Water Resources Research is an open access journal that publishes original research articles and commentaries on hydrology, water resources, and the social sciences of water that provide a broad understanding of the role of water in Earth’s system.

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In Memoriam: Harihar Rajaram
July 9, 2024

With deep sadness and an appreciation for his enormous contributions to the Earth and space sciences, AGU shares news of the loss of one of our esteemed, much-loved colleagues, Harihar Rajaram.

An AGU Fellow and longtime affiliate of the Hydrology Section, Dr. Rajaram was the Editor-in-Chief of Geophysical Research Letters (GRL) since 2019, a former editor on Water Resources Research (WRR), and served on the AGU Publications Committee.

Hari had a boundless energy. His thoughtfulness, diligence, dedication, sense of humor, and above all, his absolute kindness, will be missed. Even when dealing with the trickiest of situations on AGU journals, Hari never complained or quit. He found a way through bringing people together and finding solutions.

A professor in the Department of Environmental Health and Engineering at The Johns Hopkins University, Hari’s colleagues, Ed Schlesinger, the Benjamin T. Rome Dean and Department Chair Marsha Willis-Karp, shared the following remembrance.

The family obituary with many poignant remembrances is here with the suggestion of donations, in lieu of flowers, to the local Baltimore charity Beans and Bread.

Hari’s grounded perspective, exemplary scholarship, and warm friendship made a meaningful impact on all who knew him and worked beside him. May his memory leave a lasting impact on the Hydrology community and to his friends and colleagues around the world.

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Heaven Lake.

New Details About a Very Old Eruption and Flood
Credit: Charlie fong/Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain

China’s Yellow River.

Tracing Metals from Earth to Water to Life in the Yellow River
Credit: fading/Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 3.0

AGU’s Journal Water Resources Research Goes Fully Open Access

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Benefiting Society with Translational Water Research
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Browse Articles

Open access

Variability in the Shape of the Active Length–Streamflow Relationship in Temporary Streams: Insights From an Empirical Analysis

N. Durighetto, R. Britt, M. Schirmer, G. Botter, 
  •  19 June 2025

Key Points

  • The empirical relationship between flowing network length L $L$ and discharge at the outlet Q $Q$ is analyzed for 45 case studies

  • Three qualitative classes of L ( Q ) $L(Q)$ emerge: generally increasing relations, relations with a right plateau, and s-shaped relations

  • The gamma model shows the best performance in all case studies, while the power law tends to overestimate the right plateaus

Open access

Public Supply Water Delivery Analysis and Estimation for the Conterminous United States

Joshua D. Larsen, Ayman H. Alzraiee, Richard G. Niswonger, Donald J. Martin, Cheryl A. Buchwald, Cheryl Dieter, Carol Luukkonen, Jana S. Stewart, Scott Paulinski, Lisa Miller, Natalie A. Houston, 
  •  19 June 2025

Key Points

  • The largest national deliveries data set to date was compiled and used to create the first complete modeled deliveries data set for the US

  • Boosted regression tree models were developed and provide accurate (r2 > 0.8) estimates of public supply deliveries for the conterminous US

  • Population, climate, and land use changes were associated with variability in public supply water use

Open access

Prediction of the Annual Variation of Groundwater Depth and Its Probability Based on MCAR Model and Copula Functions: A Case Study in Beijing, China

Yan Han, Xiaoling Zhang, Aifeng Lv, Wenbin Zhu, 
  •  18 June 2025

Key Points

  • A novel and comprehensive prediction method for groundwater (GW) depth in the plain region is established by combining the multivariable controlled auto-regressive model and copula functions

  • The developed method can not only predict the yearly variation of GW depth in the future, but also quantitatively provide its probability

  • The application results reveal that the GW depth in Beijing is likely to be recovery with an increase in precipitation in the future

Open access

Causal Attribution of the Interannual Variability in Flood Peaks Through Bayesian Networks

J. S. Nanditha, Gabriele Villarini, Hanbeen Kim, Philippe Naveau, 
  •  18 June 2025

Key Points

  • The Bayesian network models can well reproduce the interannual variability in seasonal and annual flow peaks

  • Precipitation drives floods in the eastern and southern US, while temperature influences peak flows in the western and northeastern US

  • The causal link derived by the Bayesian Network models is consistent with the underlying physical mechanisms

Open access

How Global Atmospheric Circulation Indirectly Influences Streamflow Variations in Karst Basin Through Rainfall

Benjin Yu, Rui Li, Feiyang Cai, Zhenhong Yi, Chaoyang Xue, Wanquan Zhang, 
  •  18 June 2025

Key Points

  • Rainfall and streamflow variations are explained from a global circulation perspective

  • Increased extreme precipitation has raised the proportion of flood-season discharge despite an overall decline in streamflow

  • Atmospheric circulation and rainfall account for 22.3%–76.9% of discharge variations

Open access

Buoyancy‐Tilted Shear Layers and Coherent Structures in Hyperpycnal River Plume Plunging

H. Shi, M. E. Negretti, J. Chauchat, K. Blanckaert, U. Lemmin, D. A. Barry, 
  •  18 June 2025

Key Points

  • Shear layers in a hyperpycnal river plume are tilted by buoyancy and form 3D curved interfaces

  • Buoyancy-tilted coherent structures develop in shear layers, whose Strouhal number decreases with increasing Richardson number

  • Coherent structures are also tilted and curved due to buoyancy and form strongly-mixed “coherent structure regions”

Open access

A Physically Based Model for Non‐Point Source Pollutant Wash‐Off Process Over Impervious Surfaces

Xue Tong, Qiuhua Liang, Graham Sander, Gang Wang, Xijun Lai, 
  •  16 June 2025

Key Points

  • The Hairsine-Rose model is modified for stormwater wash-off processes by incorporating surface roughness and particle size distribution (PSD)

  • The modified model handles diverse PSDs and rainfall conditions, confirmed by experimental tests

  • The model's physically interpretable parameters reveal relationships with corresponding impact factors

Open access

Global Daily Discharge Estimation Based on Grid Long Short‐Term Memory (LSTM) Model and River Routing

Yuan Yang, Dapeng Feng, Hylke E. Beck, Weiming Hu, Ather Abbas, Agniv Sengupta, Luca Delle Monache, Robert Hartman, Peirong Lin, Chaopeng Shen, Ming Pan, 
  •  16 June 2025

Key Points

  • Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) is applied to estimate runoff at grid cells, which is then routed across channel networks with the RAPID model to estimate discharge

  • Grid LSTM-RAPID mildly underperforms traditional Basin LSTM but offers vastly greater coverage and outperforms process-based model

  • A high-quality daily discharge data set for millions of river reaches worldwide from 1980 to near present is created and shared

Open access

Flume Experiments With Refractive‐Index Matched Sediment Revealing the Impact of Two In‐Line Channel‐Spanning Logs on Hyporheic Exchange

S. H. Huang, A. H. Sawyer, E. Wohl, J. Q. Yang, 
  •  14 June 2025

Key Points

  • The head loss due to two in-line logs decreased as the center-to-center log spacing decreased

  • With log spacing greater than 10 times the log diameter, the hyporheic flows driven by each log did not interfere with each other

  • Log-induced hyporheic flow has distinct patterns depending on the spacing between logs, similar to the surface flow patterns

Open access

Optimization and Simulation of Flat Area Sites Based on Probability Matching and Transfer Intensity Using Remote Sensing Precipitation

Chen Yu, Huaiyong Shao, Xingchuan Yang, Gang Liu, Qi Xin, Jiaming Gu, 
  •  14 June 2025

Key Points

  • Combine remote sensing precipitation with density distribution and uncertainty theory for the virtual site deployment and simulation

  • Refined similarity estimation method using probability density function and considered the impact of transfer intensity on site optimization

  • Employed probability matching and entropy as alternatives to spatial distance metrics to provide accurate precipitation for virtual sites

More articles
free access

A new model for predicting the hydraulic conductivity of unsaturated porous media

Yechezkel Mualem, 
free access

Evaluating the use of “goodness‐of‐fit” Measures in hydrologic and hydroclimatic model validation

David R. Legates, Gregory J. McCabe, 
free access

Water management: Current and future challenges and research directions

William J. Cosgrove, Daniel P. Loucks, 

Electromagnetic determination of soil water content: Measurements in coaxial transmission lines

G. C. Topp, J. L. Davis, A. P. Annan, 
Open access

A Transdisciplinary Review of Deep Learning Research and Its Relevance for Water Resources Scientists

Chaopeng Shen, 

Key Points

  • Deep learning (DL) is transforming many scientific disciplines, but its adoption in hydrology is gradual
  • DL can help tackle interdisciplinarity, data deluge, unrecognized linkages, and long-standing challenges such as scaling and equifinality
  • The new field of AI neuroscience opens up many opportunities for scientists to use DL as an exploratory tool for scientific advancement

Open access

MERIT Hydro: A High‐Resolution Global Hydrography Map Based on Latest Topography Dataset

Dai Yamazaki, Daiki Ikeshima, Jeison Sosa, Paul D. Bates, George H. Allen, Tamlin M. Pavelsky, 

Key Points

  • A global hydrography map was generated using the latest topography dataset
  • Near-automatic algorithm applicable for global hydrography delineation was developed
  • Adjusted elevation and river width layers consistent with flow direction map are provided

Validity of Cubic Law for fluid flow in a deformable rock fracture

P. A. Witherspoon, J. S. Y. Wang, K. Iwai, J. E. Gale, 
free access

Response of mean annual evapotranspiration to vegetation changes at catchment scale

L. Zhang, W. R. Dawes, G. R. Walker, 

Techniques of trend analysis for monthly water quality data

Robert M. Hirsch, James R. Slack, Richard A. Smith, 
free access

A Rainfall‐Runoff Model With LSTM‐Based Sequence‐to‐Sequence Learning

Zhongrun Xiang, Jun Yan, Ibrahim Demir, 

Key Points

  • An hourly runoff model was developed using the LSTM sequence-to-sequence learning method for 24-hr predictions on USGS stations
  • The proposed model shows better performance than traditional data-driven models and is applicable to different watersheds
  • The advantages and limitations of seq2seq models and how this model structure could work on the rainfall-runoff modeling is presented

More articles
free access

Water management: Current and future challenges and research directions

William J. Cosgrove, Daniel P. Loucks, 
Open access

A 30 m Global Flood Inundation Model for Any Climate Scenario

Oliver E. J. Wing, Paul D. Bates, Niall D. Quinn, James T. S. Savage, Peter F. Uhe, Anthony Cooper, Thomas P. Collings, Nans Addor, Natalie S. Lord, Simbi Hatchard, Jannis M. Hoch, Joe Bates, Izzy Probyn, Sam Himsworth, Josué Rodríguez González, Malcolm P. Brine, Hamish Wilkinson, Christopher C. Sampson, Andrew M. Smith, Jeffrey C. Neal, Ivan D. Haigh, 

Key Points

  • New climate-conditioned model framework represents fluvial, pluvial, and coastal flood hazards at high-resolution globally

  • Comprehensive validation studies suggest that the model is approaching local model skill in many cases

  • Emissions reduction can hold flood hazards largely constant this century, though coastal flooding will increase drastically regardless

Plain Language Summary

Computer models use a variety of data and physical equations to estimate the extent and depth of possible flood events. Global applications of these tools have been developed over the past decade, but they are not very good at simulating the behavior of real floods. In this paper, we address some key problems to make a global model that does a lot better than past ones. We apply new techniques to better understand how much water we need to put into the model for a given flood probability. This movement of water is simulated by the model over a more accurate map of the Earth's terrain than has been available previously, with river channels represented in a smarter way. We look at the projected changes in rainfall, river discharge, and sea levels for given levels of warming simulated by available climate models and adjust the probabilities of a given magnitude flood accordingly. The model results suggest that the effect of future climate change might be small relative to our ability to understand flood hazards today, but this depends heavily on how much carbon we emit in the coming decades.

Open access

Water Use in Global Livestock Production—Opportunities and Constraints for Increasing Water Productivity

Jens Heinke, Mats Lannerstad, Dieter Gerten, Petr Havlík, Mario Herrero, An Maria Omer Notenbaert, Holger Hoff, Christoph Müller, 

Key Points

  • Annually, 4,387 km3 of water is required to produce the feed consumed by the global livestock sector, of which 94% is green water
  • Opportunities for increasing livestock water productivity exist for all livestock types but are particularly large for ruminants
  • Water productivity improvements for ruminants through supplementation with feed crops are constrained by high water cost to produce crops

free access

The science and practice of river restoration

Ellen Wohl, Stuart N. Lane, Andrew C. Wilcox, 

Key Points

  • River restoration is a prominent area of applied water-resources science
  • restoration includes connectivity, physical-biotic interactions, and history
  • effective restoration requires collaboration among scientists and practitioners

Open access

Global Groundwater Modeling and Monitoring: Opportunities and Challenges

Laura E. Condon, Stefan Kollet, Marc F. P. Bierkens, Graham E. Fogg, Reed M. Maxwell, Mary C. Hill, Harrie-Jan Hendricks Fransen, Anne Verhoef, Anne F. Van Loon, Mauro Sulis, Corinna Abesser, 

Key Points

  • A global groundwater framework is needed to address critical gaps in our understanding and predictive capacity of the hydrologic cycle

  • We envision a framework that will combine observations and models to provide spatially and temporally continuous groundwater information

  • The proposed framework could improve predictability in existing models and provide valuable new information for water management

Plain Language Summary

Groundwater is an important part of the water cycle but we are still working on the best ways to include it in global models. This study provides an overview of the state of the science for groundwater modeling and outlines a road map for what is needed to improve global groundwater models.

Open access

Seiche‐Induced Fish Kills in the Sea of Galilee—A Possible Explanation for Biblical Miracles?

Yael Amitai, Ehud Strobach, David P. Hamilton, Shmuel Assouline, Ami Nishri, Tamar Zohary, 

Key Points

  • A 3D atmosphere-lake model elucidated mechanisms for the 2012 fish kill at Lake Kinneret where ‘miraculous catches' occurred 2000 years ago

  • Upwelling of low-oxygen water caused by wind-driven internal waves was identified as the mechanism for the fish kills

  • Five prerequisite conditions were identified for the fish kill to occur

free access

Status of CO2 storage in deep saline aquifers with emphasis on modeling approaches and practical simulations

M. A. Celia, S. Bachu, J. M. Nordbotten, K. W. Bandilla, 

Key Points:

  • Carbon storage in deep saline aquifers is a viable carbon mitigation option
  • A wide range of modeling approaches can provide practical simulation results
  • Field-scale observations and modeling enhance system understanding

Open access

Remote Sensing of Groundwater: Current Capabilities and Future Directions

Kyra H. Adams, John T. Reager, Paul Rosen, David N. Wiese, Tom G. Farr, Shanti Rao, Bruce J. Haines, Donald F. Argus, Zhen Liu, Ryan Smith, James S. Famiglietti, Matthew Rodell, 

Key Points

  • Accurately measuring and monitoring groundwater storage and fluxes is critical for water, food, and energy security

  • Remote sensing approaches such as gravitational measurements, Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar, Global Navigational Satellite System, lidar altimetry, and Airborne Electromagnetic Systems can yield indirect yet valuable information about groundwater

  • Fusing multiple remotely sensed data sets or employing other tools such as numerical models increase the applicability of individual approaches

Open access

Satellite Remote Sensing for Water Resources Management: Potential for Supporting Sustainable Development in Data‐Poor Regions

J. Sheffield, E. F. Wood, M. Pan, H. Beck, G. Coccia, A. Serrat-Capdevila, K. Verbist, 

Key Points

  • Satellite remote sensing is being incorporated into water resources management but is generally underutilized
  • New and proposed missions have the potential to transform water resources management for sustainable development, especially in data-poor regions
  • Ongoing challenges of accuracy, sampling, and continuity and capacity development need to be addressed, as well as new challenges of information volume and diversity

Open access

The Millennium Drought in southeast Australia (2001–2009): Natural and human causes and implications for water resources, ecosystems, economy, and society

Albert I. J. M. van Dijk, Hylke E. Beck, Russell S. Crosbie, Richard A. M. de Jeu, Yi Y. Liu, Geoff M. Podger, Bertrand Timbal, Neil R. Viney, 

Key Points

  • Drivers and impacts of Australia's record drought were analyzed
  • Impacts accumulated and propagated through the water cycle at different rates
  • Future droughts may not be managed better than past ones.

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