{"date_published":"2019-02-01T00:00:00Z","article_processing_charge":"No","title":"Variability of transit time distributions with climate and topography: A modelling approach","volume":569,"month":"02","date_updated":"2026-08-06T08:12:57Z","quality_controlled":"1","das_tickbox":"1","publisher":"Elsevier","abstract":[{"lang":"eng","text":"The time that rainfall takes to reach the outlet of a catchment as discharge (transit time) is a fundamental and\r\nintegrated measure of catchment hydrological processes and solute transport mechanisms. As such, many efforts\r\nhave been dedicated to its understanding and quantification. However, defining and ranking which factors,\r\ninternal and external to the system, control the distributions of transit time is still an open challenge. Here, we\r\ndevelop a two-stage approach to explore climate and topography controls on transit time, using a fully distributed hydrological model coupled with a transport component. Specifically, we apply the model to two\r\nsynthetic topographies under five observed climate regimes. With this setup, water fluxes from two years of daily\r\nrainfall events are singularly tracked across the catchments to then derive the distributions of transit time and\r\nfraction of young water for each combination of topography and climate. Results highlight a considerable\r\nvariability of transit times in all climates and a pronounced effect of topography within a given climate. They\r\nfurther reveal that for wet climates it is possible to define a curve describing water transit time as a function of\r\ncumulative discharge that only depends on topographic properties. On the contrary, in dry climates the variability of transit time and young water fraction is much larger and not amenable to a simple summary. Despite\r\nsimplifications, quantitative model-based inferences of transit time distributions are useful to better understand\r\nhow climate and topography affect catchment functioning."}],"keyword":["Transit time distributions","Young water","Climate","Topography","Distributed hydrological modelling"],"citation":{"ama":"Remondi F, Botter M, Burlando P, Fatichi S. Variability of transit time distributions with climate and topography: A modelling approach. <i>Journal of Hydrology</i>. 2019;569:37-50. doi:<a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2018.11.011\">10.1016/j.jhydrol.2018.11.011</a>","ieee":"F. Remondi, M. Botter, P. Burlando, and S. Fatichi, “Variability of transit time distributions with climate and topography: A modelling approach,” <i>Journal of Hydrology</i>, vol. 569. Elsevier, pp. 37–50, 2019.","ista":"Remondi F, Botter M, Burlando P, Fatichi S. 2019. Variability of transit time distributions with climate and topography: A modelling approach. Journal of Hydrology. 569, 37–50.","short":"F. Remondi, M. Botter, P. Burlando, S. Fatichi, Journal of Hydrology 569 (2019) 37–50.","mla":"Remondi, Federica, et al. “Variability of Transit Time Distributions with Climate and Topography: A Modelling Approach.” <i>Journal of Hydrology</i>, vol. 569, Elsevier, 2019, pp. 37–50, doi:<a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2018.11.011\">10.1016/j.jhydrol.2018.11.011</a>.","chicago":"Remondi, Federica, Martina Botter, Paolo Burlando, and Simone Fatichi. “Variability of Transit Time Distributions with Climate and Topography: A Modelling Approach.” <i>Journal of Hydrology</i>. Elsevier, 2019. <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2018.11.011\">https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2018.11.011</a>.","apa":"Remondi, F., Botter, M., Burlando, P., &#38; Fatichi, S. (2019). Variability of transit time distributions with climate and topography: A modelling approach. <i>Journal of Hydrology</i>. Elsevier. <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2018.11.011\">https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2018.11.011</a>"},"scopus_import":"1","oa_version":"None","status":"public","type":"journal_article","publication_identifier":{"issn":["0022-1694"],"eissn":["1879-2707"]},"OA_type":"closed access","article_type":"original","date_created":"2026-07-27T12:30:24Z","year":"2019","intvolume":"       569","publication_status":"published","extern":"1","doi":"10.1016/j.jhydrol.2018.11.011","language":[{"iso":"eng"}],"author":[{"full_name":"Remondi, Federica","last_name":"Remondi","first_name":"Federica"},{"full_name":"Botter, Martina","first_name":"Martina","last_name":"Botter"},{"full_name":"Burlando, Paolo","last_name":"Burlando","first_name":"Paolo"},{"last_name":"Fatichi","first_name":"Simone","full_name":"Fatichi, Simone","id":"cf8e546b-a9b0-11f0-a43b-aa89ed1b56d6"}],"page":"37-50","_id":"22549","user_id":"ba8df636-2132-11f1-aed0-ed93e2281fdd","publication":"Journal of Hydrology","day":"01"}