Dr. Paul Astagneau

Dr. Paul Astagneau

Fonction

Postdoc

Groupe

Hydrologie et impacts du climat sur les régions de montagne

  

WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF
Flüelastrasse 11
7260 Davos Dorf

Site

SLF Davos Da D 2 02

Research interests

  • Hydrology
  • Floods
  • Hydrological modelling
  • Climate change impact assessments on hydrological extremes
  • Hydrological extremes in mountain regions
  • Flood forecasting

Academic positions

from 10/2023: PostDoc, WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF and ETH Zurich, Hydrology & Climate Impacts Group, Davos, Switzerland

03/2023 - 09/2023: PostDoc, National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment INRAE, Catchment Hydrology Group, Antony, France

09/2019 - 12/2022: PhD student, Sorbonne University and INRAE, Catchment Hydrology Group, Paris, France

Education

  • 09/2019 - 12/2022: PhD in Hydrology, Sorbonne University and INRAE Antony, Catchment Hydrology Group
    PhD Thesis: Improving the generality and effectiveness of an operational flood forecasting model.  https://theses.hal.science/tel-04028903v1 
  • 09/2014 - 09/2019: Master of Engineering in Geosciences, Sorbonne University
    Master's Thesis: Comparison of hydrological modelling R packages. https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-03266100v1 

Publications

Astagneau, P. C., Wood, R. R., Vrac, M., Kotlarski, S., Vaittinada Ayar, P., François, B., and Brunner, M. I.: Impact of bias adjustment strategy on ensemble projections of hydrological extremes, Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 29, 5695–5718, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-5695-2025, 2025a.

Astagneau, P. C., Bourgin, F., Andréassian, V., and Perrin, C.: Improving the structure of a hydrological model to forecast catchment response to intense rainfall, LHB, 110, https://doi.org/10.1080/27678490.2024.2341027, 2024b.

Astagneau, P. C., Bourgin, F., Andréassian, V., and Perrin, C.: Lead-time-dependent calibration of a flood forecasting model, Journal of Hydrology, 644, 132119, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2024.132119, 2024a.

Payrastre, O., Nicolle, P., Bonnifait, L., Brigode, P., Astagneau, P. C., Baise, A., Belleville, A., Bouamara, N., Bourgin, F., Breil, P., Brunet, P., Cerbelaud, A., Courapied, F., Devreux, L., Dreyfus, R., Gaume, E., Nomis, S., Poggio, J., Pons, F., Rabab, Y., and Sevrez, D.: The 2 October 2020 Alex storm in south-eastern France: a contribution of the scientific community to the flood peak discharges estimation, LHB, 108, https://doi.org/10.1080/27678490.2022.2082891, 2022.

Astagneau, P. C., Bourgin, F., Andréassian, V., and Perrin, C.: Catchment response to intense rainfall: Evaluating modelling hypotheses, Hydrological Processes, 36, e14676, https://doi.org/10.1002/hyp.14676, 2022.

Astagneau, P. C., Thirel, G., Delaigue, O., Guillaume, J. H. A., Parajka, J., Brauer, C. C., Viglione, A., Buytaert, W., and Beven, K. J.: Technical note: Hydrology modelling R packages – a unified analysis of models and practicalities from a user perspective, Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 25, 3937–3973, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-25-3937-2021, 2021b.

Astagneau, P. C., Bourgin, F., Andréassian, V., and Perrin, C.: When does a parsimonious model fail to simulate floods? Learning from the seasonality of model bias, Hydrological Sciences Journal, 66, 1288–1305, https://doi.org/10.1080/02626667.2021.1923720, 2021a.

Astagneau, P. C., Peters, J., Pool, S., Muñoz-Castro, E., and Brunner, M. I.: RESIdual STability (RESIST) calibration for improved hydrological model time generalizability, Water Resources Research [in revision], https://doi.org/10.22541/essoar.175195297.71950418/v1, 2025b.

Muñoz-Castro, E., Anderson, B. J., Astagneau, P. C., Swain, D. L., Mendoza, P. A., and Brunner, M. I.: How well do hydrological models simulate streamflow extremes and drought-to-flood transitions?, Hydrology and Earth System Sciences [in revision], https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-781, 2025.

Astagneau, P. C., Wood, R. R., and Brunner, M. I.: Rethinking future flood hazard: Hourly data challenges daily flood projections, Science Advances [under review].

Bohl, J. P., Wood, R. R., Frank, C., Astagneau, P. C., Peters, J., and Brunner, M. I.: Hybrid models generalize better to warmer climate conditions than process-based and purely data-driven models, Hydrology and Earth System Sciences [under review], https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-5201, 2025.

Clerc-Schwarzenbach, F., Astagneau, P. C., Muñoz Castro, E., van Meerveld, I., Seibert, J., and Andréassian, V.: Cheeky cheating or sensible strategy? ‘Sweep parameters’ in bucket-type hydrological models, Hydrological Processes [under review].

Anderson, B. J.*, Astagneau, P. C.*, Gnann S., and Brunner, M. I.: Time resolution controls perspective on high flow regimes, [in prep]

Teaching and supervision

Lectures

  • Hydrological modelling (12/2024, Mountain Hydrology lecture, ETH Zurich)
  • Operational hydrology (12/2024, Mountain Hydrology lecture, ETH Zurich)
     

Supervision and co-supervision

  • Carole Sattler (ETH Zurich), Master's project: Representation of precipitation extremes in convection- vs. non- convection permitting model simulations, 2024
  • Beda Bauer (ETH Zurich), Master's thesis: Evaluating hydrological models simulating drought-to-flood transitions at hourly timestep, 2025.
  • Silvan Rusch (ETH Zurich), Master's thesis: Flood Generation Process Variations in Time and Space, 2026
  • Maria Grundmann (ETH Zurich), PhD thesis: Drivers and spatio-temporal patterns of riverine heatwaves in Europe

Conferences

Anderson, B. J.*, Astagneau, P. C.*, and Brunner, M. I.: Impact of time aggregation on dominant high-flow regimes, Leonardo Conference, Bologna, 2025.

Astagneau, P. C., Wood, R. R., Vrac, M., Kotlarski, S., Vaittinada Ayar, P., François, B., and Brunner, M. I.: How does the choice of bias adjustment strategy affect ensemble projections of high-flows, Bias correction workshop, Paris, 2025b.

Grundmann, M., Astagneau, P. C., and Brunner, M. I.: Alpine river temperature drivers and riverine heatwaves across Europe, EGU, Vienna, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-3220, 2025.

Muñoz-Castro, E., Anderson, B. J., Astagneau, P. C., Mendoza, P. A., Swain, D. L., and Brunner, M. I.: How well can hydrological models simulate drought-to-flood transitions?, EGU, Vienna, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-14340, 2025.

Astagneau, P. C., Wood, R. R., and Brunner, M. I.: Earlier emergence of high-flow changes at higher elevations, EGU, Vienna, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-3083, 2025a.

Astagneau, P. C., Wood, R. R., Vrac, M., Kotlarski, S., and Brunner, M. I.: Bias adjustment for large climate ensembles to study changes in hydrological extremes, Swiss Geoscience meeting, Basel, 2024b.

Astagneau, P. C., Wood, R., and Brunner, M. I.: Which bias correction methods are suited to represent hydrologic extremes in the Alps?, EGU, Vienna, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu24-6118, 2024a.

Muñoz-Castro, E., Anderson, B., Astagneau, P. C., Janzing, J., Mendoza, P. A., and Brunner, M. I.: The role of meteorological drivers and initial hydrologic conditions on streamflow drought-to-flood transition events, EGU, Vienna, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu24-11499, 2024.

Astagneau, P. C., Bourgin, F., Andréassian, V., Perrin, C., and Brunner, M. I.: Multiobjective calibration forbetter simulation of flash floods, Swiss Geoscience meeting, Mendrisio, 2023b.

Astagneau, P. C., Bourgin, F., Andréassian, V., and Perrin, C.: Estimating the parameters of a flood forecasting model: with or without updating procedures?, EGU, Vienna, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-5492, 2023a.

Astagneau, P. C., Bourgin, F., Andréassian, V., and Perrin, C.: Using the information on rainfall intensities to represent the variability in time of dominant processes in a hydrological model, IAHS, Montpellier, https://doi.org/10.5194/iahs2022-60, 2022.

Astagneau, P. C., Bourgin, F., Andréassian, V., and Perrin, C.: Flood simulation errors show an unexpected seasonal trend: results obtained on a set of 229 catchments and 11,054 flood events, EGU, online, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-1045, 2021.

Projects