Rapid climate change in recent decades has imposed evident impacts on geomorphic features and processes in our environment. Sedimentary cascades, from hillslopes to deepwater systems, landscape ecosystems, and landcover have been affected in various ways by increasing temperature and extreme hydrological events. Changes in the configuration and operation of these systems will have a variety of cumulative impacts on society, such as water security and the human-built environment. These issues are particularly manifest in areas sensitive to climate change, for instance the Tibetan Plateau with the imbalance of Asian water towers. There is a growing imperative to more coherent and connected understandings of these cumulative effects, in order to better envisage changes to our landscapes and living environment.
Many practical challenges are in the quest for better system models, which encompass questions of scale representation, incorporating a broad variety of data types (at varying resolution), non-linear process representation, and critical assessment of model results. Model results depend greatly on appropriately scaled and accurately represented processes. As systems under investigation become increasingly complex, it is pivotal to enable queries and validation of diversified linkages amongst system components. Advances in modeling capability have led us to ever more specific process representations, yet less is known about relatively fundamental processes, such as the impacts of climate change on hillslope instability, variability of river pattern, or mechanical details of riverbank erosion. As results are scaled up, model reliance on these linkages increases considerably.
In this Research Topic, we aim to bring together studies addressing how various landscape systems (fluvial, aeolian, hillslope, etc.) respond to climate change in different settings, using multidisciplinary approaches. We welcome high-quality contributions underscoring the following topics, but not limited to:
• Cumulative impacts of past climate change on modern landscape
• Influences of extreme events on hillslope/fluvial processes
• Lag time in sedimentary systems, following a single extreme event
• Investigations of complex and cumulative systems to disturbance
• River bedload and suspended sediment change under climate impacts
• What/how climate components affect fluvial ecosystems, from reach to catchment scale
• How climate change alters the hillslope-channel relationship
• Impacts of climate-change-induced landscape alteration on the social environment
• Novel modeling methodologies and algorithm development
Rapid climate change in recent decades has imposed evident impacts on geomorphic features and processes in our environment. Sedimentary cascades, from hillslopes to deepwater systems, landscape ecosystems, and landcover have been affected in various ways by increasing temperature and extreme hydrological events. Changes in the configuration and operation of these systems will have a variety of cumulative impacts on society, such as water security and the human-built environment. These issues are particularly manifest in areas sensitive to climate change, for instance the Tibetan Plateau with the imbalance of Asian water towers. There is a growing imperative to more coherent and connected understandings of these cumulative effects, in order to better envisage changes to our landscapes and living environment.
Many practical challenges are in the quest for better system models, which encompass questions of scale representation, incorporating a broad variety of data types (at varying resolution), non-linear process representation, and critical assessment of model results. Model results depend greatly on appropriately scaled and accurately represented processes. As systems under investigation become increasingly complex, it is pivotal to enable queries and validation of diversified linkages amongst system components. Advances in modeling capability have led us to ever more specific process representations, yet less is known about relatively fundamental processes, such as the impacts of climate change on hillslope instability, variability of river pattern, or mechanical details of riverbank erosion. As results are scaled up, model reliance on these linkages increases considerably.
In this Research Topic, we aim to bring together studies addressing how various landscape systems (fluvial, aeolian, hillslope, etc.) respond to climate change in different settings, using multidisciplinary approaches. We welcome high-quality contributions underscoring the following topics, but not limited to:
• Cumulative impacts of past climate change on modern landscape
• Influences of extreme events on hillslope/fluvial processes
• Lag time in sedimentary systems, following a single extreme event
• Investigations of complex and cumulative systems to disturbance
• River bedload and suspended sediment change under climate impacts
• What/how climate components affect fluvial ecosystems, from reach to catchment scale
• How climate change alters the hillslope-channel relationship
• Impacts of climate-change-induced landscape alteration on the social environment
• Novel modeling methodologies and algorithm development