# Utilizing Earth Foundation Models to Enhance the Simulation Performance of Hydrological Models with AlphaEarth Embeddings

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.01558 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.01558/

## Key facts

- Cited by 3 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 12 of its 33 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 4 Jan 2026.

## Builds on (most cited first, 12 of 12)

- [Masked Autoencoders Are Scalable Vision Learners](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.06377/) (2021)
- [SatMAE: Pre-training Transformers for Temporal and Multi-Spectral Satellite Imagery](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2207.08051/) (2022)
- [SatCLIP: Global, General-Purpose Location Embeddings with Satellite Imagery](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.17179/) (2023)
- [Prithvi-EO-2.0: A Versatile Multi-Temporal Foundation Model for Earth Observation Applications](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.02732/) (2024)
- [AlphaEarth Foundations: An embedding field model for accurate and efficient global mapping from sparse label data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.22291/) (2025)
- [GEO-Bench: Toward Foundation Models for Earth Monitoring](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.03831/) (2023)
- [Towards Learning Universal, Regional, and Local Hydrological Behaviors via Machine-Learning Applied to Large-Sample Datasets](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1907.08456/) (2019)
- [Enhancing streamflow forecast and extracting insights using long-short term memory networks with data integration at continental scales](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1912.08949/) (2019)
- [Toward Foundation Models for Earth Monitoring: Proposal for a Climate Change Benchmark](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.00570/) (2021)
- [The data synergy effects of time-series deep learning models in hydrology](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2101.01876/) (2021)
- [Prediction in ungauged regions with sparse flow duration curves and input-selection ensemble modeling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2011.13380/) (2020)
- [Continental-scale streamflow modeling of basins with reservoirs: towards a coherent deep-learning-based strategy](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2101.04423/) (2021)

## Built on by (most cited first, 3 of 3)

- [Inferring Height from Earth Embeddings: First insights using Google AlphaEarth](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.17250/) (2026)
- [What on Earth is AlphaEarth? Hierarchical structure and functional interpretability for global land cover](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.16911/) (2026)
- [Earth Observation Foundation Models for Terrestrial Ecohydrology: From Representation Learning to Process Inference](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.15282/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Predicting river flow in places without streamflow records is challenging because basins respond differently to climate, terrain, vegetation, and soils. Traditional basin attributes describe some of these differences, but they cannot fully represent the complexity of natural environments. This study examines whether AlphaEarth Foundation embeddings, which are learned from large collections of satellite images rather than designed by experts, offer a more informative way to describe basin characteristics. These embeddings summarize patterns in vegetation, land surface properties, and long-term environmental dynamics. We find that models using them achieve higher accuracy when predicting flows in basins not used for training, suggesting that they capture key physical differences more effectively than traditional attributes. We further investigate how selecting appropriate donor basins influences prediction in ungauged regions. Similarity based on the embeddings helps identify basins with comparable environmental and hydrological behavior, improving performance, whereas adding many dissimilar basins can reduce accuracy. The results show that satellite-informed environmental representations can strengthen hydrological forecasting and support the development of models that adapt more easily to different landscapes.