Runoff from the Swiss mountains is important for hydropower, but also for water availability in Switzerland and many other downstream countries including The Netherlands. In two recent papers, Muelchi and co-workers investigated runoff under future changes in temperature and precipitation. Runoff in mountainous areas is highly sensitive to temperature, precipitation, …
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A drought frequency paradox?
Recent years have shown that droughts can have serious socio-economical impacts. While the underlying cause of a drought (a lack of water compared with normal conditions) appears trivial, the exact definition is not. Especially since droughts can occur in different components of the hydrological cycle, each with unique spatial and …
Continue readingAmbiguous agricultural drought
Agricultural droughts, caused by long periods with little to no rain or heat waves, are generally defined as soil moisture deficits that are severe enough to negatively impact vegetation growth. A new study by van Hateren et al. (2021) shows that there is ambiguity between soil moisture drought and their …
Continue readingPhD defense Jasper Foets
On 13 April 2021, Jasper Foets will be defending his PhD thesis entitled “Ecohydrological characterization of terrestrial diatoms”. Diatoms are microscopic, single-celled algae living in almost all moist and aquatic environments with sufficient light. Recently, diatoms living on soils have been explored as tracers of water flow-paths during rainfall-runoff events. …
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