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

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

30 Jun 2026 The Norwegian University of Science and Technology partners with Copernicus Publications to support open-access publishing

Copernicus Publications has signed a new institutional agreement with Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). Please read more.

30 Jun 2026 The Norwegian University of Science and Technology partners with Copernicus Publications to support open-access publishing

Copernicus Publications has signed a new institutional agreement with Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). Please read more.

15 Jun 2026 The NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research partners with Copernicus Publications to support open-access publishing

Copernicus Publications is delighted to announce a new institutional agreement with NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). Please read more.

15 Jun 2026 The NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research partners with Copernicus Publications to support open-access publishing

Copernicus Publications is delighted to announce a new institutional agreement with NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). Please read more.

07 May 2026 Temporary unavailability of article and preprint PDFs due to technical issues

Since Tuesday, 5 May, 06:30 CET, we have been experiencing technical issues caused by high demand on our systems, which have significantly affected our journal libraries. To maintain platform stability and ensure continued access to critical services, all preprint and journal article PDFs were temporarily restricted, while HTML full-text content and XML files remained available. Since Thursday, 7 May, 08:30 CET, we have made the preprint PDFs available again; however, journal article PDFs remain restricted until the technical issues have been resolved. We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your patience as we work to restore full PDF access as quickly as possible. Thank you for your understanding.

07 May 2026 Temporary unavailability of article and preprint PDFs due to technical issues

Since Tuesday, 5 May, 06:30 CET, we have been experiencing technical issues caused by high demand on our systems, which have significantly affected our journal libraries. To maintain platform stability and ensure continued access to critical services, all preprint and journal article PDFs were temporarily restricted, while HTML full-text content and XML files remained available. Since Thursday, 7 May, 08:30 CET, we have made the preprint PDFs available again; however, journal article PDFs remain restricted until the technical issues have been resolved. We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your patience as we work to restore full PDF access as quickly as possible. Thank you for your understanding.

Recent papers

15 Jul 2026
Critical assessment of metrics and methods used to quantify temporal loading of rainfall events
Molly Asher, Mark A. Trigg, Cathryn E. Birch, Rasmus Lau Thejlade Henriksen, Steven J. Böing, and Jonas Wied Pedersen
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 30, 4343–4366, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-30-4343-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-30-4343-2026, 2026
Short summary
15 Jul 2026
| Highlight paper
Wildfire-induced disruptions to evapotranspiration, runoff, and water-balance closure across California's water supply watersheds
Ziying Han, Han Guo, Michael L. Goulden, and Roger C. Bales
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 30, 4367–4382, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-30-4367-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-30-4367-2026, 2026
Short summary Editorial statement
14 Jul 2026
Observed evidences of shallow groundwater resources threatened by multi-decadal re-greening practices in the Sahel
Yacouba Nouhou Chaweye, Guillaume Favreau, Amaury Dehecq, Marie Boucher, Boukari Issoufou Ousmane, Rabilou Abdou Mahaman, and Yahaya Nazoumou
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-4118,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-4118, 2026
Preprint under review for HESS (discussion: open, 0 comments)
Short summary
14 Jul 2026
Beyond Runoff Coefficient: Revealing Global Patterns of Process Connectivity in Runoff Generation through Intensity Integration
Hanxu Liang, Dedi Liu, Jiayu Zhang, Feng Yue, and Yuling Zhang
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 30, 4321–4341, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-30-4321-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-30-4321-2026, 2026
Short summary
14 Jul 2026
Benefits of multi-target and self-supervised LSTM models for water quantity and quality
Jean-Paul Brede, Pia Ebeling, Jens Kiesel, and Ralf Loritz
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-3604,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-3604, 2026
Preprint under review for HESS (discussion: open, 0 comments)
Short summary

Highlight articles

15 Jul 2026
Wildfire-induced disruptions to evapotranspiration, runoff, and water-balance closure across California's water supply watersheds
Ziying Han, Han Guo, Michael L. Goulden, and Roger C. Bales
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 30, 4367–4382, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-30-4367-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-30-4367-2026, 2026
Short summary Editorial statement
29 Jun 2026
Understanding changes in Iceland's streamflow dynamics in response to climate change
Hordur Bragi Helgason, Andri Gunnarsson, Óli G. B. Sveinsson, and Bart Nijssen
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 30, 3979–3999, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-30-3979-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-30-3979-2026, 2026
Short summary Editorial statement
27 May 2026
A novel classifier-guided ensemble framework for global terrestrial evapotranspiration estimates
Le Ni, Weiguang Wang, Jianyu Fu, and Mingzhu Cao
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 30, 3283–3312, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-30-3283-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-30-3283-2026, 2026
Short summary Editorial statement
23 Apr 2026
Technical note: High Nash–Sutcliffe Efficiencies conceal poor simulations of interannual variance in seasonal regimes
Sacha W. Ruzzante, Wouter J. M. Knoben, Thorsten Wagener, Tom Gleeson, and Markus Schnorbus
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 30, 2337–2355, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-30-2337-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-30-2337-2026, 2026
Short summary Editorial statement
23 Mar 2026
A lesson in preparedness: assessing the effectiveness of low-cost post-wildfire flood protection measures for the catastrophic flood in Kineta, Greece
George Papaioannou, Angelos Alamanos, Mohammed Basheer, Nikolaos Nagkoulis, Vassiliki Markogianni, George Varlas, Angelos Plataniotis, Anastasios Papadopoulos, Elias Dimitriou, and Phoebe Koundouri
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 30, 1487–1501, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-30-1487-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-30-1487-2026, 2026
Short summary Editorial statement

Notice on APC invoices

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.