Dr. Oldrich Rakovec
Scientist
Department Computational Hydrosystems
Stochastic and Land Surface Hydrology
Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ
Contact
Address
City
Phone
Fax
Email
Permoserstraße 15
04318 Leipzig, Germany
+49 341 235 1972
+49 341 235 1939
oldrich.rakovec(at)ufz.de

Research interest/topics:
- Mesoscale Hydrologic Model
- Large domain hydrologic simulations (from regional to global) using the mesoscale hydrologic model (mHM)
- XEROS eXtreme EuRopean drOughtS: Multimodel synthesis of past, present and future events
- Examining the effects of parameter regionalization schemes on parameter transferability on large basin sampling (in collaboration with RAL-NCAR, US)
- Paleo-hydrology: Hydrological analysis of continental wide water cycle (in collaboration with the Department of Water Resources and Environmental Modeling, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague)
- Making the Most out of a Hydrological Model Dataset: Sensitivity Analyses to Open the Model Black-Box (in collaboration with the Kansas University, US and the Bocconi University, Italy)
- Evaluating the suitability of hydrological models for flood impact assessments (in collaboration with RAL-NCAR, US)
CV / Scientific Career
since 12/2013
11/2009 - 11/2013
09/2007 - 08/2009
09/2006 - 08/2009
Scientist at the UFZ: data assimilation, parameter uncertainty, and global hydrology with mHM
PhD thesis: "Improving operational flood forecasting using data assimilation" at the Wageningen University (The Netherlands). Promotor: Prof. Dr Remko Uijlenhoet, co-promotor: Dr Albrecht Weerts, graduation date: 25.04.2014
MSc in Hydrology and Water Quality at the Wageningen University (The Netherlands)
Ing. (MSc equivalent) in Environmental modelling at the Czech University of Life Science in Prague (The Czech Republic)
Peer-reviewed publications
2021 (1)
- Brunner, M.I., Melsen, L.A., Wood, A.W., Rakovec, O., Mizukami, N., Knoben, W.J.M., Clark, M.P., (2021):
Flood spatial coherence, triggers, and performance in hydrological simulations: large-sample evaluation of four streamflow-calibrated models
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. 25 (1), 105 - 119
full text (doi)
2020 (4)
- Hari, V., Rakovec, O., Markonis, Y., Hanel, M., Kumar, R., (2020):
Increased future occurrences of the exceptional 2018–2019 Central European drought under global warming
Sci. Rep. 10 , art. 12207
full text (doi) - Ionita, M., Nagavciuc, V., Kumar, R., Rakovec, O., (2020):
On the curious case of the recent decade, mid-spring precipitation deficit in central Europe
npj Clim. Atmos. Sci. 3 , art. 49
full text (doi) - Jing, M., Kumar, R., Heße, F., Thober, S., Rakovec, O., Samaniego, L., Attinger, S., (2020):
Assessing the response of groundwater quantity and travel time distribution to 1.5, 2, and 3 °C global warming in a mesoscale central German basin
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. 24 (3), 1511 - 1526
full text (doi) - Kumar, R., Heße, F., Rao, P.S.C., Musolff, A., Jawitz, J.W., Sarrazin, F., Samaniego, L., Fleckenstein, J.H., Rakovec, O., Thober, S., Attinger, S., (2020):
Strong hydroclimatic controls on vulnerability to subsurface nitrate contamination across Europe
Nat. Commun. 11 , art. 6302
full text (doi)
2019 (6)
- Baroni, G., Schalge, B., Rakovec, O., Kumar, R., Schüler, L., Samaniego, L., Simmer, C., Attinger, S., (2019):
A comprehensive distributed hydrological modeling intercomparison to support processes representation and data collection strategies
Water Resour. Res. 55 (2), 990 - 1010
full text (doi) - Mizukami, N., Rakovec, O., Newman, A.J., Clark, M.P., Wood, A.W., Gupta, H.V., Kumar, R., (2019):
On the choice of calibration metrics for “high-flow” estimation using hydrologic models
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. 23 (6), 2601 - 2614
full text (doi) - Moravec, V., Markonis, Y., Rakovec, O., Kumar, R., Hanel, M., (2019):
A 250‐year European drought inventory derived from ensemble hydrologic modeling
Geophys. Res. Lett. 46 (11), 5909 - 5917
full text (doi) - Noh, S.J., Weerts, A., Rakovec, O., Lee, H., Seo, D.-J., (2019):
Assimilation of streamflow observations
In: Duan, Q., Pappenberger, F., Thielen, J., Wood, A., Cloke, H., Schaake, J., (eds.)
Handbook of hydrometeorological ensemble forecasting, Vol. 1
Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, p. 745 - 780
full text (doi) - Rakovec, O., Mizukami, N., Kumar, R., Newman, A.J., Thober, S., Wood, A.W., Clark, M.P., Samaniego, L., (2019):
Diagnostic evaluation of large-domain hydrologic models calibrated across the contiguous United States
J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos. 124 (24), 13991 - 14007
full text (doi) - Samaniego, L., Thober, S., Wanders, N., Pan, M., Rakovec, O., Sheffield, J., Wood, E.F., Prudhomme, C., Rees, G., Houghton-Carr, H., Fry, M., Smith, K., Watts, G., Hisdal, H., Estrela, T., Buontempo, C., Marx, A., Kumar, R., (2019):
Hydrological forecasts and projections for improved decision-making in the water sector in Europe
Bull. Amer. Meteorol. Soc. 100 (12), 2451 - 2471
full text (doi)
2018 (5)
- Hanel, M., Rakovec, O., Markonis, Y., Máca, P., Samaniego, L., Kyselý, J., Kumar, R., (2018):
Revisiting the recent European droughts from a long-term perspective
Sci. Rep. 8 , art. 9499
full text (doi) - Huang, S., Kumar, R., Rakovec, O., Aich, V., Wang, X., Samaniego, L., Liersch, S., Krysanova, V., (2018):
Multimodel assessment of flood characteristics in four large river basins at global warming of 1.5, 2.0 and 3.0 K above the pre-industrial level
Environ. Res. Lett. 13 (12), art. 124005
full text (doi) - Marx, A., Kumar, R., Thober, S., Rakovec, O., Wanders, N., Zink, M., Wood, E.F., Pan, M., Sheffield, J., Samaniego, L., (2018):
Climate change alters low flows in Europe under global warming of 1.5, 2, and 3 °C
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. 22 (2), 1017 - 1032
full text (doi) - Samaniego, L., Thober, S., Kumar, R., Wanders, N., Rakovec, O., Pan, M., Zink, M., Sheffield, J., Wood, E.F., Marx, A., (2018):
Anthropogenic warming exacerbates European soil moisture droughts
Nat. Clim. Chang. 8 (5), 421 - 426
full text (doi) - Thober, S., Kumar, R., Wanders, N., Marx, A., Pan, M., Rakovec, O., Samaniego, L., Sheffield, J., Wood, E.F., Zink, M., (2018):
Multi-model ensemble projections of European river floods and high flows at 1.5, 2, and 3 degrees global warming
Environ. Res. Lett. 13 (1), art. 014003
full text (doi)
2017 (3)
- Borgonovo, E., Lu, X., Plischke, E., Rakovec, O., Hill, M.C., (2017):
Making the most out of a hydrological model data set: Sensitivity analyses to open the model black-box
Water Resour. Res. 53 (9), 7933 - 7950
full text (doi) - Mizukami, N., Clark, M.P., Newman, A.J., Wood, A.W., Gutmann, E.D., Nijssen, B., Rakovec, O., Samaniego, L., (2017):
Towards seamless large-domain parameter estimation for hydrologic models
Water Resour. Res. 53 (9), 8020 - 8040
full text (doi) - Samaniego, L., Kumar, R., Thober, S., Rakovec, O., Zink, M., Wanders, N., Eisner, S., Müller Schmied, H., Sutanudjaja, E.H., Warrach-Sagi, K., Attinger, S., (2017):
Toward seamless hydrologic predictions across spatial scales
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. 21 (9), 4323 - 4346
full text (doi)
2016 (3)
- Hill, M.C., Foglia, L., Christensen, S., Rakovec, O., Borgonovo, E., (2016):
Model validation: testing models using data and sensitivity analysis
In: Cushman, J.H., Tartakovsky, D., (eds.)
The handbook of groundwater engineering. 3rd edition
CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, p. 597 - 620
full text (doi) - Rakovec, O., Kumar, R., Attinger, S., Samaniego, L., (2016):
Improving the realism of hydrologic model functioning through multivariate parameter estimation
Water Resour. Res. 52 (10), 7779 - 7792
full text (doi) - Rakovec, O., Kumar, R., Mai, J., Cuntz, M., Thober, S., Zink, M., Attinger, S., Schäfer, D., Schrön, M., Samaniego, L., (2016):
Multiscale and multivariate evaluation of water fluxes and states over European river basins
J. Hydrometeorol. 17 (1), 287 - 307
full text (doi)
2015 (2)
- Cuntz, M., Mai, J., Zink, M., Thober, S., Kumar, R., Schäfer, D., Schrön, M., Craven, J., Rakovec, O., Spieler, D., Prykhodko, V., Dalmasso, G., Musuuza, J., Langenberg, B., Attinger, S., Samaniego, L., (2015):
Computationally inexpensive identification of noninformative model parameters by sequential screening
Water Resour. Res. 51 (8), 6417 - 6441
full text (doi) - Rakovec, O., Weerts, A.H., Sumihar, J., Uijlenhoet, R., (2015):
Operational aspects of asynchronous filtering for flood forecasting
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. 19 (6), 2911 - 2924
full text (doi)
2014 (3)
- Noh, S.J., Rakovec, O., Weerts, A.H., Tachikawa, Y., (2014):
On noise specification in data assimilation schemes for improved flood forecasting using distributed hydrological models
J. Hydrol. 519 (Part D), 2707 - 2721
full text (doi) - Rakovec, O., (2014):
Improving operational flood forecasting using data assimilation
Dissertation, Wageningen University
138 pp.
full text (url) - Rakovec, O., Hill, M.C., Clark, M.P., Weerts, A.H., Teuling, A.J., Uijlenhoet, R., (2014):
Distributed Evaluation of Local Sensitivity Analysis (DELSA), with application to hydrologic models
Water Resour. Res. 50 (1), 409 - 426
full text (doi)