Twenty-three unsolved problems in hydrology (UPH) - a community perspective
Nurtaev, Bakhram
Zhang, Yongqiang
- 1Technische Universitat Wien
- 2Utrecht University
- 3University of Evora
- 4Universite de Rennes
- 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
- 17Universite Paris Saclay
- 18Swedish Meteorological & Hydrological Institute
- 19Commonwealth Scientific & Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO)
- 20University of Arizona
- 21University of Waikato
- 22Flinders University South Australia
- 23Lancaster University
- 24Helmholtz Association
- 25Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC)
- 26Leibniz Institut fur Ostseeforschung Warnemunde
- 27INRAE
- 28University of Ljubljana
- 29Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR)
- 30Imperial College London
- 31Polytechnic University of Milan
- 32Sun Yat Sen University
- 33Hohai University
- 34Philipps University Marburg
- 35Univ Saskatchewan Canmore
- 36UK Research & Innovation (UKRI)
- 37Australian National University
- 38Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research
- 39University of Southern California
- 40Uppsala University
- 41United States Department of the Interior
- 42Ege University
- 43Lund University
- 44University of Calabria
- 45DIST Politecn
- 46Reykjavik University
- 47University of California System
- 48University of Melbourne
- 49Russian Academy of Sciences
- 50Universite Gustave-Eiffel
- 51University of Aberdeen
- 52University of Victoria
- 53James Hutton Institute
- 54Agr & Fisheries Res Inst Andalusia
- 55Tuscia University
- 56National Institute of Technology (NIT System)
- 57University of Bristol
- 58University of Birmingham
- 59Nevada System of Higher Education (NSHE)
- 60University of Stuttgart
- 61University of Edinburgh
- 62Austrian Acad Sci OAW
- 63University of Western Australia
- 64Slovak Hydrometeorol Inst
- 65University of Graz
- 66Slovak Academy of Sciences
- 67University of Lethbridge
- 68Colorado School of Mines
- 69McGill University
- 70University of Washington
- 71University of the Sunshine Coast
- 72University of Latvia
- 73FutureWater
- 74Leibniz Association
- 75University of Leeds
- 76Polish Academy of Sciences
- 77Slovak University of Technology Bratislava
- 78Universidade de Lisboa
- 79Boise State University
- 80University of Idaho
- 81Southern University of Science & Technology
- 82Cornell University
- 83United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)
- 84Universite de Montpellier
- 85Melnikov Permafrost Institute, Siberian Branch of the RAS
- 86L.N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University
- 87IHE Delft Institute for Water Education
- 88Universitat de Girona
- 89University of Architecture & Civil Engineering - Bulgaria
- 90
- 91Trinity College Dublin
- 92Shiraz University
- 93University Foreigners Perugia
- 94University of Nebraska System
- 95Saint Petersburg State University
- 96Bidhan Chandra Agricultural University
- 97Chinese Academy of Sciences
- 98National Technical University of Athens
- 99Luxembourg Institute of Science & Technology
- 100Universidad de Cordoba
- 101Universidad de Cantabria
- 102Max Planck Society
- 103University of Trento
- 104Princeton University
- 105University of Salento
- 106CORES Sci & Engn Ltd
- 107University of Lausanne
- 108Ruhr University Bochum
- 109University of Geneva
- 110University of Zurich
- 111East Water & Environm Res Inst
- 112University of New South Wales Sydney
- 113Coventry University
- 114University of Central Asia
- 115Norwegian Water Resources & Energy Directorate
- 116Landcare Research - New Zealand
- 117Repository Safety Dept
- 118Norwegian University of Science & Technology (NTNU)
- 119University of Innsbruck
- 120University of Twente
- 121Utah System of Higher Education
- 122Tsinghua University
- 123Hellen Air Force
- 124Wageningen University & Research
- 125AGH University of Krakow
- 126University of Reading
- 127Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
- 128IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute
- 129University of Strathclyde
- 130Beijing Normal University
- 131Middle 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.