Since the launch of ENVISAT satellite in 2002, the Radar Altimetry Mission provides systematic altimeter observations of the Earth surface. The ENVISAT Geophysical Data Records products contain, over all type of surfaces, altimeter ranges derived from four specialized retrackers: Ocean, Ice-1, Ice-2 and Sea-Ice retracker. Among the different goals of the ENVISAT Mission, one directly concerns land hydrology : the monitoring of water levels of the lakes, wetlands and rivers. In the present study, we compare the performances of these retracking algorithms for hydrology, in particular the ability to provide reliable water levels during high-water as well as low-water season.