HS
Hydrological Sciences

Featured Catchment

Running a live stream of proglacial processes

and November 4, 2020
Running a live stream of proglacial processes
Sampling in the glacier-fed stream near the field camp. Photo: Floreana Miesen

In Switzerland, nothing is really remote, but some places are more so than others. Dense infrastructure networks typically provide convenient access to research sites in the Alps where it is difficult to feel far away from home. However, this is not always the case… For us, our home for the summer is a bit different. We work at 2400 m above sea level in Southern Switzerland, in a narrow vall ...[Read More]

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

October 28, 2020
Featured catchment: Water Towers of Mesopotamia: Snow feeding the cultural heritage
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]

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

July 29, 2020
Featured Catchment: The Weierbach – Yet another temperate forested headwater?
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]

Featured catchment series: The San Carlos Catchment in northeast Costa Rica, a multi-scale hydrological observatory to leapfrog data scarcity in the tropics

February 19, 2020
Featured catchment series: The San Carlos Catchment in northeast Costa Rica, a multi-scale hydrological observatory to leapfrog data scarcity in the tropics
The San Carlos Catchment in northeast Costa Rica, photograph taken at 660 m a.s.l. shows the active volcano Arenal and the catchment boundary formed by the hydropower reservoir Lake Arenal (dam is visible in the foreground), one of the sites for isotope and water quality monitoring in rivers. Photo credit: Christian Birkel

Tropical ecosystems are of major hydrological importance for regional and global climate systems and are characterized by greater energy inputs, higher rate of change and dynamics compared to other hydroclimatic regions. Nowadays, the anthropogenic influence in the climate crisis exerts enormous pressure on tropical hydrological systems. This growing pressure affects water quality and quantity, wh ...[Read More]