HS
Hydrological Sciences

Ecohydrology, wetlands & estuaries

HydroTalks: Prof. Sally E. Thompson on ecohydrology, vegetation, climate change and working across continents

, and February 19, 2026
HydroTalks: Prof. Sally E. Thompson on ecohydrology, vegetation, climate change and working across continents

In episode 7 of the Hydrotalks podcast, our guest was Dr. Sally Thompson (Sally Thompson – the UWA Profiles and Research Repository). She is a Professor at the University of Western Australia, and the Co-Director of the Centre for Water and Spatial Science. Her research spans ecohydrology, surface hydrology, and Critical Zone Science, exploring how vegetation and ecosystems interact with wat ...[Read More]

Can Machine Learning Help Us Monitor Streams?

February 12, 2026
Can Machine Learning Help Us Monitor Streams?

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 and disappear with the seasons are called ...[Read More]

Prevent before repair: What a new hydrology-based index reveals about river ecological status

January 15, 2026
Prevent before repair: What a new hydrology-based index reveals about river ecological status

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 of achieving good eco ...[Read More]

How to Convene an EGU Session in Hydrology

July 11, 2024
How to Convene an EGU Session in Hydrology

Have you ever thought about convening an EGU session instead of just attending them? Until September 9th you have the chance to do just that for the 2025 General Assembly, which will be taking place from April 27 to May 2 in Vienna, Austria.  Convening a session can sound a bit intimidating, especially if you’ve never done it before or if you are an early career scientist. However, it’s an i ...[Read More]

Empowering ECS Voices in Wetland Conservation: Insights from COP28

April 4, 2024
Empowering ECS Voices in Wetland Conservation: Insights from COP28

In the arena of environmental conservation, the power of youth engagement is gaining increasing recognition as a force propelling positive change. This recognition is particularly evident in the endeavours aimed towards safeguarding our wetlands – crucial ecosystems brimming with biodiversity and providing indispensable services to both humanity and the natural world. At the 28th Conference of the ...[Read More]

The water crisis in Bengaluru, India, and its direct link to the degradation of the city’s lake system

April 2, 2024
The water crisis in Bengaluru, India, and its direct link to the degradation of the city’s lake system

In the heart of India’s rapid urban expansion, Bengaluru city’s escalating water crisis reveals a direct connection to the deteriorating health of its lake systems, once the lifeline of this burgeoning city. Bengaluru has an area of about 741 sq km and a population of 13.6 million (2023) and has been historically celebrated as the “city of lakes.” These lakes are interconnected with canals/ ...[Read More]

Overlooked tips for the lost art of fieldwork

February 29, 2024
Overlooked tips for the lost art of fieldwork

Not so long ago, almost all hydrologic data depended almost exclusively on fieldwork.  Today, sure, you can download data from repositories, there are satellites that beam you magic numbers that you can interpret to give you almost any variable, and some (less than we might hope) long-term monitoring has been outsourced to governments (or in some cases to citizens with sensors).  But somewhere in ...[Read More]

Care to get your boots wet? The ‘Partial Surface Water Challenge’

October 26, 2023
Care to get your boots wet? The ‘Partial Surface Water Challenge’

Inland surface water is a critical resource when scarce and a potential hazard when floods occur. Because the extent of surface water affects habitat condition, weather, and biogeochemical cycles, our ability to accurately track variations in surface water extent is important for resource management, science, commerce, hazard mitigation, and policy making.  Openly distributed data derived from sat ...[Read More]

Co-benefits of Nature-based Solutions: what we know and what we should know

January 18, 2023
Co-benefits of Nature-based Solutions: what we know and what we should know

Nature-based Solutions are on everyone’s lips in the view of their risk reduction potential but also their social, economic, and environmental side effects (so-called co-benefits). But how significant are these co-benefits? What are NBS? Nature-based Solutions (or in short NBS) are an umbrella term for ecosystem-based solutions to counteract societal challenges such as climate change, disaster, bi ...[Read More]

Amilcare Porporato (2020 John Dalton Medallist) on agile models for complex systems in the environmental sciences

July 15, 2020
Amilcare Porporato (2020 John Dalton Medallist) on agile models for complex systems in the environmental sciences

The EGU 2020 John Dalton Medal of the EGU Division on Hydrological Sciences was awarded to Amilcare Porporato for his contributions to the field of ecohydrology and for developing new theories for the analysis of soil-plant-atmosphere systems across scales. Given the online EGU 2020 GA, the medal lecture is postponed to 2021. In April, Amilcare wrote the post below to the HS community. I’m very ha ...[Read More]