Catchment hydrology

Featured catchment: Water Towers of Mesopotamia: Snow feeding the cultural heritage

EGU Guest blogger October 28, 2020

An aerial view from the water towers of Mesopotamia Credit: Celal Borazan, 08.03.2013 Palandöken Mountain, Erzurum ©️ 2020 TSMS

Importance and challenges of snow modelling in Turkey Snow and glaciers in the high mountains play a crucial role for 1.6 billion people living downstream of mountainous areas. Thus, understanding snow dynamics is crucial for downstream irrigation, hydropower, flood control etc. In eastern Anatolia, Turkey (the mean elevation is around 1140 m), much of the precipitation falls as snow and is retain ...[Read More]

Why social inequalities matter for hydrologists?

Elisa Savelli September 30, 2020

After a few years spent at an Earth Science department researching social inequalities and hydrological extremes — i.e. floods and droughts — I have often been asked these rhetorical questions: “Isn’t it obvious that the weakest individuals or social groups suffer the most in case of extreme hydrological events? So, why should we study these inequalities?” Driven by these questions, and the years ...[Read More]

Featured Catchment: The Weierbach – Yet another temperate forested headwater?

EGU Guest blogger July 29, 2020

Characteristic subsurface structure of the Weierbach regolith from a close-by road cut (Photo: Jérôme Juilleret)

Slate bedrock, an often overlooked system At first sight, the Weierbach catchment may seem unspectacular. It is indeed a small (42 ha) forested headwater catchment, located at mid-latitude in a low mountain range (450-500 m a.s.l.). However, when you take a closer look, and particularly below the surface, the Weierbach is a truly exciting eco-hydrological system. Located in the Luxembourgish Arden ...[Read More]

On modelers and modeling

EGU Guest blogger April 1, 2020

Several studies were conducted and are ongoing where we investigate modelers, modeling decisions and modeling perceptions. Below I discuss the rationale and a summary of the (preliminary) results. Simulation models, conceptualizations of processes into a system of mathematical equations (hereafter simply referred to as models), are frequently used tools in the hydrological sciences. The literature ...[Read More]