Skip to main content
Masino river (Credit: Christian Massari, distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu)

HS Hydrological Sciences Division on Hydrological Sciences

EGU logo

European Geosciences Union

Division on Hydrological Sciences
hs.egu.eu

Division on Hydrological Sciences

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

HydroTalks podcast: Introducing Ilias Pechlivanidis, the HS Division President-elect

For this episode of HydroTalks, we’re thrilled to welcome Dr. Ilias Pechlivanidis, Senior Researcher and Associate Professor (Docent) in hydrology and water resources at the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI), and Visiting Researcher at Uppsala University. He is currently the Vice President of the EGU Hydrological Sciences Division and will serve as Division President for the 2027–2029 term. His responsibilities will include representing the hydrological scientific community within EGU, and managing the administration of the division, especially arranging the …


EGU General Assembly 2026 – A Hydrological Wrap Up

The EGU General Assembly (GA) 2026 was an amazing success! Over the course of five sunny days in Vienna, 20,173 presentations were given across 1,014 sessions by the 20,027 on-site participants and 2,470 online attendees. There were plenty of events to choose from for the hydrologists attending. Across sessions, networking events, short courses, posters and medal lectures, we have put together some highlights for you to wrap up a fantastic GA 2026! HS Division highlights As every year, the Hydrological …


Reclaiming scientific publishing: Our duty to make science freely accessible to all

When we (Camille Thomas and Romain Vaucher speaking) entered academia as graduate students in France and Switzerland, we were enthusiastic about the vast amount of research available with a simple click on our university computers. However, we also quickly felt disheartened by the significant amount of research work we couldn’t access when wrapping up our theses from home. Luckily, pirates existed. Empowered by Aaron Swartz’s Guerilla Open Access Manifesto, Alexandra Elbakyan created Sci-Hub in 2011, the greatest leak of scientific …


Regarding Flowing Waters – The Science and Art of Hydrology

About a decade ago, I formally retired from Lancaster University (albeit retaining an emeritus position and still producing the occasional paper). In that time, I have been able to pursue my interests in the history of hydrology but also devote more time to my other passion which is landscape photography, especially images of water. As a hydrologist, I do understand that to spend my spare time photographing water is definitely on the rather sad side of social behaviour but, on …

Recent awardees

Sally E. Thompson

Sally E. Thompson

  • 2026
  • Henry Darcy Medal

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.


Thorsten Wagener

Thorsten Wagener

  • 2026
  • John Dalton Medal

The 2026 John Dalton Medal is awarded to Thorsten Wagener for landmark contributions to hydrologic systems analysis and process-based evaluation of hydrologic models.


Larisa Tarasova

Larisa Tarasova

  • 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.


Jan Seibert

Jan Seibert

  • 2025
  • Henry Darcy Medal

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.


Paolo D'Odorico

Paolo D'Odorico

  • 2025
  • John Dalton Medal

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.


Ahmed El-Azhari

Ahmed El-Azhari

  • 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


Anna Leuteritz

Anna Leuteritz

  • 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


Anton Köhler

Anton Köhler

  • 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


Fredrik Schück

Fredrik Schück

  • 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


Kansei Fujimoto

Kansei Fujimoto

  • 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


Malin Grosse-Heilmann

Malin Grosse-Heilmann

  • 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


Malve Heinz

Malve Heinz

  • 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


Palok Biswas

Palok Biswas

  • 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


Peter Wagener

Peter Wagener

  • 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


Sahar Jannesarahmadi

Sahar Jannesarahmadi

  • 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


Frederik Kratzert

Frederik Kratzert

  • 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.

Current issue of the EGU newsletter

In our May issue, we look back on another amazing General Assembly in Vienna and online, the EGU awards and medals are now open for nominations, funding is now open for public engagement grants, distinguished lecture speakers, science journalism fellowships, an Early Career Scientist career development workshop and more - and there is a vacancy for an Editorial Manager at the EGU Executive Office in Munich!

All this and much more, in this month's Loupe!

Current issue of the HS division newsletter

What is new in the Hydrological Sciences Division this June 

Find HS on

Subscribe to