Articles | Volume 29, issue 19
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-4983-2025
© Author(s) 2025. 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-29-4983-2025
© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| 
08 Oct 2025
Research article |
| 08 Oct 2025
| 08 Oct 2025
Saudi Rainfall (SaRa): hourly 0.1° gridded rainfall (1979–present) for Saudi Arabia via machine learning fusion of satellite and model data
Xuetong Wang
Physical Science and Engineering Division, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia
Raied S. Alharbi
Department of Civil Engineering, College of Engineering, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Oscar M. Baez-Villanueva
Hydro-Climate Extremes Lab (H-CEL), Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
Amy Green
School of Engineering, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
Matthew F. McCabe
Biological and Environmental Science and Engineering Division, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia
Yoshihide Wada
Biological and Environmental Science and Engineering Division, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia
Albert I. J. M. Van Dijk
Fenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia
Muhammad A. Abid
Atmospheric, Oceanic and Planetary Physics (AOPP), Department of Physics, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
National Centre for Atmospheric Science (NCAS), Leeds, UK
Hylke E. Beck
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Physical Science and Engineering Division, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia
GloH2O LLC, Princeton, NJ, USA
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Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2025-608, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2025-608, 2025
Preprint under review for ESSD
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We present the second version of a large-sample catchment hydrology dataset for Great Britain. The dataset collates (1) climate, river flow and groundwater timeseries at monthly to hourly timescales, (2) catchment attributes characterising topography, climate, streamflow, land cover, soils, hydrogeology and human influences, and (3) catchment boundaries for 671 catchments across Great Britain. The dataset is publicly available to use in a wide range of environmental and modelling analyses.
Pierre Laluet, Chiara Corbari, Oscar Baez-Villanueva, Sophia Walther, Yongqiang Zhang, Joaquín Muñoz-Sabater, Gabriel B. Senay, Clément Albergel, and Wouter Dorigo
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-5716, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-5716, 2025
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Hydrology and Earth System Sciences (HESS).
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We examined how well global datasets estimate evapotranspiration, the water moving from land to the air, in irrigated areas. We compared six widely used products with irrigation maps, satellite estimates, and field measurements across different climate regions. Some datasets better capture irrigation effects, especially those using temperature and vegetation satellite data. This work helps guide dataset selection and supports better inclusion of irrigation in hydrological and climate models.
Taher Kahil, Safa Baccour, Julian Joseph, Reetik Sahu, Peter Burek, Jia Yi Ng, Samar Asad, Dor Fridman, Jose Albiac, Frank A. Ward, and Yoshihide Wada
Geosci. Model Dev., 18, 7987–8015, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-7987-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-7987-2025, 2025
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This study presents the development of the global version of the ECHO hydro-economic model for assessing the economic and environmental performance of water management options. This improved version covers a large number of basins worldwide, includes a detailed representation of irrigated agriculture, and accounts for economic benefits and costs of water use. Results of this study demonstrates the capacity of ECHO-Global to address emerging water-related research and practical questions.
Fan Yang, Maike Schumacher, Leire Retegui-Schiettekatte, Albert I. J. M. van Dijk, and Ehsan Forootan
Geosci. Model Dev., 18, 6195–6217, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-6195-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-6195-2025, 2025
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Satellite gravimetry enables direct measurement of total water storage (TWS), a capability that was previously unattainable. In this study, we present an open-source land data assimilation system with global hydrological model, which temporally, vertically, and laterally dis-aggregates satellite-based TWS. This study provides a practical framework establishing operational water management with current and future satellite gravity missions.
Mateo Barco Largo, Meshal Alarifi, Sami D. Almalki, Shauna K. Rees, Benjamin P. Y.-H. Lee, Ahmed H. Mohamed, Abdalsamad Aldabaa, Kaoru Kakinuma, and Yoshihide Wada
Int. Arch. Photogramm. Remote Sens. Spatial Inf. Sci., XLVIII-G-2025, 183–188, https://doi.org/10.5194/isprs-archives-XLVIII-G-2025-183-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/isprs-archives-XLVIII-G-2025-183-2025, 2025
Hannes Müller Schmied, Simon Newland Gosling, Marlo Garnsworthy, Laura Müller, Camelia-Eliza Telteu, Atiq Kainan Ahmed, Lauren Seaby Andersen, Julien Boulange, Peter Burek, Jinfeng Chang, He Chen, Lukas Gudmundsson, Manolis Grillakis, Luca Guillaumot, Naota Hanasaki, Aristeidis Koutroulis, Rohini Kumar, Guoyong Leng, Junguo Liu, Xingcai Liu, Inga Menke, Vimal Mishra, Yadu Pokhrel, Oldrich Rakovec, Luis Samaniego, Yusuke Satoh, Harsh Lovekumar Shah, Mikhail Smilovic, Tobias Stacke, Edwin Sutanudjaja, Wim Thiery, Athanasios Tsilimigkras, Yoshihide Wada, Niko Wanders, and Tokuta Yokohata
Geosci. Model Dev., 18, 2409–2425, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-2409-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-2409-2025, 2025
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Global water models contribute to the evaluation of important natural and societal issues but are – as all models – simplified representation of reality. So, there are many ways to calculate the water fluxes and storages. This paper presents a visualization of 16 global water models using a standardized visualization and the pathway towards this common understanding. Next to academic education purposes, we envisage that these diagrams will help researchers, model developers, and data users.
Robert Reinecke, Annemarie Bäthge, Ricarda Dietrich, Sebastian Gnann, Simon N. Gosling, Danielle Grogan, Andreas Hartmann, Stefan Kollet, Rohini Kumar, Richard Lammers, Sida Liu, Yan Liu, Nils Moosdorf, Bibi Naz, Sara Nazari, Chibuike Orazulike, Yadu Pokhrel, Jacob Schewe, Mikhail Smilovic, Maryna Strokal, Yoshihide Wada, Shan Zuidema, and Inge de Graaf
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-1181, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-1181, 2025
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Amy C. Green, Chris Kilsby, and András Bárdossy
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 28, 4539–4558, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-4539-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-4539-2024, 2024
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Dapeng Feng, Hylke Beck, Jens de Bruijn, Reetik Kumar Sahu, Yusuke Satoh, Yoshihide Wada, Jiangtao Liu, Ming Pan, Kathryn Lawson, and Chaopeng Shen
Geosci. Model Dev., 17, 7181–7198, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-7181-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-7181-2024, 2024
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Accurate hydrologic modeling is vital to characterizing water cycle responses to climate change. For the first time at this scale, we use differentiable physics-informed machine learning hydrologic models to simulate rainfall–runoff processes for 3753 basins around the world and compare them with purely data-driven and traditional modeling approaches. This sets a benchmark for hydrologic estimates around the world and builds foundations for improving global hydrologic simulations.
Oscar M. Baez-Villanueva, Mauricio Zambrano-Bigiarini, Diego G. Miralles, Hylke E. Beck, Jonatan F. Siegmund, Camila Alvarez-Garreton, Koen Verbist, René Garreaud, Juan Pablo Boisier, and Mauricio Galleguillos
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 28, 1415–1439, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-1415-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-1415-2024, 2024
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Various drought indices exist, but there is no consensus on which index to use to assess streamflow droughts. This study addresses meteorological, soil moisture, and snow indices along with their temporal scales to assess streamflow drought across hydrologically diverse catchments. Using data from 100 Chilean catchments, findings suggest that there is not a single drought index that can be used for all catchments and that snow-influenced areas require drought indices with larger temporal scales.
P. Rouault, D. Courault, G. Pouget, F. Flamain, R. Lopez-Lozano, C. Doussan, M. Debolini, and M. McCabe
Int. Arch. Photogramm. Remote Sens. Spatial Inf. Sci., XLVIII-1-W2-2023, 1531–1536, https://doi.org/10.5194/isprs-archives-XLVIII-1-W2-2023-1531-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/isprs-archives-XLVIII-1-W2-2023-1531-2023, 2023
M. G. Ziliani, M. U. Altaf, B. Aragon, R. Houborg, T. E. Franz, Y. Lu, J. Sheffield, I. Hoteit, and M. F. McCabe
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Oscar M. Baez-Villanueva, Mauricio Zambrano-Bigiarini, Pablo A. Mendoza, Ian McNamara, Hylke E. Beck, Joschka Thurner, Alexandra Nauditt, Lars Ribbe, and Nguyen Xuan Thinh
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 25, 5805–5837, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-25-5805-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-25-5805-2021, 2021
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Most rivers worldwide are ungauged, which hinders the sustainable management of water resources. Regionalisation methods use information from gauged rivers to estimate streamflow over ungauged ones. Through hydrological modelling, we assessed how the selection of precipitation products affects the performance of three regionalisation methods. We found that a precipitation product that provides the best results in hydrological modelling does not necessarily perform the best for regionalisation.
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Our paper introduces Saudi Rainfall (SaRa), a high-resolution, near-real-time rainfall product for the Arabian Peninsula. Using machine learning, SaRa combines multiple satellite and (re)analysis datasets with static predictors, outperforming existing products in the region. With the fast development and continuing growth in water demand over this region, SaRa could help to address water challenges and support resource management.
Our paper introduces Saudi Rainfall (SaRa), a high-resolution, near-real-time rainfall product...
