Yan et al. (2026) Catchment hydrologic function is widely time-variant

Identification

• Journal: Communications Earth & Environment
• Year: 2026
• Date: 2026-10-09
• Authors: Ying Yan, Hamed Karimi Sharif, Ali Ameli
• DOI: 10.1038/s43247-026-04079-6

Research Groups

• Department of Earth, Ocean & Atmospheric Sciences, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada

Short Summary

This study analyzes 1.7 million runoff-producing events across 4838 catchments on six continents to understand the time-variance in catchment hydrologic function and its controlling factors.

Objective

• Investigate the stability or variability of catchment hydrologic function at the global scale and identify the factors controlling this variability.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Global, covering 4838 catchments on six continents.
• Temporal Scale: Long-term, analyzing about 1.7 million runoff-producing events.

Methodology and Data

• Models used: Not specified.
• Data sources: Satellite data, observation, and reanalysis datasets were likely used to analyze the hydro-meteorological conditions of each event.

Main Results

• Time-variant catchment hydrologic function is pervasive: 95.6% of catchments in the dormant season and 99.0% in the growing season show moderate to strong event-to-event variation.
• Greater time-variance in hydrologic function is associated with greater event-to-event variation in a catchment’s runoff response.

Contributions

• This study provides new insights into the global variability of catchment hydrologic function, which can improve confidence in flood-risk and water-security assessments.

Funding

• This study was funded by grants awarded to AAA by the NSERC Discovery Grants program.

Citation

@article{Yan2026Catchment,
  author = {Yan, Ying and Sharif, Hamed Karimi and Ameli, Ali},
  title = {Catchment hydrologic function is widely time-variant},
  journal = {Communications Earth & Environment},
  year = {2026},
  doi = {10.1038/s43247-026-04079-6},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-026-04079-6}
}