Articles | Volume 24, issue 2
https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-24-411-2024
© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Special issue:
https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-24-411-2024
© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| 
06 Feb 2024
Research article |
| 06 Feb 2024
| 06 Feb 2024
Climate change impacts on regional fire weather in heterogeneous landscapes of central Europe
Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF, Davos Dorf, Switzerland
Climate Change, Extremes and Natural Hazards in Alpine Regions Research Center CERC, Davos Dorf, Switzerland
Andrea Böhnisch
Department of Geography, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Munich, Germany
Ralf Ludwig
Department of Geography, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Munich, Germany
Manuela I. Brunner
Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF, Davos Dorf, Switzerland
Climate Change, Extremes and Natural Hazards in Alpine Regions Research Center CERC, Davos Dorf, Switzerland
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Joren Janzing and Manuela I. Brunner
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-3487, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-3487, 2026
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Hydrology and Earth System Sciences (HESS).
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Large streamflow droughts seem to be related to spatially more homogeneous drivers than smaller droughts. Mechanisms causing this difference are not well understood. We bridge the scale gap between large and small droughts using observations and a drought typology. We find that large droughts are characterized by one or two drought types and each type has its own spatial footprint. Common drought types in a river do not always lead to large droughts, which can be important for water managers.
Jan P. Bohl, Raul R. Wood, Corinna Frank, Paul C. Astagneau, Jonas Peters, and Manuela I. Brunner
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 30, 4667–4698, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-30-4667-2026, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-30-4667-2026, 2026
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To assess climate impacts on streamflow, we need models that can predict streamflow under future conditions. This study compares three model types: data-driven (LSTM - long short-term memory), conceptual (HBV - Hydrologiska Byråns Vattenbalansavdelning), and hybrid (LSTM-HBV). LSTMs perform best overall, but HBV and hybrid models generalize better to warmer climates. Hybrid models are a promising tool for climate impact assessments, combining LSTMs accuracy with better generalizability of traditional models. In snowy regions, all models struggle to generalize.
Rashid Akbary, Eleonora Dallan, Paul C. Astagneau, Raul R. Wood, Francesco Marra, Manuela I. Brunner, and Marco Borga
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 30, 4117–4139, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-30-4117-2026, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-30-4117-2026, 2026
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Heavy short rain can trigger flash floods and debris flows. In this study we evaluated how well climate models reproduce these events in Switzerland. We compared finer and coarser resolution models with high-quality hourly precipitation observations across small to large areas. The finer models better captured where short, intense precipitation occurs, but their errors changed with area size. Flood risk studies should therefore account for these scale-related errors.
Emma Ford, Manuela I. Brunner, Hannah Christensen, and Louise Slater
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 30, 2135–2160, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-30-2135-2026, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-30-2135-2026, 2026
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This study aims to improve prediction and understanding of extreme flood events in near-natural catchments across the United Kingdom. We develop a machine learning framework to assess the contribution of different features to flood magnitude estimation. We find weather patterns are weak predictors and stress the importance of evaluating model performance across and within catchments.
Sadaf Nasreen, Oldrich Rakovec, Rohini Kumar, Manuela I. Brunner, Ujjwal Singh, Petr Maca, Yannis Markonis, and Martin Hanel
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-973, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-973, 2026
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European droughts threaten water and agriculture, but how distinct drought processes will change under warming is uncertain. We examine seven mechanisms across Europe using 1971 to 2000 observations and 2070 to 2099 projections. Changes are regional: the Mediterranean shifts to longer, more severe droughts, while Northern and Western Central Europe often improve. Temperature-driven mechanisms, especially rain to snow transitions, respond most, guiding targeted adaptation.
Benjamin Poschlod, Laura Sailer, Alexander Sasse, Anastasia Vogelbacher, and Ralf Ludwig
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 30, 1165–1188, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-30-1165-2026, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-30-1165-2026, 2026
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Europe was hit by severe droughts in recent years resulting in extreme low flow conditions in rivers. Here, we investigate future climate change effects on river droughts in Bavaria. We find increasing severity for the low peak discharge and low flow duration in a warmer climate. This is caused by hotter and drier summers, where the joint occurrence of heat and drought intensifies. Further, we show that conditions in the year before the drought gain more importance in a warmer climate.
Eduardo Muñoz-Castro, Bailey J. Anderson, Paul C. Astagneau, Daniel L. Swain, Pablo A. Mendoza, and Manuela I. Brunner
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 30, 825–848, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-30-825-2026, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-30-825-2026, 2026
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Flood impacts can be enhanced when they occur after droughts, yet the effectiveness of hydrological models in simulating these events remains unclear. Here, we calibrated four conceptual hydrological models across 63 catchments in Chile and Switzerland to assess their ability to detect streamflow extremes and their transitions. We show that drought-to-flood transitions are generally poorly captured, especially in semi-arid high-mountain catchments than in humid low-elevation ones.
Jonas Götte, Paul Charles Astagneau, and Manuela Irene Brunner
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-6119, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-6119, 2026
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While the effect of water bodies on flood peaks at different time resolutions has been demonstrated in the past, it remains unclear how they affect the ratio between daily and hourly peaks. Our results show that (1) hourly flows are dampened much more strongly than daily flows, which leads to similar daily and hourly flood peaks downstream of reservoirs; and (2) the attenuation effect is particularly pronounced in catchments that are heavily influenced by water bodies.
Andrea Vajda, Hilppa Gregow, Natalia Korhonen, Jari Lavonen, Katja Anniina Lauri, Risto Makkonen, Joonas Merikanto, Antti Mäkelä, Petri Räisänen, Veli-Matti Vesterinen, Ilona Ylivinkka, Mikko Äijälä, Andrea Böhnisch, and Laura Riuttanen
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-227, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-227, 2026
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The paper describes the development of a new graduate course, Living with Changing Climate, designed to help future professionals apply climate information in real-world decisions. Created by experts from several fields, the course combines climate science, data use and real-word applications. Piloting with diverse students revealed challenges and improvements that strengthened the final course, showing how higher education can better prepare learners for climate adaptation and mitigation.
Andrea Böhnisch, Marion Zilker, Inga Beck, Ralf Ludwig, and Gunnar Braun
Adv. Sci. Res., 22, 111–117, https://doi.org/10.5194/asr-22-111-2026, https://doi.org/10.5194/asr-22-111-2026, 2026
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Climate services comprise of climate model or observational data that is provided by scientists or authorities to stakeholders who use them in decision-making processes. However, providers and users typically have diverging expectations regarding the data. We here describe various aspects of the gap between needs and offers that were identified in two workshops in the Main River catchment (central Germany). To bridge the gap, we propose a framework that can guide future stakeholder dialogues.
Joren Janzing, Niko Wanders, Marit van Tiel, Barry van Jaarsveld, Dirk N. Karger, and Manuela I. Brunner
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 29, 7041–7071, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-7041-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-7041-2025, 2025
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Process representation in hyper-resolution large-scale hydrological models (LHMs) limits model performance, particularly in mountain regions. Here, we update mountain process representation in an LHM and compare different meteorological forcing products. Structural and parametric changes in snow, glacier, and soil processes improve discharge simulations, while meteorological forcing remains a major control on model performance. Our work can guide future development of LHMs.
Bailey J. Anderson, Eduardo Muñoz-Castro, Lena M. Tallaksen, Alessia Matano, Jonas Götte, Rachael Armitage, Eugene Magee, and Manuela I. Brunner
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 29, 6069–6092, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-6069-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-6069-2025, 2025
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When floods happen during or shortly after droughts, the impacts of each of the events can be magnified. In hydrological research, defining these events represents a challenging and important task in the process of understanding where and why they occur. We have used real-word examples to address some of these challenges and show different approaches influence outcomes. We make suggestions on when to use which approach and outline some pitfalls of which researchers should be aware.
Paul C. Astagneau, Raul R. Wood, Mathieu Vrac, Sven Kotlarski, Pradeebane Vaittinada Ayar, Bastien François, and Manuela I. Brunner
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 29, 5695–5718, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-5695-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-5695-2025, 2025
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To study floods and droughts that are likely to change in the future, we use climate projections from climate models. However, we first need to adjust the systematic biases of these projections at the catchment scale before using them in hydrological models. Our study compares statistical methods that can adjust these biases but specifically for climate projections that enable a quantification of internal climate variability. We provide recommendations on the most appropriate methods.
Raul R. Wood, Joren Janzing, Amber van Hamel, Jonas Götte, Dominik L. Schumacher, and Manuela I. Brunner
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 29, 4153–4178, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-4153-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-4153-2025, 2025
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Continuous and high-quality meteorological datasets are crucial to study extreme hydro-climatic events. We here conduct a comprehensive spatio-temporal evaluation of precipitation and temperature for four climate reanalysis datasets, focusing on mean and extreme metrics, variability, trends, and the representation of droughts and floods over Switzerland. Our analysis shows that all datasets have some merit when limitations are considered, and that one dataset performs better than the others.
Amber van Hamel, Peter Molnar, Joren Janzing, and Manuela Irene Brunner
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 29, 2975–2995, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-2975-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-2975-2025, 2025
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Suspended sediment is a natural component of rivers, but extreme suspended sediment concentrations (SSCs) can have negative impacts on water use and aquatic ecosystems. We identify the main factors influencing the spatial and temporal variability of annual SSC regimes and extreme SSC events. Our analysis shows that different processes are more important for annual SSC regimes than for extreme events and that compound events driven by glacial melt and high-intensity rainfall led to the highest SSCs.
Alessia Matanó, Raed Hamed, Manuela I. Brunner, Marlies H. Barendrecht, and Anne F. Van Loon
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 29, 2749–2764, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-2749-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-2749-2025, 2025
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Persistent droughts change how rivers respond to rainfall. Our study of over 5000 catchments worldwide found that hydrological and soil moisture droughts decrease river-flow response to rain, especially in arid regions, while vegetation decline slightly increases it. Snow-covered areas are more resilient due to stored water buffering changes. Droughts can also cause long-lasting changes, with short and intense droughts reducing river response to rainfall and prolonged droughts increasing it.
Carolin Boos, Sophie Reinermann, Raul Wood, Ralf Ludwig, Anne Schucknecht, David Kraus, and Ralf Kiese
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2864, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2864, 2024
Preprint archived
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We applied a biogeochemical model on grasslands in the pre-Alpine Ammer region in Germany and analyzed the influence of soil and climate on annual yields. In drought affected years, total yields were decreased by 4 %. Overall, yields decrease with rising elevation, but less so in drier and hotter years, whereas soil organic carbon has a positive impact on yields, especially in drier years. Our findings imply, that adapted management in the region allows to mitigate yield losses from drought.
Florian Willkofer, Raul R. Wood, and Ralf Ludwig
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 28, 2969–2989, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-2969-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-2969-2024, 2024
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Severe flood events pose a threat to riverine areas, yet robust estimates of the dynamics of these events in the future due to climate change are rarely available. Hence, this study uses data from a regional climate model, SMILE, to drive a high-resolution hydrological model for 98 catchments of hydrological Bavaria and exploits the large database to derive robust values for the 100-year flood events. Results indicate an increase in frequency and intensity for most catchments in the future.
David Gampe, Clemens Schwingshackl, Andrea Böhnisch, Magdalena Mittermeier, Marit Sandstad, and Raul R. Wood
Earth Syst. Dynam., 15, 589–605, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-15-589-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-15-589-2024, 2024
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Using a special suite of climate simulations, we determine if and when climate change is detectable and translate this to the global warming prevalent in the corresponding year. Our results show that, at 1.5°C warming, >85 % of the global population (>95 % at 2.0° warming) is already exposed to nighttime temperatures altered by climate change beyond natural variability. Furthermore, even incremental changes in global warming levels result in increased human exposure to emerged climate signals.
Bailey J. Anderson, Manuela I. Brunner, Louise J. Slater, and Simon J. Dadson
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 28, 1567–1583, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-1567-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-1567-2024, 2024
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Elasticityrefers to how much the amount of water in a river changes with precipitation. We usually calculate this using average streamflow values; however, the amount of water within rivers is also dependent on stored water sources. Here, we look at how elasticity varies across the streamflow distribution and show that not only do low and high streamflows respond differently to precipitation change, but also these differences vary with water storage availability.
Marvin Höge, Martina Kauzlaric, Rosi Siber, Ursula Schönenberger, Pascal Horton, Jan Schwanbeck, Marius Günter Floriancic, Daniel Viviroli, Sibylle Wilhelm, Anna E. Sikorska-Senoner, Nans Addor, Manuela Brunner, Sandra Pool, Massimiliano Zappa, and Fabrizio Fenicia
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 15, 5755–5784, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-5755-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-5755-2023, 2023
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CAMELS-CH is an open large-sample hydro-meteorological data set that covers 331 catchments in hydrologic Switzerland from 1 January 1981 to 31 December 2020. It comprises (a) daily data of river discharge and water level as well as meteorologic variables like precipitation and temperature; (b) yearly glacier and land cover data; (c) static attributes of, e.g, topography or human impact; and (d) catchment delineations. CAMELS-CH enables water and climate research and modeling at catchment level.
Manuela Irene Brunner
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 27, 2479–2497, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-27-2479-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-27-2479-2023, 2023
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I discuss different types of multivariate hydrological extremes and their dependencies, including regional extremes affecting multiple locations, such as spatially connected flood events; consecutive extremes occurring in close temporal succession, such as successive droughts; extremes characterized by multiple characteristics, such as floods with jointly high peak discharge and flood volume; and transitions between different types of extremes, such as drought-to-flood transitions.
Manuela Irene Brunner and Philippe Naveau
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 27, 673–687, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-27-673-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-27-673-2023, 2023
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Reservoir regulation affects various streamflow characteristics. Still, information on when water is stored in and released from reservoirs is hardly available. We develop a statistical model to reconstruct reservoir operation signals from observed streamflow time series. By applying this approach to 74 catchments in the Alps, we find that reservoir management varies by catchment elevation and that seasonal redistribution from summer to winter is strongest in high-elevation catchments.
Veit Blauhut, Michael Stoelzle, Lauri Ahopelto, Manuela I. Brunner, Claudia Teutschbein, Doris E. Wendt, Vytautas Akstinas, Sigrid J. Bakke, Lucy J. Barker, Lenka Bartošová, Agrita Briede, Carmelo Cammalleri, Ksenija Cindrić Kalin, Lucia De Stefano, Miriam Fendeková, David C. Finger, Marijke Huysmans, Mirjana Ivanov, Jaak Jaagus, Jiří Jakubínský, Svitlana Krakovska, Gregor Laaha, Monika Lakatos, Kiril Manevski, Mathias Neumann Andersen, Nina Nikolova, Marzena Osuch, Pieter van Oel, Kalina Radeva, Renata J. Romanowicz, Elena Toth, Mirek Trnka, Marko Urošev, Julia Urquijo Reguera, Eric Sauquet, Aleksandra Stevkov, Lena M. Tallaksen, Iryna Trofimova, Anne F. Van Loon, Michelle T. H. van Vliet, Jean-Philippe Vidal, Niko Wanders, Micha Werner, Patrick Willems, and Nenad Živković
Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 22, 2201–2217, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-22-2201-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-22-2201-2022, 2022
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Recent drought events caused enormous damage in Europe. We therefore questioned the existence and effect of current drought management strategies on the actual impacts and how drought is perceived by relevant stakeholders. Over 700 participants from 28 European countries provided insights into drought hazard and impact perception and current management strategies. The study concludes with an urgent need to collectively combat drought risk via a European macro-level drought governance approach.
Manuela I. Brunner and Louise J. Slater
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 26, 469–482, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-469-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-469-2022, 2022
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Assessing the rarity and magnitude of very extreme flood events occurring less than twice a century is challenging due to the lack of observations of such rare events. Here we develop a new approach, pooling reforecast ensemble members from the European Flood Awareness System to increase the sample size available to estimate the frequency of extreme flood events. We demonstrate that such ensemble pooling produces more robust estimates than observation-based estimates.
Álvaro Ossandón, Manuela I. Brunner, Balaji Rajagopalan, and William Kleiber
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 26, 149–166, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-149-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-149-2022, 2022
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Timely projections of seasonal streamflow extremes on a river network can be useful for flood risk mitigation, but this is challenging, particularly under space–time nonstationarity. We develop a space–time Bayesian hierarchical model (BHM) using temporal climate covariates and copulas to project seasonal streamflow extremes and the attendant uncertainties. We demonstrate this on the Upper Colorado River basin to project spring flow extremes using the preceding winter’s climate teleconnections.
Elizaveta Felsche and Ralf Ludwig
Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 21, 3679–3691, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-21-3679-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-21-3679-2021, 2021
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This study applies artificial neural networks to predict drought occurrence in Munich and Lisbon, with a lead time of 1 month. An analysis of the variables that have the highest impact on the prediction is performed. The study shows that the North Atlantic Oscillation index and air pressure 1 month before the event have the highest importance for the prediction. Moreover, it shows that seasonality strongly influences the goodness of prediction for the Lisbon domain.
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Short summary
We assess the impacts of climate change on fire danger for 1980–2099 in different landscapes of central Europe, using the Canadian Forest Fire Weather Index (FWI) as a fire danger indicator. We find that today's 100-year FWI event will occur every 30 years by 2050 and every 10 years by 2099. High fire danger (FWI > 21.3) becomes the mean condition by 2099 under an RCP8.5 scenario. This study highlights the potential for severe fire events in central Europe from a meteorological perspective.
We assess the impacts of climate change on fire danger for 1980–2099 in different landscapes of...
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