President: Alberto Viglione
(Emailhs@egu.eu)
Deputy President: Ilias Pechlivanidis
(Email)
ECS Representative: Archita Bhattacharyya
(Emailecs-hs@egu.eu)
The Hydrological Sciences (HS) Division is concerned with all aspects of the terrestrial hydrological cycle (including precipitation, surface water, soil water, groundwater) from the pore scale to the global scale, and its relationships and interactions with the atmospheric part of the hydrological cycle. The division also covers the interaction between hydrology and geomorphology (e.g., erosion, sedimentation, groundwater systems), the relationships between hydrology and soils, as well as the interaction between the hydrosphere and the biosphere (e.g., ecohydrology, wetlands). The ways in which hydrological processes are observed, quantitatively computed, and forecasted are also addressed by the division. Management and operation of water resources by societies in various parts of the world is also within the division's realm.
The Hydrological Sciences Division (HS) has five main tasks:
- Organizing the hydrological part of the program during the annual EGU General Assembly
- Running its on-line open access journal: Hydrology and Earth System Sciences (HESS)
- Recognizing deserving colleagues in various stages of their careers with its Award program.
- Encouraging the interaction and active participation of young hydrologists within the hydrological community
- Circulating news, information, job adverts, announcements of opportunity or meetings that may be relevant to the hydrological community
Such tasks require considerable (voluntary!) input from many people, and offer plenty of opportunities to become actively involved.
To ensure that the sessions during the General Assembly cover our science as comprehensively as possible, there are currently ten Subdivisions, including a subdivision on general hydrology (monitoring and cross cutting issues). Distinct fields within the broad area of hydrology are covered. Each Subdivision Committee organises a set of oral, poster or PICO sessions to cover its field. The members of the Subdivision Committees meet during the EGU General Assembly and start preparing the draft programme for next year’s meeting in late spring/early summer. Membership of the committees of these Subdivisions is open: you can e-mail the Subdivision Committee Chair to request membership or you may directly join the meeting during the General Assembly to get involved in the Subdivision activities and in particular in the organisation of the programme, including proposal of sessions and volunteering as convener or co-convener (see overview of Programme Organisation and Convener Tasks).
You can also become involved in the Hydrology and Earth System Sciences (HESS) journal. In addition to submitting your best scientific work to HESS, consider that the journal needs both referees and members of its Editorial Board to cover a sufficiently broad spectrum of expertise to adequately handle all incoming papers. If you would like to become active as a referee or as an editor you may therefore consider informing any editor or Executive Editor of your wish.
The Division contributes to the EGU Awards & Medals programme that recognises every year eminent scientists for their outstanding research contribution and identifies the awardees as role models for the next generation of young scientists to foster geosciences research. In particular, members of the Division are invited to contribute to the nominations (deadline are every year on the 15th June, see here) for both the young and senior HS Division Awards and Medals (link).
The EGU offers a platform for young scientists to become involved in hydrological research, through sessions, social events and short courses at the annual General Assembly in April. Several activities are especially aimed for Young Scientists in the Hydrological Science, organised with the help of the Young Hydrologic Society.
Lastly, you are invited to share the news/information that may be of interest to the EGU Hydrological Sciences community, by sending a tweet to @EGU_HS or filling in the activity calendar webform.
Do not hesitate to contact the Division President or any Division Officer if you need any additional information on our activities!
Latest posts from the HS blog
eDNA4Hydrology
What flows around comes around For centuries, hydrologists have studied the flow of water through landscapes near and far. We measured flow rates, mapped aquifers and followed invisible paths of raindrops through soil and bedrock. Hydrology is a meticulous, beautiful science that has taught us much over the years. From the water cycle, surface water in rivers, wetlands and snowpack and groundwater deep and shallow, this is what we were taught as young aspiring hydrologists. Now, as we are starting …
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Summary of the August 26th, 2026, Himalayan flash flood
At the time of preparing this blog entry, we are less than 48 hours after the catastrophe which has hit the Himalaya. While the flow of new information continues, it is useful to summarize and clarify the key points around this event. WHAT? The massive destruction was caused by a flash flood. It was such a high energy that is rarely seen. Numerous videos can be found online. WHERE? The cause of the flash flood was a major glacier collapse …
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Drought in Europe
Many of us are experiencing it right now: Europe is suffering from a long lasting large scale drought (Fig. 1), with record heat and low-flow levels that probably nobody of us has seen before; and current forecasts do not announce any relieve for the coming weeks. The pictures of record low levels in the river Rhine are scaring – knowing how strongly Europe depends on this fluvial transport artery to connect the harbor of Rotterdam to the inlands. Many regions …
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Has groundwater finally gone mainstream?
Groundwater has always had an image problem. Throughout my career, I have lost count of how many times we have described groundwater as an “invisible resource” or similar. It is almost a cliché in hydrogeology. We use the phrase because it captures something really fundamental: groundwater is hidden physically, but it has also been hidden from public consciousness. What people cannot see or easily see is often more or less absent from public debate, and/or political priorities. It feels like …
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Recent awardees
The 2026 Henry Darcy Medal is awarded to
Sally E. Thompson for outstanding contributions to ecohydrology, particularly the co-evolution of vegetation and soils in natural landscapes, and the emerging patterns in response to water limitation.
Read more
The 2026 John Dalton Medal is awarded to
Thorsten Wagener for landmark contributions to hydrologic systems analysis and process-based evaluation of hydrologic models.
Read more
- 2026
- Division Outstanding Early Career Scientist Award
The 2026 Division Outstanding Early Career Scientist Award is awarded to
Larisa Tarasova for outstanding research on comparative catchment hydrology and flood generation processes.
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The 2025 Henry Darcy Medal is awarded to
Jan Seibert for pioneering work promoting Open Science with hydrological models, and building bridges between experimentalists and modellers, between physical and conceptual approaches, and to citizen science.
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The 2025 John Dalton Medal is awarded to
Paolo D'Odorico for outstanding scholarship on water and its ties to environmental justice, energy, and food security.
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- 2025
- Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award
The 2025 Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award is awarded to
Ahmed El-Azhari Groundwater Salinity Drivers in Arid Endorheic Basins: Insights from Hydrogeochemical and Isotopic Analyses in Bahira, Morocco
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- 2025
- Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award
The 2025 Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award is awarded to
Anna Leuteritz Celerity, velocity and length of near-surface flow pathways: insights from tracer experiments
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- 2025
- Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award
The 2025 Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award is awarded to
Anton Köhler An Analytic Element Method solution for multispecies reactive contaminant transport
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- 2025
- Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award
The 2025 Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award is awarded to
Fredrik Schück Modelling floods, droughts and humans: A systematic review of hydrological hazard management in agent-based models
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- 2025
- Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award
The 2025 Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award is awarded to
Kansei Fujimoto Development of a new satellite rainfall product HiDRED (Himawari Data Rainfall Estimation using Deep learning) and a fundamental study on its applicability to hydrological models
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- 2025
- Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award
The 2025 Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award is awarded to
Malin Grosse-Heilmann Assessing the Effects of Climate Change on Durum Wheat Yields in Mediterranean Regions: A Water-Food Nexus Perspective
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- 2025
- Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award
The 2025 Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award is awarded to
Malve Heinz From Field to Catchment: Evaluating the Hydrological Effects of Soil Organic Carbon Increases
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- 2025
- Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award
The 2025 Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award is awarded to
Palok Biswas Normatively Robust Mitigation Policy to Equitably Distribute the Remaining Carbon Budget
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- 2025
- Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award
The 2025 Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award is awarded to
Peter Wagener Evaluating Hydrologic Processes and Their Drivers for a Large Geographical Domain
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- 2025
- Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award
The 2025 Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award is awarded to
Sahar Jannesarahmadi The Role of Wind Velocity in Saline Water Evaporation from Porous Media and Surface Salt Crystallization Dynamics
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- 2025
- Arne Richter Award for Outstanding Early Career Scientists
The 2025 Arne Richter Award for Outstanding Early Career Scientists is awarded to
Frederik Kratzert for outstanding research in hydrological modelling and open science, particularly through Artificial Intelligence-based approaches in large-sample hydrology studies.
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Current issue of the EGU newsletter
In our August issue, we reflect on the lessons learned from past disasters associated with natural hazards, and hear from the Early Career Scientist rep for the Natural Hazards Division Elisa Nobile. Don't miss your chance to register for one of our six autumn workshops and applications are open to volunteer with the Outreach Committee. The call for sessions for EGU27 is open and don't miss your chance to nominate someone to be the Union's next Early Career Scientist (ECS) Union-wide Representative or Treasurer!
All this and much more, in this month's Loupe!
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Current issue of the HS division newsletter
What is new in the Hydrological Sciences Division this August
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