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

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.

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.

Recent papers

19 Dec 2025
An explainable deep learning model based on hydrological principles for flood simulation and forecasting
Xin Xiang, Shenglian Guo, Chenglong Li, and Yun Wang
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 29, 7217–7239, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-7217-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-7217-2025, 2025
Short summary
18 Dec 2025
Continental-scale prediction of hydrologic signatures and processes
Ryoko Araki, Anne Holt, John C. Hammond, Admin Husic, Gemma Coxon, and Hilary K. McMillan
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-6156,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-6156, 2025
Preprint under review for HESS (discussion: open, 0 comments)
Short summary
18 Dec 2025
Regulatory role of permanent gully in runoff dissolved nitrogen and phosphorus transport across rainfall types
Zhuoxin Chen, Mingming Guo, Lixin Wang, Xin Liu, Jinshi Jian, Qiang Chen, and Xingyi Zhang
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-5839,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-5839, 2025
Preprint under review for HESS (discussion: open, 0 comments)
Short summary
18 Dec 2025
A Multi-chain Surrogate-assisted Hybrid Optimization Framework for Joint Identification of Groundwater Contaminant Sources and Hydrogeological Parameters
Mengtian Wu, Xuan Huang, Pengcheng Xu, Han Chen, Yang Xu, Jin Xu, and Qingyun Duan
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-6140,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-6140, 2025
Preprint under review for HESS (discussion: open, 0 comments)
Short summary
17 Dec 2025
Microbial mats promote surface water retention in proglacial streams
Jonas Paccolat, Pietro de Anna, Stuart Nicholas Lane, Hannes Markus Peter, and Tom Battin
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 29, 7201–7216, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-7201-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-7201-2025, 2025
Short summary

Highlight articles

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
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

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.