Advances in hydrological modelling and applications depend strongly on the representation of land-atmosphere processes and their interactions. Consequently, the use of numerical weather models, especially regional numerical weather models, by the hydrological community has rapidly increased over recent years. Numerical weather models provide relevant hydrometeorological data at catchment scales, such as precipitation, wind, solar radiation, temperature, etc. which are crucial input variables for hydrological modelling. Their application areas include flood forecasting and flood risk management, urban drainage system design and operation, ecosystem services, water resources management, climate change impact assessment, etc.


This session will bring together hydrologists, water engineers, environmental scientists interested in utilising numerical weather models in hydrological applications.


Contributions are invited to cover (but are not restricted to) the following topics:

• Understanding and improving the links between atmosphere and surface hydrology in an effort to better characterise uncertainties in hydrological applications;
• Hydrological application of downscaled global reanalysis data for ungauged catchments;
• Climate change impact assessment and mitigation using downscaled climate projections;
• Appropriate scales and resolutions of numerical weather models for urban systems and rural catchments of different sizes and characteristics;
• Uncertainty assessment of the coupled numerical weather model/hydrological model systems;
• Assessment and optimal selection of parameterisation schemes under different climate regimes;
• Data assimilation and model updating to maximise the integration of models and observations;
• Real time hydrological applications of numerical weather models in forecasting mode.