Hydrological hazards (‘hydro-hazards’) are defined as extreme events associated with the occurrence, movement and distribution of water, specifically floods and droughts. Flood hazards are the result of excess water from one or multiple sources (e.g. coastal, fluvial, or surface/sub surface water), while drought hazards arise from a deficit of river flow or precipitation over a prolonged period. With the impact of climate change on global and regional weather, these hazards are likely to change and shift in nature and location in the future. Research is ongoing across the world, translating climate projections to hazard assessments focused on determining the future trends. Uncertainties in projections, modeling approaches and trends are now becoming quantifiable given increasing computational power and evolving data analytics. Therefore a coherent regional understanding is developing, however, a coherent global picture is yet to emerge
In the increasing hydro-climatic risk context, this Research Topic aims to identify future hydro-hazard hotspots as a result of climate change across the world, and ultimately create a global picture of changing hydro-hazards. New sources of data, including crowdsourced data, are available to analyze the changes.
We invite novel research focused on determining hydro-hazards and suggest a number of lenses through which this could be approached:
1. Future hotspots of changes. Where will these hazards intensify and what does that mean for underlying populations? Which spatio-temporal characteristics (e.g. seasonality, regional trends etc.) can be determined?
2. Novel methods for data-poor environments. Which methods and techniques can be employed to collect and analyse future patterns when past data are scarce? How can uncertainty be evaluated? What is the value of analyzed data for modelling and simulation?
3. Novel datasets and data analytics. What do new datasets and methods allow in the context of hydro-hazards assessment? How do they improve the understanding of future hydro-hazard trends?
4. Decision-making. What do these hazards imply for water management, risk planning, adaptation and policy? What advances are available to reduce the risk from future hydro-hazards?
Systematic reviews, reviews, methods and original research articles are all welcome (see
article types guidelines< /a>). When submitting your abstract for evaluation, please clearly specify:
(i) the type of hydro-hazard (coastal, fluvial, surface/sub-surface water flooding; droughts), and the climate change projections considered;
(ii) the country or region of interest;
(iii) the methodology underpinning the analysis and;
(iv) how the research fits the Research Topic call.