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 …[Read More]
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 …[Read More]
Floods are shaped by complex and nonlinear interactions between weather patterns, rainfall, soil properties, topography, land cover, and how wet a catchment already is. This complexity is one reason machine learning (ML) is increasingly used in hydrology. ML models can learn patterns from large and complex datasets with many variables. Early in my PhD, while …[Read More]
The aim of risk management is to prepare society in order to limit loss and damage when an extreme event occurs and to restore the functioning of society afterwards . While current risk management practices are helpful in many regards, they fall short when it comes to unprecedented events. An analysis of event pairs and …[Read More]
Picture this: you’re hiking through a dry landscape when suddenly you hear it—the serene sound of a babbling brook. You round a corner and discover a small waterfall cascading into crystal-clear pools, surrounded by lush green ferns and wildflowers attracting buzzing bees. It feels like stumbling upon a secret oasis. These magical streams that appear …[Read More]
When I first began analysing agricultural pressures in German river networks, I expected the familiar story of nutrient loads, pesticide traces and differences between landscapes. What I did not expect was how narrow the ecological safe operating space has become for many rivers. Even small increases in agricultural pressure, especially from pesticides, reduced the likelihood …[Read More]
For this episode, we’re thrilled to welcome Prof. Jan Seibert, based at the Department of Geography, University of Zurich. His research focuses on hydrological modelling under landscape change, citizen science through the CrowdWater app, and large-scale modelling studies. He is also the Henry Darcy medal winner of 2025. You can check out the podcast below, …[Read More]
Hydrological change is one of the clearest signals of climate variability and human impact on the environment. Yet detecting these changes reliably requires robust, long-term data from river basins that are as close to “natural” as possible, with little influence from dams, abstractions, land use change or any other human influences. That’s where the ROBIN …[Read More]
Walking the halls of the EGU General Assembly 2025 a few weeks ago, I was full of child-like curiosity. Being surrounded by people doing fascinating, creative, and innovative research felt like a dream come true. New faces every day, big talks on small advances and complicated methodologies. I learned about mountain ecology and failing snow-models, …[Read More]
In the morning of May 28, 2025, the picturesque Swiss alpine village of Blatten sat quiet and serene in the Lötschen Valley. Exceptionally quiet, in fact, as the village was evacuated on May 19th after a local Natural Hazards expert spotted a worrisome change in a local mountain looming about the village, the Kleines Nesthorn: …[Read More]
