Research and development within hydrology
SMHI has a long tradition of operational hydrological modelling including forecasts of water discharge, fire hazard, design of dams and dam regulation routines, flood risk, water quality and substance transport and the effects of climate change on hydrology and water quality.
The hydrological research unit is engaged in numerous research projects, commissioned work and continuous development of the SMHI work-flow for hydrological forecasts and assessments. The work is often user-driven and performed in collaboration with external partners in Sweden, Europe or other parts of the world.
In addition, we produce open data from our computational systems and open source codes for hydrological modelling. The unit also has a number of areas that are in scientific focus.
The hydrological research unit has commissions at national and international levels, including IAHS, International Association of Hydrological Sciences, NHF, Nordic Association of Hydrology and SHR, The Swedish Hydrological Council.
Open data – World wide hydrological predictions
Scientific publications from SMHIs hydrological research unit
We publish our research in international peer-reviewed journals and in SMHI reports. The two most recent publications are shown below.
Skill-informed seamless communication of European S2S hydrological forecasts
Ilias Pechlivanidis, Louise Crochemore
Optimizing Warnings for Hydrologic Ensemble Prediction Systems for Improved Decision-Making
Jesus Casado-Rodriguez, Corentin Carton De Wiart, Stefania Grimaldi, Ervin Zsoter, Calum Baugh, Nina Bosshard, Michaela Mikulickova, Ilias Pechlivanidis, Christel Prudhomme, Peter Salamon
Research news
Satellites and drones contribute to new hydrological data – from the Arctic to Africa
During a week in May hydrologists from SMHI exchanged the Swedish landscapes for African ones, for field work by the Ogun river in Nigeria. The reason was an ongoing research project which develops new methods for hydrological observations in inaccessible areas, with the help of drones and satellites.
Building resilience through effective operational flood forecasting and alerts – One year of co-development in Burkina Faso
Since the beginning of 2024, SMHI has been running a project aiming to support in improving the flood forecast and early warning system for Burkina Faso. The project builds on the multiple prior projects that created the FANFAR system for flood forecasts in West Africa. This year’s work has included model development a...
Co-development kick-off continues decade-long collaboration in West Africa
SMHI and AGRHYMET join forces in a new project aimed at co-developing a multi-model platform for operational forecasting of hydro-climatic extremes in West Africa. In October three days of efficient co-development kicked off this next episode of the long collaboration between SMHI and AGRHYMET.