Unlocking Europe's Hydrological Data

Hydrological data is essential for understanding how rivers behave, predicting floods, and managing water resources. However, accessing this data on a large scale has always been a challenge. While some datasets exist, they often capture only a small portion of the available information, and finding, accessing, and using data from national providers can be complex and time-consuming. This is where our work on EStreams comes in.

Building a Unified Resource

EStreams is the result of a need we identified: to bring together the rich but fragmented hydrological data across Europe into a single, cohesive resource. We wanted to go beyond just collecting data—we aimed to create a platform that allows researchers to access, update, and use this data easily.

Overcoming Challenges

The journey to build EStreams was both exciting and challenging. One of the biggest hurdles was dealing with the diversity of data sources. Different countries have different ways of organizing and sharing their hydrological data, often in their native languages and with varying levels of accessibility. Our goal was to simplify this process for users by creating a detailed catalogue that guides them through accessing the data, regardless of the source.

What EStreams Offers

• A comprehensive catalogue: Detailed metadata for over 17,000 streamflow gauges across Europe, along with guidance on accessing data from national providers. 
• Hydro-climatic variables: Data on temperature, precipitation, and other climatic variables. 
• Landscape descriptors: Detailed information on topography, soil types, vegetation, and land use, crucial for hydrological modeling and analysis.
• Streamflow indices: Weekly, monthly, seasonal, and annual streamflow indices data across European catchments.

A Dynamic, Evolving Dataset

One thing we wanted to ensure was that EStreams wouldn’t just be a static dataset. With our provided Python scripts, users can easily update the dataset with new data as it becomes available, making it a dynamic and evolving resource.

Empowering Hydrological Research

Creating EStreams wasn’t always easy. We faced challenges related to data accessibility, formatting, and redistribution restrictions. However, the effort was worth it. We believe that EStreams will be a valuable tool for hydrologists, climate scientists, and anyone interested in European water systems.

In short, EStreams represents a new step forward in making hydrological data more accessible and usable.

The dataset is openly available at: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13154470

The latest version of the code is available at: https://github.com/thiagovmdon/EStreams.