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SMIRES is a COST Action addressing the Science and Management of Intermittent Rivers & Ephemeral Streams (coord. T. Datry, INRAE, and G. Singer, University of Innsbruck; http://www.smires.eu). This COST Action had brought together scientists from various research field and stakeholders to develop a European multidisciplinary network for synthesising the fragmented and recent knowledge on temporary water courses, improving our understanding of Intermittent Rivers and Ephemeral Streams (IRES) and translating this into a science-based, sustainable management of river networks. The working group “Prevalence, distribution and trends of IRES” (WG1) has the central role to provide the physical basis of the SMIRES Action. One of the tasks of WG1 was to compile flow gauging data at the European scale. As part of this work, examples of intermittent rivers and ephemeral streams were collected across Europe, including gauged catchments with both natural and highly influenced river flow regimes. A total of 40 examples have been put together in this catalogue to provide an overview of the variety of IRES in Europe. The selected IRES are not meant to be representative of all intermittent water courses in Europe but rather highlight the variety in these water courses. Introductory pages describe the procedures used to create the catalogue including definitions of the statistical measures reported for the individual intermittent rivers and ephemeral streams, and provide an overview of the catalogued water courses. Information on the selected gauged intermittent rivers and ephemeral streams is summarised in a two-page document: The first standardized page describes the main characteristics of the catchments (land-use, geology, climate, etc.) and the river flow regime. Two panels display the hydrographs and flow durations curves, and a table gives metrics specific to river flow intermittence relevant for ecology. The second page is dedicated to the description and reasons for intermittence. A short description about the spatio-temporal pattern of zero-flow events. This section may describe the seasonal behaviour of the stream, observed long-term trends, locations with frequently observed zero-flow events along the river network, etc. The monitoring network, including gauging stations and other types of observations (e.g. visual inspection of the flow states at different locations along the river) in the catchment, are also described.

In this study, a low-cost unmanned aerial vehicle was used to obtain multi-spectral high-resolution imagery (1.4 cmpx(-1)) from2 microcatchments (3.3 ha) with burned Mediterranean shrubland and pine forests. This imagery was used to calculate the blue normalized differential vegetation index and to generate digital elevation models for estimating the sediment connectivity index. Both indices enabled an integrated approach for deciphering how hydrological and sediment connectivity interact with vegetation as well as soil conservation structures. The application of spatial analysis improves our understanding of the feedback between biological and geomorphological processes. Local spatial data analysis established a significant link between local geomorphological and biological factors, enabling a precise identification of homogeneous areas at micro-catchment scale and the minimal size of vegetation units reacting to geomorphology as natural groups at plot-scale where management strategies and efforts should be applied. Establishing this local relationship between sediment connectivity and vegetation patterns through new and interdisciplinary methodologies represents a new strategy for the assessment of ecosystem dynamics and management.

Obtaining representative hydrometric values is essential for characterizing extreme events, hydrological dynamics and detecting possible changes on the long-term hydrology. Reliability of streamflow data requires a temporal continuity and a maintenance of the gauging stations, which data are affected by epistemic and random sources of error. An assessment of discharge meterings' and stage-discharge rating curves' uncertainties were carried out by comparing the accuracy of the measuring instruments of two different hydrometric networks (i.e., one analogical and one digital) established in the same river location at the Mediterranean island of Mallorca. Furthermore, the effects of such uncertainties were assessed on the hydrological dynamics, considering the significant global change impacts beset this island. Evaluation was developed at four representative gauging stations of the hydrographic network with analogic (≈40 years) and digital (≈10 years) data series. The study revealed that the largest source of uncertainty in the analogical (28 to 274%) and in the digital (17–37%) networks were the stage-discharge rating curves. Their impact on the water resources was also evaluated at the event and annual scales, resulting in an average difference of water yields of 183% and 142% respectively. Such improvement on the comprehension of hydrometric networks uncertainties will dramatically benefit the interpretation of the long-term streamflow by providing better insights into the hydrologic and flood hazard planning, management and modelling.

(1) Mediterranean Ecogeomorphological and Hydrological Connectivity Research Team (http://medhycon.uib.cat), Department of Geography, University of the Balearic Islands, Carretera de Valldemossa Km 7.5 07122, Palma, Spain, (2) Institute of Agro-Environmental and Water Economy Research –INAGEA, University of the Balearic Islands, (3) Institute of Earth and Environmental Science, University of Potsdam, Karl-Liebknecht-Straße 24/25, 14476 Potsdam-Golm, Germany, (4) Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research (IDAEA), Spanish Research Council (CSIC), Jordi Girona 18, 08034 Barcelona, Spain Mediterranean catchments are characterized by high inter-intra annual precipitation variability and summer drought. The hydrological regime is characterized by ephemeral behaviour due to the direct rainfall-runoff relationship. Furthermore, extreme precipitations can generate an amount of rainfall higher than 200 mm in 24 hours with short response time. These events occurred normally under wet soil moisture conditions. The Mediterranean catchment morphology is a favourable factor for flash floods: short catchments with a high gradient slope. Others factor that condition the hydrological regime are the presence of limestone lithology and the impact of human activities on fluvial systems as geomorphological changes in channels and flood plains. The aim of this study is analyse the hydrological response of five hydrological years (2012-17) in an agricultural headwater catchment (i.e. < 4 km2) at different time scales. Rainfall-runoff relationship was carried out at annual and seasonal scale through the flow duration computation, the variability index, 30/70 ratio, quick flow response ratio and base flow index. The rainfall-runoff relationship at event scale was carried out through a Pearson correlation matrix using different variables extracted from the hyetograph and hydrograph. These variables were placed into two groups: a) antecedent conditions and b) event conditions. The correlation results determined the involved factors in the hydrological response. At annual scale total flow was present for 42.8% of the time and quick flow was 1.4%. The Variability index value (0.64) was higher than catchments with high dynamics storage (Vi < 0.5). At season scale, winter with 90.6%, showed the highest discharge presence. This highest discharge percentage duration generated a sustained water storage (Vi: 0.55) and increased the soil moisture from autumn getting favourable conditions for runoff generation. Because of that, winter had the highest quick flow duration (3.1%) and also the 30/70 denotes an increase of the flow variability. Autumn and spring had lower percentage of discharge duration than winter, 53% and 41% respectively. Autumn is the season after the dry season when starts again the wet period getting favourable conditions for runoff generation. Spring denotes the importance of the accumulated precipitation contribution of the wet seasons, also indicated for the highest seasonal BFI (0.7). Summer presented flow and quick flow the 0.93% and 0.21% of time respectively. At event scale, peak discharge, mean discharge, runoff and quick flow showed significant correlations (p

SMIRES is a COST Action addressing the Science and Management of Intermittent Rivers & Ephemeral Streams (coord. T. Datry, INRAE, and G. Singer, University of Innsbruck; http://www.smires.eu). This COST Action had brought together scientists from various research field and stakeholders to develop a European multidisciplinary network for synthesising the fragmented and recent knowledge on temporary water courses, improving our understanding of Intermittent Rivers and Ephemeral Streams (IRES) and translating this into a science-based, sustainable management of river networks. The working group “Prevalence, distribution and trends of IRES” (WG1) has the central role to provide the physical basis of the SMIRES Action. One of the tasks of WG1 was to compile flow gauging data at the European scale. As part of this work, examples of intermittent rivers and ephemeral streams were collected across Europe, including gauged catchments with both natural and highly influenced river flow regimes. A total of 40 examples have been put together in this catalogue to provide an overview of the variety of IRES in Europe. The selected IRES are not meant to be representative of all intermittent water courses in Europe but rather highlight the variety in these water courses. Introductory pages describe the procedures used to create the catalogue including definitions of the statistical measures reported for the individual intermittent rivers and ephemeral streams, and provide an overview of the catalogued water courses. Information on the selected gauged intermittent rivers and ephemeral streams is summarised in a two-page document: The first standardized page describes the main characteristics of the catchments (land-use, geology, climate, etc.) and the river flow regime. Two panels display the hydrographs and flow durations curves, and a table gives metrics specific to river flow intermittence relevant for ecology. The second page is dedicated to the description and reasons for intermittence. A short description about the spatio-temporal pattern of zero-flow events. This section may describe the seasonal behaviour of the stream, observed long-term trends, locations with frequently observed zero-flow events along the river network, etc. The monitoring network, including gauging stations and other types of observations (e.g. visual inspection of the flow states at different locations along the river) in the catchment, are also described.