About this Research Topic
The concept of Global Change refers to the environmental transformation produced and/or induced by anthropic activities on the Planet, some of them leading, others adding up, to Climate Change. Adaptation to Global Change is one of the main challenges of this century. This challenge has a double perspective: first, the impacts driven by Climate Change; and second, the environmental and social consequences of required socioeconomic and cultural human adaptations, especially in what concerns valorisation, evaluation and management of water and other water-dependent natural resources.
Climate Change affects the hydrosphere through changing spatiotemporal patterns of atmospheric variables leading to more frequent and intense extreme events. On the other hand, the combination of Climate Change and human adaptations to an increasingly populated Planet with greater demand for food and natural resources, threatens the sustainability of the natural resources that maintain most ecosystems, especially water. This tends to increasingly cause widespread losses and damages to nature and people, leading to social conflicts. This way, this thematic is becoming object of concern for different continents and countries, resulting in the development of related research programs.
In the scientific literature we find studies forecasting how Climate Change and Global Change will impact surface-water and groundwater resources and their associated socioeconomic systems. The spatial coverage of predictions includes surface-water in basins, groundwater in aquifers, and snowpack, focusing on the impact on different variables and processes like river discharge, evapotranspiration, aquifer recharge, and snow-water equivalent. Some works are oriented to advances not only in the monitoring of variables, but also in the integration of data and models to characterize system behaviour, and to analyse potential (future) scenarios. The assumptions depend on the problem studied and the spatiotemporal resolution covered. The problems of the socioeconomic and cultural Human Adaptations include a large set of causal relationships and feedback between economic and social drivers and preservation of water-dependent ecosystems, land degradation and desertification, permanent aquifer degradation, and disappearance of perpetual snow covers in mountain areas.
In this Research Topic we aim to compile novel Climate and Global Change research studies that help to advance the scientific knowledge in this field. We will give focus to studies that contribute to:
• The analysis of potential Climate and/or Global Change impacts on water resources, including surface water and groundwater. We are especially interested in the study of vulnerable socioeconomic systems, such as coastal areas subjected to seawater intrusion and sea-level raising; dryland regions mostly dependent on groundwater resources; alpine regions typically catalogued as great reservoirs or islands of water; wetlands threatened by land degradation and water misuse. Both water quantity and quality assessments and projections are welcomed.
• The study of Climate Change impacts on extreme events, including both floods and droughts.
• The advance in the decision-making process of adaptation to future conditions, in a context of growing scarcity of resources and a higher number of related hazards due to extreme events.
• The study of the consequences of Climate and/or Global Change for food provision, social conflicts, climatic migrants, telecoupling, food-water-energy nexus, and other socioeconomic issues.
Climate Change affects the hydrosphere through changing spatiotemporal patterns of atmospheric variables leading to more frequent and intense extreme events. On the other hand, the combination of Climate Change and human adaptations to an increasingly populated Planet with greater demand for food and natural resources, threatens the sustainability of the natural resources that maintain most ecosystems, especially water. This tends to increasingly cause widespread losses and damages to nature and people, leading to social conflicts. This way, this thematic is becoming object of concern for different continents and countries, resulting in the development of related research programs.
In the scientific literature we find studies forecasting how Climate Change and Global Change will impact surface-water and groundwater resources and their associated socioeconomic systems. The spatial coverage of predictions includes surface-water in basins, groundwater in aquifers, and snowpack, focusing on the impact on different variables and processes like river discharge, evapotranspiration, aquifer recharge, and snow-water equivalent. Some works are oriented to advances not only in the monitoring of variables, but also in the integration of data and models to characterize system behaviour, and to analyse potential (future) scenarios. The assumptions depend on the problem studied and the spatiotemporal resolution covered. The problems of the socioeconomic and cultural Human Adaptations include a large set of causal relationships and feedback between economic and social drivers and preservation of water-dependent ecosystems, land degradation and desertification, permanent aquifer degradation, and disappearance of perpetual snow covers in mountain areas.
In this Research Topic we aim to compile novel Climate and Global Change research studies that help to advance the scientific knowledge in this field. We will give focus to studies that contribute to:
• The analysis of potential Climate and/or Global Change impacts on water resources, including surface water and groundwater. We are especially interested in the study of vulnerable socioeconomic systems, such as coastal areas subjected to seawater intrusion and sea-level raising; dryland regions mostly dependent on groundwater resources; alpine regions typically catalogued as great reservoirs or islands of water; wetlands threatened by land degradation and water misuse. Both water quantity and quality assessments and projections are welcomed.
• The study of Climate Change impacts on extreme events, including both floods and droughts.
• The advance in the decision-making process of adaptation to future conditions, in a context of growing scarcity of resources and a higher number of related hazards due to extreme events.
• The study of the consequences of Climate and/or Global Change for food provision, social conflicts, climatic migrants, telecoupling, food-water-energy nexus, and other socioeconomic issues.
Keywords: Water Resources, Climate Change, Global Change, Impacts, Adaptation, Extreme Events, Floods, Droughts
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