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

13 Feb 2026 University of Western Ontario partners with Copernicus Publications to support open-access publishing

Copernicus Publications has signed a new agreement with Western Libraries at the University of Western Ontario, providing a 50% APC reduction for eligible corresponding authors submitting from 1 January 2026. Please read more.

13 Feb 2026 University of Western Ontario partners with Copernicus Publications to support open-access publishing

Copernicus Publications has signed a new agreement with Western Libraries at the University of Western Ontario, providing a 50% APC reduction for eligible corresponding authors submitting from 1 January 2026. Please read more.

03 Dec 2025 New MS Word template available for manuscript preparation

The existing MS Word template for authors has been significantly expanded and now includes many important notes on the standard sections that must be included in the manuscript. Please visit the "Submission" page, section "Templates for your manuscript file" and download the new template before writing your next manuscript.

03 Dec 2025 New MS Word template available for manuscript preparation

The existing MS Word template for authors has been significantly expanded and now includes many important notes on the standard sections that must be included in the manuscript. Please visit the "Submission" page, section "Templates for your manuscript file" and download the new template before writing your next manuscript.

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.

Recent papers

19 Feb 2026
A review of current best practices and future directions in assimilating GRACE/-FO terrestrial water storage data into numerical models
Anne Springer, Gabriëlle De Lannoy, Matthew Rodell, Yorck Ewerdwalbesloh, Helena Gerdener, Mehdi Khaki, Bailing Li, Fupeng Li, Maike Schumacher, Natthachet Tangdamrongsub, Mohammad J. Tourian, Wanshu Nie, and Jürgen Kusche
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 30, 985–1022, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-30-985-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-30-985-2026, 2026
Short summary
19 Feb 2026
Spatially variable wildfire impacts on sediment mobilization: event-scale evidence from eastern Australian catchments
Danlu Guo, Qian Wang, and Peter Hairsine
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-6244,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-6244, 2026
Preprint under review for HESS (discussion: open, 0 comments)
Short summary
19 Feb 2026
HESS Opinions: Applied hydrologic models in the era of machine learning – retain, revamp, reconcile, or replace?
Delanie Williams, Mukesh Kumar, Katie van Werkhoven, Martyn Clark, Christopher Wilson, and Paul Miller
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-583,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-583, 2026
Preprint under review for HESS (discussion: open, 0 comments)
Short summary
18 Feb 2026
Quantifying evaporation of intercepted rainfall: a hybrid correction approach for eddy-covariance measurements
Stefanie Fischer, Ronald Queck, Christian Bernhofer, and Matthias Mauder
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 30, 965–984, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-30-965-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-30-965-2026, 2026
Short summary
18 Feb 2026
The need for uncertainty: why probabilistic LSTMs are key to improving flood predictions and enabling learned warning rules
Sanika Baste, Sebastian Lerch, Daniel Klotz, and Ralf Loritz
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-469,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-469, 2026
Preprint under review for HESS (discussion: open, 0 comments)
Short summary

Highlight articles

22 Jan 2026
High resolution monthly precipitation isotope estimates across Australia from machine learning
Georgina Falster, Gab Abramowitz, Sanaa Hobeichi, Catherine Hughes, Pauline Treble, Nerilie J. Abram, Michael I. Bird, Alexandre Cauquoin, Bronwyn Dixon, Russell Drysdale, Chenhui Jin, Niels Munksgaard, Bernadette Proemse, Jonathan J. Tyler, Martin Werner, and Carol V. Tadros
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 30, 289–315, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-30-289-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-30-289-2026, 2026
Short summary Executive editor
13 Jan 2026
Global projections of aridity index for mid and long-term future based on CMIP6 scenarios
Camille Crapart, Sandrine Anquetin, Juliette Blanchet, and Arona Diedhiou
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 30, 163–181, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-30-163-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-30-163-2026, 2026
Short summary Executive editor
15 Dec 2025
How do geological map details influence the identification of geology-streamflow relationships in large-sample hydrology studies?
Thiago V. M. do Nascimento, Julia Rudlang, Sebastian Gnann, Jan Seibert, Markus Hrachowitz, and Fabrizio Fenicia
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 29, 7173–7200, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-7173-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-7173-2025, 2025
Short summary Executive editor
01 Dec 2025
From RNNs to Transformers: benchmarking deep learning architectures for hydrologic prediction
Jiangtao Liu, Chaopeng Shen, Fearghal O'Donncha, Yalan Song, Wei Zhi, Hylke E. Beck, Tadd Bindas, Nicholas Kraabel, and Kathryn Lawson
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 29, 6811–6828, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-6811-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-6811-2025, 2025
Short summary Executive editor
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

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.