HYD-RESPONSES: High-resolution daily catchment-level time series for relevant hydro-meteorological variables, (water) deficit accumulation and streamflow droughts for Switzerland

Data Description:

The HYD-RESPONSES dataset provides daily catchment-level time-series for key hydro-meteorological variables (including precipitation, snow water equivalent, temperature, soil moisture, evaporation and streamflow). The data set covers 184 small to large FOEN-catchments in Switzerland. The catchments range across a variety of streamflow regime types, mean altitudes, biogeographic regions and anthropogenic influences. The time series data was aggregated from high-resolution spatially gridded products provided by MeteoSwiss (RhiresD, TabsD, TmaxD, TminD, SrelD), MeteoSwiss and the WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research (SLF)  (SPASS), SLF (OSHD) and ECMWF (ERA5-LAND). Daily average streamflow measurement series were provided by the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN). Indicators related to snowfall, snowmelt and (potential) water balance were derived. The dataset further provides three standardized drought indices (SPI, SPEI, SMRI) for multiple aggregation-scales from 1 to 24 months (mostly in 3-monthly steps). Additional indicators of accumulated water deficits are provided by time series of cumulative deficits for both (potential) water balance and streamflow. For all variables and indices, the climatology and the (standardized) anomalies are available at various time scales (daily, monthly, seasonal, and yearly). Drought event time series are provided for both variable and fixed threshold definitions and are accompanied by characteristics on event duration. Detailed catchment descriptors were also extracted from various input products and are provided for all catchments.

Data Organization:

- Dataset provided as .zip-File- Data files are provided in .csv-Format (semi-colon separator)- The README.txt provides a detailed documentation of folders, data structure, variables and file-naming conventions.- Catchment outlets and outlines are provided as ESRI shapefiles (.shp)- Code examples are provided

Folder structure:

code_examplesdata├── 01_timeseries│   ├── 00_meta_information│   ├── 01_base_variables│   ├── 02_derived_variables│   ├── 03_anomalies│   │   └── zscores│   ├── 04_standardized_indices│   │   ├── SMRI│   │   ├── SPEI│   │   └── SPI│   ├── 05_cumulative_deficits│   └── 06_events_nrs│       ├── cumulative_deficits│       └── hydrological_events├── 02_climatology│   ├── 00_meta_information│   ├── 01_regular│   └── 02_DOY_movingwindow└── 03_descriptive

Further reading & methodological details:

Copernicus ESSD journal data paper [preprint]:von Matt, C., Stocker, B., and Martius, O.: HYD-RESPONSES: daily hydro-meteorological catchment-level time series to analyse HYDrological drought dynamics in RESPONSE to (cumulative) water deficits in Swiss catchments, Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss. [preprint], https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2025-383, in review, 2025. 

Code Examples (Tutorial):

A tutorial demonstrating the handling and use of the HYD-RESPONSES dataset can be found at:https://github.com/codicolus/HYD-RESPONSES

Funding:

The HYD-RESPONSES project was funded by the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN).