UoB Water Group and Fathom receive WRR Editors' Choice Award

Awards and prizes 17.12.2020

Sosa, J.,
Bates CBE FRS, P.

Intro

Their paper on MERIT Hydro, co-written with Dai Yamazaki, made major advances in our ability to represent river networks globally.

As 2020 draws to a close, Fathom are pleased to announce that University of Bristol Water Group researchers, and Fathom team members, Jeison Sosa and Paul Bates have been awarded a Water Resources Research (WRR) Editors’ Choice award for 2020.

This award was received as a result of their contribution to Dai Yamazaki’s paper on MERIT Hydro, a high‐resolution global map of river network developed by combining the latest global map of topography with the latest maps of water bodies. MERIT Hydro represents a major advance in our ability to represent river networks globally and is a data set that is anticipated to enhance a wide range of geoscience applications including flood risk assessment, aquatic carbon emissions, and climate modelling.

WRR is published by the American Geophysical Union and is the leading technical journal for scientists working in flood mapping. WRR awards are given to the top 1% of papers published each year and awards papers based on their quality, significance and originality.

We are delighted that Fathom research has been acknowledged in this way. In the new year, we look forward to continuing collaboration with the University of Bristol to produce industry-leading research contributing to the advancement of the flood modelling and hydrology field.

Fathom’s latest research

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Rong, Y.,
Bates CBE FRS, P.,
Neal, J.,
Bell, P.,
Gommenginger, C.,
Lichtman, I.,
Banks, C.,
Calafat, F.,
Martin, A.,
Brown, J.,
Cooke, R.,
Balfour, C.,
Dominicis, M.,
Payo, M.,
Williams, S.,
Amoudry, L.,
Chuter, S.,
Neill, S.,
Chisholm, J.,
Kupiec, J.,
Lewis, M.,
Gleason, C.

01/24/2026

Composite image comprising two graphs. The figure on the right shows the results from applying the EQD and TAILS methods to every GESLA record used in this study, showing the distributions of quantile probabilities of the selected thresholds. On the left are spatial plots of (a) the quantile probabilities of selected thresholds using the TAILS methods, and (b) the difference in the quantile probabilities of the selected thresholds between the TAILS and EQD approaches.

Research paper

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Collings, T.,
Murphy-Barltrop, C.,
Murphy, C.,
Haigh, I.,
Bates CBE FRS, P.,
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Probyn, I.,
Marra, F.,
Lucas, C.,
Bates, J.,
Cooper, A.,
Fowler, H.,
Hatchard, S.,
Lewis, E.,
Savage, J.,
Addor, N.,
Sampson, C.

New research by Fathom’s Senior Hydrologist, Dr Jannis Hoch, and other Fathom scientists describes Fathom’s new dataset, Bottom Up Regionalised Global Extreme Rainfall, or BURGER for short. It’s the first of its kind to be created from rainfall gauge data and the first to contain extreme estimates for durations as short as an hour.

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Cerbelaud, A.,
David, C.,
Pavelsky, T.,
Biancamaria, S.,
Garambois, P.,
Kittel, C.,
Papa, F.,
Bates, P.,
Tourian, M.,
Durand, M.,
Frasson, R.,
Oubanas, H.,
Simard, M.,
Schumann, G.,
Allen, G.,
Tarpanelli, A.,
Wongchuig, S.,
Wade, J.,
Tom, M.,
Malaterre, P.,
Crétaux, J.,
Gleason, C.,
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Scherer, D.,
Gal, L.,
Paris, A.,
Dasgupta, A.,
Munier, S.,
Feng, D.,
Bauer-Gottwein, P.,
Hossain, F.,
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Andreadis, K.,
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07/22/2025

Research paper

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Slater, L.,
Hawker, L.,
Liu, Y.,
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Zhang, B.,
Schwenk, J.,
Allen, G.,
Ashworth, P.,
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Cloke,, H.,
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Griffith, H.,
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McLelland, S.,
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