REHYDRATE - REtrieve historical HYDRologic dATa & Estimates

Details of the Working Group

 

REHYDRATE - REtrieve historical HYDRologic dATa & Estimates: Lead by Miriam Bertola, Paola Mazzoglio, Kate de Smeth, Dario Treppiedi and Hannes Müller-Thomy. 

 

Historical hydrological observations are often stored in printed documents and volumes worldwide. This makes them inaccessible and unusable for modern hydrological studies as well as puts them at risk of permanent loss due to the deterioration of their medium. In addition to the intrinsic value of rescuing past observations, having access to historical data is essential for understanding better the complexity and changes in the hydrological cycle and its extremes. As of today, several data rescue initiatives exist, but the efforts are highly fragmented in space and time. New tools are becoming available, and new technologies are developing rapidly. 

In response to these challenges, the REHYDRATE Working Group aims to connect scientists engaged in data rescue, fostering a collaborative community to exchange knowledge, experiences, and best practices in hydrological data rescue and digitization. The ultimate objective is to promote and facilitate hydrologic data digitization initiatives and to ensure their accessibility through open-access repositories (HELPING goals 1.2 and 3.1).

View the proposal and sign up here!

 

Coordination team

  • Miriam Bertola (TU Wien)
  • Paola Mazzoglio (Politecnico di Torino)
  • Kate de Smeth (University College Dublin)
  • Hannes Müller-Thomy (Technische Universität Braunschweig)
  • Dario Treppiedi (University of Palermo)

 

Upcoming webinar

To be scheduled.

 

Past events

Series of REHYDRATE webinars in the 2024-2026 period:

  • Insights into GPCC and GRDC: Storage, use and dissemination of rescued historical data. Dr. Markus Ziese, GPCC, and Dr. Simon Mischel, GRDC. Tuesday 10th February 2026 13:30 CET.
          • Part 1. Global Runoff Data Centre (GRDC) - Facilitator between Data Providers and Data Users. Dr. Simon Mischel, GRDC. Presentation file.
          • Part 2. Global Precipitation Climatology Centre. Dr. Markus Ziese, GPCC. Presentation file.
  • A reassessment of the history of the temporal resolution of rainfall data at the global scale. Dr. Jacopo Dari, University of Perugia, Italy. Tuesday 9th December 2025 14:00 CET.
  • Rescuing hydrometric data in England: traditional versus AI automation approaches. Dr. Sara Alexander, Environmental Agency, UK. Friday 18th October 2024 14:00 CET.
  • Insights from hydrometric data rescue in Ireland. Dr. Kate de Smeth, School of Geography, University College Dublin, Ireland. Thursday 3rd October 2024 14:00 CET.

 

Publications

Articles

  • Morbidelli R., Flammini A., Echeta O., Albano R., Anzolin G., Zumr D., Badi W., Berni N., Bertola M., Bodoque J.M., Brandsma T., Cauteruccio A., Cesanelli A., Cimorelli L., Chaffe P.L.B., Chagas V.B.P., Dari J., das Neves Ameida C., Díez-Herrrero A., Doesken N., El Khalki E.M., Elmehdi Saidi M., Ferraris S., Freitas E.S., Gargouri-Ellouze E., Gariano S.L., Hanchane M., Hurtado S.I., Kessabi R., Khemiri K., Kim D., Kowalewski M.K., Krabbi M., Lazzeri M., Lompi M., Mazzoglio P., Meira M.A., Moccia B., Moutia S., Napolitano F., Newman N., Pavlin L., Peruccacci S., Pianese D., Pirone D., Ricetti L., Ridolfi E., Russo F., Sarochar R., Segovia-Cardozo D.A., Segovia-Cardozo S., Serafeim A.V., Sojka M., Speranza G., Urban G., Versace C., Wałęga A., Zubelzu S., Saltalippi C. (2025). A reassessment of the history of the temporal resolution of rainfall data at the global scale. Journal of Hydrology, 654, 132841. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2025.132841

Abstracts

  • Bertola M., Mazzoglio P. and the HELPING REHYDRATE working group (2024). REHYDRATE - an international HELPING working group to REtrieve historical HYDRologic dATa and Estimates. EGU General Assembly 2024, Vienna (Austria), 14-19 April 2024, EGU24-5911, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu24-5911.

 

Newsletter

 

Additional material

View the Presentation from the November 2023 webinar.

  back to top