Fourteen months post the Ukrainian-Russian war outbreak, the Kakhovka Dam collapsed, leading to weeks of catastrophic flooding. Yet, scant details exist regarding the reservoir draining process. By using a new technique for processing gravimetric satellite orbital observations, this study succeeded in recovering continuous changes in reservoir mass with a temporal resolution of 2–5 days. By integrating

Rising water demand for agricultural, industrial, and domestic sectors continue to stress water resources worldwide. In southeastern China, coastal cities and megacities typically rely on thousands of reservoirs, incurring high construction and maintenance costs. However, rural areas in this region, underlain by shallow, low-permeability bedrock due to regional metamorphism, host exploitable groundwater

Despite the remarkable advances in using deep learning for describing and predicting soil water flow, these models inherently cannot deepen our understanding of its underlying physical mechanisms as they are black-box approaches. To address this issue, a novel data-driven equation discovery approach has recently been widely used to facilitate scientific discovery in geoscience disciplines, including

Groundwater–lake water exchange in flow-through lakes which includes both groundwater discharge into the lake and lake water seepage into the aquifer, is crucial for sustaining lake wetland ecosystems; however, these two processes are rarely addressed simultaneously by tracer methods. In this study, radon (222Rn) is used as a tracer to estimate both groundwater inflow and outflow in flow-through lakes

Artificial lakes (reservoirs) accumulate sediment and organic carbon (OC) over time. We investigated sedimentation processes in a dryland reservoir and informed OC burial and potential preservation. Our study site, Elephant Butte Reservoir on the Rio Grande, New Mexico, USA receives inflows from sediment-laden, monsoon-driven flash floods. Using field data, historical reservoir sedimentation survey

No abstract is available for this article.

In the context of climate warming, runoff changes in the Tianshan Mountains vary widely across basins, with both increasing and decreasing trends. However, the underlying mechanisms remain to be elucidated due to the complexity of the response of runoff components (rainfall runoff, snowmelt runoff, and glacier runoff) to climate change. Here, we quantified the effects of historical (1982–2015) precipitation

In situ chemical oxidation (ISCO) is widely used for soil and groundwater remediation. However, reagents often cause pore clogging due to metal ion precipitation, reducing hydraulic conductivity (K) and altering flow paths. This study investigates the impact of pore-clogging on three-dimensional K and flow fields during Fenton's reagent injection in a sandbox experiment. Time-lapsed, steady-state hydraulic

Hydrological Models face limitations in simulating the water cycle due to deficiencies in process representation and such problems also weaken their forecasting skills. Here, we use Machine Learning (ML) to forecast the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) derived total water storage anomaly (TWSA) up to 1 year ahead over Europe with near real-time meteorological observations as predictors

Many agricultural landscapes have undergone significant modifications to drain farmland and improve crop productivity. Subsurface field drainage, ditching and channelization of streams limit opportunities for biogeochemical processing of carbon and nutrients within the channel network. In this study, we used spatially rich water quality data collected from two contrasting regions of an agricultural

Proper characterization of river flow is essential for the development of structural and non-structural measures to reduce flood damages, restore ecosystem functions, and manage environmental contaminants in riparian zones. The duration of flood events is an important feature that drives riverine processes and functions such as erosion, geomorphic adjustment, habitat suitability, and nutrient and water

While most recent assessments of groundwater resources disclose drastic overexploitation in the Northwestern parts of India, for the first time, we reveal that effective regulatory measures have resulted in substantial recovery of heavily stressed aquifer systems in India's capital (Delhi). We use advanced InSAR techniques to derive high-quality vertical displacement time series for October 2014–October

Spectral induced polarization (SIP) can provide valuable information about (bio)geochemical processes taking place in the poorly accessible subsurface. The method is sensitive to reactions that alter the solid-water interface. Here, we critically evaluate the effectiveness of SIP to monitor geochemical processes by focusing on a model-supported analysis of cation exchange dynamics in sediments containing

Excessively low stream flows harm ecosystems and societies, so two key goals of low-flow hydrology are to understand their drivers and to predict their severity and frequency. We show that linear regressions can accomplish both goals across diverse catchments. We analyze 230 unregulated moderate to high relief catchments across rainfall-dominated, hybrid, snowmelt-dominated, and glacial regimes in

The emission potential, which represents the total leachable mass in landfill waste body, is hard to measure directly. Therefore we propose to quantify it by assimilating available measurements. The leachate production rate is influenced by the total water storage in the waste body, while both total chloride mass and total water storage in the waste body influence the chloride concentration in the

River meanders are one of the most recurrent and varied patterns in fluvial systems. Multiple attempts have been made to detect and categorize patterns in meandering rivers to understand their shape and evolution. A novel data-driven approach was used to classify single-bend meanders. A data set containing approximately 10 million single-lobe meander bends was generated using the Kinoshita curve. A

This study examines the effects of atmospheric moisture dynamics on the Tibetan Plateau's hydrologic cycle, focusing on moisture depletion (τP${\tau }_{P}$, removal through precipitation) and restoration (τE${\tau }_{E}$, restoration through evaporation) times. We used a water budget approach within the Eulerian framework, utilizing ERA-Interim data and 20 CMIP6 models, to analyze spatiotemporal variations

Contradictory views are still existing on the dominating drivers and the underlying mechanisms for the overall increasing evapotranspiration (ET) in China, a region has undergone substantial vegetation and climate changes. Particularly, some studies conclude that climate change is the dominating factor, while other researchers believe that it is the vegetation change. To fill this knowledge gap, here

The microstructure of microbially induced carbonate precipitation (MICP) stabilized soils is typically used to explain the macro-scale properties of the soils. However, the microstructure is usually inferred from scanning electron microscopy results after breakage, as directly observing the processes inside the pores is challenging. Microfluidics technique provides the solution for visually observing

In a warming climate, wildfires are becoming increasingly common, especially in semi-arid environments. Wildfires can disrupt forest ecosystems and induce changes to the land surface. Collectively, these impacts can alter the hydrologic response of a catchment following a fire, resulting in increased potential for surface runoff, reduced evapotranspiration, and, ultimately, a higher risk for flash

Irrigated agriculture depends on surface water and groundwater, but we do not have a clear picture of how much water is consumed from these sources by different crops across the US over time. Current estimates of crop water consumption are insufficient in providing the spatial granularity and temporal depth required for comprehensive long-term analysis. To fill this data gap, we utilized crop growth

Active rock glaciers represent permafrost-affected aquifers that store freshwater in alpine headwater catchments. Groundwater flow in these aquifers is altered by degrading permafrost and the development of preferential flow paths in the subsurface. Where these pathways connect to form channel networks, they significantly change solute and pollutant transport. This study analyzes the hydraulic properties

As a warmer climate enables an increase in atmospheric humidity, extreme precipitation events have become more frequent in the Northeastern United States. Understanding the impact of evolving precipitation patterns is critical to understanding water cycling in temperate forests and moisture coupling between the atmosphere and land surface. Although the role of soil moisture in evapotranspiration has

Global climate change has altered the characteristics of conventional drought events, with an increasing number of Slow droughts (SD) rapidly transitioning into Flash droughts (FD). This study introduces a novel multi-temporal scale drought identification framework (MTSDIF) that classifies historical agricultural drought events into three types: SD, FD, and Slow-to-Flash Drought (SFD). Based on the

In West Africa, lakes and reservoirs play a vital role as they are critical resources for drinking water, livestock, irrigation, and fisheries. Given the scarcity of in-situ data, satellite remote sensing is an important tool for monitoring lake volume changes in this region. Several methods have been developed to do this using water height-area-volume relationships, but few publications have compared

While most rivers and lakes follow predictable principles of hydrology and geology, a few seem to defy the rules. Some rivers diverge rather than converge; some rivers flow in two directions; some lakes have not one but two outlets; some watersheds have ambiguous boundaries. The scientific literature on these exceptions is sparse, scattered, and, in some cases, conflicting. We provide an authoritative

Many resilience surrogate measures have been established to evaluate the performance of water distribution systems (WDSs) over the past three decades. However, most of those measures have neglected the nexus between network layout performance and the essential features of system resilience. In this paper, we proposed two novel surrogate measures by introducing node degree and pipe diameter uniformity

The notion of convergent and transdisciplinary integration, which is about braiding together different knowledge systems, is becoming the mantra of numerous initiatives aimed at tackling pressing water challenges. Yet, the transition from rhetoric to actual implementation is impeded by incongruence in semantics, methodologies, and discourse among disciplinary scientists and societal actors. Here, we

The upper few hundreds of meters of the crust often hosts leaky aquifers. Quantifying leakage is important if those aquifers are used as a water resource. The responses of water level to external forcing such as tides and barometric pressure changes offer the opportunity to measure aquifer hydrogeological properties and monitor possible changes in those properties. Around the Huayingshan faults adjacent

Vegetation significantly affects the soil properties and runoff processes of gully head systems, thereby affecting their development. However, the mechanisms underlying the effects of vegetation on gully headcut erosion remain unclear. To explore these mechanisms, a series of simulation experiments were carried out on plots with four types of vegetation and bare land (BL). The results revealed that

Desert lakes are sparsely distributed in arid/semi-arid regions of the world and are crucial to desert hydro-ecosystem. However, the sources of water and dissolved components in desert lakes, especially the inputs from anthropogenic activities, remain to be fully understood. This study used water stable isotopes, self-organizing maps, and principal component analysis to explore the origins of lake

Studies have shown that thermal runoff will form on the impervious surface after rainfall occurs in summer, which will cause thermal pollution to urban water bodies. However, the existing thermal runoff calculation models lack a simplified hydrothermal model suitable for typical impervious surfaces and do not continuously express the process of runoff formation by rainfall. In this study, a simplified

Soil moisture (SM) is a key state variable in the climate system through its control on evapotranspiration (ET) and ET-regulated lower atmospheric processes. The SM-ET coupling strength (SECS) is thus closely linked with land-atmosphere interactions and its reliability is crucial for Earth system modeling. However, acquiring global maps of unbiased SECS remains challenging given significant levels

This study presents results of circulation and residence time in lakes influenced by wind-induced mixing investigated with numerical simulations. The study area is Lake Kasumigaura, a continuous lake system primally consisting of two lakes, West Lake and North Lake. Although metrological conditions and depths are similar for both lakes, the surface area and shape of the lakes are very different. A

Snow and glacier melt provide freshwater to millions of people in the Indus basin. However, the unprecedented increase in demand for freshwater and depleting resources due to climate warming has put the region's water resources at risk. Therefore, quantifying water mass variation and anticipating changes in hydrological regimes that affect downstream freshwater supply are of utmost importance. To address

Climatic and anthropogenic changes are reshaping global water resources, with the North China Plain (NCP) experiencing significant surface subsidence due to severe groundwater overexploitation over the past half-century. In this study, we integrate data from Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar, Global Navigation Satellite System, and hydraulic head measurements observed in 2015–2019 to investigate

Soil temperature is crucial for the ecological functions of coastal wetlands. While the impact of tides on porewater flow is well recognized, their effect on soil temperature, which is also closely related to hydrodynamic processes, has not been sufficiently explored. This study investigates how dynamic tidal and atmospheric conditions interact to drive temperature variations in coastal wetlands, based

Existing research on soil erosion primarily focuses on the individual effects of factors such as rainfall intensity, slope gradient, grass cover, and soil characteristics, with limited exploration of the interactions among these factors. This study investigated the mechanisms of soil erosion on overland covered with vegetation in the Loess Plateau region through indoor artificial simulated rainfall

Terrestrial water storage change (ΔS) is an important indicator of climate change that can monitor and predict hydrological changes. However, the interactions between ΔS and climate, vegetation, and soil factors add complexity in temporal variability of ΔS, particularly at seasonal scale. Here, we conduct a systematic assessment in the roles that seasonal variabilities of climate and vegetation modulate

Submarine groundwater discharge from subterranean estuaries is affected by tides, which are represented in computational models as time-dependent boundary conditions on the seaward boundary. Conventionally, a small time step is used in the numerical model to phase-resolve the tidal signal so as to ensure accurate results, although at the cost of excessive computation times for long-term simulations

Extreme rainfall events have profound implications across various sectors, necessitating accurate modeling to assess risks and devise effective adaptation strategies. The common practice of employing three-parameter probability distributions, such as the Generalized Extreme Value (GEV) and Pearson Type III distributions, in rainfall frequency analysis often encounters limitations in capturing rare

Recent advances in remote sensing of snow using Synthetic Aperture Radar have shown the potential for retrievals of Snow Water Equivalent (SWE) at high spatial resolution with good accuracy. These data can be integrated with physically based models to reconstruct spatial heterogeneity and reduce uncertainty in quantifying SWE. In this study, we present a Multi-Physics Data Assimilation Framework (MPDAF)

Reservoir operations face persistent challenges due to increasing water demand, more frequent extreme events, and stricter environmental requirements such as instream flow requirements for endangered species or other aspects of ecosystem health. This paper explores real-world changes in reservoir storage and operation between 1990 and 2019 using historical data from 256 reservoirs across the Contiguous

Frozen sediment accumulations, including rock glaciers, talus, and moraines, constitute complex aquifers in permafrost-affected terrain. The spatial distribution of permafrost ice largely governs the flow of water through the subsurface, which exhibits a spectrum of flow patterns, ranging from diffuse flow through a porous matrix to concentrated flow along discrete channels. This study characterizes

The occurrence frequency and catastrophe caused by flooding are increasing rapidly, highlighting the importance of real-time impact-based forecasting. However, traditional approaches primarily based on hydrodynamic models need large computational cost and generally fail to achieve real-time flood mapping, especially for large-scale watersheds. In this work, a novel, simple and convenient approach called

Hydrologically-induced landslides are ubiquitous natural hazards in the Himalayas, posing severe threat to human life and infrastructure. Yet, landslide assessment in the Himalayas is extremely challenging partly due to complex and drastically changing climate conditions. Here we establish a mechanistic hydromechanical landslide modeling framework that incorporates the impacts of key water fluxes and

Existing groundwater flow models for leaky aquifer systems rarely consider the consolidation effects of aquitards. Neglecting these effects can significantly impact the accuracy of groundwater flow simulations within such systems. To address this issue, this paper develops a model that describes unsteady flow within a leaky aquifer system incorporating nonlinear consolidation. The flow in both unconfined

The transport of chemical species in rocks is affected by their structural heterogeneity to yield a wide spectrum of local solute concentrations. To quantify such imperfect mixing, advanced methodologies are needed that augment the traditional breakthrough curve analysis by probing solute concentration within the fluids locally. Here, we demonstrate the application of asynchronous, multimodality imaging

Carbon dioxide ( CO 2 ${\text{CO}}_{2}$ ) fluxes in regulated Alpine rivers are driven by multiple biogeochemical and anthropogenic processes, acting on different spatiotemporal scales. We quantified the relative importance of these drivers and their effects on the dynamics of CO 2 ${\text{CO}}_{2}$ concentration and atmospheric exchange fluxes in a representative Alpine river segment regulated by

The exchange between surface water (SW) and groundwater (GW) influences water availability and ecosystems in stream networks. Assessing GW-SW interactions can be based on various methods at different scales, such as point scale (e.g., local head differences, temperature profiles), reach scale (e.g., environmental tracers, water mass balance), and catchment scale (topographical-driven groundwater flow)

Hydrological forecasts have significantly improved in skill over recent years, encouraging their systematic exploitation in multipurpose reservoir operations to improve reliability and resilience to extreme events. Despite the growing availability of multi-timescale forecasts, there is still a lack of transparent and integrated methods for selecting the most suitable forecast products, variables, and

Monitoring and estimating mountain snowpack mass over regional scales is still a challenge because of the inadequacy of observational networks in capturing spatiotemporal variability, and limitations in remotely sensed retrievals. Recent work using C-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) backscatter data from the Sentinel-1 satellite mission has shown good promise for tracking mountain snow depth over

Drywells, perforated above the water table, are an attractive tool for both reducing the risk of floods, and increasing groundwater recharge in urban\suburban areas. Various simplifications of the relationship between the injection discharge (Q) and the water-level rise in the drywell during water injection (H) are available. This work presents observations and models that improve our understanding

An indirect method is nowadays considered as an efficient way to obtain soil-water characteristic curve (SWCC) in engineering application. However, existing indirect models often oversimplify the soil pore and accumulation structure, which are not consistent with the natural soil. For this purpose, a novel granular packing state is obtained based on the relative compaction determined by porosity. A

Urban agriculture has significant potential to address food security and nutritional challenges in cities. However, water access for urban food production poses a major challenge in the face of climate change and growing global freshwater scarcity, particularly in arid and semi-arid areas. To support sustainable urban food production, this study focuses on a hybrid urban water system that integrates

The cultivation of bioenergy feedstocks, such as miscanthus, or energycane, on marginal lands helps alleviate the competition between food and fuel. However, such land use conversion could lead to complex interactions among climate, vegetation, and water resources, resulting in positive or negative environmental impacts. In this study, we used the Climate-Weather Research and Forecasting (CWRF) model

The physics-informed neural network (PINN) method has been applied to solve water hammer equations in pipeline systems due to its ability of seamlessly integrate measurement data with conservation laws, offering advantages over traditional numerical method. However, existing PINN approaches require multiple neural networks to construct composite models for complex water distribution systems (WDS).

Pressures on water resources are fueling conflicts between sectors. This trend will likely worsen under future climate-induced water stress, jeopardizing food, energy and human water security in most arid and semi-arid regions. Probabilistic analysis using stochastic optimization modeling can characterize multi-sector vulnerabilities and risks associated with future water stress. This study identifies