Multi-model hydrological reference dataset over continental Europe and an African basin

Bram Droppers; Oldrich Rakovec; Leandro Avila; Shima Azimi; Nicolás Cortés-Torres; David De León Pérez; Ruben Imhoff; Félix Francés; Stefan Kollet; Riccardo Rigon; Albrecht Weerts; Luis Samaniego

doi:10.1038/s41597-024-03825-9

Multi-model hydrological reference dataset over continental Europe and an African basin

Sci Data. 2024 Sep 17;11(1):1009. doi: 10.1038/s41597-024-03825-9.

Authors

Bram Droppers¹, Oldrich Rakovec^{2

3}, Leandro Avila⁴, Shima Azimi⁵, Nicolás Cortés-Torres⁶, David De León Pérez^{6

7}, Ruben Imhoff⁸, Félix Francés⁶, Stefan Kollet⁴, Riccardo Rigon⁵, Albrecht Weerts^{8

9}, Luis Samaniego^{10

11}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physical Geography, Utrecht University, P.O. Box 80.115, 3508 TC, Utrecht, The Netherlands. b.droppers@uu.nl.
² Department of Computational Hydrosystems, UFZ-Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, Permoserstraße 15, 04318, Leipzig, Germany. oldrich.rakovec@ufz.de.
³ Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Praha-Suchdol, 16500, Czech Republic. oldrich.rakovec@ufz.de.
⁴ Institute of Bio- and Geosciences Agrosphere (IBG-3), Research Centre Jülich, Wilhelm-Johnen-Straße, 52428, Jülich, Germany.
⁵ Center Agriculture, Food and Environment (C3A), Department of Civil, Environmental and Mechanical Engineering, University of Trento, via Mesiano 77, 38123, Trento, Italy.
⁶ Research Group of Hydrological and Environmental Modelling (GIMHA), Research Institute of Water and Environmental Engineering (IIAMA), Universitat Politècnica de València, Camì de Vera S/N, 46022, Valencia, Spain.
⁷ GeoAgro-Environmental Sciences and Resources Research Center Foundation (CENIGAA), 8th-Str. 32-49, 410001, Neiva, Huila, Colombia.
⁸ Operational Water Management & Early Warning Department, Deltares, P.O. Box 177, 2600 MH, Delft, The Netherlands.
⁹ Hydrology and Environmental Hydraulics group, Wageningen University and Research, P.O. Box 47, 6700 AA, Wageningen, The Netherlands.
¹⁰ Department of Computational Hydrosystems, UFZ-Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, Permoserstraße 15, 04318, Leipzig, Germany.
¹¹ Institute of Environmental Science and Geography, University of Potsdam, Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 24-25, 14476, Potsdam, Germany.

Abstract

Although Essential Climate Variables (ECVs) have been widely adopted as important metrics for guiding scientific and policy decisions, the Earth Observation (EO) and Land Surface and Hydrologic Model (LSM/HM) communities have yet to treat terrestrial ECVs in an integrated manner. To develop consistent terrestrial ECVs at regional and continental scales, greater collaboration between EO and LSM/HM communities is needed. An essential first step is assessing the LSM/HM simulation uncertainty. To that end, we introduce a new hydrological reference dataset that comprises a range of 19 existing LSM/HM simulations that represent the current state-of-the-art of our LSM/HMs. Simulations are provided on a daily time step, covering Europe, notably the Rhine and Po river basins, alongside the Tugela river basin in Africa, and are uniformly formatted to allow comparisons across simulations. Furthermore, simulations are comprehensively validated with discharge, evapotranspiration, soil moisture and total water storage anomaly observations. Our dataset provides valuable information to support policy development and serves as a benchmark for generating consistent terrestrial ECVs through the integration of EO products.