Twenty-three unsolved problems in hydrology (UPH) - a community perspective
Nurtaev, Bakhram
Zhang, Yongqiang
- 1Technische Universitat Wien
- 2Utrecht University
- 3University of Evora
- 4INRAE
- 5Stockholm University
- 6Roma Tre University
- 7Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology Domain
- 8University of Saskatchewan
- 9Delft University of Technology
- 10University of Illinois System
- 11BOKU University
- 12University of Bologna
- 13UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH)
- 14Polytechnic University of Turin
- 15Istanbul Technical University
- 16University of Padua
- 17Swedish Meteorological & Hydrological Institute
- 18Commonwealth Scientific & Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO)
- 19University of Arizona
- 20University of Waikato
- 21Flinders University South Australia
- 22Lancaster University
- 23Helmholtz Association
- 24Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC)
- 25Leibniz Institut fur Ostseeforschung Warnemunde
- 26University of Ljubljana
- 27Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR)
- 28Imperial College London
- 29Polytechnic University of Milan
- 30Sun Yat Sen University
- 31Hohai University
- 32Philipps University Marburg
- 33Univ Saskatchewan Canmore
- 34UK Research & Innovation (UKRI)
- 35Australian National University
- 36Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research
- 37University of Southern California
- 38Centre of Natural Hazards & Disaster Science (CNDS)
- 39United States Department of the Interior
- 40Ege University
- 41Lund University
- 42University of Calabria
- 43DIST Politecn
- 44Reykjavik University
- 45University of California System
- 46University of Melbourne
- 47Russian Academy of Sciences
- 48Universite Gustave-Eiffel
- 49University of Aberdeen
- 50University of Victoria
- 51James Hutton Institute
- 52Agr & Fisheries Res Inst Andalusia
- 53Tuscia University
- 54National Institute of Technology (NIT System)
- 55University of Bristol
- 56University of Birmingham
- 57Nevada System of Higher Education (NSHE)
- 58University of Stuttgart
- 59University of Edinburgh
- 60Austrian Acad Sci OAW
- 61University of Western Australia
- 62Slovak Hydrometeorol Inst
- 63University of Graz
- 64Slovak Academy of Sciences
- 65University of Lethbridge
- 66Colorado School of Mines
- 67McGill Univ
- 68University of Washington
- 69University of the Sunshine Coast
- 70University of Latvia
- 71FutureWater
- 72Leibniz Association
- 73University of Leeds
- 74Polish Academy of Sciences
- 75Slovak University of Technology Bratislava
- 76Universidade de Lisboa
- 77Boise State University
- 78University of Idaho
- 79Southern University of Science & Technology
- 80Cornell University
- 81United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)
- 82Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
- 83Melnikov Permafrost Institute, Siberian Branch of the RAS
- 84L.N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University
- 85IHE Delft Institute for Water Education
- 86Universitat de Girona
- 87University of Architecture & Civil Engineering - Bulgaria
- 88
- 89Trinity College Dublin
- 90Shiraz University
- 91University Foreigners Perugia
- 92University of Nebraska System
- 93Saint Petersburg State University
- 94Bidhan Chandra Agricultural University
- 95Chinese Academy of Sciences
- 96National Technical University of Athens
- 97Luxembourg Institute of Science & Technology
- 98Universidad de Cordoba
- 99Universidad de Cantabria
- 100Max Planck Society
- 101University of Trento
- 102Princeton University
- 103University of Salento
- 104CORES Sci & Engn Ltd
- 105University of Lausanne
- 106Ruhr University Bochum
- 107University of Geneva
- 108University of Zurich
- 109Universite de Montpellier
- 110East Water & Environm Res Inst
- 111University of New South Wales Sydney
- 112Coventry University
- 113University of Central Asia
- 114Norwegian Water Resources & Energy Directorate
- 115Landcare Research - New Zealand
- 116Repository Safety Dept
- 117Norwegian University of Science & Technology (NTNU)
- 118University of Innsbruck
- 119University of Twente
- 120Utah System of Higher Education
- 121Tsinghua University
- 122Hellen Air Force
- 123Wageningen University & Research
- 124AGH University of Krakow
- 125University of Reading
- 126Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
- 127IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute
- 128University of Strathclyde
- 129Beijing Normal University
- 130Middle East Technical University
Journal
hydrological sciences journal
ISSN
0262-6667
2150-3435
Open Access
hybrid
Volume
64
Start page
1141
End page
1158
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.