| 1. |
- Blösch, Günter, et al.
(författare)
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Twenty-three unsolved problems in hydrology (UPH) - a community perspective
- 2019
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Ingår i: Hydrological Sciences Journal. - : Informa UK Limited. - 0262-6667 .- 2150-3435. ; 64:10, s. 1141-1158
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper is the outcome of a community initiative to identify major unsolved scientific problems in hydrology motivated by a need for stronger harmonisation of research efforts. The procedure involved a public consultation through online media, followed by two workshops through which a large number of potential science questions were collated, prioritised, and synthesised. In spite of the diversity of the participants (230 scientists in total), the process revealed much about community priorities and the state of our science: a preference for continuity in research questions rather than radical departures or redirections from past and current work. Questions remain focused on the process-based understanding of hydrological variability and causality at all space and time scales. Increased attention to environmental change drives a new emphasis on understanding how change propagates across interfaces within the hydrological system and across disciplinary boundaries. In particular, the expansion of the human footprint raises a new set of questions related to human interactions with nature and water cycle feedbacks in the context of complex water management problems. We hope that this reflection and synthesis of the 23 unsolved problems in hydrology will help guide research efforts for some years to come.
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| 2. |
- Ceola, Serena, et al.
(författare)
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Adaptation of water resources systems to changing society and environment : a statement by the International Association of Hydrological Sciences
- 2016
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Ingår i: Hydrological Sciences Journal. - : Taylor & Francis Group. - 0262-6667 .- 2150-3435. ; 61:16, s. 2803-2817
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- We explore how to address the challenges of adaptation of water resources systems under changing conditions by supporting flexible, resilient and low-regret solutions, coupled with on-going monitoring and evaluation. This will require improved understanding of the linkages between biophysical and social aspects in order to better anticipate the possible future co-evolution of water systems and society. We also present a call to enhance the dialogue and foster the actions of governments, the international scientific community, research funding agencies and additional stakeholders in order to develop effective solutions to support water resources systems adaptation. Finally, we call the scientific community to a renewed and unified effort to deliver an innovative message to stakeholders. Water science is essential to resolve the water crisis, but the effectiveness of solutions depends, inter alia, on the capability of scientists to deliver a new, coherent and technical vision for the future development of water systems.
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| 3. |
- Di Baldassarre, Giuliano, et al.
(författare)
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Sociohydrology : Scientific Challenges in Addressing the Sustainable Development Goals
- 2019
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Ingår i: Water resources research. - 0043-1397 .- 1944-7973. ; 55:8, s. 6327-6355
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations Agenda 2030 represent an ambitious blueprint to reduce inequalities globally and achieve a sustainable future for all mankind. Meeting the SDGs for water requires an integrated approach to managing and allocating water resources, by involving all actors and stakeholders, and considering how water resources link different sectors of society. To date, water management practice is dominated by technocratic, scenario-based approaches that may work well in the short term but can result in unintended consequences in the long term due to limited accounting of dynamic feedbacks between the natural, technical, and social dimensions of human-water systems. The discipline of sociohydrology has an important role to play in informing policy by developing a generalizable understanding of phenomena that arise from interactions between water and human systems. To explain these phenomena, sociohydrology must address several scientific challenges to strengthen the field and broaden its scope. These include engagement with social scientists to accommodate social heterogeneity, power relations, trust, cultural beliefs, and cognitive biases, which strongly influence the way in which people alter, and adapt to, changing hydrological regimes. It also requires development of new methods to formulate and test alternative hypotheses for the explanation of emergent phenomena generated by feedbacks between water and society. Advancing sociohydrology in these ways therefore represents a major contribution toward meeting the targets set by the SDGs, the societal grand challenge of our time. Plain Language Summary Water crises that humanity faces are increasingly connected and are growing in complexity. As such, they require a more integrated approach in managing water resources, which involves all actors and stakeholders and considers how water resources link different sectors of society. Yet, water management practice is still dominated by technocratic approaches, which emphasize technical solutions. While these approaches may work in the short-term, they often result in unintended consequences in the long-term. Sociohydrology is developing a generalizable understanding of the interactions and feedbacks between natural,technical and social processes, which can improve water management practice. As such, advancing sociohydrology can contribute to address the global water crises and meet the water-related targets defined by the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals.
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| 4. |
- Gleeson, Tom, et al.
(författare)
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Illuminating water cycle modifications and Earth system resilience in the Anthropocene
- 2020
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Ingår i: Water resources research. - 0043-1397 .- 1944-7973. ; 56:4
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Fresh water—the bloodstream of the biosphere—is at the center of the planetary drama of the Anthropocene. Water fluxes and stores regulate the Earth's climate and are essential for thriving aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, as well as water, food, and energy security. But the water cycle is also being modified by humans at an unprecedented scale and rate. A holistic understanding of freshwater's role for Earth system resilience and the detection and monitoring of anthropogenic water cycle modifications across scales is urgent, yet existing methods and frameworks are not well suited for this. In this paper we highlight four core Earth system functions of water (hydroclimatic regulation, hydroecological regulation, storage, and transport) and key related processes. Building on systems and resilience theory, we review the evidence of regional‐scale regime shifts and disruptions of the Earth system functions of water. We then propose a framework for detecting, monitoring, and establishing safe limits to water cycle modifications and identify four possible spatially explicit methods for their quantification. In sum, this paper presents an ambitious scientific and policy grand challenge that could substantially improve our understanding of the role of water in the Earth system and cross‐scale management of water cycle modifications that would be a complementary approach to existing water management tools.
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| 5. |
- Li, Bin, et al.
(författare)
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Groundwater Vulnerability in a Megacity Under Climate and Economic Changes : A Coupled Sociohydrological Analysis
- 2023
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Ingår i: Water resources research. - : American Geophysical Union (AGU). - 0043-1397 .- 1944-7973. ; 59:12
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Groundwater depletion has become increasingly challenging, and many cities worldwide have adopted drastic policies to relieve water stress due to socioeconomic growth. Located on the declining aquifer of the North China Plain, Beijing, for example, has developed plans to limit the size of the city's population. However, the effect of population displacement under uncertain macroeconomic and climate change remains ambiguous. We adopt a sociohydrological model, with explicit consideration of the dynamics of human-water interactions, to explore the groundwater vulnerability of Beijing. We investigate how human response might shape the development trajectories of the groundwater-population-economy system under different macroscale economic and climate scenarios. Furthermore, we use a machine learning algorithm to identify the decisive factors to be considered for reducing groundwater vulnerability. Our results show that while rapid external economic development or larger annual average precipitation would enable recovery of the groundwater table in the short term, they may slacken human water shortage awareness and result in more acute groundwater depletion in the long run. Strengthening policymaker perceptions of groundwater depletion would prompt timely response policies for controlling population size. Improving the quantity and quality of labor force input to economic development would avoid downturns in the economy due to labor shortages. The outcomes of this study suggest that these strategies would effectively reduce groundwater vulnerability in the long run without causing severe socioeconomic recession. These findings highlight the importance of endogenizing human behavioral dynamics in sustainable urban water management. Beijing's groundwater vulnerability to external economic and climate change is assessed using a coupled sociohydro-economic modelRapid external economic development or larger precipitation might unintendedly lead to more severe groundwater depletion in the long runStrengthening policymakers' views of groundwater depletion is the key to enhancing the sustainability of the coupled human-water system
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| 6. |
- Pande, Saket, et al.
(författare)
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Never Ask for a Lighter Rain but a Stronger Umbrella
- 2022
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Ingår i: Frontiers in Water. - : Frontiers Media S.A.. - 2624-9375. ; 3
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In a recent editorial in the journal Nature Sustainability, the editors raised the concern that journal submissions on water studies appear too similar. The gist of the editorial: "too many publications and not enough ideas." In this response, we contest this notion, and point to the numerous new ideas that result from taking a broader view of the water science field. Drawing inspiration from a recently hosted conference geared at transcending traditional disciplinary silos and forging new paradigms for water research, we are, in fact, enthusiastic and optimistic about the ways scientists are investigating political, economic, historical, and cultural intersections toward more just and sustainable human-water relations and ways of knowing.
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| 7. |
- Pouladi, Parsa, et al.
(författare)
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Interconnected governance and social barriers impeding the restoration process of Lake Urmia
- 2021
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Ingår i: Journal of Hydrology. - : Elsevier BV. - 0022-1694 .- 1879-2707. ; 598, s. 126489-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Lake Urmia in Iran has undergone catastrophic desiccation due to increasing anthropogenic development, especially in the agricultural sector. A paramount national goal is to restore the lake to its former healthy condition, but corresponding water governance and restoration efforts have encountered various, mostly human-related, challenges. We argue here that these challenges stem from lack of awareness and insufficient consideration of the local social conditions and the subtleties of human-water interactions, which we collectively refer to as socio-hydrological barriers. Ignorance of such socio-hydrological barriers can lead to policy efforts that are mismatched with local realities and, thus, ineffective lake restoration efforts. This study, therefore, focuses on identifying and teasing out how various socio-hydrological factors influence the anthropogenic drought and water governance efforts using the case of Lake Urmia. To this end, a series of interviews with farmers in the lake basin and with specialist staffs in Urmia Lake Restoration Program were conducted and analyzed. In addition, broader strategies for improving the region's water governance are identified and suggested based on the lessons learned. Although the current study is placed-based, the insights generated here can be relevant for similar cases in the Middle East and beyond that are vulnerable to anthropogenic droughts.
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| 8. |
- Yu, David J., et al.
(författare)
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On capturing human agency and methodological interdisciplinarity in socio-hydrology research
- 2022
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Ingår i: Hydrological Sciences Journal. - : Taylor & Francis. - 0262-6667 .- 2150-3435. ; 67:13, s. 1905-1916
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Socio-hydrology has expanded and been effective in exposing the hydrological community to ideas and approaches from other scientific disciplines, and social sciences in particular. Yet it still has much to explore regarding how to capture human agency and how to combine different methods and disciplinary views from both the hydrological and the social sciences to develop knowledge. A useful starting ground is noting that the complexity of human–water relations is due to interactions not only across spatial and temporal scales but also across different organizational levels of social systems. This calls for consideration of another analytical scale, the human organizational scale, and interdisciplinarity in study methods. Based on the papers published in this journal’s Special Issue Advancing Socio-hydrology over 2019–2022, this paper illuminates how the understanding of coupled human–water systems can be strengthened by capturing the multi-level nature of human decision making and by applying an interdisciplinary multi-method approach.
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