Understanding and predicting large-scale hydrological variability in a changing environment

Abstract

Abstract. In a context of climate, environmental, ecological and socio-economical changes, understanding and predicting the response of hydrological systems on regional to global spatial scales, and on infra-seasonal to multidecadal time-scales, are major topics that must be considered to tackle the challenge of water resource management sustainability. In this context, a number of strongly-linked key issues need to be addressed by the scientific community, including: (i) identifying climate drivers of hydrological variations, (ii) understanding the multi-frequency characteristics of hydroclimate variability, including evolution of extremes (meteorological/hydrological event scale to long-term natural/internal climate- or anthropogenic-driven variations and trends), (iii) assessing the influence of local- to regional-scale basin properties on hydrological system response to climate variability and change, (iv) identifying the evolving contribution of anthropogenic water use in observed hydrological variations. Based on pan-European collaborations, activities of the EURO-FRIEND “Large-scale variations in hydrological characteristics” group aim at generating new findings to improve our understanding of hydrological systems behavior sensu lato (i.e. surface and sub-surface) on large spatial and temporal scales (i.e continental – multidecadal). Through selected examples, this contribution emphasizes recent research developments in characterizing and modeling of climate-hydrology linkages at different temporal and spatial scales, as well as recent insights on climate-hydrology scaling characteristics (i.e. long-term persistence, dependance of processes, of hydrological behaviors, of large-scale climate/hydrology linkages on time-/spatial scales), long-term hydrometeorological reconstructions, and large-scale hydrological model refinement taking into account spatial heterogeneity of watershed physical characteristics.

The UNESCO FRIEND-Water program: accelerates, shares and transfers knowledge and innovation in hydrology across the world in the frame of the Intergovernmental Hydrological Program (IHP)

“…Closely inter-related key issues and challenges to large-scale hydrology were identified to improve prediction of hydrological systems behavior (surface/sub-surface) on large spatial and time scales (i.e. continental -multidecadal) under changing environmental conditions (Massei et al, 2018;Kingston et al, 2020). Large-scale hydrology depends on interactions across the ocean-atmosphere-vegetation/soil/aquifer system.…”

Comment on egusphere-2024-794

“…Understanding the large-scale hydrological functioning of a hydrosystem is the best approach for grasping a more global view of water reserves and implementing appropriate long-term management strategies (Kingston et al, 2020;Massei et al, 2020). However, this approach requires the construction of a large-scale hydrological model capable of capturing interactions over large areas, while respecting hydraulic continuity across the hydrosystem.…”

Effect of Teleconnection Patterns on the Formation of Potential Ecological Flow Variables in Lowland Rivers

“…Atmospheric circulation patterns play an important role in the formation of runoff and can be a primary source of generative forcing for river systems. Extensive research around the world, including studies in Europe, has demonstrated the influence of different large-scale atmospheric circulation patterns on the climatic characteristics and hydrological behaviour of rivers and lakes [19][20][21][22][23][24][25]. For example, the seasonal variations in dryness and wetness and their links with large-scale atmospheric circulation and global sea surface temperature have been analysed [26].…”