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DATASET

HERA: a high-resolution pan-European hydrological reanalysis (1951-2020)

Collection: CEMS-EFAS : European Flood Awareness System 

Description

The HERA high-resolution pan-European hydrological reanalysis (1951-2020) dataset is the result of a joint effort between the JRC and PIK to produce a long term hydrological reanalysis with downscaled and bias-corrected climate reanalysis (ERA5-land) and dynamic socioeconomic inputs. It includes maps of climate variables (evaporation, evapotranspiration, precipitation, temperature), dynamic socioeconomic inputs (land use, water demand, reservoir maps) required for hydrological modelling with LISFLOOD and river discharge with European extent at 1 arc minute (~1.5 km) grid resolution and 6-hourly time step. The dataset builds on recent development within the European Flood Awareness System (EFAS) associated to the EFAS v5.0 reanalysis (http://data.europa.eu/89h/76b4b9de-a5c6-4344-8d88-c4bed7752ce3), notably the LISFLOOD static and parameters maps for Europe (http://data.europa.eu/89h/f572c443-7466-4adf-87aa-c0847a169f23) and the EMO (European Meteorological Observations) dataset (http://data.europa.eu/89h/0bd84be4-cec8-4180-97a6-8b3adaac4d26). HERA also benefits from major improvements to the open-source hydrological model LISFLOOD and a new model calibration. Furthermore, for ungauged catchments, a parameter regionalization was performed transferring parameter sets from donor catchments based on spatial and climatological proximity to ensure the best possible simulation of river flows for all catchments in the European domain. Along with improved resolution and modelling performances, the length of the modelled period (70 years) and the inclusion of dynamic socioeconomic conditions enables the analysis of hydrological dynamics related to extremes, human influences, and climate change at a continental scale while keeping local relevance. Detailed technical information on the dataset can be found in the associated scientific article (under review).

We want to stress here that even if though the hydrological reanalysis starts on January 3rd 1950, discharge values in the first months may be inaccurate due the flow routine initialization and lower zone’s spin up. We therefore defined a one year spin up period, leading to the removal of discharge data for 1950. We did not notice abnormal performances on years 1951 and 1952, howwever, these years can also be impacted by the spin-up of the model.

Contact

Email
alois.tilloy (at) ec.europa.eu

Contributors

How to cite

Tilloy, Alois; Paprotny, Dominik; Feyen, Luc; Grimaldi, Stefania; Gomes, Goncalo; Beck, Hylke; Lange, Stefan; Bianchi, Alessandra (2024): HERA: a high-resolution pan-European hydrological reanalysis (1951-2020). European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC) [Dataset] doi: 10.2905/a605a675-9444-4017-8b34-d66be5b18c95 PID: http://data.europa.eu/89h/a605a675-9444-4017-8b34-d66be5b18c95

Keywords

climate change drought flood hydrology lisflood

Data access

HERA: a high-resolution pan-European hydrological reanalysis (1950-2020)
Use conditions
European Commission reuse notice 
Access conditions
No limitations 
URL 

  • The HERA high-resolution pan-European hydrological reanalysis (1950-2020) dataset is the result of a joint effort between the JRC and PIK to produce a long term hydrological reanalysis with downscaled and bias-corrected climate reanalysis (ERA5-land) and dynamic socioeconomic inputs. It includes maps of climate variables (evaporation, evapotranspiration, precipitation, temperature), dynamic socioeconomic inputs (land use, water demand, reservoir maps) required for hydrological modelling with LISFLOOD and river discharge with European extent at 1 arc minute (~1.5 km) grid resolution and 6-hourly time step.

Geographic areas

European Union

Spatial coverage

Type Value
GML 
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GML 
<gml:Polygon xmlns:gml="http://www.opengis.net/gml/3.2">  <gml:exterior>    <gml:LinearRing>      <gml:posList>33.9 71 -22.75 71 -22.75 34.6 33.9 34.6 33.9 71</gml:posList>    </gml:LinearRing>  </gml:exterior></gml:Polygon>
WKT 
POLYGON ((33.9 71, -22.75 71, -22.75 34.6, 33.9 34.6, 33.9 71))

Temporal coverage

From date To date
1951-01-01 2020-12-31

Additional information

Published by
European Commission, Joint Research Centre
Created date
2024-01-17
Modified date
2024-02-19
Issued date
2024-01-17
Data theme(s)
Environment
Update frequency
irregular
Identifier
http://data.europa.eu/89h/a605a675-9444-4017-8b34-d66be5b18c95
Popularity