Dr. Oldrich Rakovec
Scientist
Department Computational Hydrosystems
Stochastic and Land Surface Hydrology
Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ
Contact
Address
City
Phone
Email
Permoserstraße 15
04318 Leipzig, Germany
+49 341 602-51677
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
2023 (9)
- Chevuturi, A., Tanguy, M., Facer-Childs, K., Martinez-de la Torre, A., Sarkar, S., Thober, S., Samaniego, L., Rakovec, O., Kelbling, M., Sutanudjaja, E.H., Wanders, N., Blyth, E. (2023):
Improving global hydrological simulations through bias-correction and multi-model blending
J. Hydrol. 621 , art. 129607
full text (doi) - Egerer, S., Fajardo Puente, A., Peichl, M., Rakovec, O., Samaniego, L., Schneider, U. A. (2023):
Limited potential of irrigation to prevent potato yield losses in Germany under climate change
Agric. Syst. 207 , art. 103633
full text (doi) - Pohl, F., Rakovec, O., Rebmann, C., Hildebrandt, A., Boeing, F., Hermanns, F., Attinger, S., Samaniego, L., Kumar, R. (2023):
Long-term daily hydrometeorological drought indices, soil moisture, and evapotranspiration for ICOS sites
Sci. Data 10 , art. 281
full text (doi) - Pujades, E., Kumar, R., Houben, T., Jing, M., Rakovec, O.R., Kalbacher, T., Attinger, S. (2023):
Towards the construction of representative regional hydro(geo)logical numerical models: Modelling the Upper Danube basin as a starting point
Front. Earth Sci. 11 , art. 1061420
full text (doi) - Rottler, E., Bronstert, A., Bürger, G., Rakovec, O. (2023):
Rhine flood stories: Spatio-temporal analysis of historic and projected flood genesis in the Rhine River basin
Hydrol. Process. 37 (6), e14918
full text (doi) - Shah, J., Kumar, R., Samaniego, L., Markonis, Y., Hanel, M., Attinger, S., Hari, V., Rakovec, O. (2023):
On the role of antecedent meteorological conditions on flash drought initialization in Europe
Environ. Res. Lett. 18 (6), art. 064039
full text (doi) - Shrestha, P.K., Samaniego, L., Rakovec, O., Thober, S. (2023):
The quest for scalable hydrological system for reservoir modeling
EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 24–28 Apr 2023
EGUsphere
Copernicus Publications, p. EGU23-7545
full text (doi) - Tarasova, L., Lun, D., Merz, R., Blöschl, G., Basso, S., Bertola, M., Miniussi, A., Rakovec, O., Samaniego, L., Thober, S., Kumar, R. (2023):
Shifts in flood generation processes exacerbate regional flood anomalies in Europe
Commun. Earth Environ. 4 , art. 49
full text (doi) - Torbenson, M.C.A., Brázdil, R., Stagge, J.H., Esper, J., Büntgen, U., Vizina, A., Hanel, M., Rakovec, O., Fischer, M., Urban, O., Treml, V., Reinig, F., Martinez del Castillo, E., Rybníček, M., Kolář, T., Trnka, M. (2023):
Increasing volatility of reconstructed Morava River warm-season flow, Czech Republic
J. Hydrol. Reg. Stud. 50 , art. 101534
full text (doi)
2022 (10)
- Bahrami, B., Hildebrandt, A., Thober, S., Rebmann, C., Fischer, R., Samaniego, L., Rakovec, O., Kumar, R. (2022):
Parsimonious Canopy Model (PCM) v1.0
Version: v1.0 10.5281/zenodo.6373776 - Bahrami, B., Hildebrandt, A., Thober, S., Rebmann, C., Fischer, R., Samaniego, L., Rakovec, O., Kumar, R. (2022):
Developing a parsimonious canopy model (PCM v1.0) to predict forest gross primary productivity and leaf area index of deciduous broad-leaved forest
Geosci. Model Dev. 15 (18), 6957 - 6984
full text (doi) - Boeing, F., Kleidon-Hildebrandt, A., Rebmann, C., Kumar, R., Samaniego-Eguiguren, L., Marx, A., Rakovec, O., Schrön, M., Thober, S., Müller, S., Schneider, K., Zacharias, S., Bogena, H., Kiese, R. (2022):
[German Drought Monitor] HESS publication deseasonalized soil moisture data [Data set]
10.48758/ufz.12541 - Boeing, F., Rakovec, O., Kumar, R., Samaniego, L., Schrön, M., Hildebrandt, A., Rebmann, C., Thober, S., Müller, S., Zacharias, S., Bogena, H., Schneider, K., Kiese, R., Attinger, S., Marx, A. (2022):
High-resolution drought simulations and comparison to soil moisture observations in Germany
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. 26 (19), 5137 - 5161
full text (doi) - Nasreen, S., Hanel, M., Součková, M., Vargas Godoy, M.R., Singh, U., Markonis, Y., Kumar, R., Rakovec, O. (2022):
A 500-year runoff reconstruction for European catchments [Dataset]
figshare 10.6084/m9.figshare.15178107.v10 - Nasreen, S., Součková, M., Vargas Godoy, M.R., Singh, U., Markonis, Y., Kumar, R., Rakovec, O., Hanel, M. (2022):
A 500-year annual runoff reconstruction for 14 selected European catchments
Earth Syst. Sci. Data 14 (9), 4035 - 4056
full text (doi) - Ogbu, K.N., Rakovec, O., Shrestha, P.K., Samaniego, L., Tischbein, B., Meresa, H. (2022):
Testing the mHM-MPR reliability for parameter transferability across locations in North-Central Nigeria
Hydrology 9 (9), art. 158
full text (doi) - Pohl, F., Rakovec, O., Rebmann, C., Hildebrandt, A., Boeing, F., Hermanns, F., Samaniego, L., Attinger, S., Kumar, R. (2022):
Long-term daily hydrometeorological drought indices, soil moisture, and evapotranspiration for ICOS sites
ZENODO 10.5281/zenodo.7561854 - Rakovec, O., Samaniego, L., Hari, V., Markonis, Y., Moravec, V., Thober, S., Hanel, M., Kumar, R. (2022):
The 2018–20 multi-year drought sets a new benchmark in Europe
Earth Future 10 (3), e2021EF002394
full text (doi) - Shah, J., Hari, V., Rakovec, O., Markonis, Y., Samaniego, L., Mishra, V., Hanel, M., Hinz, C., Kumar, R. (2022):
Increasing footprint of climate warming on flash droughts occurrence in Europe
Environ. Res. Lett. 17 (6), art. 064017
full text (doi)
2021 (8)
- 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) - Mai, J., Tolson, B.A., Shen, H., Gaborit, E., Fortin, V., Gasset, N., Awoye, H., Stadnyk, T.A., Fry, L.M., Bradley, E.A., Seglenieks, F., Temgoua, A.G.T., Princz, D.G., Gharari, S., Haghnegahdar, A., Elshamy, M.E., Razavi, S., Gauch, M., Lin, J., Ni, X., Yuan, Y., McLeod, M., Basu, N.B., Kumar, R., Rakovec, O., Samaniego, L., Attinger, S., Shrestha, N.K., Daggupati, P., Roy, T., Wi, S., Hunter, T., Craig, J.R., Pietroniro, A. (2021):
Great Lakes Runoff Intercomparison Project phase 3: Lake Erie (GRIP-E)
J. Hydrol. Eng. 26 (9), art. 05021020
full text (doi) - Markonis, Y., Kumar, R., Hanel, M., Rakovec, O., Máca, P., AghaKouchak, A. (2021):
The rise of compound warm-season droughts in Europe
Sci. Adv. 7 (6), eabb9668
full text (doi) - Marx, A., Boeing, F., Rakovec, O., Müller, S., Can, Ö., Malla, C., Peichl, M., Samaniego, L. (2021):
Auswirkungen des Klimawandels auf Wasserbedarf und -dargebot. Climate impacts on water demand and supply in Germany
WasserWirtschaft 111 (11), 14 - 19
full text (doi) - Moravec, V., Markonis, Y., Rakovec, O., Svoboda, M., Trnka, M., Kumar, R., Hanel, M. (2021):
Europe under multi-year droughts: how severe was the 2014-2018 drought period?
Environ. Res. Lett. 16 (3), art. 034062
full text (doi) - Rottler, E., Bronstert, A., Bürger, G., Rakovec, O. (2021):
Projected changes in Rhine River flood seasonality under global warming
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. 25 (5), 2353 - 2371
full text (doi) - Saha, T.R., Shrestha, P.K., Rakovec, O., Thober, S., Samaniego, L. (2021):
A drought monitoring tool for South Asia
Environ. Res. Lett. 16 (5), art. 054014
full text (doi) - Telteu, C.-E., Müller Schmied, H., Thiery, W., Leng, G., Burek, P., Liu, X., Boulange, J.E.S., Andersen, L.S., Grillakis, M., Newland Gosling, S., Satoh, Y., Rakovec, O., Stacke, T., Chang, J., Wanders, N., Shah, H.L., Trautmann, T., Mao, G., Hanasaki, N., Koutroulis, A., Pokhrel, Y., Samaniego, L., Wada, Y., Mishra, V., Liu, J., Döll, P., Zhao, F., Gädeke, A., Rabin, S.S., Herz, F. (2021):
Understanding each other's models: an introduction and a standard representation of 16 global water models to support intercomparison, improvement, and communication
Geosci. Model Dev. 14 (6), 3843 - 3878
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)
