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

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.

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.

Recent papers

29 Jun 2026
Dynamic Satellite-Derived Vegetation and Radiation Inputs Advance Continental-Scale Hydrological Simulation Across China
Xinran Wu, Dawei Peng, Xianhong Xie, Yibing Wang, Arken Tursun, Yao Liu, Bowen Zhu, and Cong Nie
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-2505,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-2505, 2026
Preprint under review for HESS (discussion: open, 0 comments)
Short summary
29 Jun 2026
Comparing multi-model mosaic and multi-model combination methods to simulate streamflow across the contiguous USA
Cyril Thébault, Wouter J. M. Knoben, Nans Addor, Andrew J. Newman, Diana Spieler, Nicolás A. Vásquez, Yalan Song, Gaby J. Gründemann, Shaun Carney, Mukesh Kumar, Katie van Werkhoven, Chaopeng Shen, Andrew W. Wood, and Martyn P. Clark
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 30, 3945–3977, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-30-3945-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-30-3945-2026, 2026
Short summary
29 Jun 2026
Drought dynamics across the hydrological cycle – an extensive validation of the National Hydrological Model of Denmark
Raphael Schneider, Simon Stisen, Mark F. T. Hansen, Mie Andreasen, Bertel Nilsson, Klaus Hinsby, Hans Jørgen Henriksen, and Ida Karlsson Seidenfaden
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 30, 4019–4056, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-30-4019-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-30-4019-2026, 2026
Short summary
29 Jun 2026
When does nitrate peak in rivers and why? Catchment traits and climate relate to synchrony with discharge
Lu Yang, Kieran Khamis, Julia L. A. Knapp, and Joshua R. Larsen
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 30, 4001–4018, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-30-4001-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-30-4001-2026, 2026
Short summary
29 Jun 2026
| Highlight paper
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

Highlight articles

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
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 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.