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Masino river (Credit: Christian Massari, distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu)

HS Hydrological Sciences Division on Hydrological Sciences

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European Geosciences Union

Division on Hydrological Sciences
hs.egu.eu

Division on Hydrological Sciences

President: Alberto Viglione (Emailhs@egu.eu)
Deputy President: Maria-Helena Ramos (Email)
ECS Representative: Christina Anna Orieschnig (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

When Droughts Dry Up Power: The Climate-Hydropower dilemma

When we think of hydropower, its environmental impacts usually comes to mind: the dams that disrupt ecosystems, the water bodies that shift, the surface evaporation that increases, and the greenhouse gases that escape from reservoirs1. Hydropower, for all its clean energy potential, is not without its environmental baggage, whether on local water resources or the global surface water storage. But how often do we consider the reverse: how does climate itself affect hydropower? Is it a chicken-and-egg problem, where one …


September 2024 Flooding in Central Europe: The Austrian Experience

Storm Boris is the latest in a series of deluges during one of Europe’s most flood-prone periods in 500 years, yet Vienna managed to avoid major damage. The city’s preparations may offer valuable lessons for other urban areas facing similar challenges. Dealing With Record Rainfall: September 2024 in Vienna When record rainfall hit Vienna on September 15, the impact was severe: submerged roads, evacuated homes, and a tranquil stream turned into a torrent. Over five days, the city received five …


Shaping the HS-programme of EGU25: Session Review, Merging, and Co-Organization Updates

September has arrived. The Hydrological Sciences (HS) community has been very active, as usual, submitting 152 sessions during the open session call, which is more than 10% of all sessions that are proposed for the entire EGU (overall 1,273 sessions were submitted, slightly more than at EGU24). This is amazing and I would like to thank all the conveners for their excellent ideas and nice work so far. So what is happening next? The 152 sessions have been submitted but …


Hortonian overland flow: when theory becomes reality

Hortonian overland flow – if you have ever followed a hydrology class, you have certainly come across this jargon: this is the name of a hydrological process – when rainfall flows off at the terrain surface because the rainfall intensity is so high that not all the water can infiltrate into the soil (rainfall intensity is higher than infiltration capacity). Almost every hydrological model includes some parameterization of this phenomenon. Still, as I tend to tell my students in introductory …

Recent awardees

Alberto Guadagnini

Alberto Guadagnini

  • 2024
  • Henry Darcy Medal

The 2024 Henry Darcy Medal is awarded to Alberto Guadagnini for his advancements in the frontiers of hydrology through development and application of quantitative, process-based, flow and chemical transport models in subsurface water bodies under uncertainty.


Paul D. Bates

Paul D. Bates

  • 2024
  • John Dalton Medal

The 2024 John Dalton Medal is awarded to Paul D. Bates for outstanding contributions to the modeling of flood hydrology from the local to the global scale.


Andrea Cominola

Andrea Cominola

  • 2024
  • Division Outstanding Early Career Scientist Award

The 2024 Division Outstanding Early Career Scientist Award is awarded to Andrea Cominola for outstanding research on data-driven behavioural modelling in coupled human-water systems.


Marc F. P. Bierkens

Marc F. P. Bierkens

  • 2023
  • Henry Darcy Medal

The 2023 Henry Darcy Medal is awarded to Marc F. P. Bierkens for outstanding research on integrative global and regional-scale water resources modelling, aimed at understanding surface and groundwater supply depletion related to human uses and climate change.


Taikan Oki

Taikan Oki

  • 2023
  • John Dalton Medal

The 2023 John Dalton Medal is awarded to Taikan Oki for his seminal contribution to global hydrology through pioneering work in developing novel numerical models to quantify the global water cycle, and its evolution under human pressure.


Inge de Graaf

Inge de Graaf

  • 2023
  • Division Outstanding Early Career Scientist Award

The 2023 Division Outstanding Early Career Scientist Award is awarded to Inge de Graaf for fundamental contributions to the field of large-scale hydrology and groundwater modelling.


Amos Agossou

Amos Agossou

  • 2023
  • Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award

The 2023 Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award is awarded to Amos Agossou Groundwater recharge restoration in urban area using LID/BMP: Study case of Benin, West Africa


Bryan Marinelli

Bryan Marinelli

  • 2023
  • Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award

The 2023 Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award is awarded to Bryan Marinelli Global violations of environmentally critical groundwater discharge


Elisie Kåresdotter

Elisie Kåresdotter

  • 2023
  • Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award

The 2023 Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award is awarded to Elisie Kåresdotter Humans, Water, and Climate Change – Global Analysis of Conflicts and Cooperation and their Potential Drivers


Irene Himmelbauer

Irene Himmelbauer

  • 2023
  • Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award

The 2023 Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award is awarded to Irene Himmelbauer Analyzing the reliability of in situ soil moisture measurements for satellite product validation: What makes “fiducial reference measurements” fiducial?


Jonas Pyschik

Jonas Pyschik

  • 2023
  • Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award

The 2023 Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award is awarded to Jonas Pyschik Detecting the occurrence of preferential flow in soils with stable water isotopes


Michael De Santi

Michael De Santi

  • 2023
  • Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award

The 2023 Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award is awarded to Michael De Santi Optimizing chlorination for water safety and acceptability in emergency water supplies in humanitarian crises using a deep composite neural network


Shoobhangi Tyagi

Shoobhangi Tyagi

  • 2023
  • Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award

The 2023 Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award is awarded to Shoobhangi Tyagi Implications of 1.5°C global warming for agricultural productivity over a global rice exporting region in Central India


Tim Busker

Tim Busker

  • 2023
  • Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award

The 2023 Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award is awarded to Tim Busker Impact-based seasonal rainfall forecasting to trigger early action for droughts


Tzu-Han Weng

Tzu-Han Weng

  • 2023
  • Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award

The 2023 Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award is awarded to Tzu-Han Weng Establishing a macroscopic-scale rainfall climate and water resources estimation model by machine learning method

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