Articles | Volume 26, issue 14
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-3863-2022
© Author(s) 2022. 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-26-3863-2022
© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Analysis of high streamflow extremes in climate change studies: how do we calibrate hydrological models?
Department of Civil, Environmental and Mechanical Engineering,
University of Trento, 38123 Trento, Italy
Diego Avesani
Department of Civil, Environmental and Mechanical Engineering,
University of Trento, 38123 Trento, Italy
Patrick Zulian
Department of Civil, Environmental and Mechanical Engineering,
University of Trento, 38123 Trento, Italy
Aldo Fiori
Department of Engineering, Roma Tre University, 00154 Rome, Italy
Alberto Bellin
Department of Civil, Environmental and Mechanical Engineering,
University of Trento, 38123 Trento, Italy
Related authors
Andrea Galletti, Soroush Zarghami Dastjerdi, and Bruno Majone
Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2024-521, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2024-521, 2025
Revised manuscript under review for ESSD
Short summary
Short summary
We propose IAR-HP, a detailed inventory of large hydropower systems in Italy's Alpine Region, aimed at improving hydrological modeling for climate impact studies by providing the most relevant information with a consistent level of detail. It includes structural, geographical, and operational data for over 300 hydropower plants and their related reservoirs and water intakes. Validated through modeling, IAR-HP accurately reproduces observed hydropower, capturing 96.2 % of actual production.
Giulio Bongiovanni, Michael Matiu, Alice Crespi, Anna Napoli, Bruno Majone, and Dino Zardi
Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2024-285, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2024-285, 2024
Revised manuscript accepted for ESSD
Short summary
Short summary
EEAR-Clim is a new and unprecedented observational dataset gathering in-situ daily measurements of air temperature and precipitation from a network of about 9000 weather stations covering the European Alps. Data collected, including time series from recordings up to 2020 and significantly enhancing data coverage at high elevations, were tested for quality and homogeneity. The dataset aims to serve as a powerful tool for better understanding climate change over the European Alpine region.
Michael Matiu, Alice Crespi, Giacomo Bertoldi, Carlo Maria Carmagnola, Christoph Marty, Samuel Morin, Wolfgang Schöner, Daniele Cat Berro, Gabriele Chiogna, Ludovica De Gregorio, Sven Kotlarski, Bruno Majone, Gernot Resch, Silvia Terzago, Mauro Valt, Walter Beozzo, Paola Cianfarra, Isabelle Gouttevin, Giorgia Marcolini, Claudia Notarnicola, Marcello Petitta, Simon C. Scherrer, Ulrich Strasser, Michael Winkler, Marc Zebisch, Andrea Cicogna, Roberto Cremonini, Andrea Debernardi, Mattia Faletto, Mauro Gaddo, Lorenzo Giovannini, Luca Mercalli, Jean-Michel Soubeyroux, Andrea Sušnik, Alberto Trenti, Stefano Urbani, and Viktor Weilguni
The Cryosphere, 15, 1343–1382, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-1343-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-1343-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
The first Alpine-wide assessment of station snow depth has been enabled by a collaborative effort of the research community which involves more than 30 partners, 6 countries, and more than 2000 stations. It shows how snow in the European Alps matches the climatic zones and gives a robust estimate of observed changes: stronger decreases in the snow season at low elevations and in spring at all elevations, however, with considerable regional differences.
Sebastiano Piccolroaz, Michele Di Lazzaro, Antonio Zarlenga, Bruno Majone, Alberto Bellin, and Aldo Fiori
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 20, 2047–2061, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-20-2047-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-20-2047-2016, 2016
Short summary
Short summary
We present HYPERstream, an innovative, parsimonious, and computationally efficient streamflow routing scheme based on the width function instantaneous unit hydrograph theory. HYPERstream is designed to be easily coupled with climate models and to preserve the geomorphological dispersion of the river network, irrespective of the model grid size. This makes HYPERstream well suited for multi-scale applications (from catchment up to continental scale) and to investigate extreme events (e.g. floods).
Diego Avesani, Yi Nan, and Fuqiang Tian
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-664, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-664, 2025
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Hydrology and Earth System Sciences (HESS).
Short summary
Short summary
Our study explores how different data sources (snow cover, glacier mass balance, and water isotopes) can improve hydrological modeling in large mountain basins. Using a Bayesian framework, we show that isotopes are particularly useful for reducing uncertainty in low-flow conditions, while snow and glacier data help during melt seasons. By addressing equifinality, our approach enhances model reliability, improving water management and streamflow predictions in mountainous regions.
Andrea Galletti, Soroush Zarghami Dastjerdi, and Bruno Majone
Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2024-521, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2024-521, 2025
Revised manuscript under review for ESSD
Short summary
Short summary
We propose IAR-HP, a detailed inventory of large hydropower systems in Italy's Alpine Region, aimed at improving hydrological modeling for climate impact studies by providing the most relevant information with a consistent level of detail. It includes structural, geographical, and operational data for over 300 hydropower plants and their related reservoirs and water intakes. Validated through modeling, IAR-HP accurately reproduces observed hydropower, capturing 96.2 % of actual production.
Luciano Pavesi, Elena Volpi, and Aldo Fiori
Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 24, 4507–4522, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-24-4507-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-24-4507-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Several sources of uncertainty affect flood risk estimation for reliable assessment for investment, insurance and risk management. Here, we consider the uncertainty of large-scale flood hazard modeling, providing a range of risk values that show significant variability depending on geomorphic factors and land use types. This allows for identifying the critical points where single-value estimates may underestimate the risk and the areas of vulnerability for prioritizing risk reduction efforts.
Giulio Bongiovanni, Michael Matiu, Alice Crespi, Anna Napoli, Bruno Majone, and Dino Zardi
Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2024-285, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2024-285, 2024
Revised manuscript accepted for ESSD
Short summary
Short summary
EEAR-Clim is a new and unprecedented observational dataset gathering in-situ daily measurements of air temperature and precipitation from a network of about 9000 weather stations covering the European Alps. Data collected, including time series from recordings up to 2020 and significantly enhancing data coverage at high elevations, were tested for quality and homogeneity. The dataset aims to serve as a powerful tool for better understanding climate change over the European Alpine region.
Jiancong Chen, Bhavna Arora, Alberto Bellin, and Yoram Rubin
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 25, 4127–4146, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-25-4127-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-25-4127-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
We developed a stochastic framework with indicator random variables to characterize the spatiotemporal distribution of environmental hot spots and hot moments (HSHMs) that represent rare locations and events exerting a disproportionate influence over the environment. HSHMs are characterized by static and dynamic indicators. This framework is advantageous as it allows us to calculate the uncertainty associated with HSHMs based on uncertainty associated with its contributors.
Michael Matiu, Alice Crespi, Giacomo Bertoldi, Carlo Maria Carmagnola, Christoph Marty, Samuel Morin, Wolfgang Schöner, Daniele Cat Berro, Gabriele Chiogna, Ludovica De Gregorio, Sven Kotlarski, Bruno Majone, Gernot Resch, Silvia Terzago, Mauro Valt, Walter Beozzo, Paola Cianfarra, Isabelle Gouttevin, Giorgia Marcolini, Claudia Notarnicola, Marcello Petitta, Simon C. Scherrer, Ulrich Strasser, Michael Winkler, Marc Zebisch, Andrea Cicogna, Roberto Cremonini, Andrea Debernardi, Mattia Faletto, Mauro Gaddo, Lorenzo Giovannini, Luca Mercalli, Jean-Michel Soubeyroux, Andrea Sušnik, Alberto Trenti, Stefano Urbani, and Viktor Weilguni
The Cryosphere, 15, 1343–1382, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-1343-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-1343-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
The first Alpine-wide assessment of station snow depth has been enabled by a collaborative effort of the research community which involves more than 30 partners, 6 countries, and more than 2000 stations. It shows how snow in the European Alps matches the climatic zones and gives a robust estimate of observed changes: stronger decreases in the snow season at low elevations and in spring at all elevations, however, with considerable regional differences.
Elena Diamantini, Stefano Mallucci, and Alberto Bellin
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 23, 573–593, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-23-573-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-23-573-2019, 2019
Short summary
Short summary
The description of pharmaceutical fate and transport introduced into a watershed is a challenging topic, especially because of the possible adverse effects on human health. In addition, an accurate estimation of solute sources and routes is still missing. This study uses a new promising modeling approach to predict pharmaceutical concentrations in rivers. Results show an interesting relationship between solute concentrations in waters and touristic fluxes.
Flavia Tauro, Andrea Petroselli, Aldo Fiori, Nunzio Romano, Maria Cristina Rulli, Maurizio Porfiri, Mario Palladino, and Salvatore Grimaldi
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2016-501, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2016-501, 2016
Revised manuscript not accepted
Sebastiano Piccolroaz, Michele Di Lazzaro, Antonio Zarlenga, Bruno Majone, Alberto Bellin, and Aldo Fiori
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 20, 2047–2061, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-20-2047-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-20-2047-2016, 2016
Short summary
Short summary
We present HYPERstream, an innovative, parsimonious, and computationally efficient streamflow routing scheme based on the width function instantaneous unit hydrograph theory. HYPERstream is designed to be easily coupled with climate models and to preserve the geomorphological dispersion of the river network, irrespective of the model grid size. This makes HYPERstream well suited for multi-scale applications (from catchment up to continental scale) and to investigate extreme events (e.g. floods).
L. Carturan, C. Baroni, M. Becker, A. Bellin, O. Cainelli, A. Carton, C. Casarotto, G. Dalla Fontana, A. Godio, T. Martinelli, M. C. Salvatore, and R. Seppi
The Cryosphere, 7, 1819–1838, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-7-1819-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-7-1819-2013, 2013
Related subject area
Subject: Catchment hydrology | Techniques and Approaches: Modelling approaches
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
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?
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 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
Estimating response times, flow velocities, and roughness coefficients of Canadian Prairie basins
Learning landscape features from streamflow with autoencoders
On the use of streamflow transformations for hydrological model calibration
Simulation-based inference for parameter estimation of complex watershed simulators
Multi-scale soil moisture data and process-based modeling reveal the importance of lateral groundwater flow in a subarctic catchment
CONCN: A high-resolution, integrated surface water-groundwater ParFlow modeling platform of continental China
Catchment response to climatic variability: implications for root zone storage and streamflow predictions
Hybrid hydrological modeling for large alpine basins: a semi-distributed approach
Technical note: How many models do we need to simulate hydrologic processes across large geographical domains?
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
Large-sample hydrology – a few camels or a whole caravan?
Comment on “Are soils overrated in hydrology?” by Gao et al. (2023)
Multi-decadal fluctuations in root zone storage capacity through vegetation adaptation to hydro-climatic variability have minor effects on the hydrological response in the Neckar River basin, Germany
Technical note: What does the Standardized Streamflow Index actually reflect? Insights and implications for hydrological drought analysis
Projected future changes in the cryosphere and hydrology of a mountainous catchment in the upper Heihe River, China
On the importance of plant phenology in the evaporative process of a semi-arid woodland: could it be why satellite-based evaporation estimates in the miombo differ?
Assessing the adequacy of traditional hydrological models for climate change impact studies: A case for long-short-term memory (LSTM) neural networks
Regionalization of GR4J model parameters for river flow prediction in Paraná, Brazil
Evolution of river regimes in the Mekong River basin over 8 decades and the role of dams in recent hydrological extremes
Skill of seasonal flow forecasts at catchment scale: an assessment across South Korea
To what extent do flood-inducing storm events change future flood hazards?
When ancient numerical demons meet physics-informed machine learning: adjoint-based gradients for implicit differentiable modeling
Assessing the value of high-resolution rainfall and streamflow data for hydrological modeling: An analysis based on 63 catchments in southeast China
Assessing the impact of climate change on high return levels of peak flows in Bavaria applying the CRCM5 large ensemble
Impacts of climate and land surface change on catchment evapotranspiration and runoff from 1951 to 2020 in Saxony, Germany
Quantifying and reducing flood forecast uncertainty by the CHUP-BMA method
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2024-292, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2024-292, 2024
Revised manuscript accepted for HESS
Short summary
Short summary
We developed the first high-resolution, integrated surface water-groundwater hydrologic model of the entire continental China using ParFlow. The model shows good performance 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.
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.
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. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2024-279, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2024-279, 2024
Revised manuscript accepted for HESS
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.
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.
Franziska Clerc-Schwarzenbach, Giovanni Selleri, Mattia Neri, Elena Toth, Ilja van Meerveld, and Jan Seibert
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 28, 4219–4237, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-4219-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-4219-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
We show that the differences between the forcing data included in three CAMELS datasets (US, BR, GB) and the forcing data included for the same catchments in the Caravan dataset affect model calibration considerably. The model performance dropped when the data from the Caravan dataset were used instead of the original data. Most of the model performance drop could be attributed to the differences in precipitation data. However, differences were largest for the potential evapotranspiration data.
Ying Zhao, Mehdi Rahmati, Harry Vereecken, and Dani Or
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 28, 4059–4063, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-4059-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-4059-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Gao et al. (2023) question the importance of soil in hydrology, sparking debate. We acknowledge some valid points but critique their broad, unsubstantiated views on soil's role. Our response highlights three key areas: (1) the false divide between ecosystem-centric and soil-centric approaches, (2) the vital yet varied impact of soil properties, and (3) the call for a scale-aware framework. We aim to unify these perspectives, enhancing hydrology's comprehensive understanding.
Siyuan Wang, Markus Hrachowitz, and Gerrit Schoups
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 28, 4011–4033, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-4011-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-4011-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Root zone storage capacity (Sumax) changes significantly over multiple decades, reflecting vegetation adaptation to climatic variability. However, this temporal evolution of Sumax cannot explain long-term fluctuations in the partitioning of water fluxes as expressed by deviations ΔIE from the parametric Budyko curve over time with different climatic conditions, and it does not have any significant effects on shorter-term hydrological response characteristics of the upper Neckar catchment.
Fabián Lema, Pablo A. Mendoza, Nicolás A. Vásquez, Naoki Mizukami, Mauricio Zambrano-Bigiarini, and Ximena Vargas
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2024-221, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2024-221, 2024
Revised manuscript accepted for HESS
Short summary
Short summary
Hydrological droughts affect ecosystems and socioeconomic activities worldwide. Despite they are commonly described with the Standardized Streamflow Index (SSI), there is limited understanding of what it truly reflects 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 time scales for accurate drought characterization and monitoring.
Zehua Chang, Hongkai Gao, Leilei Yong, Kang Wang, Rensheng Chen, Chuntan Han, Otgonbayar Demberel, Batsuren Dorjsuren, Shugui Hou, and Zheng Duan
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 28, 3897–3917, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-3897-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-3897-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
An integrated cryospheric–hydrologic model, FLEX-Cryo, was developed that considers glaciers, snow cover, and frozen soil and their dynamic impacts on hydrology. We utilized it to simulate future changes in cryosphere and hydrology in the Hulu catchment. Our projections showed the two glaciers will melt completely around 2050, snow cover will reduce, and permafrost will degrade. For hydrology, runoff will decrease after the glacier has melted, and permafrost degradation will increase baseflow.
Henry M. Zimba, Miriam Coenders-Gerrits, Kawawa E. Banda, Petra Hulsman, Nick van de Giesen, Imasiku A. Nyambe, and Hubert H. G. Savenije
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 28, 3633–3663, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-3633-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-3633-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
The fall and flushing of new leaves in the miombo woodlands co-occur in the dry season before the commencement of seasonal rainfall. The miombo species are also said to have access to soil moisture in deep soils, including groundwater in the dry season. Satellite-based evaporation estimates, temporal trends, and magnitudes differ the most in the dry season, most likely due to inadequate understanding and representation of the highlighted miombo species attributes in simulations.
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
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2133, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2133, 2024
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 hydrolgical models. The continental LSTM model, which includes data from diverse climate zones, is particularly effective for understanding climate impacts on water resources.
Louise Akemi Kuana, Arlan Scortegagna Almeida, Emílio Graciliano Ferreira Mercuri, and Steffen Manfred Noe
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 28, 3367–3390, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-3367-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-3367-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
The authors compared regionalization methods for river flow prediction in 126 catchments from the south of Brazil, a region with humid subtropical and hot temperate climate. The regionalization method based on physiographic–climatic similarity had the best performance for predicting daily and Q95 reference flow. We showed that basins without flow monitoring can have a good approximation of streamflow using machine learning and physiographic–climatic information as inputs.
Huy Dang and Yadu Pokhrel
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 28, 3347–3365, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-3347-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-3347-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
By examining basin-wide simulations of a river regime over 83 years with and without dams, we present evidence that climate variation was a key driver of hydrologic variabilities in the Mekong River basin (MRB) over the long term; however, dams have largely altered the seasonality of the Mekong’s flow regime and annual flooding patterns in major downstream areas in recent years. These findings could help us rethink the planning of future dams and water resource management in the MRB.
Yongshin Lee, Francesca Pianosi, Andres Peñuela, and Miguel Angel Rico-Ramirez
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 28, 3261–3279, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-3261-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-3261-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Following recent advancements in weather prediction technology, we explored how seasonal weather forecasts (1 or more months ahead) could benefit practical water management in South Korea. Our findings highlight that using seasonal weather forecasts for predicting flow patterns 1 to 3 months ahead is effective, especially during dry years. This suggest that seasonal weather forecasts can be helpful in improving the management of water resources.
Mariam Khanam, Giulia Sofia, and Emmanouil N. Anagnostou
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 28, 3161–3190, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-3161-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-3161-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Flooding worsens due to climate change, with river dynamics being a key in local flood control. Predicting post-storm geomorphic changes is challenging. Using self-organizing maps and machine learning, this study forecasts post-storm alterations in stage–discharge relationships across 3101 US stream gages. The provided framework can aid in updating hazard assessments by identifying rivers prone to change, integrating channel adjustments into flood hazard assessment.
Yalan Song, Wouter J. M. Knoben, Martyn P. Clark, Dapeng Feng, Kathryn Lawson, Kamlesh Sawadekar, and Chaopeng Shen
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 28, 3051–3077, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-3051-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-3051-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Differentiable models (DMs) integrate neural networks and physical equations for accuracy, interpretability, and knowledge discovery. We developed an adjoint-based DM for ordinary differential equations (ODEs) for hydrological modeling, reducing distorted fluxes and physical parameters from errors in models that use explicit and operation-splitting schemes. With a better numerical scheme and improved structure, the adjoint-based DM matches or surpasses long short-term memory (LSTM) performance.
Mahmut Tudaji, Yi Nan, and Fuqiang Tian
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-1438, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-1438, 2024
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 conducted simulation experiments using data with various temporal resolutions across multiple catchments, and found that higher resolution data does 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.
Florian Willkofer, Raul R. Wood, and Ralf Ludwig
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 28, 2969–2989, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-2969-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-2969-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Severe flood events pose a threat to riverine areas, yet robust estimates of the dynamics of these events in the future due to climate change are rarely available. Hence, this study uses data from a regional climate model, SMILE, to drive a high-resolution hydrological model for 98 catchments of hydrological Bavaria and exploits the large database to derive robust values for the 100-year flood events. Results indicate an increase in frequency and intensity for most catchments in the future.
Maik Renner and Corina Hauffe
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 28, 2849–2869, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-2849-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-2849-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Climate and land surface changes influence the partitioning of water balance components decisively. Their impact is quantified for 71 catchments in Saxony. Germany. Distinct signatures in the joint water and energy budgets are found: (i) past forest dieback caused a decrease in and subsequent recovery of evapotranspiration in the affected regions, and (ii) the recent shift towards higher aridity imposed a large decline in runoff that has not been seen in the observation records before.
Zhen Cui, Shenglian Guo, Hua Chen, Dedi Liu, Yanlai Zhou, and Chong-Yu Xu
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 28, 2809–2829, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-2809-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-2809-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Ensemble forecasting facilitates reliable flood forecasting and warning. This study couples the copula-based hydrologic uncertainty processor (CHUP) with Bayesian model averaging (BMA) and proposes the novel CHUP-BMA method of reducing inflow forecasting uncertainty of the Three Gorges Reservoir. The CHUP-BMA avoids the normal distribution assumption in the HUP-BMA and considers the constraint of initial conditions, which can improve the deterministic and probabilistic forecast performance.
Cited articles
Aich, V., Liersch, S., Vetter, T., Fournet, S., Andersson, J. C. M., Calmanti,
S., Van Weert, F. H. A., Hattermann, F. F., and Paton, E. N.: Flood projections
within the Niger River Basin under future land use and climate change, Sci.
Total Environ., 562, 666–677, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.04.021, 2016.
Arnell, N. W.: Uncertainty in the relationship between climate forcing and hydrological response in UK catchments, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 15, 897–912, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-15-897-2011, 2011.
Avesani, D., Galletti, A., Piccolroaz, S., Bellin, A., and Majone, B.: A dual
layer MPI continuous large-scale hydrological model including Human Systems,
Environ. Model. Softw., 139, 105003, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2021.105003,
2021.
Avesani, D., Zanfei, A., Di Marco, N., Galletti, A., Ravazzolo, F., Righetti, M.,
and Majone, B.: Short-term hydropower optimization driven by innovative
time-adapting econometric model, Appl. Energy, 310, 118510, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2021.118510, 2022.
Bard, A., Renard, B., Lang, M., Giuntoli, I., Korck, J., Koboltschnig, G.,
Janža, M., D'Amico, M., and Volken, D.: Trends in the hydrologic regime of
Alpine rivers, J. Hydrol., 529, 1823–1837,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2015.07.052, 2015.
Bellin, A., Majone, B., Cainelli, O., Alberici, D., and Villa, F.: A
continuous coupled hydrological and water resources management model,
Environ. Model. Softw., 75, 176–192, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2015.10.013,
2016.
Beven, K. J. and Binley, A.: The future of distributed models: Model
calibration and uncertainty prediction, Hydrol. Process., 6, 279–298,
https://doi.org/10.1002/hyp.3360060305, 1992.
Beven, K. and Westerberg, I.: On red herrings and real herrings:
disinformation and information in hydrological inference, Hydrol. Process.,
25, 1676–1680, https://doi.org/10.1002/hyp.7963, 2011.
Blazkova, S. and Beven, K.: A limits of acceptability approach to model
evaluation and uncertainty estimation in flood frequency estimation by
continuous simulation: Skalka catchment, Czech Republic, Water Resour. Res.,
45, W00B16, https://doi.org/10.1029/2007WR006726, 2009.
Bouwer, L. M.: Projections of Future Extreme Weather Losses Under Changes in
Climate and Exposure, Risk Anal., 33, 915–930,
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1539-6924.2012.01880.x, 2013.
Brigode, P., Oudin, L., and Perrin, C.: Hydrological model parameter
instability: a source of additional uncertainty in estimating the
hydrological impacts of climate change?, J. Hydrol., 476, 410–425,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2012.11.012, 2013.
Brigode, P., Paquet, E., Bernardara, P., Gailhard, J., Garavaglia, F.,
Ribstein, P., Bourgin, F., Perrin, C., and Andréassian, V.: Dependence of
model-based extreme flood estimation on the calibration period: the case
study of the Kamp River (Austria), Hydrolog. Sci. J., 60,
1424–1437, doi.org/10.1080/02626667.2015.1006632, 2015.
Brunner, M. I., Farinotti, D., Zekollari, H., Huss, M., and Zappa, M.: Future shifts in extreme flow regimes in Alpine regions, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 23, 4471–4489, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-23-4471-2019, 2019.
Buytaert, W. and De Bièvre, B.: Water for cities: the impact of climate
change and demographic growth in the tropical Andes, Water Resour. Res., 48,
W08503, https://doi.org/10.1029/2011WR011755, 2012.
Calenda, G., Mancini, C. P., and Volpi, E.: Selection of the probabilistic
model of extreme floods: The case of the River Tiber in Rome, J. Hydrol.,
371, 1–11, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2009.03.010, 2009.
Chiew, F., Teng, J., Vaze, J., Post, D., Perraud, J., Kirono, D., and Viney,
N.: Estimating climate change impact on runoff across southeast Australia,
Method, results, and implications of the modeling method, Water Resour.
Res., 45, W10414, https://doi.org/10.1029/2008WR007338, 2009.
Chiogna, G., Majone, B., Cano Paoli, K., Diamantini, E., Stella, E.,
Mallucci, S., Lencioni, V., Zandonai, F., and Bellin, A.: A review of
hydrological and chemical stressors in the Adige basin and its ecological
status, Sci. Tot. Env., 540, 429–443, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2015.06.149,
2016.
Clark, M. P., Wilby, R. L., Gutmann, E. D., Vano, J. A., Gangopadhyay, S.,
Wood, A. W., Fowler, H. J., Prudhomme, C., Arnold, J. R., and Brekke, L. D.:
Characterizing Uncertainty of the Hydrologic Impacts of Climate Change,
Curr. Clim. Change Rep., 2, 55–64, https://doi.org/10.1007/s40641-016-0034-x, 2016.
Conover, W. J.: Practical Nonparametric Statistics, Third edition, Wiley
Series in Probability and Statistics: Applied Probability and Statistics
Section, John Wiley & Sons. INC., New York, ISBN 9780471160687, 1999.
Diamantini, E., Lutz, S. R., Mallucci, S., Majone, B., Merz, R., and Bellin,
A.: Driver detection of water quality trends in three large European river
basins, Sci. Total Environ., 612, 49–62,
doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.08.172, 2018.
Di Sante, F., Coppola, E., and Giorgi, F.: Projections of river floods in
Europe using EURO-CORDEX, CMIP5 and CMIP6 simulations, Int. J. Climatol., 41, 3203–3221, https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.7014, 2019.
Earth System Grid Federation: EURO-CORDEX, euro-cordex [data set], https://www.euro-cordex.net/060378/index.php.en, last access: 15 July 2022.
Eden, J. M., Widmann, M., Maraun, D., and Vrac, M.: Comparison of GCM- and
RCM-simulated precipitation following stochastic postprocessing, J. Geophys.
Res.-Atmos., 119, 11040–11053, https://doi.org/10.1002/2014JD021732, 2014.
Efron, B.: The jackknife, the bootstrap, and other resampling plans,
Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics CBMS-NSF Monographs, 38, ISBN 0898711797, 1982.
Fenicia, F., Kavetski, D., Reichert, P., and Albert, C.: Signature-domain
calibration of hydrological models using approximate Bayesian computation:
Empirical analysis of fundamental properties. Water Resour. Res., 54,
3958–3987, https://doi.org/10.1002/2017WR021616, 2018.
Fiori, A., Cvetkovic, V., Dagan, G., Attinger, S., Bellin, A., Dietrich, P.,
Zech, A., and Teutsch, G.: Debates-stochastic subsurface hydrology from theory to practice: The
relevance of stochastic subsurface hydrology to practical problems of
contaminant transport and remediation. What is characterization and
stochastic theory good for?, Water Resour. Res., 52, 9228–9234,
https://doi.org/10.1002/2015WR017525, 2016.
Galletti, A., Avesani, D., Bellin, A., and Majone, B.: Detailed simulation of
storage hydropower systems in large Alpine watersheds, J. Hydrol., 603,
127125, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2021.127125, 2021.
Gampe, D., Nikulin, G., and Ludwig, R.: Using an ensemble of regional climate
models to assess climate change impacts on water scarcity in European river
basins, Sci. Total Environ., 573, 1503–1518, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.08.053, 2016.
Gobiet, A., Kotlarski, S., Beniston, M., Heinrich, G., Rajczak, J. and
Stoffel, M.: 21st century climate change in the European Alps, A
review, Sci. Total Environ., 493, 1138–1151, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2013.07.050, 2014.
Goovaerts, P.: Geostatistics for natural resources evaluation, Oxford
University Press, 483 p., ISBN 9780195115383, 1997.
Grubbs, F. E.: Procedures for Detecting Outlying Observations in Samples,
Technometrics 11, 1–21, https://doi.org/10.1080/00401706.1969.10490657, 1969.
Gumbel, E. J.: The return period of flood flows, Ann. Math Stat., 12,
163–190, 1941.
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, 2009.
Guthke, A.: Defensible model complexity: A call for data-based and
goal-oriented model choice, Groundwater, 55, 646–650,
https://doi.org/10.1111/gwat.12554, 2017.
Hargreaves, G. H. and Samani, Z. A.: Estimating potential evapotranspiration,
J. Irrig. Drain. Eng., 108, 225–230, 1989.
Harris, I., Jones, P. D., Osborn, T. J., and Lister, D. H.: Updated
high-resolution grids of monthly climatic observations – the CRU TS3.10
dataset, Int. J. Climatol., 34, 623–642, https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.3711, 2014.
Hattermann, F. F., Vetter, T., Breuer, L., Su, B., Daggupati, P., Donnelly,
C., Fekete, B., Florke F., Gosling, S.N., Hoffmann, P., Liersch, S., Masaki,
Y., Motovilov, Y., Muller, C., Samaniego, L., Stacke, T., Wada, Y., Yang,
T., and Krysnaova, V.: Environ. Res. Lett., 13, 015006,
https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aa9938, 2018.
Haylock, M. R., Hofstra, N., Klein Tank, A. M. G., Klok, E. J., Jones, P.
D., and New, M.: A European daily high-resolution gridded dataset of
surface temperature and precipitation, J. Geophys. Res., 113, D20119,
https://doi.org/10.1029/2008JD010201, 2008.
Heistermann, M. and Kneis, D.: Benchmarking quantitative precipitation
estimation by conceptual rainfall-runoff modeling, Water Resour. Res., 47,
W06514, https://doi.org/10.1029/2010WR009153, 2011.
Hock, R.: Temperature index melt modelling in mountain areas, J. Hydrol.,
282, 104–115, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0022-1694(03)00257-9, 2003.
Hoeting, J. A., Madigan, D., Raftery, A. E., and Volinsky, C. T.: Bayesian
model averaging: A tutorial, Stat. Sci., 14, 382–417, 1999.
Hofstra, N., Haylock, M., New, M., and Jones, P. D.: Testing E-OBS European
high-resolution gridded data set of daily precipitation and surface
temperature, J. Geophys. Res., 114, D21101, https://doi.org/10.1029/2009JD011799, 2009.
Hofstra, N., New, M., and McSweeney, C.: The influence of interpolation and
station network density on the distributions and trends of climate variables
in gridded daily data, Clim. Dyn. 35, 841–858, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-009-0698-1, 2010.
Honti, M., Scheidegger, A., and Stamm, C.: The importance of hydrological uncertainty assessment methods in climate change impact studies, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 18, 3301–3317, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-18-3301-2014, 2014.
Hosking, J. R.: Maximum-likelihood estimation of the parameters of the
generalized extreme-value distribution, Appl. Stat., 34, 301–310,
https://doi.org/10.2307/2347483, 1985.
Isotta, F. A., Frei, C., Weilguni, V., Perčec Tadić, M.,
Lassègues, P., Rudolf, B., Pavan, V., Cacciamani, C., Antolini, G.,
Ratto, S.M., Munari, M., Micheletti, S., Bonati, V., Lussana, C., Ronchi,
C., Panettieri, E., Marigo, G., and Vertačnik, G.: The climate of daily
precipitation in the Alps: development and analysis of a high-resolution
grid dataset from pan-Alpine rain-gauge data, Int. J. Climatol., 34,
1657–1675, https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.3794, 2014.
Jacob, D., Petersen, J., Eggert, B., Alias, A., Christensen, O. B., Bouwer,
L. M., Braun, A., Georgopoulou, E., Gobiet, A., Menut, L., Nikulin, G.,
Haensler, A., Hempelmann, N., Jones, C., Keuler, K., Kovats, S., Kröner, N., Kotlarski, S.,
Kriegsmann, A., Martin, E., van Meijgaard, E., Moseley, C., Pfeifer, S., Preuschmann, S.,
Radermacher, C., Radtke, K., Rechid, D., Rounsevell, M., Samuelsson, P., Somot, S.,
Soussana, J.-F., Teichmann, C., Valentini, R., Vautard, R., Weber, B., and Yiuou, P.: EURO-CORDEX: new high-resolution
climate change projections for European impact research, Reg. Environ.
Chang., 14, 563–578, 2014.
Journel, A. G. and Rossi, M. E.: When do we need a trend model in kriging?,
Math. Geol., 21, 715–739, https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00893318, 1989.
Kennedy, J. and Eberhart, R.: Particle swarm optimization, Proceedings of
IEEE International Conference on Neural Networks, Institute of Electrical
& Electronics Engineering, University of Western Australia, Perth,
Western Australia, 1942–1948, https://doi.org/10.1109/ICNN.1995.488968, 1995.
Kleinen, T. and Petschel-Held, G.: Integrated assessment of changes in
flooding probabilities due to climate change, Clim. Change, 81, 283–312,
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-006-9159-6, 2007.
Kotlarski, S., Keuler, K., Christensen, O. B., Colette, A., Déqué, M., Gobiet, A., Goergen, K., Jacob, D., Lüthi, D., van Meijgaard, E., Nikulin, G., Schär, C., Teichmann, C., Vautard, R., Warrach-Sagi, K., and Wulfmeyer, V.: Regional climate modeling on European scales: a joint standard evaluation of the EURO-CORDEX RCM ensemble, Geosci. Model Dev., 7, 1297–1333, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-7-1297-2014, 2014.
Kundzewicz, Z., Mata, L., Arnell, N., Döll, P., Kabat, P., Jiménez,
B., Miller, K., Oki, T., Shen, Z., and Shiklomanov, I.: Freshwater resources
and their management, in: Climate change: Impacts, adaptation and
vulnerability, Contribution of Working Group II to the Fourth Assessment
Report of the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change, edited by: Parry,
M., Canziani, O., Palutikof, J., van der Linden, P., and Hanson, C., Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 173–210, 2007.
Laio, F., Allamano, P., and Claps, P.: Exploiting the information content of hydrological ”outliers” for goodness-of-fit testing, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 14, 1909–1917, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-14-1909-2010, 2010.
Laiti, L., Mallucci, S., Piccolroaz, S., Bellin, A., Zardi, D., Fiori, A.,
Nikulin, G., and Majone, B.: Testing the hydrological coherence of
high-resolution gridded precipitation and temperature datasets, Water Resour. Res., 54, 1999–2016, https://doi.org/10.1002/2017WR021633, 2018.
Landelius, T., Dahlgren, P., Gollvik, S., Jansson, A., and Olsson, E.: A
high-resolution regional reanalysis for Europe, Part 2: 2D analysis of
surface temperature, precipitation and wind, Q. J. R. Meteorol. Soc., https://doi.org/10.1002/qj.2813, 2016.
Larsen, S., Majone, B., Zulian, P., Stella, E., Bellin, A., Bruno, M. C.,
and Zolezzi, G.: Combining hydrologic simulations and stream-network models
to reveal flow-ecology relationships in a large Alpine catchment, Water Resour. Res., 57, e2020WR028496, https://doi.org/10.1029/2020WR028496,
2021.
Lespinas, F., Ludwig, W., and Heussner, S.: Hydrological and climatic
uncertainties associated with modeling the impact of climate change on water
resources of small Mediterranean coastal rivers, J. Hydrol., 511, 403–422,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2014.01.033, 2014.
Lindenschmidt, K. E.: Using stage frequency distributions as objective
functions for model calibration and global sensitivity analyses, Environ.
Model. Softw., 92, 169–175, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2017.02.027,
2017.
Lutz, S. R., Mallucci, S., Diamantini, E., Majone, B., Bellin, A., and Merz,
R.: Hydroclimatic and water quality trends across three Mediterranean river
basins, Sci. Tot. Env., 571, 1392–1406, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.07.102,
2016.
Majone, B., Bertagnoli, A., and Bellin, A.: A non-linear runoff generation
model in small Alpine catchments, J. Hydrol., 385, 300–312, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2010.02.033, 2010.
Majone, B., Bovolo, C. I., Bellin, A., Blenkinsop, S., and Fowler, J.:
Modeling the impacts of future climate change on water resources for the
Gállego river basin, Spain, Water Resour. Res., 48, W01512,
https://doi.org/10.1029/2011WR010985, 2012.
Majone, B., Villa, F., Deidda, R., and Bellin, A.: Impact of climate change and
water use policies on hydropower potential in the south-eastern Alpine
region, Sci. Tot. Env., 543, 965–980,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2015.05.009, 2016.
Mallucci, S., Majone, B., and Bellin, A.: Detection and attribution of
hydrological changes in a large Alpine river basin, J. Hydrol.,
575, 1214–1229, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2019.06.020, 2019.
Mcmillan, H., Westerberg, I., and Branger, F.: Five guidelines for
selecting hydrological signatures. Hydrol. Process., 31,
4757–4761, https://doi.org/10.1002/hyp.11300, 2017.
Meresa, H. K. and Romanowicz, R. J.: The critical role of uncertainty in projections of hydrological extremes, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 21, 4245–4258, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-21-4245-2017, 2017.
Michel, C., Andreassian, V., and Perrin, C.: Soil Conservation Service Curve
Number method: How to mend a wrong soil moisture accounting procedure?,
Water Resour. Res., 41, W02011, https://doi.org/10.1029/2004WR003191, 2005.
Mizukami, N., Rakovec, O., Newman, A. J., Clark, M. P., Wood, A. W., Gupta, H. V., and Kumar, R.: On the choice of calibration metrics for “high-flow” estimation using hydrologic models, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 23, 2601–2614, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-23-2601-2019, 2019.
Montanari, A. and Toth, E.: Calibration of hydrological models in the
spectral domain: An opportunity for scarcely gauged basins?, Water Resour.
Res., 43, W05434, https://doi.org/10.1029/2006WR005184, 2007.
Montanari, A., Young, G., Savenije, H. H. G., Hughes, D., Wagener, T., Ren,
L. L., Koutsoyiannis, D., Cudennec, C., Toth, E., Grimaldi, S., Blöschl, G., Sivapalan, M., Beven, K.,
Gupta, H., Hipsey, M., Schaefli, B., Arheimer, B., Boegh, E., Schymanski, S. J., Di Baldassarre, G.,
Yu, B., Hubert, P., Huang, Y., Schumann, A., Post, D. A., Srinivasan, V., Harman, C.,
Thompson, S., Rogger, M., Viglione, A., McMillan, H., Characklis, G., Pang, Z., and Belyaev. V.: “Panta Rhei-Everything Flows”: Change in
hydrology and society – The IAHS Scientific Decade 2013–2022, Hydrol. Sci. J., 58, 1256–1275, https://doi.org/10.1080/02626667.2013.809088,
2013.
Muñoz, E., Arumí, J. L., and Rivera, D.: Watersheds are not static:
Implications of climate variability and hydrologic dynamics in modelling,
Bosque (Valdivia), 34, 7–11, https://doi.org/10.4067/S0717-92002013000100002,
2013.
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.
Ngongondo, C., Li, L., Gong, L., Xu, C., and Alemawm, B. F: Flood frequency
under changing climate in the upper Kafue River basin, southern Africa: a
large scale hydrological model application, Stoch. Environ. Res. Risk.
Assess., 27, 1883–1898, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00477-013-0724-z, 2013.
Pearson, K.: On the criterion that a given system of deviations from the
probable in the case of a correlated system of variables is such that it can
be reasonably supposed to have arisen from random sampling, Philosophical
Magazine Series 5, 302, 157–175, 1900.
Pechlivanidis, I. G., Arheimer, B., Donnelly, C., Hundecha, Y., Huang, S.,
Aich, V., Samaniego, L., Eisner, S., and Shi, P.: Analysis of hydrological
extremes at different hydro-climatic regimes under present and future
conditions, Clim. Change, 141, 467–481, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-016-1723-0,
2017.
Peel, M. C. and Blöschl, G.: Hydrological modelling in a changing
world, Prog. Phys. Geog., 35, 249–261,
https://doi.org/10.1177/0309133311402550, 2011.
Perrin, C., Oudin, L., Andreassian, V., Rojas-Serna, C., Michel, C., and
Mathevet, T.: Impact of limited streamflow data on the efficiency and the
parameters of rainfall-runoff models, Hydrolog. Sci. J., 52,
131–151, https://doi.org/10.1623/hysj.52.1.131, 2007.
Piccolroaz, S., Majone, B., Palmieri, F., Cassiani, G., and Bellin, A.: On
the use of spatially distributed, time-lapse microgravity surveys to inform
hydrological modeling, Water Resour. Res., 51, 7270–7288,
https://doi.org/10.1002/2015WR016994, 2015.
Piccolroaz, S., Di Lazzaro, M., Zarlenga, A., Majone, B., Bellin, A., and Fiori, A.: HYPERstream: a multi-scale framework for streamflow routing in large-scale hydrological model, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 20, 2047–2061, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-20-2047-2016, 2016.
Protter, M. H. and Morrey, C. B.: College Calculus with Analytic Geometry, Second Edition (1 January 1970),
Addison-Wesley VLSI Systems Series, Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, ISBN 9780201060010, 1977.
Rango, A. and Martinec, J.: Revisiting the degree-day method for snowmelt
computations, J. Am. Water Resour. Assoc., 31, 657–669,
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1752-1688.1995.tb03392.x, 1995.
Rinaldo, A., Marani, A., and Rigon, R.: Geomorphological dispersion, Water
Resour. Res., 27, 513–525, https://doi.org/10.1029/90WR02501, 1991.
Schaefli, B. and Gupta, H. V.: Do Nash values have value?, Hydrol.
Process., 21, 2075–2080, https://doi.org/10.1002/hyp.6825, 2007.
Seibert, J. and Beven, K. J.: Gauging the ungauged basin: how many discharge measurements are needed?, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 13, 883–892, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-13-883-2009, 2009.
Smirnov, N. V.: Estimate of deviation between empirical distribution
functions in two independent samples, (Russian) Bull. Moscow Univ., 2,
3–16, 1939.
Taye, M. T., Ntegeka, V., Ogiramoi, N. P., and Willems, P.: Assessment of climate change impact on hydrological extremes in two source regions of the Nile River Basin, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 15, 209–222, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-15-209-2011, 2011.
Thirel, G., Andréassian, V., Perrin, C., Audouy, J.-N., Berthet, L.,
Edwards, P., Folton, N.,
Furusho, C., Kuentz, A., Lerat, J., Lindström, G., Martin, E., Mathevet, T., Merz, R., Parajka, J.,
Ruelland, D., and Vaze, J.: Hydrology under change: an evaluation
protocol to investigate how hydrological models deal with changing
catchments, Hydrol. Sci. J., 60, 1184–1199,
https://doi.org/10.1080/02626667.2014.967248, 2014.
Thornton, P. K., Ericksen P. J., Herrero M., and Challinor, A. J.: Climate
variability and vulnerability to climate change: a review, Glob. Change
Biol., 20, 3313–3328, https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.12581, 2014.
Todd, M. C., Taylor, R. G., Osborn, T. J., Kingston, D. G., Arnell, N. W., and Gosling, S. N.: Uncertainty in climate change impacts on basin-scale freshwater resources – preface to the special issue: the QUEST-GSI methodology and synthesis of results, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 15, 1035–1046, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-15-1035-2011, 2011.
Vaze, J., Post, D. A., Chiew, F. H. S., Perraud, J. M., Viney, N. R., and Teng, J.:
Climate non-stationarity – validity of calibrated rainfall-runoff models for
use in climate change studies, J. Hydrol. 394, 447–457,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2010.09.018, 2010.
Vetter, T., Reinhardt, J., Flörke, M., van Griensven, A., Hattermann,
F., Huang, S., Koch, H., Pechlivanidis, I.G., Plötner, S., Seidou, O.,
Su, B., Vervoort, R. W., and Krysanova, V.: Evaluation of sources of
uncertainty in projected hydrological changes under climate change in
large-scale river basins, Clim. Change, 141, 419–433,
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-016-1794-y, 2017.
Vogel, R. M. and Fennessey, N. M.: Flow-Duration Curves. 1: New
Interpretation and Confidence-Intervals, Planning and
Management, J. Water Res., 120, 485–504, https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9496(1994)120:4(485),
1994.
Vrzel, J., Ludwig, R., Gampe, D., and Ogrinc, N.: Hydrological system
behavior of an alluvial aquifer under climate change, Sci. Total Environ.,
649, 1179–1188, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.08.396, 2019.
Wang, W., Chen, X., Shi, P., and van Gelder, P. H. A. J. M.: Detecting changes in extreme precipitation and extreme streamflow in the Dongjiang River Basin in southern China, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 12, 207–221, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-12-207-2008, 2008.
Wang, A. and Solomatine, D. P.: Practical Experience of Sensitivity
Analysis: Comparing Six Methods, on Three Hydrological Models, with Three
Performance Criteria, Water, 11, 1062, https://doi.org/10.3390/w11051062, 2019.
Weibull, W.: A statistical theory of strength of materials., Ing. Vetensk.
Akad. Handl., 151, 1–45, 1939.
Westerberg, I. K., Guerrero, J.-L., Younger, P. M., Beven, K. J., Seibert, J., Halldin, S., Freer, J. E., and Xu, C.-Y.: Calibration of hydrological models using flow-duration curves, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 15, 2205–2227, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-15-2205-2011, 2011.
Wilby, R. L. and Harris, I.: A framework for assessing uncertainties in
climate change impacts: Low-flow scenarios for the River Thames, UK, Water
Resour. Res., 42, W02419, https://doi.org/10.1029/2005WR004065, 2006.
Wilcke, R. A. I. and Bärring, L.: Selecting regional climate scenarios for
impact modelling studies, Environ. Model. Softw., 78, 191–201,
10.1016/j.envsoft.2016.01.002, 2016.
Wu, Q., Liu, S., Cai, Y., Li, X., and Jiang, Y.: Improvement of hydrological model calibration by selecting multiple parameter ranges, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 21, 393–407, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-21-393-2017, 2017.
Yang, W., Andréasson, J., Graham, L. P., Olsson, J., Rosberg, J., and
Wetterhall, F.: Distribution based scaling to improve usability of regional
climate model projections for hydrological climate change impacts studies,
Hydrol. Res., 41, 211–229, 10.2166/nh.2010.004, 2010.
Yapo, P. O., Gupta, H. V., Sorooshian, S.: Automatic calibration of conceptual
rainfall-runoff models: sensitivity to calibration data. J. Hydrol. 181,
23–48, https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-1694(95)02918-4, 1996.
Zolezzi, G., Bellin, A., Bruno, M. C., Maiolini, B., and Siviglia, A.:
Assessing hydrological alterations at multiple temporal scales: Adige River,
Italy, Water Resour. Res., 45, W12421, https://doi.org/10.1029/2008WR007266, 2009.
Short summary
In this work, we introduce a methodology for devising reliable future high streamflow scenarios from climate change simulations. The calibration of a hydrological model is carried out to maximize the probability that the modeled and observed high flow extremes belong to the same statistical population. Application to the Adige River catchment (southeastern Alps, Italy) showed that this procedure produces reliable quantiles of the annual maximum streamflow for use in assessment studies.
In this work, we introduce a methodology for devising reliable future high streamflow scenarios...