Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Hydrology
From natural variability to flow homogenisation: how dams, water diversions, and climate change reduced seasonal flows in Australia’s Murrumbidgee River
Published: 2025-04-25
Subjects: Biodiversity, Environmental Engineering, Environmental Health and Protection, Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment, Environmental Monitoring, Hydrology, Natural Resources and Conservation, Natural Resources Management and Policy, Other Environmental Sciences, Sustainability, Water Resource Management
River regulation and climate change have profoundly altered seasonal flow dynamics globally, with cascading ecological impacts on freshwater ecosystems and biodiversity. Magnitude and timing are key components of the flow regime, connecting rivers with floodplains and driving feeding and breeding cues for aquatic organisms. We investigated the separate and combined effects of water resource [...]
A comprehensive calibration framework for the Northwest River Forecast Center
Published: 2025-04-19
Subjects: Civil Engineering, Hydrology, Other Civil and Environmental Engineering
In this paper we present a comprehensive framework developed by the Northwest River Forecast Center (NWRFC) for calibration of arbitrary hydrologic basins. The framework includes hydrology, snow, routing, channel loss, and consumptive use models. Data inputs include a wide range of open access datasets for land use, land cover, and meteorology. The framework can handle basins with diverse [...]
Floods and Water Management in Chiang Mai and the Upper Ping catchment, Northern Thailand
Published: 2025-04-17
Subjects: Geomorphology, Hydrology, Sedimentology, Water Resource Management
The city of Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand has been subject to regular major floods in the past couple of decades. In this review, we provide some background information on the hydrology of Upper Ping river catchment, the hydrogeology of the Chiang Mai – Lamphun basin, historical records of hydrological events in the area and more recent depictions of major floods. In the second part of this [...]
Assessing legacy nitrogen in groundwater using numerical models of the Long Island aquifer system, New York
Published: 2025-04-15
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Hydrology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Water Resource Management
Nitrogen transported along groundwater flow paths in coastal aquifers can contribute substantially to nitrogen loading into surface water receptors, particularly in hydrologic systems dominated by groundwater discharge. Nitrogen entrained in the aquifer is a function of land use and associated nitrogen sources at the time of groundwater recharge, which may differ considerably from present-day [...]
Assessing the effectiveness of irrigator-driven groundwater conservation programs to drought: a case study of the northwestern Kansas Local Enhanced Management Areas
Published: 2025-04-08
Subjects: Agriculture, Hydrology, Natural Resources and Conservation, Natural Resources Management and Policy, Sustainability, Water Resource Management
Groundwater pumping for irrigation has led to significant decreases in groundwater levels in agricultural areas around the world, including the U.S. High Plains Aquifer. Here, we used a process-based corn and sorghum crop model, AquaCrop, to assess the effectiveness of different irrigation management strategies during a synthetic multi-year drought. We focused on the Groundwater Management [...]
Salinas Valley Integrated Hydrologic and Reservoir Operations Models, Monterey and San Luis Obispo Counties, California Pre-Print
Published: 2025-04-05
Subjects: Hydrology, Sustainability, Water Resource Management
The area surrounding the Salinas Valley groundwater basin in Monterey and San Luis Obispo Counties of California is a highly productive agricultural area, contributes significantly to the local economy, and provides a substantial portion of vegetables and other agricultural commodities to the Nation. This region of California provides about half of the Nation’s lettuce, celery, broccoli, and [...]
Enhancing the Normalized Difference Water Index for Improved Urban Flood Detection
Published: 2025-03-21
Subjects: Environmental Monitoring, Geographic Information Sciences, Hydrology, Natural Resource Economics, Other Earth Sciences, Physical and Environmental Geography, Remote Sensing, Spatial Science, Sustainability, Water Resource Management
Accurate urban flood detection is crucial for effective disaster management and urban planning. Traditional indices like the Normalized Difference Water Index and Modified Normalized Difference Water Index often produce inaccurate results due to spectral confusion in urban areas and sensitivity to shadows. Moreover, MNDWI's reliance on the Shortwave Infrared band limits its use with certain [...]
How to deal w___ missing input data
Published: 2025-03-14
Subjects: Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Hydrology, Water Resource Management
Deep learning hydrologic models have made their way from research to applications. More and more national hydrometeorological agencies, hydro power operators, and engineering consulting companies are building Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) models for operational use cases. All of these efforts come across similar sets of challenges—challenges that are different from those in controlled scientific [...]
Embracing Large Language Model (LLM) Technologies in Hydrology Research
Published: 2025-03-14
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Hydrology
The growing complexity of hydrological systems necessitates innovative approaches to data management, knowledge management, and model development. Large Language Models (LLMs) have great potential to revolutionize hydrological research by unifying and advancing these three critical aspects. In this perspective work, we review recent advances and applications of LLMs and exemplify using LLMs in [...]
Modern Cave Monitoring Informs Interpretations of Past Climate Change: Applications to Titan Cave, Wyoming
Published: 2025-03-10
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Geochemistry, Geology, Geomorphology, Hydrology, Speleology
Monitoring of cave environments is an essential process for deciphering records of past climate change preserved in the geochemical composition of speleothems, or mineral cave deposits. This study presents data from a multi-year monitoring effort in Titan Cave, Wyoming, a site of interest due to the abundance of speleothems suitable for paleoclimate reconstruction. Titan Cave exhibits annual cave [...]
Flood type drives river-scale plastic deposition
Published: 2025-03-05
Subjects: Environmental Studies, Geographic Information Sciences, Hydrology, Nature and Society Relations, Other Environmental Sciences, Physical and Environmental Geography, Spatial Science, Water Resource Management
Plastic pollution is considered a global environmental challenge, prompting international regulation efforts such as the UN plastic treaty to end plastic pollution. River basins, with high population densities and poor waste management, are particularly exposed to plastic pollution. Floods amplify plastic presence in rivers by mobilizing previously deposited and introduce new plastics. Yet, the [...]
Fresh ideas on modeling water demand and allocation in Global Hydrological Models
Published: 2025-02-28
Subjects: Hydrology
Global hydrological models are essential tools to address the increasing challenge of global water scarcity. However, current models often rely on simplistic assumptions for sectoral water allocation, limiting their ability to capture real-world complexities such as prioritization and competition among water uses. This paper introduces a theoretical two-layer framework that distinguishes between [...]
Beyond Single Hazard Framework: Multi-Hazard Worst Case Scenarios from Ensemble Tropical Cyclone Forecasts
Published: 2025-02-21
Subjects: Environmental Engineering, Hydrology, Meteorology, Oceanography, Risk Analysis
Ensemble forecasting is a powerful tool for supporting informed decision-making in managing multi-hazard risks associated with tropical cyclones (TCs). Although TC ensemble forecasts are widely used in operational numerical weather prediction systems, their potential for disaster prediction and management has not been fully exploited. Here we propose a novel, efficient, and practical method to [...]
Thermal channelization of suprapermafrost flows
Published: 2025-02-19
Subjects: Geomorphology, Hydrology
On many frozen hillslopes, subsurface water above permafrost is routed through regularly spaced, linear features known as water tracks. We test whether water tracks form through thermal channelization, where heat from viscous dissipation in flowpaths deepens the active layer, creating a preferred flow path that attracts more water. We derive equations for suprapermafrost Darcy flow and, using [...]
Harmonizing past and future global sectoral water use data
Published: 2025-02-13
Subjects: Hydrology
The use of water in the domestic, agricultural, and industrial sectors is necessary for human prosperity and survival. Recognizing the need to understand water scarcity and human contributions to it, various studies have been done over the years, necessitating access to reliable, comprehensive data on historical and projected water use across all sectors. Despite progress in this direction, a [...]