Twenty-three unsolved problems in hydrology (UPH) – a community perspective

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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Affiliated Institutions

• Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research CH
• University of Graz AT
• The University of Melbourne AU
• National Centre for Groundwater Research and Training AU
• University of Padua IT
• Reykjavík University IS
• University of Saskatchewan CA
• University of Ljubljana SI
• Polytechnic University of Turin IT
• Institute of Hydrology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences SK
• Australian National University AU
• Karlsruhe Institute of Technology DE
• Geodetic Institute of Slovenia SI
• University of California, Davis US
• Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina BR
• The University of Western Australia AU
• University of Lethbridge CA
• Flinders University AU
• University of Aberdeen GB
• Delft University of Technology NL
• Global Institute for Water Security CA
• Centre d'Études Spatiales de la Biosphère FR
• University of Victoria CA
• University of Edinburgh GB
• Colorado School of Mines US
• Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique FR
• University of Bologna IT
• University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign US
• Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research DE
• University of Arizona US
• Utrecht University NL
• Research Institute for Geo-Hydrological Protection IT
• Institut de Recherche pour le Développement FR
• Austrian Academy of Sciences AT
• University of Évora PT
• Bolin Centre for Climate Research SE
• Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research Warnemünde DE
• Imperial College London GB
• University of Waikato NZ
• Uppsala University SE
• McGill University CA
• Rothamsted Research GB
• James Hutton Institute GB
• Philipps University of Marburg DE
• HR Wallingford GB
• University of Nevada, Reno US
• Lancaster University GB
• Università degli Studi della Tuscia IT
• TU Wien AT
• Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier FR
• GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences DE
• Slovak Academy of Sciences SK
• National Research Council IT
• Sun Yat-sen University CN
• Ege University TR
• Lund University SE
• Politecnico di Milano IT
• Stockholm University SE
• University of Stuttgart DE
• Institute of Water Problems RU
• University of Bristol GB
• University of the Sunshine Coast AU
• Institut Agro Rennes-Angers FR
• Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research
• Institute for Interdisciplinary Mountain Research AT
• University of Calabria IT
• Istanbul Technical University TR
• CSIRO Land and Water AU
• BOKU University AT
• Hohai University CN
• Canmore Museum and Geoscience Centre CA
• Centre of Natural Hazards and Disaster Science SE
• ETH Zurich CH
• University of Birmingham GB
• United States Geological Survey US
• Roma Tre University IT
• Malaviya National Institute of Technology Jaipur IN
• University of Southern California US
• University of Washington US
• Slovak Hydrometeorological Institute SK
• Université Fédérale de Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées FR
• Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute SE
• Lomonosov Moscow State University RU
• Andalusian Institute of Agricultural and Fisheries Research and Training ES

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