2026 Sonia I. Seneviratne: Environmental Sciences Researcher – H-Index, Publications & Awards

Discipline name	D-Index	World Ranking	Current World Ranking	National Ranking	Current National Ranking	Publications	Citations
Best Female Scientists	131	336	320	1	1	605	71110
Environmental Sciences	141	44	41	2	2	600	83163

Research.com Recognitions

2026 - Research.com Environmental Sciences in Switzerland Leader Award
2025 - Research.com Best Female Scientists Award
2025 - Research.com Environmental Sciences in Switzerland Leader Award
2023 - Research.com Environmental Sciences in Switzerland Leader Award
2022 - Research.com Environmental Sciences in Switzerland Leader Award
2013 - Fellow of American Geophysical Union (AGU)

Overview

Sonia I. Seneviratne is affiliated with ETH Zurich in Switzerland and is active in the field of Environmental Science, with a significant focus on Global and Planetary Change.

Their research spans multiple subfields including Atmospheric Science, Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis, Water Science and Technology, and Environmental Engineering.

Main topics addressed in their work include:

Climate variability and models
Plant Water Relations and Carbon Dynamics
Meteorological Phenomena and Simulations
Atmospheric and Environmental Gas Dynamics
Climate Change and Health Impacts
Climate change impacts on agriculture
Hydrology and Watershed Management Studies

Recent papers authored or coauthored by Sonia I. Seneviratne underline their engagement with climate and environmental challenges globally:

Soil moisture dominates dryness stress on ecosystem production globally, 2020, Nature Communications
An update of IPCC climate reference regions for subcontinental analysis of climate model data: definition and aggregated datasets, 2020, Earth system science data
Reducing the health effects of hot weather and heat extremes: from personal cooling strategies to green cities, 2021, The Lancet
A framework for complex climate change risk assessment, 2021, One Earth
Globally observed trends in mean and extreme river flow attributed to climate change, 2021, Science

Frequent coauthors they collaborate with include:

Lukas Gudmundsson
Mathias Hauser
Wim Thiery
Dominik L. Schumacher
Édouard L. Davin

Their publications frequently appear in key venues such as:

Earth System Dynamics
Earth's Future
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Nature Communications
Earth system science data

In 2013, Sonia I. Seneviratne was recognized as a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union (AGU).

Best Publications

Investigating soil moisture-climate interactions in a changing climate: A review

Sonia I. Seneviratne;Thierry Corti;Edouard Léopold Davin;Martin Hirschi

5637
Citations
Changes in climate extremes and their impacts on the natural physical environment.

Sonia I. Seneviratne;Neville Nicholls;David Easterling;Clare M. Goodess

2734
Citations
Recent decline in the global land evapotranspiration trend due to limited moisture supply

Martin Jung;Markus Reichstein;Philippe Ciais;Sonia I. Seneviratne

2363
Citations
Future climate risk from compound events

Jakob Zscheischler;Seth Westra;Bart J. J. M. van den Hurk;Bart J. J. M. van den Hurk;Sonia I. Seneviratne

2120
Citations
Climate extremes and the carbon cycle

Markus Reichstein;Michael Bahn;Philippe Ciais;Dorothea Frank

2088
Citations
Land–atmosphere coupling and climate change in Europe

Sonia I. Seneviratne;Daniel Lüthi;Michael Litschi;Christoph Schär

1953
Citations
Flood risk and climate change: global and regional perspectives

Zbigniew W Kundzewicz;Shinjiro Kanae;Sonia I Seneviratne;John W Handmer

1627
Citations
ESA CCI Soil Moisture for improved Earth system understanding : State-of-the art and future directions

Wouter Dorigo;Wolfgang Wagner;Clement Albergel;Franziska Albrecht

1384
Citations
Soil Moisture–Atmosphere Interactions during the 2003 European Summer Heat Wave

E. M. Fischer;S. I. Seneviratne;P. L. Vidale;D. Lüthi

1183
Citations
Changes in climate extremes and their impacts on the natural physical environment: An overview of the IPCC SREX report

S. I. Seneviratne;N. Nicholls;D. Easterling;C. M. Goodess

1024
Citations
Effects of climate extremes on the terrestrial carbon cycle: concepts, processes and potential future impacts

Dorothe A. Frank;Markus Reichstein;Michael Bahn;Kirsten Thonicke

1019
Citations
Impacts of 1.5°C Global Warming on Natural and Human Systems

O. Hoegh-Guldberg;D. Jacob;M. Bindi;S. Brown

1014
Citations
Land–atmospheric feedbacks during droughts and heatwaves: state of the science and current challenges

Diego G. Miralles;Pierre Gentine;Sonia I. Seneviratne;Adriaan J. Teuling

968
Citations
The human imperative of stabilizing global climate change at 1.5°C

O. Hoegh-Guldberg;D. Jacob;M. Taylor;T. Guillén Bolaños

961
Citations
Global assessment of trends in wetting and drying over land

Peter Greve;Boris Orlowsky;Brigitte Mueller;Brigitte Mueller;Justin Sheffield

894
Citations
Soil moisture dominates dryness stress on ecosystem production globally.

Laibao Liu;Lukas Gudmundsson;Mathias Hauser;Dahe Qin

834
Citations
Observational evidence for soil-moisture impact on hot extremes in southeastern Europe

Martin Hirschi;Sonia I. Seneviratne;Vesselin Alexandrov;Fredrik Boberg

830
Citations
Technical Summary: Global warming of 1.5°C. An IPCC Special Report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels and related global greenhouse gas emission pathways, in the context of strengthening the global response to the threat of climate change, sustainable development, and efforts to eradicate poverty

M. Allen;P. Antwi-Agyei;F. Aragon-Durand;M. Babiker

825
Citations
Dependence of drivers affects risks associated with compound events.

Jakob Zscheischler;Sonia I. Seneviratne

823
Citations
Contribution of land‐atmosphere coupling to recent European summer heat waves

E. M. Fischer;S. I. Seneviratne;D. Lüthi;C. Schär

821
Citations
Allowable CO2 emissions based on regional and impact-related climate targets

Sonia I. Seneviratne;Markus G. Donat;Andy J. Pitman;Reto Knutti

781
Citations
An inter-comparison of regional climate models for Europe: model performance in present-day climate

Daniela Jacob;Lars Bärring;Ole Bøssing Christensen;Jens Hesselbjerg Christensen

758
Citations

Frequent Co-Authors

Lukas Gudmundsson ETH Zurich

Edouard L. Davin ETH Zurich

Wim Thiery Vrije Universiteit Brussel

Rene Orth Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry

Jakob Zscheischler Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research

Markus Reichstein Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry

Adriaan J. Teuling Wageningen University & Research

Stefan Hagemann Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht Centre for Materials and Coastal Research

Pierre Gentine Columbia University

David M. Lawrence National Center for Atmospheric Research

External Links

Wikipedia of Sonia I. Seneviratne Personal website of Sonia I. Seneviratne

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