We present CAMELS-CH (Catchment Attributes and MEteorology for Large-sample Studies – Switzerland), a large-scale hydro-meteorological dataset for Switzerland and its neighboring countries. Covering 331 catchments, about one-third of which extend into Austria, France, Germany, and Italy, the dataset captures the diverse landscapes of Switzerland, including mountains, karst regions, and cultivated areas. The catchments are influenced by various hydrological regimes, such as glacier-, snow-, or rain-dominated systems.
CAMELS-CH (Höge et al., 2023; available at doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7784632) includes 40 years of data (1981–2020), featuring daily records of streamflow, water levels, precipitation, air temperature, and snow water equivalent data starting from 1998. Additionally, it provides annual land cover and glacier change data for each catchment. The static attributes cover topography, climate, hydrology, soils, geology, land use, and human impact. This dataset complements similar publicly available datasets, offering comprehensive data from Switzerland, often referred to as the "water tower of Europe."
Recently, CAMELS-CH has been expanded with CAMELS-CH-Chem, a companion dataset that adds water quality observations for a subset of the catchments. CAMELS-CH-Chem (do Nascimento et al., 2025; available at doi.org/10.1038/s41597-025-05625-1) includes up to 40 water quality parameters, grouped into three categories: stream water chemistry, stream water isotopes, and catchment-aggregated data. This comprehensive dataset broadens the integration of water quality into large-sample hydrology research and supports new insights in hydrological and biogeochemical modeling.
Extensions to include hourly data are currently in progress.
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title => protected'CAMELS-CH: hydro-meteorological time series and landscape attributes for 331 catchments in hydrologic Switzerland' (113 chars)
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description => protected'We present CAMELS-CH (Catchment Attributes and MEteorology for Large-sample Studies – Switzerland), a large-sample hydro-meteorological data set for h ydrologic Switzerland in central Europe. This domain covers 331 basins with in Switzerland and neighboring countries. About one-third of the catchments are located in Austria, France, Germany and Italy. As an Alpine country, Swi tzerland covers a vast diversity of landscapes, including mountainous enviro nments, karstic regions, and several strongly cultivated regions, along with a wide range of hydrological regimes, i.e., catchments that are glacier-, s now- or rain dominated. Similar to existing data sets, CAMELS-CH comprises d ynamic hydro-meteorological variables and static catchment attributes.<br /> CAMELS-CH (Höge et al., 2023; available at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo .7784632) encompasses 40 years of data between 1 January 1981 and 31 Dec ember 2020, including daily time series of stream flow and water levels, an d of meteorological data such as precipitation and air temperature. It also includes daily snow water equivalent data for each catchment starting from 2 September 1998. Additionally, we provide annual time series of land cover change and glacier evolution per catchment. The static catchment attributes cover location and topography, climate, hydrology, soil, hydrogeology, geol ogy, land use, human impact and glaciers. This Swiss data set complements co mparable publicly accessible data sets, providing data from the “water tow er of Europe”.' (1536 chars)
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title => protected'Swiss data quality: augmenting CAMELS-CH with isotopes, water quality, agric ultural and atmospheric data' (104 chars)
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description => protected'Despite the growth of large-sample hydrology (LSH) datasets, water quality d ata remain scarce. Here, we introduce CAMELS-CH-Chem, an extension of CAMELS -CH (Catchment Attributes and Meteorology for Large-sample Studies in Switze rland), incorporating up to 40 water quality parameters for 115 Swiss catchm ents from 1981 to 2020. The dataset includes hourly and daily time series of measurements of water temperature, dissolved oxygen, pH, and electrical con ductivity; as well as (bi)monthly measurements of dissolved organic carbon ( DOC), total organic carbon (TOC), alkalinity (HCO<sub>4</sub><sup>−</sup>) , ammonium (NH<sub>4</sub><sup>+</sup>), NO<sub>3</sub><sup>−</sup>, NO<su b>2</sub><sup>−</sup>, total nitrogen, dissolved reactive phosphorus, tota
b><sup>2−</sup>, total hardness, and stream water isotopes. In addition, w e provide catchment aggregated (bi)monthly time series of precipitation wate r isotopes, along with annual resolution data on land cover including specif ic agricultural information (crop types and livestock density), and atmosphe ric nitrogen deposition. This comprehensive dataset enables broader integrat ion of water quality into LSH research and will support new insights specifi cally in the field of hydrological and biogeochemical modelling.' (1432 chars)
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CAMELS-CH: hydro-meteorological time series and landscape attributes for 331 catchments in hydrologic Switzerland
We present CAMELS-CH (Catchment Attributes and MEteorology for Large-sample Studies – Switzerland), a large-sample hydro-meteorological data set for hydrologic Switzerland in central Europe. This domain covers 331 basins within Switzerland and neighboring countries. About one-third of the catchments are located in Austria, France, Germany and Italy. As an Alpine country, Switzerland covers a vast diversity of landscapes, including mountainous environments, karstic regions, and several strongly cultivated regions, along with a wide range of hydrological regimes, i.e., catchments that are glacier-, snow- or rain dominated. Similar to existing data sets, CAMELS-CH comprises dynamic hydro-meteorological variables and static catchment attributes. CAMELS-CH (Höge et al., 2023; available at doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7784632) encompasses 40 years of data between 1 January 1981 and 31 December 2020, including daily time series of stream flow and water levels, and of meteorological data such as precipitation and air temperature. It also includes daily snow water equivalent data for each catchment starting from 2 September 1998. Additionally, we provide annual time series of land cover change and glacier evolution per catchment. The static catchment attributes cover location and topography, climate, hydrology, soil, hydrogeology, geology, land use, human impact and glaciers. This Swiss data set complements comparable publicly accessible data sets, providing data from the “water tower of Europe”.
Höge, M.; Kauzlaric, M.; Siber, R.; Schönenberger, U.; Horton, P.; Schwanbeck, J.; Floriancic, M. G.; Viviroli, D.; Wilhelm, S.; Sikorska-Senoner, A. E.; Addor, N.; Brunner, M.; Pool, S.; Zappa, M.; Fenicia, F. (2023) CAMELS-CH: hydro-meteorological time series and landscape attributes for 331 catchments in hydrologic Switzerland, Earth System Science Data, 15(12), 5755-5784, doi:10.5194/essd-15-5755-2023, Institutional Repository
Swiss data quality: augmenting CAMELS-CH with isotopes, water quality, agricultural and atmospheric data
Despite the growth of large-sample hydrology (LSH) datasets, water quality data remain scarce. Here, we introduce CAMELS-CH-Chem, an extension of CAMELS-CH (Catchment Attributes and Meteorology for Large-sample Studies in Switzerland), incorporating up to 40 water quality parameters for 115 Swiss catchments from 1981 to 2020. The dataset includes hourly and daily time series of measurements of water temperature, dissolved oxygen, pH, and electrical conductivity; as well as (bi)monthly measurements of dissolved organic carbon (DOC), total organic carbon (TOC), alkalinity (HCO4−), ammonium (NH4+), NO3−, NO2−, total nitrogen, dissolved reactive phosphorus, total filtered phosphorus, total phosphorus, Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺, Na⁺, K⁺, Cl⁻, SO42−, H4SiO4, SO42−, total hardness, and stream water isotopes. In addition, we provide catchment aggregated (bi)monthly time series of precipitation water isotopes, along with annual resolution data on land cover including specific agricultural information (crop types and livestock density), and atmospheric nitrogen deposition. This comprehensive dataset enables broader integration of water quality into LSH research and will support new insights specifically in the field of hydrological and biogeochemical modelling.
do Nascimento, T. V. M.; Höge, M.; Schönenberger, U.; Pool, S.; Siber, R.; Kauzlaric, M.; Staudinger, M.; Horton, P.; Floriancic, M. G.; Storck, F. R.; Rinta, P.; Seibert, J.; Fenicia, F. (2025) Swiss data quality: augmenting CAMELS-CH with isotopes, water quality, agricultural and atmospheric data, Scientific Data, 12(1), 1283 (17 pp.), doi:10.1038/s41597-025-05625-1, Institutional Repository
