EARLS: a runoff reconstruction dataset for Europe

Research output: Preprint/Documentation/Report › Technical and data(set) papers/manual

Contributors

  • Daniel Klotz - , Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, Alphabet Inc., Interdisciplinary Transformation University Austria (Author)
  • Peter Miersch - , Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (Author)
  • Thiago V.M. do Nascimento - , Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, University of Zurich (Author)
  • Fabrizio Fenicia - , Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Author)
  • Corinna Frank - , ETH Zurich, Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research, Climate Change, Extremes and Natural Hazards in Alpine Regions Research Centre (CERC) (Author)
  • Martin Gauch - , Alphabet Inc. (Author)
  • Jakob Zscheischler - , Center for Scalable Data Analytics and Artificial Intelligence (ScaDS.AI Dresden), Chair of Data Analytics in Hydro Sciences, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (Author)

Abstract

Data drives our understanding of hydrological processes, supports model development, and enables anticipatory water management. This contribution introduces EARLS: European Aggregated Reconstructions for Large-sample Studies. EARLS offers daily streamflow reconstructions for more than 10 000 basins in Europe including uncertainty estimates, covering the period from 1953 to 2023. The reconstruction is derived from a single Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) based rainfall–runoff model trained on more than 5000 basins. LSTMs represent the state of the art in rainfall–runoff modeling and are well suited to provide predictions in ungauged basins. We evaluate the quality of the reconstruction through quantitative evaluation on two held-out sets of basins and by conducting a qualitative assessment that compares EARLS-based peak flows and flood timing to previous large-scale hydrological studies. EARLS represents a new generation of datasets that harness the capabilities of Deep Learning to obtain accurate and high-resolution data.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Pages5485-5504
Number of pages20
Publication statusPublished - 27 Jul 2026

Publication series

SeriesEarth system science data
Number7
Volume18
ISSN1866-3508
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External IDs

ORCID /0000-0001-6045-1629/work/226837863

Keywords

Sustainable Development Goals

ASJC Scopus subject areas