HESS cover
Executive editors : Theresa Blume, Alberto Guadagnini, and Thom Bogaard & Hilary McMillan
eISSN: HESS 1607-7938, HESSD 1812-2116

Hydrology and Earth System Sciences (HESS) is a not-for-profit international two-stage open-access journal for the publication of original research in hydrology. HESS encourages and supports fundamental and applied research that advances the understanding of hydrological systems, their role in providing water for ecosystems and society, and the role of the water cycle in the functioning of the Earth system. A multi-disciplinary approach is encouraged that broadens the hydrological perspective and the advancement of hydrological science through integration with other cognate sciences and cross-fertilization across disciplinary boundaries.

Journal metrics

HESS is indexed in the Web of Science, Scopus, Google Scholar, etc. We refrain from displaying the journal metrics prominently on the landing page since citation metrics used in isolation do not describe importance, impact, or quality of a journal. However, these metrics can be found on the journal metrics page.

News

02 Apr 2025 New co-review option in HESS

HESS now offers a co-review option for referees. Please read more.

02 Apr 2025 New co-review option in HESS

HESS now offers a co-review option for referees. Please read more.

02 Apr 2025 Get involved, become a referee, and help shape the HESS community publication output

We are pleased to announce that a new referee application form is now available. This means that if you are interested in contributing to the peer-review process and supporting high-quality scientific publishing in your community then you can apply today to become a referee. Your expertise can make a difference. Visit the online form here to learn more and join our reviewer community.

02 Apr 2025 Get involved, become a referee, and help shape the HESS community publication output

We are pleased to announce that a new referee application form is now available. This means that if you are interested in contributing to the peer-review process and supporting high-quality scientific publishing in your community then you can apply today to become a referee. Your expertise can make a difference. Visit the online form here to learn more and join our reviewer community.

13 Mar 2025 New agreement between California Digital Library and Copernicus Publications

We are delighted to announce a new agreement between the California Digital Library and Copernicus Publications. The University of California will cover 50% of article processing charges (APCs) for manuscripts affiliated with any of their research units. Read more.

13 Mar 2025 New agreement between California Digital Library and Copernicus Publications

We are delighted to announce a new agreement between the California Digital Library and Copernicus Publications. The University of California will cover 50% of article processing charges (APCs) for manuscripts affiliated with any of their research units. Read more.

Recent papers

07 Nov 2025
What is a drought-to-flood transition? Pitfalls and recommendations for defining consecutive hydrological extreme events
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
Short summary
07 Nov 2025
Uncovering the melt: UAS and in-situ sensor synergies reveal DOC pathways in a northern peatland
Petra Korhonen, Pertti Ala-Aho, Bjørn Kløve, and Hannu Marttila
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-4682,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-4682, 2025
Preprint under review for HESS (discussion: open, 0 comments)
Short summary
07 Nov 2025
Hybrid models generalize better to warmer climate conditions than process-based and purely data-driven models
Jan P. Bohl, Raul R. Wood, Corinna Frank, Paul C. Astagneau, Jonas Peters, and Manuela I. Brunner
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-5201,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-5201, 2025
Preprint under review for HESS (discussion: open, 0 comments)
Short summary
07 Nov 2025
Joint characterization of heterogeneous conductivity fields and pumping well attributes through iterative ensemble smoother with a reduced-order modeling strategy for solute transport
Chuan-An Xia, Jiayun Li, Bill X. Hu, Alberto Guadagnini, and Monica Riva
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-5320,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-5320, 2025
Preprint under review for HESS (discussion: upcoming, 0 comments)
Short summary
06 Nov 2025
A novel framework for accurately quantifying wetland depression water storage capacity with coarse-resolution terrain data
Boting Hu, Liwen Chen, Yanfeng Wu, Jingxuan Sun, Y. Jun Xu, Qingsong Zhang, and Guangxin Zhang
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 29, 6023–6041, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-6023-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-6023-2025, 2025
Short summary

Highlight articles

23 Sep 2025
Assessment of source regions of the Zambezi River: implications for regional water security
Mauro Lourenco, Rutledge S. Boyes, Fenton P. D. Cotterill, Tyrel Flügel, Frank C. Nyoni, Goabaone J. Ramatlapeng, and Rainer von Brandis
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 29, 4557–4583, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-4557-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-4557-2025, 2025
Short summary Executive editor
07 Aug 2025
Consequences of the Aral Sea restoration for its present physical state: temperature, mixing, and oxygen regime
Georgiy B. Kirillin, Tom Shatwell, and Alexander S. Izhitskiy
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 29, 3569–3588, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-3569-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-3569-2025, 2025
Short summary Executive editor
18 Jul 2025
The value of hydroclimatic teleconnections for snow-based seasonal streamflow forecasting in central Asia
Atabek Umirbekov, Mayra Daniela Peña-Guerrero, Iulii Didovets, Heiko Apel, Abror Gafurov, and Daniel Müller
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 29, 3055–3071, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-3055-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-3055-2025, 2025
Short summary Executive editor
03 Jul 2025
Is drought protection possible without compromising flood protection? Estimating the potential dual-use benefit of small flood reservoirs in southern Germany
Sarah Quỳnh-Giang Ho and Uwe Ehret
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 29, 2785–2810, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-2785-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-2785-2025, 2025
Short summary Executive editor
17 Mar 2025
Meteorological ingredients of heavy precipitation and subsequent lake-filling episodes in the northwestern Sahara
Joëlle C. Rieder, Franziska Aemisegger, Elad Dente, and Moshe Armon
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 29, 1395–1427, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-1395-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-1395-2025, 2025
Short summary Executive editor

Notice on the current situation in Ukraine

To show our support for Ukraine, all fees for papers from authors (first or corresponding authors) affiliated to Ukrainian institutions are automatically waived, regardless if these papers are co-authored by scientists affiliated to Russian and/or Belarusian institutions. The only exception will be if the corresponding author or first contact (contractual partner of Copernicus) are from a Russian and/or Belarusian institution, in that case the APCs are not waived.

In accordance with current European restrictions, Copernicus Publications does not step into business relations with and issue APC-invoices (articles processing charges) to Russian and Belarusian institutions. The peer-review process and scientific exchange of our journals including preprint posting is not affected. However, these restrictions require that the first contact (contractual partner of Copernicus) has an affiliation and invoice address outside Russia or Belarus.