Articles | Volume 10, issue 2
https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-10-1063-2018
© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-10-1063-2018
© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Review article
| 
14 Jun 2018
Review article |
| 14 Jun 2018
| 14 Jun 2018
Water and sediment fluxes in Mediterranean mountainous regions: comprehensive dataset for hydro-sedimentological analyses and modelling in a mesoscale catchment (River Isábena, NE Spain)
Till Francke
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
University of Potsdam, Institute of Earth and Environmental Science,
Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 24-25, 14476 Potsdam, Germany
Saskia Foerster
GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, Section 1.4 Remote
Sensing, Telegrafenberg, 14473 Potsdam, Germany
Arlena Brosinsky
University of Potsdam, Institute of Earth and Environmental Science,
Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 24-25, 14476 Potsdam, Germany
GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, Section 1.4 Remote
Sensing, Telegrafenberg, 14473 Potsdam, Germany
Erik Sommerer
GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, Section 5.4 Hydrology,
Telegrafenberg, 14473 Potsdam, Germany
Jose A. Lopez-Tarazon
University of Potsdam, Institute of Earth and Environmental Science,
Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 24-25, 14476 Potsdam, Germany
Mediterranean Ecogeomorphological and Hydrological Connectivity
Research Team (MEDhyCON), Department of Geography, University of the
Balearic Islands, 07122 Palma, Spain
RIUS, Fluvial Dynamics Research Group, University of Lleida,
25198 Lleida, Catalonia, Spain
Andreas Güntner
GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, Section 5.4 Hydrology,
Telegrafenberg, 14473 Potsdam, Germany
University of Potsdam, Institute of Earth and Environmental Science,
Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 24-25, 14476 Potsdam, Germany
Ramon J. Batalla
RIUS, Fluvial Dynamics Research Group, University of Lleida,
25198 Lleida, Catalonia, Spain
Catalan Institute for Water Research, 17003 Girona, Catalonia, Spain
Faculty of Forest Sciences and Natural Resources, Universidad Austral de Chile, Valdivia, Chile
Axel Bronstert
University of Potsdam, Institute of Earth and Environmental Science,
Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 24-25, 14476 Potsdam, Germany
Related authors
Till Francke, Cosimo Brogi, Alby Duarte Rocha, Michael Förster, Maik Heistermann, Markus Köhli, Daniel Rasche, Marvin Reich, Paul Schattan, Lena Scheiffele, and Martin Schrön
Geosci. Model Dev., 18, 819–842, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-819-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-819-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
Multiple methods for measuring soil moisture beyond the point scale exist. Their validation is generally hindered by not knowing the truth. We propose a virtual framework in which this truth is fully known and the sensor observations for cosmic ray neutron sensing, remote sensing, and hydrogravimetry are simulated. This allows for the rigorous testing of these virtual sensors to understand their effectiveness and limitations.
Daniel Altdorff, Maik Heistermann, Till Francke, Martin Schrön, Sabine Attinger, Albrecht Bauriegel, Frank Beyrich, Peter Biró, Peter Dietrich, Rebekka Eichstädt, Peter Martin Grosse, Arvid Markert, Jakob Terschlüsen, Ariane Walz, Steffen Zacharias, and Sascha E. Oswald
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3848, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3848, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
The German federal state of Brandenburg is particularly prone to soil moisture droughts. To support the management of related risks, we introduce a novel soil moisture and drought monitoring network based on cosmic-ray neutron sensing technology. This initiative is driven by a collaboration of research institutions and federal state agencies, and it is the first of its kind in Germany to have started operation. In this brief communication, we outline the network design and share first results.
Maik Heistermann, Till Francke, Martin Schrön, and Sascha E. Oswald
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 28, 989–1000, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-989-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-989-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Cosmic-ray neutron sensing (CRNS) is a non-invasive technique used to obtain estimates of soil water content (SWC) at a horizontal footprint of around 150 m and a vertical penetration depth of up to 30 cm. However, typical CRNS applications require the local calibration of a function which converts neutron counts to SWC. As an alternative, we propose a generalized function as a way to avoid the use of local reference measurements of SWC and hence a major source of uncertainty.
Stefano Gianessi, Matteo Polo, Luca Stevanato, Marcello Lunardon, Till Francke, Sascha E. Oswald, Hami Said Ahmed, Arsenio Toloza, Georg Weltin, Gerd Dercon, Emil Fulajtar, Lee Heng, and Gabriele Baroni
Geosci. Instrum. Method. Data Syst., 13, 9–25, https://doi.org/10.5194/gi-13-9-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/gi-13-9-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Soil moisture monitoring is important for many applications, from improving weather prediction to supporting agriculture practices. Our capability to measure this variable is still, however, limited. In this study, we show the tests conducted on a new soil moisture sensor at several locations. The results show that the new sensor is a valid and compact alternative to more conventional, non-invasive soil moisture sensors that can pave the way for a wide range of applications.
Lena Katharina Schmidt, Till Francke, Peter Martin Grosse, and Axel Bronstert
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 28, 139–161, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-139-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-139-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
How suspended sediment export from glacierized high-alpine areas responds to future climate change is hardly assessable as many interacting processes are involved, and appropriate physical models are lacking. We present the first study, to our knowledge, exploring machine learning to project sediment export until 2100 in two high-alpine catchments. We find that uncertainties due to methodological limitations are small until 2070. Negative trends imply that peak sediment may have already passed.
Maik Heistermann, Till Francke, Lena Scheiffele, Katya Dimitrova Petrova, Christian Budach, Martin Schrön, Benjamin Trost, Daniel Rasche, Andreas Güntner, Veronika Döpper, Michael Förster, Markus Köhli, Lisa Angermann, Nikolaos Antonoglou, Manuela Zude-Sasse, and Sascha E. Oswald
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 15, 3243–3262, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-3243-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-3243-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
Cosmic-ray neutron sensing (CRNS) allows for the non-invasive estimation of root-zone soil water content (SWC). The signal observed by a single CRNS sensor is influenced by the SWC in a radius of around 150 m (the footprint). Here, we have put together a cluster of eight CRNS sensors with overlapping footprints at an agricultural research site in north-east Germany. That way, we hope to represent spatial SWC heterogeneity instead of retrieving just one average SWC estimate from a single sensor.
Lena Katharina Schmidt, Till Francke, Peter Martin Grosse, Christoph Mayer, and Axel Bronstert
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 27, 1841–1863, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-27-1841-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-27-1841-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
We present a suitable method to reconstruct sediment export from decadal records of hydroclimatic predictors (discharge, precipitation, temperature) and shorter suspended sediment measurements. This lets us fill the knowledge gap on how sediment export from glacierized high-alpine areas has responded to climate change. We find positive trends in sediment export from the two investigated nested catchments with step-like increases around 1981 which are linked to crucial changes in glacier melt.
Lena Katharina Schmidt, Till Francke, Erwin Rottler, Theresa Blume, Johannes Schöber, and Axel Bronstert
Earth Surf. Dynam., 10, 653–669, https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-10-653-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-10-653-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Climate change fundamentally alters glaciated high-alpine areas, but it is unclear how this affects riverine sediment transport. As a first step, we aimed to identify the most important processes and source areas in three nested catchments in the Ötztal, Austria, in the past 15 years. We found that areas above 2500 m were crucial and that summer rainstorms were less influential than glacier melt. These findings provide a baseline for studies on future changes in high-alpine sediment dynamics.
Maik Heistermann, Heye Bogena, Till Francke, Andreas Güntner, Jannis Jakobi, Daniel Rasche, Martin Schrön, Veronika Döpper, Benjamin Fersch, Jannis Groh, Amol Patil, Thomas Pütz, Marvin Reich, Steffen Zacharias, Carmen Zengerle, and Sascha Oswald
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 14, 2501–2519, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-2501-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-2501-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
This paper presents a dense network of cosmic-ray neutron sensing (CRNS) to measure spatio-temporal soil moisture patterns during a 2-month campaign in the Wüstebach headwater catchment in Germany. Stationary, mobile, and airborne CRNS technology monitored the root-zone water dynamics as well as spatial heterogeneity in the 0.4 km2 area. The 15 CRNS stations were supported by a hydrogravimeter, biomass sampling, and a wireless soil sensor network to facilitate holistic hydrological analysis.
Heye Reemt Bogena, Martin Schrön, Jannis Jakobi, Patrizia Ney, Steffen Zacharias, Mie Andreasen, Roland Baatz, David Boorman, Mustafa Berk Duygu, Miguel Angel Eguibar-Galán, Benjamin Fersch, Till Franke, Josie Geris, María González Sanchis, Yann Kerr, Tobias Korf, Zalalem Mengistu, Arnaud Mialon, Paolo Nasta, Jerzy Nitychoruk, Vassilios Pisinaras, Daniel Rasche, Rafael Rosolem, Hami Said, Paul Schattan, Marek Zreda, Stefan Achleitner, Eduardo Albentosa-Hernández, Zuhal Akyürek, Theresa Blume, Antonio del Campo, Davide Canone, Katya Dimitrova-Petrova, John G. Evans, Stefano Ferraris, Félix Frances, Davide Gisolo, Andreas Güntner, Frank Herrmann, Joost Iwema, Karsten H. Jensen, Harald Kunstmann, Antonio Lidón, Majken Caroline Looms, Sascha Oswald, Andreas Panagopoulos, Amol Patil, Daniel Power, Corinna Rebmann, Nunzio Romano, Lena Scheiffele, Sonia Seneviratne, Georg Weltin, and Harry Vereecken
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 14, 1125–1151, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-1125-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-1125-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Monitoring of increasingly frequent droughts is a prerequisite for climate adaptation strategies. This data paper presents long-term soil moisture measurements recorded by 66 cosmic-ray neutron sensors (CRNS) operated by 24 institutions and distributed across major climate zones in Europe. Data processing followed harmonized protocols and state-of-the-art methods to generate consistent and comparable soil moisture products and to facilitate continental-scale analysis of hydrological extremes.
Till Francke, Maik Heistermann, Markus Köhli, Christian Budach, Martin Schrön, and Sascha E. Oswald
Geosci. Instrum. Method. Data Syst., 11, 75–92, https://doi.org/10.5194/gi-11-75-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/gi-11-75-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Cosmic-ray neutron sensing (CRNS) is a non-invasive tool for measuring hydrogen pools like soil moisture, snow, or vegetation. This study presents a directional shielding approach, aiming to measure in specific directions only. The results show that non-directional neutron transport blurs the signal of the targeted direction. For typical instruments, this does not allow acceptable precision at a daily time resolution. However, the mere statistical distinction of two rates is feasible.
Maik Heistermann, Till Francke, Martin Schrön, and Sascha E. Oswald
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 25, 4807–4824, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-25-4807-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-25-4807-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
Cosmic-ray neutron sensing (CRNS) is a powerful technique for retrieving representative estimates of soil moisture in footprints extending over hectometres in the horizontal and decimetres in the vertical. This study, however, demonstrates the potential of CRNS to obtain spatio-temporal patterns of soil moisture beyond isolated footprints. To that end, we analyse data from a unique observational campaign that featured a dense network of more than 20 neutron detectors in an area of just 1 km2.
Benjamin Fersch, Till Francke, Maik Heistermann, Martin Schrön, Veronika Döpper, Jannis Jakobi, Gabriele Baroni, Theresa Blume, Heye Bogena, Christian Budach, Tobias Gränzig, Michael Förster, Andreas Güntner, Harrie-Jan Hendricks Franssen, Mandy Kasner, Markus Köhli, Birgit Kleinschmit, Harald Kunstmann, Amol Patil, Daniel Rasche, Lena Scheiffele, Ulrich Schmidt, Sandra Szulc-Seyfried, Jannis Weimar, Steffen Zacharias, Marek Zreda, Bernd Heber, Ralf Kiese, Vladimir Mares, Hannes Mollenhauer, Ingo Völksch, and Sascha Oswald
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 12, 2289–2309, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-2289-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-2289-2020, 2020
Erwin Rottler, Till Francke, Gerd Bürger, and Axel Bronstert
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 24, 1721–1740, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-1721-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-1721-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
In the attempt to identify and disentangle long-term impacts of changes in snow cover and precipitation along with reservoir constructions, we employ a set of analytical tools on hydro-climatic time series. We identify storage reservoirs as an important factor redistributing runoff from summer to winter. Furthermore, our results hint at more (intense) rainfall in recent decades. Detected increases in high discharge can be traced back to corresponding changes in precipitation.
Tobias Pilz, José Miguel Delgado, Sebastian Voss, Klaus Vormoor, Till Francke, Alexandre Cunha Costa, Eduardo Martins, and Axel Bronstert
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 23, 1951–1971, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-23-1951-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-23-1951-2019, 2019
Short summary
Short summary
This work investigates different model types for drought prediction in a dryland region. Consequently, the performances of seasonal reservoir volume forecasts derived by a process-based and a statistical hydrological model were evaluated. The process-based approach obtained lower accuracy while resolution and reliability of drought prediction were comparable. Initialisation of the process-based model is worthwhile for more in-depth analyses, provided adequate rainfall forecasts are available.
José Miguel Delgado, Sebastian Voss, Gerd Bürger, Klaus Vormoor, Aline Murawski, José Marcelo Rodrigues Pereira, Eduardo Martins, Francisco Vasconcelos Júnior, and Till Francke
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 22, 5041–5056, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-5041-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-5041-2018, 2018
Short summary
Short summary
The feasibility of drought prediction is assessed in the Brazilian northeast. The models were provided by a regional agency and a European meteorological agency and downscaling was done using three empirical models. This work showed that the combination of different forecast and downscaling models can provide skillful predictions of drought events on timescales relevant to water managers. But the models also showed little to no skill for quantitative predictions of monthly precipitation.
Tobias Pilz, Till Francke, and Axel Bronstert
Geosci. Model Dev., 10, 3001–3023, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-10-3001-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-10-3001-2017, 2017
Short summary
Short summary
To discretise and transfer a landscape into a hydrological model, many different algorithms and software implementations exist. These are, however, often model specific, commercial, and allow for only a limited workflow automation. Overcoming these limitations, the software package lumpR was developed. It employs an hillslope-based discretisation algorithm directed at large-scale application. The software is demonstrated in a case study and crucial discretisation parameters are investigated.
Ehsan Sharifi, Julian Haas, Eva Börgens, Henryk Dobslaw, and Andreas Güntner
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-1514, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-1514, 2025
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Hydrology and Earth System Sciences (HESS).
Short summary
Short summary
This study presents a method to make the spatial resolution of global Water Storage Compartments (WSCs) compatible with terrestrial water storage (TWS) data from GRACE missions. The method compares the spatial structure of the WSCs and TWS by considering the correlation between neighboring grid cells. An isotropic Gaussian filter with an optimal filter width of 250 km is found to be the most suitable, ensuring compatibility for consistent comparison with GRACE data in hydrological applications.
Till Francke, Cosimo Brogi, Alby Duarte Rocha, Michael Förster, Maik Heistermann, Markus Köhli, Daniel Rasche, Marvin Reich, Paul Schattan, Lena Scheiffele, and Martin Schrön
Geosci. Model Dev., 18, 819–842, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-819-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-819-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
Multiple methods for measuring soil moisture beyond the point scale exist. Their validation is generally hindered by not knowing the truth. We propose a virtual framework in which this truth is fully known and the sensor observations for cosmic ray neutron sensing, remote sensing, and hydrogravimetry are simulated. This allows for the rigorous testing of these virtual sensors to understand their effectiveness and limitations.
Howlader Mohammad Mehedi Hasan, Petra Döll, Seyed-Mohammad Hosseini-Moghari, Fabrice Papa, and Andreas Güntner
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 29, 567–596, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-567-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-567-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
We calibrate a global hydrological model using multiple observations to analyse the benefits and trade-offs of multi-variable calibration. We found such an approach to be very important for understanding the real-world system. However, some observations are very essential to the system, in particular, streamflow. We also showed uncertainties in the calibration results, which are often useful for making informed decisions. We emphasize considering observation uncertainty in model calibration.
Daniel Altdorff, Maik Heistermann, Till Francke, Martin Schrön, Sabine Attinger, Albrecht Bauriegel, Frank Beyrich, Peter Biró, Peter Dietrich, Rebekka Eichstädt, Peter Martin Grosse, Arvid Markert, Jakob Terschlüsen, Ariane Walz, Steffen Zacharias, and Sascha E. Oswald
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3848, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3848, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
The German federal state of Brandenburg is particularly prone to soil moisture droughts. To support the management of related risks, we introduce a novel soil moisture and drought monitoring network based on cosmic-ray neutron sensing technology. This initiative is driven by a collaboration of research institutions and federal state agencies, and it is the first of its kind in Germany to have started operation. In this brief communication, we outline the network design and share first results.
Eva Boergens, Andreas Güntner, Mike Sips, Christian Schwatke, and Henryk Dobslaw
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 28, 4733–4754, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-4733-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-4733-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
The satellites GRACE and GRACE-FO observe continental terrestrial water storage (TWS) changes. With over 20 years of data, we can look into long-term variations in the East Africa Rift region. We focus on analysing the interannual TWS variations compared to meteorological data and observations of the water storage compartments. We found strong influences of natural precipitation variability and human actions over Lake Victoria's water level.
Daniel Rasche, Theresa Blume, and Andreas Güntner
SOIL, 10, 655–677, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-10-655-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-10-655-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Soil moisture measurements at the field scale are highly beneficial for numerous (soil) hydrological applications. Cosmic-ray neutron sensing (CRNS) allows for the non-invasive monitoring of field-scale soil moisture across several hectares but only for the first few tens of centimetres of the soil. In this study, we modify and test a simple modeling approach to extrapolate CRNS-derived surface soil moisture information down to 450 cm depth and compare calibrated and uncalibrated model results.
Gláuber Pontes Rodrigues, Arlena Brosinsky, Ítalo Sampaio Rodrigues, George Leite Mamede, and José Carlos de Araújo
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 28, 3243–3260, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-3243-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-3243-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
The research focuses on a 4-million-inhabitant tropical region supplied by a network of open-water reservoirs where the dry season lasts for 8 months (Jun−Dec). We analysed the impact of four climate change scenarios on the evaporation rate and the associated availability (water yield distributed per year). The worst-case scenario shows that by the end of the century (2071−2099), the evaporation rate in the dry season could increase by 6 %, which would reduce stored water by about 80 %.
Petra Döll, Howlader Mohammad Mehedi Hasan, Kerstin Schulze, Helena Gerdener, Lara Börger, Somayeh Shadkam, Sebastian Ackermann, Seyed-Mohammad Hosseini-Moghari, Hannes Müller Schmied, Andreas Güntner, and Jürgen Kusche
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 28, 2259–2295, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-2259-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-2259-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Currently, global hydrological models do not benefit from observations of model output variables to reduce and quantify model output uncertainty. For the Mississippi River basin, we explored three approaches for using both streamflow and total water storage anomaly observations to adjust the parameter sets in a global hydrological model. We developed a method for considering the observation uncertainties to quantify the uncertainty of model output and provide recommendations.
Maik Heistermann, Till Francke, Martin Schrön, and Sascha E. Oswald
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 28, 989–1000, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-989-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-989-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Cosmic-ray neutron sensing (CRNS) is a non-invasive technique used to obtain estimates of soil water content (SWC) at a horizontal footprint of around 150 m and a vertical penetration depth of up to 30 cm. However, typical CRNS applications require the local calibration of a function which converts neutron counts to SWC. As an alternative, we propose a generalized function as a way to avoid the use of local reference measurements of SWC and hence a major source of uncertainty.
Stefano Gianessi, Matteo Polo, Luca Stevanato, Marcello Lunardon, Till Francke, Sascha E. Oswald, Hami Said Ahmed, Arsenio Toloza, Georg Weltin, Gerd Dercon, Emil Fulajtar, Lee Heng, and Gabriele Baroni
Geosci. Instrum. Method. Data Syst., 13, 9–25, https://doi.org/10.5194/gi-13-9-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/gi-13-9-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Soil moisture monitoring is important for many applications, from improving weather prediction to supporting agriculture practices. Our capability to measure this variable is still, however, limited. In this study, we show the tests conducted on a new soil moisture sensor at several locations. The results show that the new sensor is a valid and compact alternative to more conventional, non-invasive soil moisture sensors that can pave the way for a wide range of applications.
Lena Katharina Schmidt, Till Francke, Peter Martin Grosse, and Axel Bronstert
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 28, 139–161, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-139-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-139-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
How suspended sediment export from glacierized high-alpine areas responds to future climate change is hardly assessable as many interacting processes are involved, and appropriate physical models are lacking. We present the first study, to our knowledge, exploring machine learning to project sediment export until 2100 in two high-alpine catchments. We find that uncertainties due to methodological limitations are small until 2070. Negative trends imply that peak sediment may have already passed.
Daniel Rasche, Jannis Weimar, Martin Schrön, Markus Köhli, Markus Morgner, Andreas Güntner, and Theresa Blume
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 27, 3059–3082, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-27-3059-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-27-3059-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
We introduce passive downhole cosmic-ray neutron sensing (d-CRNS) as an approach for the non-invasive estimation of soil moisture in deeper layers of the unsaturated zone which exceed the observational window of above-ground CRNS applications. Neutron transport simulations are used to derive mathematical descriptions and transfer functions, while experimental measurements in an existing groundwater observation well illustrate the feasibility and applicability of the approach.
Maik Heistermann, Till Francke, Lena Scheiffele, Katya Dimitrova Petrova, Christian Budach, Martin Schrön, Benjamin Trost, Daniel Rasche, Andreas Güntner, Veronika Döpper, Michael Förster, Markus Köhli, Lisa Angermann, Nikolaos Antonoglou, Manuela Zude-Sasse, and Sascha E. Oswald
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 15, 3243–3262, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-3243-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-3243-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
Cosmic-ray neutron sensing (CRNS) allows for the non-invasive estimation of root-zone soil water content (SWC). The signal observed by a single CRNS sensor is influenced by the SWC in a radius of around 150 m (the footprint). Here, we have put together a cluster of eight CRNS sensors with overlapping footprints at an agricultural research site in north-east Germany. That way, we hope to represent spatial SWC heterogeneity instead of retrieving just one average SWC estimate from a single sensor.
Daniel Blank, Annette Eicker, Laura Jensen, and Andreas Güntner
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 27, 2413–2435, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-27-2413-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-27-2413-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
Soil moisture (SM), a key variable of the global water cycle, is analyzed using two types of satellite observations; microwave sensors measure the top few centimeters and satellite gravimetry (GRACE) the full vertical water column. As SM can change very fast, non-standard daily GRACE data are applied for the first time for this analysis. Jointly analyzing these data gives insight into the SM dynamics at different soil depths, and time shifts indicate the infiltration time into deeper layers.
Lena Katharina Schmidt, Till Francke, Peter Martin Grosse, Christoph Mayer, and Axel Bronstert
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 27, 1841–1863, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-27-1841-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-27-1841-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
We present a suitable method to reconstruct sediment export from decadal records of hydroclimatic predictors (discharge, precipitation, temperature) and shorter suspended sediment measurements. This lets us fill the knowledge gap on how sediment export from glacierized high-alpine areas has responded to climate change. We find positive trends in sediment export from the two investigated nested catchments with step-like increases around 1981 which are linked to crucial changes in glacier melt.
Omar Seleem, Georgy Ayzel, Axel Bronstert, and Maik Heistermann
Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 23, 809–822, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-23-809-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-23-809-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
Data-driven models are becoming more of a surrogate that overcomes the limitations of the computationally expensive 2D hydrodynamic models to map urban flood hazards. However, the model's ability to generalize outside the training domain is still a major challenge. We evaluate the performance of random forest and convolutional neural networks to predict urban floodwater depth and investigate their transferability outside the training domain.
Lena Katharina Schmidt, Till Francke, Erwin Rottler, Theresa Blume, Johannes Schöber, and Axel Bronstert
Earth Surf. Dynam., 10, 653–669, https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-10-653-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-10-653-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Climate change fundamentally alters glaciated high-alpine areas, but it is unclear how this affects riverine sediment transport. As a first step, we aimed to identify the most important processes and source areas in three nested catchments in the Ötztal, Austria, in the past 15 years. We found that areas above 2500 m were crucial and that summer rainstorms were less influential than glacier melt. These findings provide a baseline for studies on future changes in high-alpine sediment dynamics.
Maik Heistermann, Heye Bogena, Till Francke, Andreas Güntner, Jannis Jakobi, Daniel Rasche, Martin Schrön, Veronika Döpper, Benjamin Fersch, Jannis Groh, Amol Patil, Thomas Pütz, Marvin Reich, Steffen Zacharias, Carmen Zengerle, and Sascha Oswald
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 14, 2501–2519, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-2501-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-2501-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
This paper presents a dense network of cosmic-ray neutron sensing (CRNS) to measure spatio-temporal soil moisture patterns during a 2-month campaign in the Wüstebach headwater catchment in Germany. Stationary, mobile, and airborne CRNS technology monitored the root-zone water dynamics as well as spatial heterogeneity in the 0.4 km2 area. The 15 CRNS stations were supported by a hydrogravimeter, biomass sampling, and a wireless soil sensor network to facilitate holistic hydrological analysis.
Andreas Wieser, Andreas Güntner, Peter Dietrich, Jan Handwerker, Dina Khordakova, Uta Ködel, Martin Kohler, Hannes Mollenhauer, Bernhard Mühr, Erik Nixdorf, Marvin Reich, Christian Rolf, Martin Schrön, Claudia Schütze, and Ute Weber
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2022-131, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2022-131, 2022
Preprint withdrawn
Short summary
Short summary
We present an event-triggered observation concept which covers the entire process chain from heavy precipitation to flooding at the catchment scale. It combines flexible and mobile observing systems out of the fields of meteorology, hydrology and geophysics with stationary networks to capture atmospheric transport processes, heterogeneous precipitation patterns, land surface and subsurface storage processes, and runoff dynamics.
Heye Reemt Bogena, Martin Schrön, Jannis Jakobi, Patrizia Ney, Steffen Zacharias, Mie Andreasen, Roland Baatz, David Boorman, Mustafa Berk Duygu, Miguel Angel Eguibar-Galán, Benjamin Fersch, Till Franke, Josie Geris, María González Sanchis, Yann Kerr, Tobias Korf, Zalalem Mengistu, Arnaud Mialon, Paolo Nasta, Jerzy Nitychoruk, Vassilios Pisinaras, Daniel Rasche, Rafael Rosolem, Hami Said, Paul Schattan, Marek Zreda, Stefan Achleitner, Eduardo Albentosa-Hernández, Zuhal Akyürek, Theresa Blume, Antonio del Campo, Davide Canone, Katya Dimitrova-Petrova, John G. Evans, Stefano Ferraris, Félix Frances, Davide Gisolo, Andreas Güntner, Frank Herrmann, Joost Iwema, Karsten H. Jensen, Harald Kunstmann, Antonio Lidón, Majken Caroline Looms, Sascha Oswald, Andreas Panagopoulos, Amol Patil, Daniel Power, Corinna Rebmann, Nunzio Romano, Lena Scheiffele, Sonia Seneviratne, Georg Weltin, and Harry Vereecken
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 14, 1125–1151, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-1125-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-1125-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Monitoring of increasingly frequent droughts is a prerequisite for climate adaptation strategies. This data paper presents long-term soil moisture measurements recorded by 66 cosmic-ray neutron sensors (CRNS) operated by 24 institutions and distributed across major climate zones in Europe. Data processing followed harmonized protocols and state-of-the-art methods to generate consistent and comparable soil moisture products and to facilitate continental-scale analysis of hydrological extremes.
Tina Trautmann, Sujan Koirala, Nuno Carvalhais, Andreas Güntner, and Martin Jung
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 26, 1089–1109, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-1089-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-1089-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
We assess the effect of how vegetation is defined in a global hydrological model on the composition of total water storage (TWS). We compare two experiments, one with globally uniform and one with vegetation parameters that vary in space and time. While both experiments are constrained against observational data, we found a drastic change in the partitioning of TWS, highlighting the important role of the interaction between groundwater–soil moisture–vegetation in understanding TWS variations.
Till Francke, Maik Heistermann, Markus Köhli, Christian Budach, Martin Schrön, and Sascha E. Oswald
Geosci. Instrum. Method. Data Syst., 11, 75–92, https://doi.org/10.5194/gi-11-75-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/gi-11-75-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Cosmic-ray neutron sensing (CRNS) is a non-invasive tool for measuring hydrogen pools like soil moisture, snow, or vegetation. This study presents a directional shielding approach, aiming to measure in specific directions only. The results show that non-directional neutron transport blurs the signal of the targeted direction. For typical instruments, this does not allow acceptable precision at a daily time resolution. However, the mere statistical distinction of two rates is feasible.
Daniel Rasche, Markus Köhli, Martin Schrön, Theresa Blume, and Andreas Güntner
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 25, 6547–6566, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-25-6547-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-25-6547-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
Cosmic-ray neutron sensing provides areal average soil moisture measurements. We investigated how distinct differences in spatial soil moisture patterns influence the soil moisture estimates and present two approaches to improve the estimate of soil moisture close to the instrument by reducing the influence of soil moisture further afield. Additionally, we show that the heterogeneity of soil moisture can be assessed based on the relationship of different neutron energies.
Maik Heistermann, Till Francke, Martin Schrön, and Sascha E. Oswald
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 25, 4807–4824, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-25-4807-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-25-4807-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
Cosmic-ray neutron sensing (CRNS) is a powerful technique for retrieving representative estimates of soil moisture in footprints extending over hectometres in the horizontal and decimetres in the vertical. This study, however, demonstrates the potential of CRNS to obtain spatio-temporal patterns of soil moisture beyond isolated footprints. To that end, we analyse data from a unique observational campaign that featured a dense network of more than 20 neutron detectors in an area of just 1 km2.
Erwin Rottler, Axel Bronstert, Gerd Bürger, and Oldrich Rakovec
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 25, 2353–2371, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-25-2353-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-25-2353-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
The mesoscale hydrological model (mHM) forced with an ensemble of climate projection scenarios was used to assess potential future changes in flood seasonality in the Rhine River basin. Results indicate that future changes in flood characteristics are controlled by increases in precipitation sums and diminishing snowpacks. The decreases in snowmelt can counterbalance increasing precipitation, resulting in only small and transient changes in streamflow maxima.
Benjamin Fersch, Till Francke, Maik Heistermann, Martin Schrön, Veronika Döpper, Jannis Jakobi, Gabriele Baroni, Theresa Blume, Heye Bogena, Christian Budach, Tobias Gränzig, Michael Förster, Andreas Güntner, Harrie-Jan Hendricks Franssen, Mandy Kasner, Markus Köhli, Birgit Kleinschmit, Harald Kunstmann, Amol Patil, Daniel Rasche, Lena Scheiffele, Ulrich Schmidt, Sandra Szulc-Seyfried, Jannis Weimar, Steffen Zacharias, Marek Zreda, Bernd Heber, Ralf Kiese, Vladimir Mares, Hannes Mollenhauer, Ingo Völksch, and Sascha Oswald
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 12, 2289–2309, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-2289-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-2289-2020, 2020
Erwin Rottler, Till Francke, Gerd Bürger, and Axel Bronstert
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 24, 1721–1740, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-1721-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-1721-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
In the attempt to identify and disentangle long-term impacts of changes in snow cover and precipitation along with reservoir constructions, we employ a set of analytical tools on hydro-climatic time series. We identify storage reservoirs as an important factor redistributing runoff from summer to winter. Furthermore, our results hint at more (intense) rainfall in recent decades. Detected increases in high discharge can be traced back to corresponding changes in precipitation.
Michal Mikolaj, Andreas Güntner, Claudio Brunini, Hartmut Wziontek, Mauricio Gende, Stephan Schröder, Augusto M. Cassino, Alfredo Pasquaré, Marvin Reich, Anne Hartmann, Fernando A. Oreiro, Jonathan Pendiuk, Luis Guarracino, and Ezequiel D. Antokoletz
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 11, 1501–1513, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-11-1501-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-11-1501-2019, 2019
Short summary
Short summary
We present the first continuous measurements of hydrological, meteorological, and gravity variables at the Argentine-German Geodetic Observatory (AGGO) close to La Plata, Argentina, for the period 2016–2018. The data may be used by both scientists and local authorities to correct other geodetic observations at the observatory, to monitor environmental changes, or to quantify extreme events such as floods and droughts in the La Plata region.
Tobias Pilz, José Miguel Delgado, Sebastian Voss, Klaus Vormoor, Till Francke, Alexandre Cunha Costa, Eduardo Martins, and Axel Bronstert
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 23, 1951–1971, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-23-1951-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-23-1951-2019, 2019
Short summary
Short summary
This work investigates different model types for drought prediction in a dryland region. Consequently, the performances of seasonal reservoir volume forecasts derived by a process-based and a statistical hydrological model were evaluated. The process-based approach obtained lower accuracy while resolution and reliability of drought prediction were comparable. Initialisation of the process-based model is worthwhile for more in-depth analyses, provided adequate rainfall forecasts are available.
José Miguel Delgado, Sebastian Voss, Gerd Bürger, Klaus Vormoor, Aline Murawski, José Marcelo Rodrigues Pereira, Eduardo Martins, Francisco Vasconcelos Júnior, and Till Francke
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 22, 5041–5056, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-5041-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-5041-2018, 2018
Short summary
Short summary
The feasibility of drought prediction is assessed in the Brazilian northeast. The models were provided by a regional agency and a European meteorological agency and downscaling was done using three empirical models. This work showed that the combination of different forecast and downscaling models can provide skillful predictions of drought events on timescales relevant to water managers. But the models also showed little to no skill for quantitative predictions of monthly precipitation.
Ben T. Gouweleeuw, Andreas Kvas, Christian Gruber, Animesh K. Gain, Thorsten Mayer-Gürr, Frank Flechtner, and Andreas Güntner
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 22, 2867–2880, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-2867-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-2867-2018, 2018
Short summary
Short summary
Daily GRACE gravity field solutions have been evaluated against daily river runoff data for major flood events in the Ganges–Brahmaputra Delta in 2004 and 2007. Compared to the monthly gravity field solutions, the trends over periods of a few days in the daily gravity field solutions are able to reflect temporal variations in river runoff during major flood events. This implies that daily gravity field solutions released in near-real time may support flood monitoring for large events.
Tobias Pilz, Till Francke, and Axel Bronstert
Geosci. Model Dev., 10, 3001–3023, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-10-3001-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-10-3001-2017, 2017
Short summary
Short summary
To discretise and transfer a landscape into a hydrological model, many different algorithms and software implementations exist. These are, however, often model specific, commercial, and allow for only a limited workflow automation. Overcoming these limitations, the software package lumpR was developed. It employs an hillslope-based discretisation algorithm directed at large-scale application. The software is demonstrated in a case study and crucial discretisation parameters are investigated.
Andreas Güntner, Marvin Reich, Michal Mikolaj, Benjamin Creutzfeldt, Stephan Schroeder, and Hartmut Wziontek
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 21, 3167–3182, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-21-3167-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-21-3167-2017, 2017
Short summary
Short summary
Monitoring water storage changes beyond the point scale is a challenge. Here, we show that an integrative and non-invasive way is by observing variations of gravity that are induced by water mass changes. A high-precision superconducting gravimeter is successfully operated in the field and allows for direct and continuous monitoring of the water balance and of its components, such as actual evapotranspiration.
Liangjing Zhang, Henryk Dobslaw, Tobias Stacke, Andreas Güntner, Robert Dill, and Maik Thomas
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 21, 821–837, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-21-821-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-21-821-2017, 2017
Short summary
Short summary
Global numerical models perform differently, as has been found in some model intercomparison studies, which mainly focused on components like evapotranspiration, soil moisture or runoff. We have applied terrestrial water storage that is estimated from a GRACE-based state-of-art post-processing method to validate four global numerical models and try to identify the advantages and deficiencies of a certain model. GRACE-based TWS demonstrates its additional benefits to improve the models in future.
Ingo Heidbüchel, Andreas Güntner, and Theresa Blume
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 20, 1269–1288, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-20-1269-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-20-1269-2016, 2016
Short summary
Short summary
Cosmic-ray neutron sensors bridge the gap between point-scale measurements of soil moisture and remote sensing applications. We tested four distinct methods to calibrate the sensor in a temperate forest environment using different soil moisture weighting approaches. While the variable leaf biomass of the deciduous trees had no significant influence on the calibration, it proved necessary to modify the standard calibration method to achieve the best sensor performance.
C. Kormann, T. Francke, M. Renner, and A. Bronstert
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 19, 1225–1245, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-19-1225-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-19-1225-2015, 2015
K. Vormoor, D. Lawrence, M. Heistermann, and A. Bronstert
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 19, 913–931, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-19-913-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-19-913-2015, 2015
Short summary
Short summary
Projected shifts towards more dominant autumn/winter events during a future climate correspond to an increasing relevance of rainfall as a flood generating process in six Norwegian catchments. The relative role of hydrological model parameter uncertainty, compared to other uncertainty sources from our applied ensemble, is highest in those catchments showing the largest shifts in flood seasonality which indicates a lack in parameter robustness under non-stationary hydroclimatological conditions.
C. H. Mohr, A. Zimmermann, O. Korup, A. Iroumé, T. Francke, and A. Bronstert
Earth Surf. Dynam., 2, 117–125, https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-2-117-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-2-117-2014, 2014
T. Conradt, F. Wechsung, and A. Bronstert
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 17, 2947–2966, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-17-2947-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-17-2947-2013, 2013
D. Duethmann, J. Zimmer, A. Gafurov, A. Güntner, D. Kriegel, B. Merz, and S. Vorogushyn
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 17, 2415–2434, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-17-2415-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-17-2415-2013, 2013
M. Heistermann, I. Crisologo, C. C. Abon, B. A. Racoma, S. Jacobi, N. T. Servando, C. P. C. David, and A. Bronstert
Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 13, 653–657, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-13-653-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-13-653-2013, 2013
Related subject area
Hydrology
A worldwide event-based debris flow barrier dam dataset from 1800 to 2023
CAMELS-DK: hydrometeorological time series and landscape attributes for 3330 Danish catchments with streamflow observations from 304 gauged stations
An in situ daily dataset for benchmarking temporal variability of groundwater recharge
CAMELS-FR dataset: a large-sample hydroclimatic dataset for France to explore hydrological diversity and support model benchmarking
Features of Italian large dams and their upstream catchments
Gridded rainfall erosivity (2014–2022) in mainland China using 1 min precipitation data from densely distributed weather stations
High-resolution hydrometeorological and snow data for the Dischma catchment in Switzerland
A 3-hour, 1-km surface soil moisture dataset for the contiguous United States from 2015 to 2023
CAMELS-IND: hydrometeorological time series and catchment attributes for 228 catchments in Peninsular India
LakeBeD-US: a benchmark dataset for lake water quality time series and vertical profiles
HERA: a high-resolution pan-European hydrological reanalysis (1951–2020)
BCUB – a large-sample ungauged basin attribute dataset for British Columbia, Canada
Comprehensive inventory of large hydropower systems in the Italian Alpine Region
Lena River biogeochemistry captured by a 4.5-year high-frequency sampling program
CAMELS-DE: hydro-meteorological time series and attributes for 1582 catchments in Germany
Observational partitioning of water and CO2 fluxes at National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) sites: a 5-year dataset of soil and plant components for spatial and temporal analysis
An integrated high-resolution bathymetric model for the Danube Delta system
GRILSS: Opening the Gateway to Global Reservoir Sedimentation Data Curation
Benchmark dataset for hydraulic simulations of flash floods in the French Mediterranean region
CIrrMap250: annual maps of China's irrigated cropland from 2000 to 2020 developed through multisource data integration
HANZE v2.1: an improved database of flood impacts in Europe from 1870 to 2020
A Copernicus-based evapotranspiration dataset at 100 m spatial resolution over four Mediterranean basins
Gridded dataset of nitrogen and phosphorus point sources from wastewater in Germany (1950–2019)
A 1985–2023 time series dataset of absolute reservoir storage in Mainland Southeast Asia (MSEA-Res)
One year of high frequency monitoring of groundwater physico-chemical parameters in the Weierbach Experimental Catchment, Luxembourg
A globally sampled high-resolution hand-labeled validation dataset for evaluating surface water extent maps
Satellite-based near-real-time global daily terrestrial evapotranspiration estimates
Multivariate characterisation of a blackberry–alder agroforestry system in South Africa: hydrological, pedological, dendrological and meteorological measurements
CAMELS-AUS v2: updated hydrometeorological timeseries and landscape attributes for an enlarged set of catchments in Australia
SHIFT: a spatial-heterogeneity improvement in DEM-based mapping of global geomorphic floodplains
First comprehensive stable isotope dataset of diverse water units in a permafrost-dominated catchment on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau
Mapping the world’s inland surface waters: an update to the Global Lakes and Wetlands Database (GLWD v2)
LamaH-Ice: LArge-SaMple DAta for Hydrology and Environmental Sciences for Iceland
High-resolution mapping of monthly industrial water withdrawal in China from 1965 to 2020
Optimal feature selection for improved ML based reconstruction of Global Terrestrial Water Storage Anomalies
Evapotranspiration evaluation using three different protocols on a large green roof in the greater Paris area
Simbi: historical hydro-meteorological time series and signatures for 24 catchments in Haiti
CAMELE: Collocation-Analyzed Multi-source Ensembled Land Evapotranspiration Data
A hydrogeomorphic dataset for characterizing catchment hydrological behavior across the Tibetan Plateau
Discrete Global Grid System-based Flow Routing Datasets in the Amazon and Yukon Basins
Deriving a Transformation Rate Map of Dissolved Organic Carbon over the Contiguous U.S.
A synthesis of Global Streamflow Characteristics, Hydrometeorology, and Catchment Attributes (GSHA) for large sample river-centric studies
FOCA: a new quality-controlled database of floods and catchment descriptors in Italy
Dams in the Mekong: a comprehensive database, spatiotemporal distribution, and hydropower potentials
A global dataset of the shape of drainage systems
An extensive spatiotemporal water quality dataset covering four decades (1980–2022) in China
Flood simulation with the RiverCure approach: the open dataset of the 2016 Águeda flood event
GloLakes: water storage dynamics for 27 000 lakes globally from 1984 to present derived from satellite altimetry and optical imaging
AltiMaP: altimetry mapping procedure for hydrography data
CAMELS-CH: hydro-meteorological time series and landscape attributes for 331 catchments in hydrologic Switzerland
Haiguang Cheng, Kaiheng Hu, Shuang Liu, Xiaopeng Zhang, Hao Li, Qiyuan Zhang, Lan Ning, Manish Raj Gouli, Pu Li, Anna Yang, Peng Zhao, Junyu Liu, and Li Wei
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 17, 1573–1593, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-1573-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-1573-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
After reviewing 2519 literature and media reports, we compiled the first comprehensive global dataset of 555 debris flow barrier dams (DFBDs) from 1800 to 2023. Our dataset meticulously documents 38 attributes of DFBDs, and we have utilized Google Earth for validation. Additionally, we discussed the applicability of landslide dam stability and peak-discharge models to DFBDs. This dataset offers a rich foundation of data for future studies on DFBDs.
Jun Liu, Julian Koch, Simon Stisen, Lars Troldborg, Anker Lajer Højberg, Hans Thodsen, Mark F. T. Hansen, and Raphael J. M. Schneider
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 17, 1551–1572, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-1551-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-1551-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
We developed a CAMELS-style dataset in Denmark, which contains hydrometeorological time series and landscape attributes for 3330 catchments (304 gauged). Many catchments in CAMELS-DK are small and at low elevations. The dataset provides information on groundwater characteristics and dynamics, as well as quantities related to the human impact on the hydrological system in Denmark. The dataset is especially relevant for developing data-driven and hybrid physically informed modeling frameworks.
Pragnaditya Malakar, Aatish Anshuman, Mukesh Kumar, Georgios Boumis, T. Prabhakar Clement, Arik Tashie, Hitesh Thakur, Nagaraj Bhat, and Lokendra Rathore
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 17, 1515–1528, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-1515-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-1515-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
Groundwater dynamics depend on groundwater recharge, but daily benchmark data of recharge are scarce. Here we present a daily groundwater recharge per unit specified yield (RpSy) data at 485 US groundwater monitoring wells. RpSy can be used to validate the temporal consistency of recharge products from land surface and hydrologic models and facilitate assessment of recharge-driver functional relationships in them.
Olivier Delaigue, Guilherme Mendoza Guimarães, Pierre Brigode, Benoît Génot, Charles Perrin, Jean-Michel Soubeyroux, Bruno Janet, Nans Addor, and Vazken Andréassian
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 17, 1461–1479, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-1461-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-1461-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
This dataset covers 654 rivers all flowing in France. The provided time series and catchment attributes will be of interest to those modelers wishing to analyze hydrological behavior and perform model assessments.
Giulia Evangelista, Paola Mazzoglio, Daniele Ganora, Francesca Pianigiani, and Pierluigi Claps
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 17, 1407–1426, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-1407-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-1407-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
This paper presents the first comprehensive dataset of 528 large dams in Italy. It contains structural characteristics of the dams, such as coordinates, reservoir surface areas and volumes, together with a range of geomorphological, climatological, extreme rainfall, land cover and soil-related attributes of their upstream catchments.
Yueli Chen, Yun Xie, Xingwu Duan, and Minghu Ding
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 17, 1265–1274, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-1265-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-1265-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
Rainfall erosivity maps are crucial for identifying key areas of water erosion. Due to the limited historical precipitation data, there are certain biases in rainfall erosivity estimates in China. This study develops a new rainfall erosivity map for mainland China using 1 min precipitation data from 60 129 weather stations, revealing that areas exceeding 4000 MJ mm ha−1 h−1yr−1 of annual rainfall erosivity are mainly concentrated in southern China and on the southern Tibetan Plateau.
Jan Magnusson, Yves Bühler, Louis Quéno, Bertrand Cluzet, Giulia Mazzotti, Clare Webster, Rebecca Mott, and Tobias Jonas
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 17, 703–717, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-703-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-703-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
In this study, we present a dataset for the Dischma catchment in eastern Switzerland, which represents a typical high-alpine watershed in the European Alps. Accurate monitoring and reliable forecasting of snow and water resources in such basins are crucial for a wide range of applications. Our dataset is valuable for improving physics-based snow, land surface, and hydrological models, with potential applications in similar high-alpine catchments.
Haoxuan Yang, Jia Yang, Tyson E. Ochsner, Erik S. Krueger, Mengyuan Xu, and Chris B. Zou
Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2025-55, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2025-55, 2025
Revised manuscript accepted for ESSD
Short summary
Short summary
We developed a 3-hour, 1-km surface soil moisture dataset for the contiguous United States from 2015 to 2023 using the spatio-temporal fusion method. This dataset effectively combines the distinct advantages of two long-term SSM datasets, which is also the first hour-level 1-km soil moisture dataset at the continental US scale. The new dataset could provide new insight into the fast changes in soil moisture along with drought and wet spell occurrences.
Nikunj K. Mangukiya, Kanneganti Bhargav Kumar, Pankaj Dey, Shailza Sharma, Vijaykumar Bejagam, Pradeep P. Mujumdar, and Ashutosh Sharma
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 17, 461–491, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-461-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-461-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
We introduce CAMELS-IND (Catchment Attributes and MEteorology for Large-sample Studies – India), which provides daily hydrometeorological time series and static catchment attributes representing the location, topography, climate, hydrological signatures, land use, land cover, soil, geology, and anthropogenic influences for 472 catchments in Peninsular India to foster large-sample hydrological studies in India and promote the inclusion of Indian catchments in global hydrological research.
Bennett J. McAfee, Aanish Pradhan, Abhilash Neog, Sepideh Fatemi, Robert T. Hensley, Mary E. Lofton, Anuj Karpatne, Cayelan C. Carey, and Paul C. Hanson
Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2025-27, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2025-27, 2025
Revised manuscript accepted for ESSD
Short summary
Short summary
LakeBeD-US is a dataset of lake water quality data collected by multiple long-term monitoring programs around the United States. This dataset is designed to foster collaboration between lake scientists and computer scientists to improve predictions of water quality. By offering a way for computer models to be tested against real-world lake data, LakeBeD-US offers opportunities for both sciences to grow and to give new insights into the causes of water quality changes.
Aloïs Tilloy, Dominik Paprotny, Stefania Grimaldi, Goncalo Gomes, Alessandra Bianchi, Stefan Lange, Hylke Beck, Cinzia Mazzetti, and Luc Feyen
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 17, 293–316, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-293-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-293-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
This article presents a reanalysis of Europe's river streamflow for the period 1951–2020. Streamflow is estimated through a state-of-the-art hydrological simulation framework benefitting from detailed information about the landscape, climate, and human activities. The resulting Hydrological European ReAnalysis (HERA) can be a valuable tool for studying hydrological dynamics, including the impacts of climate change and human activities on European water resources and flood and drought risks.
Daniel Kovacek and Steven Weijs
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 17, 259–275, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-259-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-259-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
We made a dataset for British Columbia describing the terrain, soil, land cover, and climate of over 1 million watersheds. The attributes are often used in hydrology because they are related to the water cycle. The data are meant to be used for water resources problems that can benefit from lots of watersheds and their attributes. The data and instructions needed to build the dataset from scratch are freely available. The permanent home for the data is https://doi.org/10.5683/SP3/JNKZVT.
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 accepted 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.
Bennet Juhls, Anne Morgenstern, Jens Hölemann, Antje Eulenburg, Birgit Heim, Frederieke Miesner, Hendrik Grotheer, Gesine Mollenhauer, Hanno Meyer, Ephraim Erkens, Felica Yara Gehde, Sofia Antonova, Sergey Chalov, Maria Tereshina, Oxana Erina, Evgeniya Fingert, Ekaterina Abramova, Tina Sanders, Liudmila Lebedeva, Nikolai Torgovkin, Georgii Maksimov, Vasily Povazhnyi, Rafael Gonçalves-Araujo, Urban Wünsch, Antonina Chetverova, Sophie Opfergelt, and Pier Paul Overduin
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 17, 1–28, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-1-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-1-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
The Siberian Arctic is warming fast: permafrost is thawing, river chemistry is changing, and coastal ecosystems are affected. We aimed to understand changes in the Lena River, a major Arctic river flowing to the Arctic Ocean, by collecting 4.5 years of detailed water data, including temperature and carbon and nutrient contents. This dataset records current conditions and helps us to detect future changes. Explore it at https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.913197 and https://lena-monitoring.awi.de/.
Ralf Loritz, Alexander Dolich, Eduardo Acuña Espinoza, Pia Ebeling, Björn Guse, Jonas Götte, Sibylle K. Hassler, Corina Hauffe, Ingo Heidbüchel, Jens Kiesel, Mirko Mälicke, Hannes Müller-Thomy, Michael Stölzle, and Larisa Tarasova
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 5625–5642, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-5625-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-5625-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
The CAMELS-DE dataset features data from 1582 streamflow gauges across Germany, with records spanning from 1951 to 2020. This comprehensive dataset, which includes time series of up to 70 years (median 46 years), enables advanced research on water flow and environmental trends and supports the development of hydrological models.
Einara Zahn and Elie Bou-Zeid
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 5603–5624, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-5603-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-5603-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Quantifying water and CO2 exchanges through transpiration, evaporation, net photosynthesis, and soil respiration is essential for understanding how ecosystems function. We implemented five methods to estimate these fluxes over a 5-year period across 47 sites. This is the first dataset representing such large spatial and temporal coverage of soil and plant exchanges, and it has many potential applications, such as examining the response of ecosystems to weather extremes and climate change.
Lauranne Alaerts, Jonathan Lambrechts, Ny Riana Randresihaja, Luc Vandenbulcke, Olivier Gourgue, Emmanuel Hanert, and Marilaure Grégoire
Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2024-529, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2024-529, 2024
Revised manuscript accepted for ESSD
Short summary
Short summary
We created the first comprehensive, high-resolution, and easily-accessible bathymetry dataset for the three main branches of the Danube Delta. By combining four data sources, we obtained a detailed representation of the riverbed, with resolutions ranging from 2 to 100 m. This dataset will support future studies on water and nutrient exchanges between the Danube and the Black Sea, and provide insights into the Delta’s buffer role within the understudied Danube-Black Sea continuum.
Sanchit Minocha and Faisal Hossain
Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2024-470, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2024-470, 2024
Revised manuscript accepted for ESSD
Short summary
Short summary
Trustworthy and independently verifiable information on declining storage capacity or sedimentation rates around the world is sparse and suffers from inconsistent metadata and curation to allow global-scale archiving and analyses. Global Reservoir Inventory of Lost Storage by Sedimentation (GRILSS) dataset addresses this challenge by providing organized, well-curated and open-source data on sedimentation rates and capacity loss for 1,015 reservoirs in 75 major river basins across 54 countries.
Juliette Godet, Pierre Nicolle, Nabil Hocini, Eric Gaume, Philippe Davy, Frederic Pons, Pierre Javelle, Pierre-André Garambois, Dimitri Lague, and Olivier Payrastre
Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2024-472, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2024-472, 2024
Revised manuscript accepted for ESSD
Short summary
Short summary
This paper describes a dataset that includes input, output, and validation data for the simulation of flash flood hazards and three specific flash flood events in the French Mediterranean region. This dataset is particularly valuable as flood mapping methods often lack sufficient benchmark data. Additionally, we demonstrate how the hydraulic method we used, named Floodos, produces highly satisfactory results.
Ling Zhang, Yanhua Xie, Xiufang Zhu, Qimin Ma, and Luca Brocca
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 5207–5226, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-5207-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-5207-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
This study presented new annual maps of irrigated cropland in China from 2000 to 2020 (CIrrMap250). These maps were developed by integrating remote sensing data, irrigation statistics and surveys, and an irrigation suitability map. CIrrMap250 achieved high accuracy and outperformed currently available products. The new irrigation maps revealed a clear expansion of China’s irrigation area, with the majority (61%) occurring in the water-unsustainable regions facing severe to extreme water stress.
Dominik Paprotny, Paweł Terefenko, and Jakub Śledziowski
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 5145–5170, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-5145-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-5145-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Knowledge about past natural disasters can help adaptation to their future occurrences. Here, we present a dataset of 2521 riverine, pluvial, coastal, and compound floods that have occurred in 42 European countries between 1870 and 2020. The dataset contains available information on the inundated area, fatalities, persons affected, or economic loss and was obtained by extensive data collection from more than 800 sources ranging from news reports through government databases to scientific papers.
Paulina Bartkowiak, Bartolomeo Ventura, Alexander Jacob, and Mariapina Castelli
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 4709–4734, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-4709-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-4709-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
This paper presents the Two-Source Energy Balance evapotranspiration (ET) product driven by Copernicus Sentinel-2 and Sentinel-3 imagery together with ERA5 climate reanalysis data. Daily ET maps are available at 100 m spatial resolution for the period 2017–2021 across four Mediterranean basins: Ebro (Spain), Hérault (France), Medjerda (Tunisia), and Po (Italy). The product is highly beneficial for supporting vegetation monitoring and sustainable water management at the river basin scale.
Fanny J. Sarrazin, Sabine Attinger, and Rohini Kumar
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 4673–4708, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-4673-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-4673-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) contamination of water bodies is a long-term issue due to the long history of N and P inputs to the environment and their persistence. Here, we introduce a long-term and high-resolution dataset of N and P inputs from wastewater (point sources) for Germany, combining data from different sources and conceptual understanding. We also account for uncertainties in modelling choices, thus facilitating robust long-term and large-scale water quality studies.
Shanti Shwarup Mahto, Simone Fatichi, and Stefano Galelli
Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2024-441, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2024-441, 2024
Revised manuscript accepted for ESSD
Short summary
Short summary
The MSEA-Res database offers an open-access dataset tracking absolute water storage for 185 large reservoirs across Mainland Southeast Asia from 1985–2023. It provides valuable insights into how reservoir storage has grown by 130 % between 2008 and 2017, driven by dams in key river basins. Our data also reveal how droughts, like the 2019–2020 event, significantly impacted water reservoirs. This resource can aid water management, drought planning, and research globally.
Karl Nicolaus van Zweel, Laurent Gourdol, Jean François Iffly, Loïc Léonard, François Barnich, Laurent Pfister, Erwin Zehe, and Christophe Hissler
Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2024-259, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2024-259, 2024
Revised manuscript accepted for ESSD
Short summary
Short summary
Our study monitored groundwater in a Luxembourg forest over a year to understand water and chemical changes. We found seasonal variations in water chemistry, influenced by rainfall and soil interactions. This data helps predict environmental responses and manage water resources better. By measuring key parameters like pH and dissolved oxygen, our research provides valuable insights into groundwater behavior and serves as a resource for future environmental studies.
Rohit Mukherjee, Frederick Policelli, Ruixue Wang, Elise Arellano-Thompson, Beth Tellman, Prashanti Sharma, Zhijie Zhang, and Jonathan Giezendanner
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 4311–4323, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-4311-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-4311-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Global water resource monitoring is crucial due to climate change and population growth. This study presents a hand-labeled dataset of 100 PlanetScope images for surface water detection, spanning diverse biomes. We use this dataset to evaluate two state-of-the-art mapping methods. Results highlight performance variations across biomes, emphasizing the need for diverse, independent validation datasets to enhance the accuracy and reliability of satellite-based surface water monitoring techniques.
Lei Huang, Yong Luo, Jing M. Chen, Qiuhong Tang, Tammo Steenhuis, Wei Cheng, and Wen Shi
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 3993–4019, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-3993-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-3993-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Timely global terrestrial evapotranspiration (ET) data are crucial for water resource management and drought forecasting. This study introduces the VISEA algorithm, which integrates satellite data and shortwave radiation to provide daily 0.05° gridded near-real-time ET estimates. By employing a vegetation index–temperature method, this algorithm can estimate ET without requiring additional data. Evaluation results demonstrate VISEA's comparable accuracy with accelerated data availability.
Sibylle Kathrin Hassler, Rafael Bohn Reckziegel, Ben du Toit, Svenja Hoffmeister, Florian Kestel, Anton Kunneke, Rebekka Maier, and Jonathan Paul Sheppard
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 3935–3948, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-3935-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-3935-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Agroforestry systems (AFSs) combine trees and crops within the same land unit, providing a sustainable land use option which protects natural resources and biodiversity. Introducing trees into agricultural systems can positively affect water resources, soil characteristics, biomass and microclimate. We studied an AFS in South Africa in a multidisciplinary approach to assess the different influences and present the resulting dataset consisting of water, soil, tree and meteorological variables.
Keirnan J. A. Fowler, Ziqi Zhang, and Xue Hou
Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2024-263, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2024-263, 2024
Revised manuscript accepted for ESSD
Short summary
Short summary
This paper presents Version 2 of the Australian edition of the Catchment Attributes and Meteorology for Large-sample Studies (CAMELS) series of datasets. CAMELS-AUS v2 comprises data for an increased number (561) of catchments, each with with long-term monitoring, combining hydrometeorological time series with attributes related to geology, soil, topography, land cover, anthropogenic influence and hydroclimatology. It is freely downloadable from https://zenodo.org/doi/10.5281/zenodo.12575680.
Kaihao Zheng, Peirong Lin, and Ziyun Yin
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 3873–3891, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-3873-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-3873-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
We develop a globally applicable thresholding scheme for DEM-based floodplain delineation to improve the representation of spatial heterogeneity. It involves a stepwise approach to estimate the basin-level floodplain hydraulic geometry parameters that best respect the scaling law while approximating the global hydrodynamic flood maps. A ~90 m resolution global floodplain map, the Spatial Heterogeneity Improved Floodplain by Terrain analysis (SHIFT), is delineated with demonstrated superiority.
Yuzhong Yang, Qingbai Wu, Xiaoyan Guo, Lu Zhou, Helin Yao, Dandan Zhang, Zhongqiong Zhang, Ji Chen, and Guojun Liu
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 3755–3770, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-3755-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-3755-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
We present the temporal data of stable isotopes in different waterbodies in the Beiluhe Basin in the hinterland of the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau (QTP) produced between 2017 and 2022. In this article, the first detailed stable isotope data of 359 ground ice samples are presented. This first data set provides a new basis for understanding the hydrological effects of permafrost degradation on the QTP.
Bernhard Lehner, Mira Anand, Etienne Fluet-Chouinard, Florence Tan, Filipe Aires, George H. Allen, Pilippe Bousquet, Josep G. Canadell, Nick Davidson, C. Max Finlayson, Thomas Gumbricht, Lammert Hilarides, Gustaf Hugelius, Robert B. Jackson, Maartje C. Korver, Peter B. McIntyre, Szabolcs Nagy, David Olefeldt, Tamlin M. Pavelsky, Jean-Francois Pekel, Benjamin Poulter, Catherine Prigent, Jida Wang, Thomas A. Worthington, Dai Yamazaki, and Michele Thieme
Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2024-204, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2024-204, 2024
Revised manuscript accepted for ESSD
Short summary
Short summary
The Global Lakes and Wetlands Database (GLWD) version 2 distinguishes a total of 33 non-overlapping wetland classes, providing a static map of the world’s inland surface waters. It contains cell fractions of wetland extents per class at a grid cell resolution of ~500 m. The total combined extent of all classes including all inland and coastal waterbodies and wetlands of all inundation frequencies—that is, the maximum extent—covers 18.2 million km2, equivalent to 13.4 % of total global land area.
Hordur Bragi Helgason and Bart Nijssen
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 2741–2771, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-2741-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-2741-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
LamaH-Ice is a large-sample hydrology (LSH) dataset for Iceland. The dataset includes daily and hourly hydro-meteorological time series, including observed streamflow and basin characteristics, for 107 basins. LamaH-Ice offers most variables that are included in existing LSH datasets and additional information relevant to cold-region hydrology such as annual time series of glacier extent and mass balance. A large majority of the basins in LamaH-Ice are unaffected by human activities.
Chengcheng Hou, Yan Li, Shan Sang, Xu Zhao, Yanxu Liu, Yinglu Liu, and Fang Zhao
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 2449–2464, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-2449-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-2449-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
To fill the gap in the gridded industrial water withdrawal (IWW) data in China, we developed the China Industrial Water Withdrawal (CIWW) dataset, which provides monthly IWWs from 1965 to 2020 at a spatial resolution of 0.1°/0.25° and auxiliary data including subsectoral IWW and industrial output value in 2008. This dataset can help understand the human water use dynamics and support studies in hydrology, geography, sustainability sciences, and water resource management and allocation in China.
Nehar Mandal, Prabal Das, and Kironmala Chanda
Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2024-109, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2024-109, 2024
Revised manuscript accepted for ESSD
Short summary
Short summary
Optimal features among hydroclimatic variables and land surface model (LSM) outputs are selected using a novel Bayesian network (BN) approach for simulating Terrestrial Water Storage Anomalies (TWSA). TWSA is simulated using ML models (CNN, SVR, ETR, and Stacking Ensemble Regression), and gridwise leader models are identified globally. TWSA is reconstructed (BNML_TWSA) with the selected leader models from January 1960 to December 2022 to generate a continuous global gridded dataset.
Pierre-Antoine Versini, Leydy Alejandra Castellanos-Diaz, David Ramier, and Ioulia Tchiguirinskaia
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 2351–2366, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-2351-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-2351-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Nature-based solutions (NBSs), such as green roofs, have appeared as relevant solutions to mitigate urban heat islands. The evapotranspiration (ET) process allows NBSs to cool the air. To improve our knowledge about ET assessment, this paper presents some experimental measurement campaigns carried out during three consecutive summers. Data are available for three different (large, small, and point-based) spatial scales.
Ralph Bathelemy, Pierre Brigode, Vazken Andréassian, Charles Perrin, Vincent Moron, Cédric Gaucherel, Emmanuel Tric, and Dominique Boisson
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 2073–2098, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-2073-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-2073-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
The aim of this work is to provide the first hydroclimatic database for Haiti, a Caribbean country particularly vulnerable to meteorological and hydrological hazards. The resulting database, named Simbi, provides hydroclimatic time series for around 150 stations and 24 catchment areas.
Changming Li, Ziwei Liu, Wencong Yang, Zhuoyi Tu, Juntai Han, Sien Li, and Hanbo Yang
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 1811–1846, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-1811-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-1811-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Using a collocation-based approach, we developed a reliable global land evapotranspiration product (CAMELE) by merging multi-source datasets. The CAMELE product outperformed individual input datasets and showed satisfactory performance compared to reference data. It also demonstrated superiority for different plant functional types. Our study provides a promising solution for data fusion. The CAMELE dataset allows for detailed research and a better understanding of land–atmosphere interactions.
Yuhan Guo, Hongxing Zheng, Yuting Yang, Yanfang Sang, and Congcong Wen
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 1651–1665, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-1651-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-1651-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
We have provided an inaugural version of the hydrogeomorphic dataset for catchments over the Tibetan Plateau. We first provide the width-function-based instantaneous unit hydrograph (WFIUH) for each HydroBASINS catchment, which can be used to investigate the spatial heterogeneity of hydrological behavior across the Tibetan Plateau. It is expected to facilitate hydrological modeling across the Tibetan Plateau.
Chang Liao, Darren Engwirda, Matthew Cooper, Mingke Li, and Yilin Fang
Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2023-398, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2023-398, 2024
Revised manuscript accepted for ESSD
Short summary
Short summary
Discrete Global Grid systems, or DGGs, are digital frameworks that help us organize information about our planet. Although scientists have used DGGs in areas like weather and nature, using them in the water cycle has been challenging because some core datasets are missing. We created a way to generate these datasets. We then developed the datasets in the Amazon Basin, which plays an important role in our planet's climate. These datasets may help us improve our water cycle models.
Lingbo Li, Hong-Yi Li, Guta Abeshu, Jinyun Tang, L. Ruby Leung, Chang Liao, Zeli Tan, Hanqin Tian, Peter Thornton, and Xiaojuan Yang
Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2024-43, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2024-43, 2024
Revised manuscript accepted for ESSD
Short summary
Short summary
We have developed a new map that reveals how organic carbon from soil leaches into headwater streams over the contiguous United States. We use advanced artificial intelligence techniques and a massive amount of data, including observations at over 2,500 gauges and a wealth of climate and environmental information. The map is a critical step in understanding and predicting how carbon moves through our environment, hence a useful tool for tackling climate challenges.
Ziyun Yin, Peirong Lin, Ryan Riggs, George H. Allen, Xiangyong Lei, Ziyan Zheng, and Siyu Cai
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 1559–1587, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-1559-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-1559-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Large-sample hydrology (LSH) datasets have been the backbone of hydrological model parameter estimation and data-driven machine learning models for hydrological processes. This study complements existing LSH studies by creating a dataset with improved sample coverage, uncertainty estimates, and dynamic descriptions of human activities, which are all crucial to hydrological understanding and modeling.
Pierluigi Claps, Giulia Evangelista, Daniele Ganora, Paola Mazzoglio, and Irene Monforte
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 1503–1522, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-1503-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-1503-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
FOCA (Italian FlOod and Catchment Atlas) is the first systematic collection of data on Italian river catchments. It comprises geomorphological, soil, land cover, NDVI, climatological and extreme rainfall catchment attributes. FOCA also contains 631 peak and daily discharge time series covering the 1911–2016 period. Using this first nationwide data collection, a wide range of applications, in particular flood studies, can be undertaken within the Italian territory.
Wei Jing Ang, Edward Park, Yadu Pokhrel, Dung Duc Tran, and Ho Huu Loc
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 1209–1228, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-1209-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-1209-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Dams have burgeoned in the Mekong, but information on dams is scattered and inconsistent. Up-to-date evaluation of dams is unavailable, and basin-wide hydropower potential has yet to be systematically assessed. We present a comprehensive database of 1055 dams, a spatiotemporal analysis of the dams, and a total hydropower potential of 1 334 683 MW. Considering projected dam development and hydropower potential, the vulnerability and the need for better dam management may be highest in Laos.
Chuanqi He, Ci-Jian Yang, Jens M. Turowski, Richard F. Ott, Jean Braun, Hui Tang, Shadi Ghantous, Xiaoping Yuan, and Gaia Stucky de Quay
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 1151–1166, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-1151-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-1151-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
The shape of drainage basins and rivers holds significant implications for landscape evolution processes and dynamics. We used a global 90 m resolution topography to obtain ~0.7 million drainage basins with sizes over 50 km2. Our dataset contains the spatial distribution of drainage systems and their morphological parameters, supporting fields such as geomorphology, climatology, biology, ecology, hydrology, and natural hazards.
Jingyu Lin, Peng Wang, Jinzhu Wang, Youping Zhou, Xudong Zhou, Pan Yang, Hao Zhang, Yanpeng Cai, and Zhifeng Yang
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 1137–1149, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-1137-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-1137-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Our paper provides a repository comprising over 330 000 observations encompassing daily, weekly, and monthly records of surface water quality spanning the period 1980–2022. It included 18 distinct indicators, meticulously gathered at 2384 monitoring sites, ranging from inland locations to coastal and oceanic areas. This dataset will be very useful for researchers and decision-makers in the fields of hydrology, ecological studies, climate change, policy development, and oceanography.
Ana M. Ricardo, Rui M. L. Ferreira, Alberto Rodrigues da Silva, Jacinto Estima, Jorge Marques, Ivo Gamito, and Alexandre Serra
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 375–385, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-375-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-375-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Floods are among the most common natural disasters responsible for severe damages and human losses. Agueda.2016Flood, a synthesis of locally sensed data and numerically produced data, allows complete characterization of the flood event that occurred in February 2016 in the Portuguese Águeda River. The dataset was managed through the RiverCure Portal, a collaborative web platform connected to a validated shallow-water model.
Jiawei Hou, Albert I. J. M. Van Dijk, Luigi J. Renzullo, and Pablo R. Larraondo
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 201–218, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-201-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-201-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
The GloLakes dataset provides historical and near-real-time time series of relative (i.e. storage change) and absolute (i.e. total stored volume) storage for more than 27 000 lakes worldwide using multiple sources of satellite data, including laser and radar altimetry and optical remote sensing. These data can help us understand the influence of climate variability and anthropogenic activities on water availability and system ecology over the last 4 decades.
Menaka Revel, Xudong Zhou, Prakat Modi, Jean-François Cretaux, Stephane Calmant, and Dai Yamazaki
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 75–88, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-75-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-75-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
As satellite technology advances, there is an incredible amount of remotely sensed data for observing terrestrial water. Satellite altimetry observations of water heights can be utilized to calibrate and validate large-scale hydrodynamic models. However, because large-scale models are discontinuous, comparing satellite altimetry to predicted water surface elevation is difficult. We developed a satellite altimetry mapping procedure for high-resolution river network data.
Marvin Höge, Martina Kauzlaric, Rosi Siber, Ursula Schönenberger, Pascal Horton, Jan Schwanbeck, Marius Günter Floriancic, Daniel Viviroli, Sibylle Wilhelm, Anna E. Sikorska-Senoner, Nans Addor, Manuela Brunner, Sandra Pool, Massimiliano Zappa, and Fabrizio Fenicia
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 15, 5755–5784, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-5755-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-5755-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
CAMELS-CH is an open large-sample hydro-meteorological data set that covers 331 catchments in hydrologic Switzerland from 1 January 1981 to 31 December 2020. It comprises (a) daily data of river discharge and water level as well as meteorologic variables like precipitation and temperature; (b) yearly glacier and land cover data; (c) static attributes of, e.g, topography or human impact; and (d) catchment delineations. CAMELS-CH enables water and climate research and modeling at catchment level.
Cited articles
Ames, D. P., Horsburgh, J. S., Cao, Y., Kadlec, J., Whiteaker, T., and
Valentine, D.: HydroDesktop: Web services-based software for hydrologic data
discovery, download, visualization, and analysis, Environ. Modell. Softw.,
37, 146–156, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2012.03.013, 2012.
Baumgardner, M. F., Silva, L. F., Biehl, L. L., and Stoner, E. R.:
Reflectance Properties of Soils, Adv. Agron., 38, 1–44,
https://doi.org/10.1016/S0065-2113(08)60672-0, 1985.
Beaulieu, J.: Turbidity and Sediment Monitoring, HydroShare, available at:
https://www.hydroshare.org/resource/99a170544d2741ac983a1f25b2f38451/
(last access: 7 June 2017), 2016.
Bronstert, A., de Araújo, J.-C., Batalla, R. J., Costa, A. C., Delgado,
J. M., Francke, T., Foerster, S., Guentner, A., López-Tarazón, J. A.,
Mamede, G. L., Medeiros, P. H., Mueller, E., and Vericat, D.: Process-based
modelling of erosion, sediment transport and reservoir siltation in mesoscale
semi-arid catchments, J. Soils Sediments, 14, 2001–2018,
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-014-0994-1, 2014.
Brosinsky, A., Foerster, S., Segl, K., López-Tarazón, J. A.,
Piqué, G., and Bronstert, A.: Spectral fingerprinting: characterizing
suspended sediment sources by the use of VNIR-SWIR spectral information,
J. Soils Sediments, 14, 1965–1981, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-014-0927-z, 2014a.
Brosinsky, A., Foerster, S., Segl, K. ,and Kaufmann, H.: Spectral
fingerprinting: sediment source discrimination and contribution modelling of
artificial mixtures based on VNIR-SWIR spectral properties, J. Soils
Sediments, 14, 1949–1964, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-014-0925-1, 2014b.
CHEBRO: Mapa “Fondos Aluviales” 1 : 50000, available at:
http://www.oph.chebro.es/ContenidoCartoGeologia.htm (last access:
10 August 2006), 1993.
CHEBRO: Usos de Suelos (1984/1991/1995) de la cuenca hidrográfica del
Ebro; 1 : 100.000, Consultora de M. Angel Fernández-Ruffete y Cereyo,
Oficina de Planificación Hidrológica, C.H.E., available at:
http://oph.chebro.es/ (last access: 1 March 2006), 1998.
CHEBRO: Evolución de la temperatura y la precipitación en la cuenca
del Ebro, available at:
http://www.chebro.es/contenido.streamFichero.do?idBinario=16419 (last
access: 11 June 2018), 2012.
Couch, A., Hooper, R., Pollak, J., Martin, M., and Seul, M.: Enabling water
science at the CUAHSI water data center, in: Proceedings, 7th International
Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software: Bold Visions for
Environmental Modeling, iEMSs 2014, San Diego, California, USA, 15–19 June
2014, 1, 1–8, available at:
http://former.iemss.org/sites/iemss2014/proceedings.php (last access:
24 March 2017), 2014.
de Vente, J., Poesen, J., Bazzoffi, P., Van Rompaey, A., and Verstraeten, G.:
Predicting catchment sediment yield in Mediterranean environments: the
importance of sediment sources and connectivity in Italian drainage basins,
Earth Surf Process Landforms, 31, 1017–1034, https://doi.org/10.1002/esp.1305, 2006.
Fargas, D., Martínez-Casasnovas, J. A., and Poch, R.: Identification of
Critical Sediment Source Areas at Regional Level, Phys, Chem, Earth, 22,
355–359, 1997.
Foerster, S., Wilczok, C., Brosinsky, A., and Segl, K.: Assessment of
sediment connectivity from vegetation cover and topography using remotely
sensed data in a dryland catchment in the Spanish Pyrenees, J. Soils
Sediments, 14, 1982–2000, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-014-0992-3, 2014.
Foerster, S., Brosinsky, A., Wilczok, C., and Bauer, M.: Isábena 2011 –
An EnMAP Preparatory Flight Campaign (Datasets), https://doi.org/10.5880/enmap.2015.007
(last access: 11 June 2018), 2015.
Francke, T., Werb, S., Sommerer, E., and López-Tarazón, J. A.:
Analysis of runoff, sediment dynamics and sediment yield of subcatchments in
the highly erodible Isábena catchment, Central Pyrenees, J. Soils
Sediments, 14, 1909–1920, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-014-0990-5, 2014.
Francke, T., Foerster, S., Brosinsky, A., Sommerer, E.,
López-Tarazón, J. A., Güntner, A., Batalla, R., and Bronstert,
A.: Hydro-sedimentological dataset for the mesoscale mountainous Isábena
catchment, NE Spain, V. 2.0, GFZ Data Services, https://doi.org/10.5880/fidgeo.2018.011
(last access: 11 June 2018), 2018.
García-Ruiz, J. M., Beguería, S., López-Moreno, J. I., Lorente,
A., and Seeger, M.: Los recursos hídricos superficiales del Pirineo
aragonés y su evolución reciente, Logroño, Spain, 2001.
Goodrich, D. C., Keefer, T. O., Unkrich, C. L., Nichols, M. H., Osborn, H.
B., Stone, J. J., and Smith, J. R.: Long-term precipitation database, Walnut
Gulch Experimental Watershed, Arizona, United States, Water Resour Res, 44,
W05S04, https://doi.org/10.1029/2006WR005782, 2008.
Horsburgh, J. S., Tarboton, D. G., Maidment, D. R., and Zaslavsky, I.: A
relational model for environmental and water resources data, Water Resour.
Res., 44, W05406, https://doi.org/10.1029/2007WR006392, 2008.
Kadlec, J., StClair, B., Ames, D. P., and Gill, R. A.: WaterML R package for
managing ecological experiment data on a CUAHSI HydroServer, Ecol. Inform.,
28, 19–28, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoinf.2015.05.002, 2015.
Le Coz, J., Renard, B., Bonnifait, L., Branger, F., and Le Boursicaud, R.:
Combining hydraulic knowledge and uncertain gaugings in the estimation of
hydrometric rating curves: A Bayesian approach, J. Hydrol, 509, 573–587,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2013.11.016, 2014.
López-Tarazón, J. A. and Batalla, R. J.: Dominant discharges for
suspended sediment transport in a highly active Pyrenean river, J Soils
Sediments, 14, 2019–2030, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-014-0961-x, 2014.
López-Tarazón, J. A., Batalla, R. J., Vericat, D., and Francke, T.:
Suspended sediment transport in a highly erodible catchment: The River
Isábena (Southern Pyrenees), Geomorphology, 109, 210–221,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geomorph.2009.03.003, 2009.
López-Tarazón, J. A., Batalla, R. J., Vericat, D. and Balasch, J. C.:
Rainfall, runoff and sediment transport relations in a mesoscale mountainous
catchment: The River Isábena (Ebro basin), Catena, 82, 23–34,
https://doi.org/10.1016/J.CATENA.2010.04.005, 2010.
López-Tarazón, J. A., Batalla, R. J., Vericat, D., and Francke, T.:
The sediment budget of a highly dynamic mesoscale catchment: The River
Isábena, Geomorphology, 138, 15–28,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geomorph.2011.08.020, 2012.
MARM: Mapa de cultivos y aprovechamientos 1 : 50 000, Ministerio de
Medio Ambiente, y Medio Rural y Marino, 2008.
Mueller, E. N., Güntner, A., Francke, T., and Mamede, G.: Modelling
sediment export, retention and reservoir sedimentation in drylands with the
WASA-SED model, Geosci. Model Dev., 3, 275–291,
https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-3-275-2010, 2010.
Nichols, M. H., Stone, J. J., and Nearing, M. A.: Sediment database, Walnut
Gulch Experimental Watershed, Arizona, United States, Water Resour. Res., 44,
W05S06, https://doi.org/10.1029/2006WR005682, 2008.
Nord, G., Boudevillain, B., Berne, A., Branger, F., Braud, I., Dramais, G.,
Gérard, S., Le Coz, J., Legoût, C., Molinié, G., Van Baelen, J.,
Vandervaere, J.-P., Andrieu, J., Aubert, C., Calianno, M., Delrieu, G.,
Grazioli, J., Hachani, S., Horner, I., Huza, J., Le Boursicaud, R., Raupach,
T. H., Teuling, A. J., Uber, M., Vincendon, B., and Wijbrans, A.: A high
space–time resolution dataset linking meteorological forcing and
hydro-sedimentary response in a mesoscale Mediterranean catchment (Auzon) of
the Ardèche region, France, Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 9, 221–249,
https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-9-221-2017, 2017.
Peart, M. R. and Walling, D. E.: Title Fingerprinting sediment source?: the
example of a drainage basin in Devon, UK, in: Drainage basin sediment
delivery: proceedings of a symposium, Albuquerque, NM, 4–8 August 1986,
41–55, 1986.
Pelletier, P. M.: Uncertainties in the single determination of river
discharge: a literature review, Can. J. Civil Eng., 15, 834–850,
https://doi.org/10.1139/l88-109, 1988.
Reusser, D. E., Buytaert, W., and Vitolo, C.: RHydro – Hydrological models
and tools to represent and analyze hydrological data in R, in Geophysical
Research Abstracts, EGU General Assembly, Vienna, Austria, 22–27 April 2012,
EGU2012-4166, 2012.
Rottler, E., Francke, T., and Gafurov, A.: Implementation of a snow routine
into the hydrological model WASA-SED and its validation in a mountainous
catchment, EGU General Assembly, Vienna, Austria, 8–13 April 2018,
EGU2018-12224, 2018.
Savitzky, A. and Golay, M. J. E.: Smoothing and Differentiation of Data by
Simplified Least Squares Procedures., Anal Chem, 36(8), 1627–1639,
https://doi.org/10.1021/ac60214a047, 1964.
Smith, H. G. and Blake, W. H.: Sediment fingerprinting in agricultural
catchments: A critical re-examination of source discrimination and data
corrections, Geomorphology, 204, 177–191,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geomorph.2013.08.003, 2014.
Stone, J. J., Nichols, M. H., Goodrich, D. C., and Buono, J.: Long-term
runoff database, Walnut Gulch Experimental Watershed, Arizona, United States,
Water Resour. Res., 44, 5–5, https://doi.org/10.1029/2006WR005733, 2008.
Verdú, J. M., Batalla, R. J., and Martínez-Casasnovas, J. A.:
Estudio hidrológico de la cuenca del río Isábena (Cuenca del
Ebro). I: Variabilidad de la precipitación, Ingeniería del Agua, 13,
321–330, 2006.
Westerberg, I., Guerrero, J. L., Seibert, J., Beven, K. J., and Halldin, S.:
Stage-discharge uncertainty derived with a non-stationary rating curve in the
Choluteca River, Honduras, Hydrol. Process., 25, 603–613,
https://doi.org/10.1002/hyp.7848, 2011.
Short summary
This paper presents a hydro-sedimentological dataset for the Isábena catchment, northeastern Spain, for the period 2010–2018. It contains the results of several years of monitoring rainfall, discharge and sediment flux and analysing soil spectroscopic properties. The dataset features data in high spatial and temporal resolution suitable for the advanced process understanding of water and sediment fluxes, their origin and connectivity and sediment budgeting and for model development.
This paper presents a hydro-sedimentological dataset for the Isábena catchment, northeastern...
Altmetrics
Final-revised paper
Preprint