Hövel et al. (2026) Spatiotemporal Drivers of Runoff Event Timescales: An Event‐Based Clustering Approach Applied to 388 Catchments in the Contiguous United States

⚠️ Warning: This summary was generated from the abstract only, as the full text was not available.

Identification

• Journal: Water Resources Research
• Year: 2026
• Date: 2026-08-01
• Authors: Adriane Hövel, Yanchen Zheng, Christine Stumpp, Ross A. Woods, Michael Stockinger
• DOI: 10.1029/2025wr042101

Research Groups

• Department of Hydrology and Water Resources, University of Arizona
• National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)

Short Summary

This study investigates how hydro-meteorological event conditions and physical catchment attributes influence runoff event timescales in 388 snow-free catchments across the contiguous US, with a focus on contrasting climate types.

Objective

• Investigate the spatiotemporal variability of runoff event timescales and its controls in different climatic regions

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Continental (contiguous US)
• Temporal Scale: Event-based analysis

Methodology and Data

• Models used: Not specified
• Data sources: Hydro-meteorological data from various sources, including satellite and observation datasets

Main Results

• Runoff event timescales vary significantly between wet and dry climate types
• Rainfall event characteristics (e.g., duration) are more important in predicting timescale in wet catchments
• Antecedent soil moisture is a stronger predictor of timescale in dry than in wet catchments
• Physical attributes such as catchment area influence median timescales in wet catchments, while mean potential evapotranspiration has the strongest influence in dry catchments

Contributions

• This study provides new insights into the controls on runoff event timescales and their variability across different climate types
• The results highlight the importance of considering climate type when analyzing hydrological processes

Funding

• Not specified

Citation

@article{Hövel2026Spatiotemporal,
  author = {Hövel, Adriane and Zheng, Yanchen and Stumpp, Christine and Woods, Ross A. and Stockinger, Michael},
  title = {Spatiotemporal Drivers of Runoff Event Timescales: An Event‐Based Clustering Approach Applied to 388 Catchments in the Contiguous United States},
  journal = {Water Resources Research},
  year = {2026},
  doi = {10.1029/2025wr042101},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1029/2025wr042101}
}