performed for the upcoming IPCC report is described. This dataset provides the radiative and particle input of solar variability on a daily basis from 1850 through to 2300. With this dataset a better representation of natural climate variability with respect to the output of the Sun is provided which provides the most sophisticated and comprehensive respresentation of solar variability that has been used in climate model simulations so far.
Gregor Laaha, Tobias Gauster, Lena M. Tallaksen, Jean-Philippe Vidal, Kerstin Stahl, Christel Prudhomme, Benedikt Heudorfer, Radek Vlnas, Monica Ionita, Henny A. J. Van Lanen, Mary-Jeanne Adler, Laurie Caillouet, Claire Delus, Miriam Fendekova, Sebastien Gailliez, Jamie Hannaford, Daniel Kingston, Anne F. Van Loon, Luis Mediero, Marzena Osuch, Renata Romanowicz, Eric Sauquet, James H. Stagge, and Wai K. Wong
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 21, 3001–3024, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-21-3001-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-21-3001-2017, 2017
Short summary
Short summary
In 2015 large parts of Europe were affected by a drought. In terms of low flow magnitude, a region around the Czech Republic was most affected, with return periods > 100 yr. In terms of deficit volumes, the drought was particularly severe around S. Germany where the event lasted notably long. Meteorological and hydrological events developed differently in space and time. For an assessment of drought impacts on water resources, hydrological data are required in addition to meteorological indices.
Daniel Green, Dapeng Yu, Ian Pattison, Robert Wilby, Lee Bosher, Ramila Patel, Philip Thompson, Keith Trowell, Julia Draycon, Martin Halse, Lili Yang, and Tim Ryley
Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 17, 1–16, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-17-1-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-17-1-2017, 2017
Short summary
Short summary
This paper demonstrates a novel method of evaluating emergency responder accessibility at the city scale during fluvial and surface water flood events of varying magnitudes. Results suggest that surface water flood events within the city of Leicester, UK, may cause more disruption to emergency responders when compared to fluvial flood events of the same magnitude. This study provides evidence to guide strategic planning for decision makers prior to and during flood events.
Simon Parry, Robert L. Wilby, Christel Prudhomme, and Paul J. Wood
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 20, 4265–4281, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-20-4265-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-20-4265-2016, 2016
Short summary
Short summary
This paper identifies periods of recovery from drought in 52 river flow records from the UK between 1883 and 2013. The approach detects 459 events that vary in space and time. This large dataset allows individual events to be compared with others in the historical record. The ability to objectively appraise contemporary events against the historical record has not previously been possible, and may allow water managers to prepare for a range of outcomes at the end of a drought.
J. Armstrong, R. Wilby, and R. J. Nicholls
Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 15, 2511–2524, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-15-2511-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-15-2511-2015, 2015
Short summary
Short summary
A criterion to categorise climate change adaptation frameworks is presented denoting characteristics of three key frameworks established in the literature: scenario–led, decision-centric and vulnerability–led. Applying the criterion, the usability of frameworks is examined in coastal Suffolk. Results indicate adaptation frameworks established in the literature are not utilised in isolation in everyday practice. In reality, hybrid approaches are utilised to overcome aspects of framework weakness.
A. Chiverton, J. Hannaford, I. P. Holman, R. Corstanje, C. Prudhomme, T. M. Hess, and J. P. Bloomfield
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 19, 2395–2408, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-19-2395-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-19-2395-2015, 2015
Short summary
Short summary
Current hydrological change detection methods are subject to a host of limitations. This paper develops a new method, temporally shifting variograms (TSVs), which characterises variability in the river flow regime using several parameters, changes in which can then be attributed to precipitation characteristics. We demonstrate the use of the method through application to 94 UK catchments, showing that periods of extremes as well as more subtle changes can be detected.
I. Giuntoli, J.-P. Vidal, C. Prudhomme, and D. M. Hannah
Earth Syst. Dynam., 6, 267–285, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-6-267-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-6-267-2015, 2015
Short summary
Short summary
We assessed future changes in high and low flows globally using runoff projections from global hydrological models (GHMs) driven by global climate models (GCMs) under the RCP8.5 scenario. Further, we quantified the relative size of uncertainty from GHMs and from GCMs using ANOVA. We show that GCMs are the major contributors to uncertainty overall, but GHMs increase their contribution for low flows and can equal or outweigh GCM uncertainty in snow-dominated areas for both high and low flows.
J. Crossman, M. N. Futter, P. G. Whitehead, E. Stainsby, H. M. Baulch, L. Jin, S. K. Oni, R. L. Wilby, and P. J. Dillon
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 18, 5125–5148, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-18-5125-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-18-5125-2014, 2014
Short summary
Short summary
We projected potential hydrochemical responses in four neighbouring catchments to a range of future climates. The highly variable responses in streamflow and total phosphorus (TP) were governed by geology and flow pathways, where larger catchment responses were proportional to greater soil clay content. This suggests clay content might be used as an indicator of catchment sensitivity to climate change, and highlights the need for catchment-specific management plans.
B. Merz, J. Aerts, K. Arnbjerg-Nielsen, M. Baldi, A. Becker, A. Bichet, G. Blöschl, L. M. Bouwer, A. Brauer, F. Cioffi, J. M. Delgado, M. Gocht, F. Guzzetti, S. Harrigan, K. Hirschboeck, C. Kilsby, W. Kron, H.-H. Kwon, U. Lall, R. Merz, K. Nissen, P. Salvatti, T. Swierczynski, U. Ulbrich, A. Viglione, P. J. Ward, M. Weiler, B. Wilhelm, and M. Nied
Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 14, 1921–1942, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-14-1921-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-14-1921-2014, 2014
S. Harrigan, C. Murphy, J. Hall, R. L. Wilby, and J. Sweeney
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 18, 1935–1952, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-18-1935-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-18-1935-2014, 2014
R. L. Wilby and D. Yu
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 17, 3937–3955, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-17-3937-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-17-3937-2013, 2013
C. Prudhomme and J. Williamson
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 17, 1365–1377, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-17-1365-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-17-1365-2013, 2013
C. Prudhomme, T. Haxton, S. Crooks, C. Jackson, A. Barkwith, J. Williamson, J. Kelvin, J. Mackay, L. Wang, A. Young, and G. Watts
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 5, 101–107, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-5-101-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-5-101-2013, 2013
Related subject area
Subject: Catchment hydrology | Techniques and Approaches: Modelling approaches
Assessing the adequacy of traditional hydrological models for climate change impact studies: a case for long short-term memory (LSTM) neural networks
Assessing the value of high-resolution data and parameter transferability across temporal scales in hydrological modeling: a case study in northern China
Technical note: How many models do we need to simulate hydrologic processes across large geographical domains?
CONCN: a high-resolution, integrated surface water–groundwater ParFlow modeling platform of continental China
Evaluating the effects of topography and land use change on hydrological signatures: a comparative study of two adjacent watersheds
Technical note: What does the Standardized Streamflow Index actually reflect? Insights and implications for hydrological drought analysis
Long short-term memory networks for enhancing real-time flood forecasts: a case study for an underperforming hydrologic model
Assessing the value of high-resolution rainfall and streamflow data for hydrological modeling: an analysis based on 63 catchments in southeast China
Catchments do not strictly follow Budyko curves over multiple decades, but deviations are minor and predictable
Scale dependency in modeling nivo-glacial hydrological systems: the case of the Arolla basin, Switzerland
Extended-range forecasting of stream water temperature with deep-learning models
Technical note: An approach for handling multiple temporal frequencies with different input dimensions using a single LSTM cell
Projections of streamflow intermittence under climate change in European drying river networks
Economic valuation of subsurface water contributions to watershed ecosystem services using a fully integrated groundwater–surface-water model
Analyzing the generalization capabilities of a hybrid hydrological model for extrapolation to extreme events
CH-RUN: a deep-learning-based spatially contiguous runoff reconstruction for Switzerland
Runoff component quantification and future streamflow projection in a large mountainous basin based on a multidata-constrained cryospheric–hydrological model
Multi-variable process-based calibration of a behavioural hydrological model
Exploring the potential processes controlling changes in precipitation–runoff relationships in non-stationary environments
A diversity-centric strategy for the selection of spatio-temporal training data for LSTM-based streamflow forecasting
Simulating the Tone River eastward diversion project in Japan carried out 4 centuries ago
Lack of robustness of hydrological models: a large-sample diagnosis and an attempt to identify hydrological and climatic drivers
Achieving water budget closure through physical hydrological process modelling: insights from a large-sample study
Heavy-tailed flood peak distributions: what is the effect of the spatial variability of rainfall and runoff generation?
A Distributed Hybrid Physics-AI Framework for Learning Corrections of Internal Hydrological Fluxes and Enhancing High-Resolution Regionalized Flood Modeling
State updating of the Xin'anjiang model: joint assimilating streamflow and multi-source soil moisture data via the asynchronous ensemble Kalman filter with enhanced error models
Improving the hydrological consistency of a process-based solute-transport model by simultaneous calibration of streamflow and stream concentrations
Leveraging soil diversity to mitigate hydrological extremes with nature-based solutions in productive catchments
Leveraging a time-series event separation method to disentangle time-varying hydrologic controls on streamflow – application to wildfire-affected catchments
The significance of the leaf area index for evapotranspiration estimation in SWAT-T for characteristic land cover types of West Africa
Improved representation of soil moisture processes through incorporation of cosmic-ray neutron count measurements in a large-scale hydrologic model
Spatio-temporal patterns and trends of streamflow in water-scarce Mediterranean basins
A large-sample modelling approach towards integrating streamflow and evaporation data for the Spanish catchments
Seasonal variation in land cover estimates reveals sensitivities and opportunities for environmental models
Soil moisture and precipitation intensity control the transit time distribution of quick flow in a flashy headwater catchment
Estimating response times, flow velocities, and roughness coefficients of Canadian Prairie basins
Learning landscape features from streamflow with autoencoders
Hydrological regime index for non-perennial rivers
Constraining pesticide degradation in conceptual distributed catchment models with compound-specific isotope analysis (CSIA)
On the use of streamflow transformations for hydrological model calibration
Unveiling the Impact of Potential Evapotranspiration Method Selection on Trends in Hydrological Cycle Components Across Europe
Simulation-based inference for parameter estimation of complex watershed simulators
Comparative Hydrological Modeling of Snow-Cover and Frozen Ground Impacts Under Topographically Complex Conditions
Multi-scale soil moisture data and process-based modeling reveal the importance of lateral groundwater flow in a subarctic catchment
Catchment response to climatic variability: implications for root zone storage and streamflow predictions
Hybrid hydrological modeling for large alpine basins: a semi-distributed approach
Controls on spatial and temporal variability of soil moisture across a heterogeneous boreal forest landscape
Where can rewetting of forested peatland reduce extreme flows?
Karst aquifer discharge response to rainfall interpreted as anomalous transport
HESS Opinions: Never train a Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) network on a single basin
Jean-Luc Martel, François Brissette, Richard Arsenault, Richard Turcotte, Mariana Castañeda-Gonzalez, William Armstrong, Edouard Mailhot, Jasmine Pelletier-Dumont, Gabriel Rondeau-Genesse, and Louis-Philippe Caron
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 29, 2811–2836, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-2811-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-2811-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
This study compares long short-term memory (LSTM) neural networks with traditional hydrological models to predict future streamflow under climate change. Using data from 148 catchments, it finds that LSTM models, which learn from extensive data sequences, perform differently and often better than traditional hydrological models. The continental LSTM model, which includes data from diverse climate zones, is particularly effective for understanding climate impacts on water resources.
Mahmut Tudaji, Yi Nan, and Fuqiang Tian
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 29, 2633–2654, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-2633-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-2633-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
We assessed the value of high-resolution data and parameter transferability across temporal scales based on seven catchments in northern China. We found that higher-resolution data do not always improve model performance, questioning the need for such data. Model parameters are transferable across different data resolutions but not across computational time steps. It is recommended to utilize a smaller computational time step when building hydrological models even without high-resolution data.
Wouter J. M. Knoben, Ashwin Raman, Gaby J. Gründemann, Mukesh Kumar, Alain Pietroniro, Chaopeng Shen, Yalan Song, Cyril Thébault, Katie van Werkhoven, Andrew W. Wood, and Martyn P. Clark
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 29, 2361–2375, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-2361-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-2361-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
Hydrologic models are needed to provide simulations of water availability, floods, and droughts. The accuracy of these simulations is often quantified with so-called performance scores. A common thought is that different models are more or less applicable to different landscapes, depending on how the model works. We show that performance scores are not helpful in distinguishing between different models and thus cannot easily be used to select an appropriate model for a specific place.
Chen Yang, Zitong Jia, Wenjie Xu, Zhongwang Wei, Xiaolang Zhang, Yiguang Zou, Jeffrey McDonnell, Laura Condon, Yongjiu Dai, and Reed Maxwell
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 29, 2201–2218, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-2201-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-2201-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
We developed the first high-resolution, integrated surface water–groundwater hydrologic model of the entirety of continental China using ParFlow. The model shows good performance in terms of streamflow and water table depth when compared to global data products and observations. It is essential for water resources management and decision-making in China within a consistent framework in the changing world. It also has significant implications for similar modeling in other places in the world.
Haifan Liu, Haochen Yan, and Mingfu Guan
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 29, 2109–2132, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-2109-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-2109-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
Land changes and landscape features critically impact water systems. Studying two watersheds in China’s Greater Bay Area, we found slope strongly influences water processes in mountainous areas. However, this relationship is weak in the lower regions of steeper watersheds. Urbanization leads to an increase in annual surface runoff, while flatter watersheds exhibit a buffering capacity against this effect. However, this buffering capacity diminishes with increasing annual rainfall intensity.
Fabián Lema, Pablo A. Mendoza, Nicolás A. Vásquez, Naoki Mizukami, Mauricio Zambrano-Bigiarini, and Ximena Vargas
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 29, 1981–2002, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-1981-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-1981-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
Hydrological droughts affect ecosystems and socioeconomic activities worldwide. Despite the fact that they are commonly described with the Standardized Streamflow Index (SSI), there is limited understanding of what they truly reflect in terms of water cycle processes. Here, we used state-of-the-art hydrological models in Andean basins to examine drivers of SSI fluctuations. The results highlight the importance of careful selection of indices and timescales for accurate drought characterization and monitoring.
Sebastian Gegenleithner, Manuel Pirker, Clemens Dorfmann, Roman Kern, and Josef Schneider
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 29, 1939–1962, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-1939-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-1939-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
Accurate early-warning systems are crucial for reducing the damage caused by flooding events. In this study, we explored the potential of long short-term memory networks for enhancing the forecast accuracy of hydrologic models employed in operational flood forecasting. The presented approach elevated the investigated hydrologic model’s forecast accuracy for further ahead predictions and at flood event runoff.
Mahmut Tudaji, Yi Nan, and Fuqiang Tian
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 29, 1919–1937, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-1919-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-1919-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
Common intuition holds that higher input data resolution leads to better results. To assess the benefits of high-resolution data, we conduct simulation experiments using data with various temporal resolutions across multiple catchments and find that higher-resolution data do not always improve model performance, challenging the necessity of pursuing such data. In catchments with small areas or significant flow variability, high-resolution data is more valuable.
Muhammad Ibrahim, Miriam Coenders-Gerrits, Ruud van der Ent, and Markus Hrachowitz
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 29, 1703–1723, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-1703-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-1703-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
The quantification of precipitation into evaporation and runoff is vital for water resources management. The Budyko framework, based on aridity and evaporative indices of a catchment, can be an ideal tool for that. However, recent research highlights deviations of catchments from the expected evaporative index, casting doubt on its reliability. This study quantifies deviations of 2387 catchments, finding them minor and predictable. Integrating these into predictions upholds the framework's efficacy.
Anne-Laure Argentin, Pascal Horton, Bettina Schaefli, Jamal Shokory, Felix Pitscheider, Leona Repnik, Mattia Gianini, Simone Bizzi, Stuart N. Lane, and Francesco Comiti
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 29, 1725–1748, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-1725-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-1725-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
In this article, we show that by taking the optimal parameters calibrated with a semi-lumped model for the discharge at a catchment's outlet, we can accurately simulate runoff at various points within the study area, including three nested and three neighboring catchments. In addition, we demonstrate that employing more intricate melt models, which better represent physical processes, enhances the transfer of parameters in the simulation, until we observe overparameterization.
Ryan S. Padrón, Massimiliano Zappa, Luzi Bernhard, and Konrad Bogner
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 29, 1685–1702, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-1685-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-1685-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
We generate operational forecasts of daily maximum stream water temperature for 32 consecutive days at 54 stations in Switzerland with our best-performing data-driven model. The average forecast error is 0.38 °C for 1 d ahead and increases to 0.90 °C for 32 d ahead given the uncertainty in the meteorological variables influencing water temperature. Here we compare the skill of several models, how well they can forecast at new and ungauged stations, and the importance of different model inputs.
Eduardo Acuña Espinoza, Frederik Kratzert, Daniel Klotz, Martin Gauch, Manuel Álvarez Chaves, Ralf Loritz, and Uwe Ehret
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 29, 1749–1758, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-1749-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-1749-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
Long short-term memory (LSTM) networks have demonstrated state-of-the-art performance for rainfall-runoff hydrological modelling. However, most studies focus on predictions at a daily scale, limiting the benefits of sub-daily (e.g. hourly) predictions in applications like flood forecasting. In this study, we introduce a new architecture, multi-frequency LSTM (MF-LSTM), designed to use inputs of various temporal frequencies to produce sub-daily (e.g. hourly) predictions at a moderate computational cost.
Louise Mimeau, Annika Künne, Alexandre Devers, Flora Branger, Sven Kralisch, Claire Lauvernet, Jean-Philippe Vidal, Núria Bonada, Zoltán Csabai, Heikki Mykrä, Petr Pařil, Luka Polović, and Thibault Datry
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 29, 1615–1636, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-1615-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-1615-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
Our study projects how climate change will affect the drying of river segments and stream networks in Europe, using advanced modelling techniques to assess changes in six river networks across diverse ecoregions. We found that drying events will become more frequent and intense and will start earlier or last longer, potentially turning some river sections from perennial to intermittent. The results are valuable for river ecologists for evaluating the ecological health of river ecosystem.
Tariq Aziz, Steven K. Frey, David R. Lapen, Susan Preston, Hazen A. J. Russell, Omar Khader, Andre R. Erler, and Edward A. Sudicky
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 29, 1549–1568, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-1549-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-1549-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
This study determines the value of subsurface water for ecosystem services' supply in an agricultural watershed in Ontario, Canada. Using a fully integrated water model and an economic valuation approach, the research highlights subsurface water's critical role in maintaining watershed ecosystem services. The study informs on the sustainable use of subsurface water and introduces a new method for managing watershed ecosystem services.
Eduardo Acuña Espinoza, Ralf Loritz, Frederik Kratzert, Daniel Klotz, Martin Gauch, Manuel Álvarez Chaves, and Uwe Ehret
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 29, 1277–1294, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-1277-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-1277-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
Data-driven techniques have shown the potential to outperform process-based models in rainfall–runoff simulations. Hybrid models, combining both approaches, aim to enhance accuracy and maintain interpretability. Expanding the set of test cases to evaluate hybrid models under different conditions, we test their generalization capabilities for extreme hydrological events.
Basil Kraft, Michael Schirmer, William H. Aeberhard, Massimiliano Zappa, Sonia I. Seneviratne, and Lukas Gudmundsson
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 29, 1061–1082, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-1061-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-1061-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
This study reconstructs daily runoff in Switzerland (1962–2023) using a deep-learning model, providing a spatially contiguous dataset on a medium-sized catchment grid. The model outperforms traditional hydrological methods, revealing shifts in Swiss water resources, including more frequent dry years and declining summer runoff. The reconstruction is publicly available.
Mengjiao Zhang, Yi Nan, and Fuqiang Tian
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 29, 1033–1060, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-1033-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-1033-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
Owing to differences in the existing published results, we conducted a detailed analysis of the runoff components and future trends in the Yarlung Tsangpo River basin and found that the contributions of snowmelt and glacier melt runoff to streamflow (both ~5 %) are limited and much lower than previous results. The streamflow in this area will continuously increase in the future, but the overestimated contribution of glacier melt could lead to an underestimation of this increasing trend.
Moritz Maximilian Heuer, Hadysa Mohajerani, and Markus Christian Casper
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-636, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-636, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
This study presents a calibration approach for water balance models. The different calibration steps aim at calibrating different hydrological processes: evapotranspiration, the runoff partitioning into surface runoff, interflow and groundwater recharge, as well as the groundwater behaviour. This allows for selection of a model parameterisation that correctly predicts the discharge at catchment outlet and simultaneously correctly depicts the underlying hydrological processes.
Tian Lan, Tongfang Li, Hongbo Zhang, Jiefeng Wu, Yongqin David Chen, and Chong-Yu Xu
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 29, 903–924, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-903-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-903-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
This study develops an integrated framework based on the novel Driving index for changes in Precipitation–Runoff Relationships (DPRR) to explore the controlling changes in precipitation–runoff relationships in non-stationary environments. According to the quantitative results of the candidate driving factors, the possible process explanations for changes in the precipitation–runoff relationships are deduced. The main contribution offers a comprehensive understanding of hydrological processes.
Everett Snieder and Usman T. Khan
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 29, 785–798, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-785-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-785-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
Improving the accuracy of flood forecasts is paramount to minimising flood damage. Machine learning (ML) models are increasingly being applied for flood forecasting. Such models are typically trained on large historic hydrometeorological datasets. In this work, we evaluate methods for selecting training datasets that maximise the spatio-temporal diversity of the represented hydrological processes. Empirical results showcase the importance of hydrological diversity in training ML models.
Joško Trošelj and Naota Hanasaki
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 29, 753–766, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-753-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-753-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
This study presents the first distributed hydrological simulation which confirms claims raised by historians that the eastward diversion project of the Tone River in Japan was conducted 4 centuries ago to increase low flows and subsequent travelling possibilities surrounding the capital, Edo (Tokyo), using inland navigation. We showed that great steps forward can be made for improving quality of life with small human engineering waterworks and small interventions in the regime of natural flows.
Léonard Santos, Vazken Andréassian, Torben O. Sonnenborg, Göran Lindström, Alban de Lavenne, Charles Perrin, Lila Collet, and Guillaume Thirel
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 29, 683–700, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-683-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-683-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
This work investigates how hydrological models are transferred to a period in which climate conditions are different to the ones of the period in which they were set up. The robustness assessment test built to detect dependencies between model error and climatic drivers was applied to three hydrological models in 352 catchments in Denmark, France and Sweden. Potential issues are seen in a significant number of catchments for the models, even though the catchments differ for each model.
Xudong Zheng, Dengfeng Liu, Shengzhi Huang, Hao Wang, and Xianmeng Meng
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 29, 627–653, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-627-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-627-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
Water budget non-closure is a widespread phenomenon among multisource datasets which undermines the robustness of hydrological inferences. This study proposes a Multisource Dataset Correction Framework grounded in Physical Hydrological Process Modelling to enhance water budget closure, termed PHPM-MDCF. We examined the efficiency and robustness of the framework using the CAMELS dataset and achieved an average reduction of 49 % in total water budget residuals across 475 CONUS basins.
Elena Macdonald, Bruno Merz, Viet Dung Nguyen, and Sergiy Vorogushyn
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 29, 447–463, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-447-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-447-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
Flood peak distributions indicate how likely the occurrence of an extreme flood is at a certain river. If the distribution has a so-called heavy tail, extreme floods are more likely than might be anticipated. We find heavier tails in small catchments compared to large catchments, and spatially variable rainfall leads to a lower occurrence probability of extreme floods. Spatially variable runoff does not show effects. The results can improve estimations of probabilities of extreme floods.
Ngo Nghi Truyen Huynh, Pierre-André Garambois, Benjamin Renard, François Colleoni, Jérôme Monnier, and Hélène Roux
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3665, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3665, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
Understanding and modeling flash flood-prone areas remains challenging due to limited data and scale-relevant hydrological theory. While machine learning shows promise, its integration with process-based models is difficult. We present an approach incorporating machine learning into a high-resolution hydrological model to correct internal fluxes and transfer parameters between watersheds. Results show improved accuracy, advancing development of learnable and interpretable process-based models.
Junfu Gong, Xingwen Liu, Cheng Yao, Zhijia Li, Albrecht H. Weerts, Qiaoling Li, Satish Bastola, Yingchun Huang, and Junzeng Xu
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 29, 335–360, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-335-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-335-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
Our study introduces a new method to improve flood forecasting by combining soil moisture and streamflow data using an advanced data assimilation technique. By integrating field and reanalysis soil moisture data and assimilating this with streamflow measurements, we aim to enhance the accuracy of flood predictions. This approach reduces the accumulation of past errors in the initial conditions at the start of the forecast, helping to better prepare for and respond to floods.
Jordy Salmon-Monviola, Ophélie Fovet, and Markus Hrachowitz
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 29, 127–158, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-127-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-127-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
To increase the predictive power of hydrological models, it is necessary to improve their consistency, i.e. their physical realism, which is measured by the ability of the model to reproduce observed system dynamics. Using a model to represent the dynamics of water and nitrate and dissolved organic carbon concentrations in an agricultural catchment, we showed that using solute-concentration data for calibration is useful to improve the hydrological consistency of the model.
Benjamin Guillaume, Adrien Michez, and Aurore Degré
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3978, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3978, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
Nature-based solutions (NbS) can mitigate floods and agricultural droughts by enhancing soil health and restoring hydrological cycles. This study highlights that leveraging soil diversity is key to optimizing NbS performance.
Haley A. Canham, Belize Lane, Colin B. Phillips, and Brendan P. Murphy
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 29, 27–43, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-27-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-27-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
The influence of watershed disturbances has proved challenging to disentangle from natural streamflow variability. This study evaluates the influence of time-varying hydrologic controls on rainfall–runoff in undisturbed and wildfire-disturbed watersheds using a novel time-series event separation method. Across watersheds, water year type and season influenced rainfall–runoff patterns. Accounting for these controls enabled clearer isolation of wildfire effects.
Fabian Merk, Timo Schaffhauser, Faizan Anwar, Ye Tuo, Jean-Martial Cohard, and Markus Disse
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 28, 5511–5539, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-5511-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-5511-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Evapotranspiration (ET) is computed from the vegetation (plant transpiration) and soil (soil evaporation). In western Africa, plant transpiration correlates with vegetation growth. Vegetation is often represented using the leaf area index (LAI). In this study, we evaluate the importance of the LAI for ET calculation. We take a close look at this interaction and highlight its relevance. Our work contributes to the understanding of terrestrial water cycle processes .
Eshrat Fatima, Rohini Kumar, Sabine Attinger, Maren Kaluza, Oldrich Rakovec, Corinna Rebmann, Rafael Rosolem, Sascha E. Oswald, Luis Samaniego, Steffen Zacharias, and Martin Schrön
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 28, 5419–5441, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-5419-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-5419-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
This study establishes a framework to incorporate cosmic-ray neutron measurements into the mesoscale Hydrological Model (mHM). We evaluate different approaches to estimate neutron counts within the mHM using the Desilets equation, with uniformly and non-uniformly weighted average soil moisture, and the physically based code COSMIC. The data improved not only soil moisture simulations but also the parameterisation of evapotranspiration in the model.
Laia Estrada, Xavier Garcia, Joan Saló-Grau, Rafael Marcé, Antoni Munné, and Vicenç Acuña
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 28, 5353–5373, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-5353-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-5353-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Hydrological modelling is a powerful tool to support decision-making. We assessed spatio-temporal patterns and trends of streamflow for 2001–2022 with a hydrological model, integrating stakeholder expert knowledge on management operations. The results provide insight into how climate change and anthropogenic pressures affect water resources availability in regions vulnerable to water scarcity, thus raising the need for sustainable management practices and integrated hydrological modelling.
Patricio Yeste, Matilde García-Valdecasas Ojeda, Sonia R. Gámiz-Fortis, Yolanda Castro-Díez, Axel Bronstert, and María Jesús Esteban-Parra
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 28, 5331–5352, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-5331-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-5331-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Integrating streamflow and evaporation data can help improve the physical realism of hydrologic models. We investigate the capabilities of the Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC) to reproduce both hydrologic variables for 189 headwater located in Spain. Results from sensitivity analyses indicate that adding two vegetation parameters is enough to improve the representation of evaporation and that the performance of VIC exceeded that of the largest modelling effort currently available in Spain.
Daniel T. Myers, David Jones, Diana Oviedo-Vargas, John Paul Schmit, Darren L. Ficklin, and Xuesong Zhang
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 28, 5295–5310, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-5295-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-5295-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
We studied how streamflow and water quality models respond to land cover data collected by satellites during the growing season versus the non-growing season. The land cover data showed more trees during the growing season and more built areas during the non-growing season. We next found that the use of non-growing season data resulted in a higher modeled nutrient export to streams. Knowledge of these sensitivities would be particularly important when models inform water resource management.
Hatice Türk, Christine Stumpp, Markus Hrachowitz, Karsten Schulz, Peter Strauss, Günter Blöschl, and Michael Stockinger
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2024-359, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2024-359, 2024
Revised manuscript accepted for HESS
Short summary
Short summary
Using advances in transit time estimation and tracer data, we tested if fast-flow transit times are controlled solely by soil moisture or are also controlled by precipitation intensity. We used soil moisture-dependent and precipitation intensity-conditional transfer functions. We showed that significant portion of event water bypasses the soil matrix through fast flow paths (overland flow, tile drains, preferential flow paths) in dry soil conditions for both low and high-intensity precipitation.
Kevin R. Shook, Paul H. Whitfield, Christopher Spence, and John W. Pomeroy
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 28, 5173–5192, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-5173-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-5173-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Recent studies suggest that the velocities of water running off landscapes in the Canadian Prairies may be much smaller than generally assumed. Analyses of historical flows for 23 basins in central Alberta show that many of the rivers responded more slowly and that the flows are much slower than would be estimated from equations developed elsewhere. The effects of slow flow velocities on the development of hydrological models of the region are discussed, as are the possible causes.
Alberto Bassi, Marvin Höge, Antonietta Mira, Fabrizio Fenicia, and Carlo Albert
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 28, 4971–4988, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-4971-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-4971-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
The goal is to remove the impact of meteorological drivers in order to uncover the unique landscape fingerprints of a catchment from streamflow data. Our results reveal an optimal two-feature summary for most catchments, with a third feature associated with aridity and intermittent flow that is needed for challenging cases. Baseflow index, aridity, and soil or vegetation attributes strongly correlate with learnt features, indicating their importance for streamflow prediction.
Pablo Fernando Dornes and Rocío Noelia Comas
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2024-338, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2024-338, 2024
Revised manuscript accepted for HESS
Short summary
Short summary
The Desaguadero-Salado-Chadiluevú-Curacó (DSCC) River is a semiarid river which is severely dammed in its tributaries which collect the snowmelt runoff. This runoff feeds mostly gravitational irrigation systems of very low efficiency. As a result, the DSCC River does not have natural runoff. The proposed Hydrological Regime Index (HRI) is able to discriminate and quantify regime alterations under permanent and non-permanent flow conditions and with low and high impoundment conditions.
Sylvain Payraudeau, Pablo Alvarez-Zaldivar, Paul van Dijk, and Gwenaël Imfeld
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2840, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2840, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Our study focuses on the rising concern of pesticides damaging aquatic ecosystems, which puts drinking water, the environment, and human health at risk. We provided more accurate estimates of how pesticides break down and spread in small water systems, helping to improve pesticide management practices. By using unique chemical markers in our analysis, we enhanced the accuracy of our predictions, offering important insights for better protection of water sources and natural ecosystems.
Guillaume Thirel, Léonard Santos, Olivier Delaigue, and Charles Perrin
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 28, 4837–4860, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-4837-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-4837-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
We discuss how mathematical transformations impact calibrated hydrological model simulations. We assess how 11 transformations behave over the complete range of streamflows. Extreme transformations lead to models that are specialized for extreme streamflows but show poor performance outside the range of targeted streamflows and are less robust. We show that no a priori assumption about transformations can be taken as warranted.
Vishal Thakur, Yannis Markonis, Rohini Kumar, Johanna Ruth Thomson, Mijael Rodrigo Vargas Godoy, Martin Hanel, and Oldrich Rakovec
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2024-341, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2024-341, 2024
Revised manuscript accepted for HESS
Short summary
Short summary
Understanding the changes in water movement in earth is crucial for everyone. To quantify this water movement there are several techniques. We examined how different methods of estimating evaporation impact predictions of various types of water movement across Europe. We found that, while these methods generally agree on whether changes are increasing or decreasing, they differ in magnitude. This means selecting the right evaporation method is crucial for accurate predictions of water movement.
Robert Hull, Elena Leonarduzzi, Luis De La Fuente, Hoang Viet Tran, Andrew Bennett, Peter Melchior, Reed M. Maxwell, and Laura E. Condon
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 28, 4685–4713, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-4685-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-4685-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Large-scale hydrologic simulators are a needed tool to explore complex watershed processes and how they may evolve with a changing climate. However, calibrating them can be difficult because they are costly to run and have many unknown parameters. We implement a state-of-the-art approach to model calibration using neural networks with a set of experiments based on streamflow in the upper Colorado River basin.
Nan Wu, Ke Zhang, Amir Naghibi, Hossein Hashemi, Zhongrui Ning, Qinuo Zhang, Xuejun Yi, Haijun Wang, Wei Liu, Wei Gao, and Jerker Jarsjö
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2024-324, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2024-324, 2024
Revised manuscript accepted for HESS
Short summary
Short summary
The hydrology of cold regions in the human population is poorly understood due to complex motion and limited data, hindering streamflow analysis. Using existing models, we compared runoff from an extended model with snowmelt and frozen ground, validating its reliability and integration. This study focuses on the effects of snowmelt and frozen ground on runoff, affecting precipitation type, surface-groundwater partitioning, and evapotranspiration.
Jari-Pekka Nousu, Kersti Leppä, Hannu Marttila, Pertti Ala-aho, Giulia Mazzotti, Terhikki Manninen, Mika Korkiakoski, Mika Aurela, Annalea Lohila, and Samuli Launiainen
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 28, 4643–4666, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-4643-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-4643-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
We used hydrological models, field measurements, and satellite-based data to study the soil moisture dynamics in a subarctic catchment. The role of groundwater was studied with different ways to model the groundwater dynamics and via comparisons to the observational data. The choice of groundwater model was shown to have a strong impact, and representation of lateral flow was important to capture wet soil conditions. Our results provide insights for ecohydrological studies in boreal regions.
Nienke Tempel, Laurène Bouaziz, Riccardo Taormina, Ellis van Noppen, Jasper Stam, Eric Sprokkereef, and Markus Hrachowitz
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 28, 4577–4597, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-4577-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-4577-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
This study explores the impact of climatic variability on root zone water storage capacities and, thus, on hydrological predictions. Analysing data from 286 areas in Europe and the US, we found that, despite some variations in root zone storage capacity due to changing climatic conditions over multiple decades, these changes are generally minor and have a limited effect on water storage and river flow predictions.
Bu Li, Ting Sun, Fuqiang Tian, Mahmut Tudaji, Li Qin, and Guangheng Ni
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 28, 4521–4538, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-4521-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-4521-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
This paper developed hybrid semi-distributed hydrological models by employing a process-based model as the backbone and utilizing deep learning to parameterize and replace internal modules. The main contribution is to provide a high-performance tool enriched with explicit hydrological knowledge for hydrological prediction and to improve understanding about the hydrological sensitivities to climate change in large alpine basins.
Francesco Zignol, William Lidberg, Caroline Greiser, Johannes Larson, Raúl Hoffrén, and Anneli M. Ågren
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2909, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2909, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
We investigated the factors influencing soil moisture variations across a boreal forest catchment in northern Sweden, where data is usually scarce. We found that soil moisture is shaped by topographical features, vegetation and soil characteristics, and weather conditions. The insights presented in this study will help improve models that predict soil moisture over space and time, which is crucial for forest management and nature conservation in the face of climate change and biodiversity loss.
Maria Elenius, Charlotta Pers, Sara Schützer, and Berit Arheimer
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2024-271, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2024-271, 2024
Revised manuscript accepted for HESS
Short summary
Short summary
Simulations of peatland rewetting in Sweden under various conditions of climate, local hydrology and rewetting practices showed insubstantial changes in landscape flow extremes due to mixing with runoff from various landcover. The impact on local hydrological extremes are governed by groundwater levels prior to rewetting and reduced tree cover, hence wetland allocation and management practices are crucial if the purpose is to reduce flow extremes in peatland streams.
Dan Elhanati, Nadine Goeppert, and Brian Berkowitz
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 28, 4239–4249, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-4239-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-4239-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
A continuous time random walk framework was developed to allow modeling of a karst aquifer discharge response to measured rainfall. The application of the numerical model yielded robust fits between modeled and measured discharge values, especially for the distinctive long tails found during recession times. The findings shed light on the interplay of slow and fast flow in the karst system and establish the application of the model for simulating flow and transport in such systems.
Frederik Kratzert, Martin Gauch, Daniel Klotz, and Grey Nearing
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 28, 4187–4201, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-4187-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-4187-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Recently, a special type of neural-network architecture became increasingly popular in hydrology literature. However, in most applications, this model was applied as a one-to-one replacement for hydrology models without adapting or rethinking the experimental setup. In this opinion paper, we show how this is almost always a bad decision and how using these kinds of models requires the use of large-sample hydrology data sets.
Cited articles
Amnatsan, S., Yoshikawa, S., and Kanae, S.: Improved Forecasting of Extreme
Monthly Reservoir Inflow Using an Analogue-Based Forecasting Method: A Case
Study of the Sirikit Dam in Thailand, Water, 10, 1614,
https://doi.org/10.3390/w10111614, 2018. a
Anghileri, D., Voisin, N., Castelletti, A., Pianosi, F., Nijssen, B., and
Lettenmaier, D. P.: Value of long-term streamflow forecasts to reservoir
operations for water supply in snow-dominated river catchments, Water Resour.
Res., 52, 4209–4225, https://doi.org/10.1002/2015WR017864, 2016. a
Arnal, L., Cloke, H. L., Stephens, E., Wetterhall, F., Prudhomme, C., Neumann, J., Krzeminski, B., and Pappenberger, F.: Skilful seasonal forecasts of streamflow over Europe?, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 22, 2057–2072, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-2057-2018, 2018. a, b, c
Arsenault, R., Brissette, F., and Martel, J.-L.: The hazards of split-sample
validation in hydrological model calibration, J. Hydrol., 566, 346–362,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2018.09.027, 2018. a
Baker, D. B., Richards, R. P., Loftus, T. T., and Kramer, J. W.: A New
Flashiness Index: Characteristics And Applications To Midwestern Rivers And
Streams, J. Am. Water Resour. Assoc., 40, 503–522,
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1752-1688.2004.tb01046.x, 2004. a
Baker, L. H., Shaffrey, L. C., and Scaife, A. A.: Improved seasonal prediction of UK regional precipitation using atmospheric circulation, Int. J. Climatol., 38, e437–e453, https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.5382, 2018. a
Bazile, R., Boucher, M.-A., Perreault, L., and Leconte, R.: Verification of ECMWF System 4 for seasonal hydrological forecasting in a northern climate, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 21, 5747–5762, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-21-5747-2017, 2017. a
Beckers, J. V. L., Weerts, A. H., Tijdeman, E., and Welles, E.: ENSO-conditioned weather resampling method for seasonal ensemble streamflow prediction, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 20, 3277–3287, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-20-3277-2016, 2016. a, b, c
Bell, V. A., Davies, H. N., Kay, A. L., Brookshaw, A., and Scaife, A. A.: A national-scale seasonal hydrological forecast system: development and evaluation over Britain, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 21, 4681–4691, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-21-4681-2017, 2017. a
Bennett, J. C., Wang, Q. J., Robertson, D. E., Schepen, A., Li, M., and Michael, K.: Assessment of an ensemble seasonal streamflow forecasting system for Australia, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 21, 6007–6030, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-21-6007-2017, 2017. a
Berghuijs, W. R., Woods, R. A., and Hrachowitz, M.: A precipitation shift from snow towards rain leads to a decrease in streamflow, Nat. Clim. Chang., 4, 583–586, https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2246, 2014. a, b
Bergmeir, C., Molina, D., and Benítez, J. M.: Memetic Algorithms with Local
Search Chains in R: The Rmalschains Package, J. Stat. Softw., 75, 1–33,
https://doi.org/10.18637/jss.v075.i04, 2016. a, b
Bergmeir, C., Benítez, J. M., Molina, D., Davies, R., Eddelbuettel, D., and
Hansen, N.: Rmalschains: Continuous Optimization using Memetic Algorithms
with Local Search Chains (MA-LS-Chains) in R, R package version 0.2-6, available at: https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=Rmalschains (last access: 15 November 2020), 2019. a
Bierkens, M. F. P. and van Beek, L. P. H.: Seasonal Predictability of European Discharge: NAO and Hydrological Response Time, J. Hydrometeorol., 10, 953–968, https://doi.org/10.1175/2009JHM1034.1, 2009. a
Bradley, A. A., Habib, M., and Schwartz, S. S.: Climate index weighting of
ensemble streamflow forecasts using a simple Bayesian approach, Water Resour.
Res., 51, 7382–7400, https://doi.org/10.1002/2014WR016811, 2015. a
Broderick, C., Matthews, T., Wilby, R. L., Bastola, S., and Murphy, C.:
Transferability of hydrological models and ensemble averaging methods between
contrasting climatic periods, Water Resour. Res., 52, 8343–8373,
https://doi.org/10.1002/2016WR018850, 2016. a, b
Broderick, C., Murphy, C., Wilby, R. L., Matthews, T., Prudhomme, C., and
Adamson, M.: Using a Scenario-Neutral Framework to Avoid Potential
Maladaptation to Future Flood Risk, Water Resour. Res., 55, 1079–1104,
https://doi.org/10.1029/2018WR023623, 2019. a
Chiverton, A., Hannaford, J., Holman, I., Corstanje, R., Prudhomme, C.,
Bloomfield, J., and Hess, T. M.: Which catchment characteristics control the
temporal dependence structure of daily river flows?, Hydrol. Process., 29,
1353–1369, https://doi.org/10.1002/hyp.10252, 2015. a, b
Coron, L., Andréassian, V., Perrin, C., Lerat, J., Vaze, J., Bourqui, M., and
Hendrickx, F.: Crash testing hydrological models in contrasted climate
conditions: An experiment on 216 Australian catchments, Water Resour. Res.,
48, W05552, https://doi.org/10.1029/2011WR011721, 2012. a
Coron, L., Thirel, G., Delaigue, O., Perrin, C., and Andréassian, V.: The
suite of lumped GR hydrological models in an R package, Environ. Model.
Softw., 94, 166–171, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2017.05.002, 2017. a
Coron, L., Delaigue, O., Thirel, G., Perrin, C., and Michel, C.: airGR: Suite of GR Hydrological Models for Precipitation-Runoff Modelling, R package version 1.4.3.65, https://doi.org/10.15454/EX11NA, 2020. a
Day, G. N.: Extended Streamflow Forecasting Using NWSRFS, J. Water Resour.
Plan. Manag., 111, 157–170, https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9496(1985)111:2(157),
1985. a
Demargne, J., Brown, J., Liu, Y., Seo, D.-J., Wu, L., Toth, Z., and Zhu, Y.:
Diagnostic verification of hydrometeorological and hydrologic ensembles,
Atmos. Sci. Lett., 11, 114–122, https://doi.org/10.1002/asl.261, 2010. a
Demargne, J., Wu, L., Regonda, S. K., Brown, J. D., Lee, H., He, M., Seo,
D.-J., Hartman, R., Herr, H. D., Fresch, M., Schaake, J., and Zhu, Y.: The
Science of NOAA's Operational Hydrologic Ensemble Forecast Service, Bull. Am.
Meteorol. Soc., 95, 79–98, https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-12-00081.1, 2014. a, b
Dixon, S. G. and Wilby, R. L.: A seasonal forecasting procedure for reservoir
inflows in Central Asia, River Res. Appl., 35, 1141–1154,
https://doi.org/10.1002/rra.3506, 2019. a
Eade, R., Smith, D., Scaife, A., Wallace, E., Dunstone, N., Hermanson, L., and Robinson, N.: Do seasonal-to-decadal climate predictions underestimate the predictability of the real world?, Geophys. Res. Lett., 41, 5620–5628,
https://doi.org/10.1002/2014GL061146, 2014. a
Environmental Protection Agency: HydroNet, available at: https://epawebapp.epa.ie/hydronet/, last access: 19 July 2021. a
Fan, F. M., Schwanenberg, D., Alvarado, R., Assis dos Reis, A., Collischonn, W., and Naumman, S.: Performance of Deterministic and Probabilistic Hydrological Forecasts for the Short-Term Optimization of a Tropical Hydropower Reservoir, Water Resour. Manag., 30, 3609–3625,
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11269-016-1377-8, 2016. a
Ferro, C. A. T., Richardson, D. S., and Weigel, A. P.: On the effect of
ensemble size on the discrete and continuous ranked probability scores,
Meteorol. Appl., 15, 19–24, https://doi.org/10.1002/met.45, 2008. a
Ficchì, A., Raso, L., Dorchies, D., Pianosi, F., Malaterre, P.-O., Overloop,
P.-J. V., and Jay-Allemand, M.: Optimal Operation of the Multireservoir
System in the Seine River Basin Using Deterministic and Ensemble Forecasts,
J. Water Resour. Plan. Manag., 142, 05015005,
https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)WR.1943-5452.0000571, 2016. a
Foran Quinn, D., Murphy, C., Wilby, R. L., Matthews, T., Broderick, C.,
Golian, S., Donegan, S., and Harrigan, S.: Benchmarking seasonal forecasting
skill using river flow persistence in Irish catchments, Hydrol. Sci. J., 66,
672–688, https://doi.org/10.1080/02626667.2021.1874612, 2021. a, b, c
Förster, K., Hanzer, F., Stoll, E., Scaife, A. A., MacLachlan, C., Schöber, J., Huttenlau, M., Achleitner, S., and Strasser, U.: Retrospective forecasts of the upcoming winter season snow accumulation in the Inn headwaters (European Alps), Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 22, 1157–1173, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-1157-2018, 2018. a
Franz, K. J., Hartmann, H. C., Sorooshian, S., and Bales, R.: Verification of
National Weather Service Ensemble Streamflow Predictions for Water Supply
Forecasting in the Colorado River Basin, J. Hydrometeorol., 4, 1105–1118,
https://doi.org/10.1175/1525-7541(2003)004<1105:VONWSE>2.0.CO;2, 2003. a
Franz, K. J., Hogue, T. S., Barik, M., and He, M.: Assessment of SWE data
assimilation for ensemble streamflow predictions, J. Hydrol., 519,
2737–2746, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2014.07.008, 2014. a
Fundel, F., Jörg-Hess, S., and Zappa, M.: Monthly hydrometeorological ensemble prediction of streamflow droughts and corresponding drought indices, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 17, 395–407, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-17-395-2013, 2013. a
Ghannam, K., Nakai, T., Paschalis, A., Oishi, C. A., Kotani, A., Igarashi, Y., Kumagai, T., and Katul, G. G.: Persistence and memory timescales in root-zone soil moisture dynamics, Water Resour. Res., 52, 1427–1445,
https://doi.org/10.1002/2015WR017983, 2014. a
Gibbs, M. S., McInerney, D., Humphrey, G., Thyer, M. A., Maier, H. R., Dandy, G. C., and Kavetski, D.: State updating and calibration period selection to improve dynamic monthly streamflow forecasts for an environmental flow management application, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 22, 871–887, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-871-2018, 2018. a
Gneiting, T., Balabdaoui, F., and Raftery, A. E.: Probabilistic forecasts,
calibration and sharpness, J. R. Stat. Soc. B, 69, 243–268,
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9868.2007.00587.x, 2007. a
Greuell, W., Franssen, W. H. P., and Hutjes, R. W. A.: Seasonal streamflow forecasts for Europe – Part 2: Sources of skill, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 23, 371–391, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-23-371-2019, 2019. a
Gupta, H. V., Sorooshian, S., and Yapo, P. O.: Status of Automatic Calibration for Hydrologic Models: Comparison with Multilevel Expert Calibration, J. Hydrol. Eng., 4, 135–143, https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)1084-0699(1999)4:2(135), 1999. a
Gupta, H. V., Kling, H., Yilmaz, K. K., and Martinez, G. F.: Decomposition of
the mean squared error and NSE performance criteria: Implications for
improving hydrological modelling, J. Hydrol., 377, 80–91,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2009.08.003, 2009. a
Gustard, A., Bullock, A., and Dixon, J. M.: Low flow estimation in the United
Kingdom, Tech. Rep. 108, Institute of Hydrology, Wallingford, UK, available at: http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/6050/1/IH_108.pdf (last access: 15 November 2020), 1992. a
Hamlet, A. F. and Lettenmaier, D. P.: Columbia River Streamflow Forecasting
Based on ENSO and PDO Climate Signals, J. Water Resour. Plan. Manag., 125,
333–341, https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9496(1999)125:6(333), 1999. a
Hamlet, A. F., Huppert, D., and Lettenmaier, D. P.: Economic Value of Long-Lead Streamflow Forecasts for Columbia River Hydropower, J. Water Resour. Plan. Manag., 128, 91–101, https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9496(2002)128:2(91), 2002. a
Hansen, N. and Ostermeier, A.: Completely Derandomized Self-Adaptation in
Evolution Strategies, Evol. Comput., 9, 159–195,
https://doi.org/10.1162/106365601750190398, 2001. a
Hersbach, H.: Decomposition of the Continuous Ranked Probability Score for
Ensemble Prediction Systems, Weather Forecast., 15, 559–570,
https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0434(2000)015<0559:DOTCRP>2.0.CO;2, 2000. a, b
Klemeš, V.: Operational testing of hydrological simulation models, Hydrol.
Sci. J., 31, 13–24, https://doi.org/10.1080/02626668609491024, 1986. a
Laio, F. and Tamea, S.: Verification tools for probabilistic forecasts of continuous hydrological variables, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 11, 1267–1277, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-11-1267-2007, 2007. a
Li, H., Luo, L., Wood, E. F., and Schaake, J.: The role of initial conditions
and forcing uncertainties in seasonal hydrologic forecasting, J. Geophys.
Res.-Atmos., 114, D04114, https://doi.org/10.1029/2008JD010969, 2009. a, b
Luo, L. and Wood, E. F.: Monitoring and predicting the 2007 U.S. drought,
Geophys. Res. Lett., 34, L22702, https://doi.org/10.1029/2007GL031673, 2007. a
MacLachlan, C., Arribas, A., Peterson, K. A., Maidens, A., Fereday, D., Scaife,
A. A., Gordon, M., Vellinga, M., Williams, A., Comer, R. E., Camp, J.,
Xavier, P., and Madec, G.: Global Seasonal forecast system version 5
(GloSea5): a high-resolution seasonal forecast system, Q. J. R. Meteorol.
Soc., 141, 1072–1084, https://doi.org/10.1002/qj.2396, 2015. a
Mason, S. J. and Graham, N. E.: Conditional Probabilities, Relative Operating
Characteristics, and Relative Operating Levels, Weather Forecast., 14,
713–725, https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0434(1999)014<0713:CPROCA>2.0.CO;2, 1999. a
Meißner, D., Klein, B., and Ionita, M.: Development of a monthly to seasonal forecast framework tailored to inland waterway transport in central Europe, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 21, 6401–6423, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-21-6401-2017, 2017. a, b
MeteoSwiss: easyVerification: Ensemble Forecast Verification for Large Data
Sets, R package version: 0.4.4, available at: https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=easyVerification (last access: 15 November 2020), 2017. a
Mills, P., Nicholson, O., and Reed, D.: Flood Studies Update Technical Research Report: Volume IV – Physical Catchment Descriptors, Tech. rep., Office of Public Works, Trim, Ireland, available at: https://opw.hydronet.com/data/files/Technical Research Report - Volume IV - Physical Catchment Descriptors.pdf (last access: 15 November 2020), 2014. a
Mo, K. C. and Lettenmaier, D. P.: Hydrologic Prediction over the Conterminous
United States Using the National Multi-Model Ensemble, J. Hydrometeorol., 15,
1457–1472, https://doi.org/10.1175/JHM-D-13-0197.1, 2014. a
Molina, D., Lozano, M., García-Martínez, C., and Herrera, F.: Memetic
Algorithms for Continuous Optimisation Based on Local Search Chains, Evol.
Comput., 18, 27–63, https://doi.org/10.1162/evco.2010.18.1.18102, 2010. a
Murphy, C., Harrigan, S., Hall, J., and Wilby, R. L.: Climate-driven trends in mean and high flows from a network of reference stations in Ireland, Hydrol. Sci. J., 58, 755–772, https://doi.org/10.1080/02626667.2013.782407, 2013. a, b, c
Mushtaq, S., Chen, C., Hafeez, M., Maroulis, J., and Gabriel, H.: The economic value of improved agrometeorological information to irrigators amid climate variability, Int. J. Climatol., 32, 567–581, https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.2015, 2012. a
Nash, J. E. and Sutcliffe, J. V.: River flow forecasting through conceptual
models part I – A discussion of principles, J. Hydrol., 10, 282–290,
https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-1694(70)90255-6, 1970. a
Neumann, J. L., Arnal, L., Emerton, R. E., Griffith, H., Hyslop, S., Theofanidi, S., and Cloke, H. L.: Can seasonal hydrological forecasts inform local decisions and actions? A decision-making activity, Geosci. Commun., 1, 35–57, https://doi.org/10.5194/gc-1-35-2018, 2018. a
Office of Public Works: Hydro-Data, available at: https://waterlevel.ie/hydro-data/, last access: 19 July 2021. a
Oudin, L., Hervieu, F., Michel, C., Perrin, C., Andréassian, V., Anctil, F.,
and Loumagne, C.: Which potential evapotranspiration input for a lumped
rainfall–runoff model?: Part 2 – Towards a simple and efficient potential
evapotranspiration model for rainfall–runoff modelling, J. Hydrol., 303,
290–306, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2004.08.026, 2005. a
Pagano, T., Hapuarachchi, P., and Wang, Q.: Continuous rainfall-runoff model
comparison and short-term daily streamflow forecast skill evaluation, Tech.
Rep. EP103545, CSIRO: Water for a Healthy Country National Research Flagship,
Canberra, Australia, https://doi.org/10.4225/08/58542c672dd2c, 2010. a, b
Paiva, R. C. D., Collischonn, W., Bonnet, M. P., and de Gonçalves, L. G. G.: On the sources of hydrological prediction uncertainty in the Amazon, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 16, 3127–3137, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-16-3127-2012, 2012. a
Pappenberger, F., Cloke, H. L., Parker, D. J., Wetterhall, F., Richardson,
D. S., and Thielen, J.: The monetary benefit of early flood warnings in
Europe, Environ. Sci. Policy, 51, 278–291,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2015.04.016, 2015a. a, b
Pappenberger, F., Ramos, M., Cloke, H., Wetterhall, F., Alfieri, L., Bogner,
K., Mueller, A., and Salamon, P.: How do I know if my forecasts are better?
Using benchmarks in hydrological ensemble prediction, J. Hydrol., 522,
697–713, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2015.01.024, 2015b. a, b
Pechlivanidis, I. G., Crochemore, L., Rosberg, J., and Bosshard, T.: What Are
the Key Drivers Controlling the Quality of Seasonal Streamflow Forecasts?,
Water Resour. Res., 56, e2019WR026987, https://doi.org/10.1029/2019WR026987, 2020. a, b, c, d
Perrin, C., Michel, C., and Andréassian, V.: Improvement of a parsimonious
model for streamflow simulation, J. Hydrol., 279, 275–289,
https://doi.org/10.1016/S0022-1694(03)00225-7, 2003. a, b
Pool, S., Vis, M., and Seibert, J.: Evaluating model performance: towards a
non-parametric variant of the Kling-Gupta efficiency, Hydrol. Sci. J., 63,
1941–1953, https://doi.org/10.1080/02626667.2018.1552002, 2018. a, b
Prudhomme, C., Hannaford, J., Harrigan, S., Boorman, D., Knight, J., Bell, V., Jackson, C., Svensson, C., Parry, S., Bachiller-Jareno, N., Davies, H.,
Davis, R., Mackay, J., McKenzie, A., Rudd, A., Smith, K., Bloomfield, J.,
Ward, R., and Jenkins, A.: Hydrological Outlook UK: an operational streamflow
and groundwater level forecasting system at monthly to seasonal time scales,
Hydrol. Sci. J., 62, 2753–2768, https://doi.org/10.1080/02626667.2017.1395032, 2017. a, b, c
Renard, B., Kavetski, D., Kuczera, G., Thyer, M., and Franks, S. W.:
Understanding predictive uncertainty in hydrologic modeling: The challenge of
identifying input and structural errors, Water Resour. Res., 46, W05521,
https://doi.org/10.1029/2009WR008328, 2010. a
Robertson, D., Bennett, J., and Schepen, A.: How good is my forecasting method? Some thoughts on forecast evaluation using cross-validation based on
Australian experiences, available at:
https://hepex.inrae.fr/how-good-is-my-forecasting-method- some-thoughts-on-forecast-evaluation-using-cross-validation-based-on-australian-experiences/,
(last access: 15 November 2020), 2016. a
Santos, L., Thirel, G., and Perrin, C.: Continuous state-space representation of a bucket-type rainfall-runoff model: a case study with the GR4 model using state-space GR4 (version 1.0), Geosci. Model Dev., 11, 1591–1605, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-11-1591-2018, 2018. a
Scaife, A. A. and Smith, D.: A signal-to-noise paradox in climate science, npj Clim. Atmos. Sci., 1, 28, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41612-018-0038-4, 2018. a
Scaife, A. A., Arribas, A., Blockley, E., Brookshaw, A., Clark, R. T.,
Dunstone, N., Eade, R., Fereday, D., Folland, C. K., Gordon, M., Hermanson,
L., Knight, J. R., Lea, D. J., MacLachlan, C., Maidens, A., Martin, M.,
Peterson, A. K., Smith, D., Vellinga, M., Wallace, E., Waters, J., and
Williams, A.: Skillful long-range prediction of European and North American
winters, Geophys. Res. Lett., 41, 2514–2519, https://doi.org/10.1002/2014GL059637,
2014. a, b, c
Schepen, A. and Wang, Q. J.: Model averaging methods to merge operational
statistical and dynamic seasonal streamflow forecasts in Australia, Water
Resour. Res., 51, 1797–1812, https://doi.org/10.1002/2014WR016163, 2015. a
Sear, D. A., Armitage, P. D., and Dawson, F. H.: Groundwater dominated rivers, Hydrol. Process., 13, 255–276, https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1099-1085(19990228)13:3<255::AID-HYP737>3.0.CO;2-Y, 1999. a
Sharma, S., Siddique, R., Reed, S., Ahnert, P., and Mejia, A.: Hydrological
Model Diversity Enhances Streamflow Forecast Skill at Short- to Medium-Range
Timescales, Water Resour. Res., 55, 1510–1530, https://doi.org/10.1029/2018WR023197,
2019. a
Shukla, S., Sheffield, J., Wood, E. F., and Lettenmaier, D. P.: On the sources of global land surface hydrologic predictability, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 17, 2781–2796, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-17-2781-2013, 2013. a
Singh, S. K.: Long-term Streamflow Forecasting Based on Ensemble Streamflow
Prediction Technique: A Case Study in New Zealand, Water Resour. Manag., 30,
2295–2309, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11269-016-1289-7, 2016. a
Smith, D. M., Scaife, A. A., Eade, R., Athanasiadis, P., Bellucci, A., Bethke, I., Bilbao, R., Borchert, L. F., Caron, L.-P., Counillon, F., Danabasoglu, G., Delworth, T., Doblas-Reyes, F. J., Dunstone, N. J., Estella-Perez, V., Flavoni, S., Hermanson, L., Keenlyside, N., Kharin, V., Kimoto, M., Merryfield, W. J., Mignot, J., Mochizuki, T., Modali, K., Monerie, P.-A., Müller, W. A., Nicolí, D., Ortega, P., Pankatz, K., Pohlmann, H., Robson, J., Ruggieri, P., Sospedra-Alfonso, R., Swingedouw, D., Wang, Y., Wild, S., Yeager, S., Yang, X., and Zhang, L.: North Atlantic climate far more predictable than models imply, Nature, 583, 796–800,
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2525-0, 2020. a
Staudinger, M. and Seibert, J.: Predictability of low flow – An assessment
with simulation experiments, J. Hydrol., 519, 1383–1393,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2014.08.061, 2014. a
Steirou, E., Gerlitz, L., Apel, H., and Merz, B.: Links between large-scale
circulation patterns and streamflow in Central Europe: A review, J. Hydrol.,
549, 484–500, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2017.04.003, 2017. a
Stringer, N., Knight, J., and Thornton, H.: Improving Meteorological Seasonal
Forecasts for Hydrological Modeling in European Winter, J. Appl. Meteorol.
Climatol., 59, 317–332, https://doi.org/10.1175/JAMC-D-19-0094.1, 2020. a, b, c, d
Svensson, C.: Seasonal river flow forecasts for the United Kingdom using
persistence and historical analogues, Hydrol. Sci. J., 61, 19–35,
https://doi.org/10.1080/02626667.2014.992788, 2016. a, b
Svensson, C., Brookshaw, A., Scaife, A. A., Bell, V. A., Mackay, J. D.,
Jackson, C. R., Hannaford, J., Davies, H. N., Arribas, A., and Stanley, S.:
Long-range forecasts of UK winter hydrology, Environ. Res. Lett., 10,
064006, https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/10/6/064006, 2015. a
Tang, Q., Zhang, X., Duan, Q., Huang, S., Yuan, X., Cui, H., Li, Z., and Liu,
X.: Hydrological monitoring and seasonal forecasting: Progress and
perspectives, J. Geogr. Sci., 26, 904–920, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11442-016-1306-z,
2016. a
Thielen, J., Bartholmes, J., Ramos, M.-H., and de Roo, A.: The European Flood Alert System – Part 1: Concept and development, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 13, 125–140, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-13-125-2009, 2009. a
Turner, S. W. D., Bennett, J. C., Robertson, D. E., and Galelli, S.: Complex relationship between seasonal streamflow forecast skill and value in reservoir operations, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 21, 4841–4859, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-21-4841-2017, 2017. a
Twedt, T. M., Schaake Jr., J. C., and Peck, E. L.: National weather service extended streamflow prediction, in: Proceedings of the 45th Annual Western Snow Conference, Western Snow Conference, 18–21 April 1977, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA, 52–57, available at: https://westernsnowconference.org/sites/westernsnowconference.org/PDFs/1977Twedt.pdf (last access: 15 November 2020), 1977. a
van Dijk, A. I. J. M., Peña-Arancibia, J. L., Wood, E. F., Sheffield, J.,
and Beck, H. E.: Global analysis of seasonal streamflow predictability using
an ensemble prediction system and observations from 6192 small catchments
worldwide, Water Resour. Res., 49, 2729–2746, https://doi.org/10.1002/wrcr.20251,
2013. a
Vaze, J., Chiew, F. H. S., Perraud, J. M., Viney, N., Post, D., Teng, J., Wang, B., Lerat, J., and Goswami, M.: Rainfall-Runoff Modelling Across Southeast Australia: Datasets, Models and Results, Australas. J. Water Resour., 14, 101–116, https://doi.org/10.1080/13241583.2011.11465379, 2011. a
Viel, C., Beaulant, A.-L., Soubeyroux, J.-M., and Céron, J.-P.: How seasonal forecast could help a decision maker: an example of climate service for water resource management, Adv. Sci. Res., 13, 51–55, https://doi.org/10.5194/asr-13-51-2016, 2016. a
Walsh, S.: New long-term rainfall averages for Ireland, in: Irish National
Hydrology Conference 2012, Hydrology Ireland, 13 November 2012, Tullamore, Ireland, 3–12, available at: http://hydrologyireland.ie/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/01-Walsh-New-Long-Term-Rainfall-Averages-for-Ireland-1.pdf (last access: 15 November 2020), 2012. a
Wanders, N., Thober, S., Kumar, R., Pan, M., Sheffield, J., Samaniego, L., and Wood, E. F.: Development and Evaluation of a Pan-European Multimodel Seasonal Hydrological Forecasting System, J. Hydrometeorol., 20, 99–115,
https://doi.org/10.1175/JHM-D-18-0040.1, 2019. a
Wang, E., Zhang, Y., Luo, J., Chiew, F. H. S., and Wang, Q. J.: Monthly and
seasonal streamflow forecasts using rainfall-runoff modeling and historical
weather data, Water Resour. Res., 47, W05516, https://doi.org/10.1029/2010WR009922,
2011. a, b
Watts, G., von Christierson, B., Hannaford, J., and Lonsdale, K.: Testing the resilience of water supply systems to long droughts, J. Hydrol., 414–415, 255–267, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2011.10.038, 2012. a
Wedgbrow, C. S., Wilby, R. L., Fox, H. R., and O'Hare, G.: Prospects for
seasonal forecasting of summer drought and low river flow anomalies in
England and Wales, Int. J. Climatol., 22, 219–236, https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.735,
2002. a
Weisheimer, A. and Palmer, T. N.: On the reliability of seasonal climate
forecasts, J. R. Soc. Interface, 11, 20131162,
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsif.2013.1162, 2014. a
Werner, K., Brandon, D., Clark, M., and Gangopadhyay, S.: Climate Index
Weighting Schemes for NWS ESP-Based Seasonal Volume Forecasts, J.
Hydrometeorol., 5, 1076–1090, https://doi.org/10.1175/JHM-381.1, 2004.
a
Wetterhall, F. and Di Giuseppe, F.: The benefit of seamless forecasts for hydrological predictions over Europe, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 22, 3409–3420, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-3409-2018, 2018. a
Wilby, R. L.: Seasonal Forecasting of River Flows in the British Isles Using
North Atlantic Pressure Patterns, Water Environ. J., 15, 56–63,
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747-6593.2001.tb00305.x, 2001. a, b
Wilks, D. S.: Statistical Methods in the Atmospheric Sciences, 4th edition,
Elsevier, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, 2019. a
Wood, A. W. and Lettenmaier, D. P.: A Test Bed for New Seasonal Hydrologic
Forecasting Approaches in the Western United States, Bull. Am. Meteorol.
Soc., 87, 1699–1712, https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-87-12-1699, 2006. a
Wood, A. W. and Lettenmaier, D. P.: An ensemble approach for attribution of
hydrologic prediction uncertainty, Geophys. Res. Lett., 35, L14401,
https://doi.org/10.1029/2008GL034648, 2008. a, b, c, d
Wood, A. W., Hopson, T., Newman, A., Brekke, L., Arnold, J., and Clark, M.:
Quantifying Streamflow Forecast Skill Elasticity to Initial Condition and
Climate Prediction Skill, J. Hydrometeorol., 17, 651–668,
https://doi.org/10.1175/JHM-D-14-0213.1, 2016. a
Yang, L., Tian, F., Sun, Y., Yuan, X., and Hu, H.: Attribution of hydrologic forecast uncertainty within scalable forecast windows, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 18, 775–786, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-18-775-2014, 2014. a
Yuan, X. and Zhu, E.: A First Look at Decadal Hydrological Predictability by
Land Surface Ensemble Simulations, Geophys. Res. Lett., 45, 2362–2369,
https://doi.org/10.1002/2018GL077211, 2018. a, b
Yuan, X., Wood, E. F., and Ma, Z.: A review on climate-model-based seasonal
hydrologic forecasting: physical understanding and system development, WIREs
Water, 2, 523–536, https://doi.org/10.1002/wat2.1088, 2015. a, b
Yuan, X., Ma, F., Wang, L., Zheng, Z., Ma, Z., Ye, A., and Peng, S.: An experimental seasonal hydrological forecasting system over the Yellow River basin – Part 1: Understanding the role of initial hydrological conditions, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 20, 2437–2451, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-20-2437-2016, 2016. a
Zhao, T. and Zhao, J.: Joint and respective effects of long- and short-term
forecast uncertainties on reservoir operations, J. Hydrol., 517, 83–94,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2014.04.063, 2014. a
Short summary
We benchmarked the skill of ensemble streamflow prediction (ESP) for a diverse sample of 46 Irish catchments. We found that ESP is skilful in the majority of catchments up to several months ahead. However, the level of skill was strongly dependent on lead time, initialisation month, and individual catchment location and storage properties. We also conditioned ESP with the winter North Atlantic Oscillation and show that improvements in forecast skill, reliability, and discrimination are possible.
We benchmarked the skill of ensemble streamflow prediction (ESP) for a diverse sample of 46...
