Hydrological Extremes and Drought Management—Challenges, Innovations, and Solutions

Dear Colleagues,

The increasing frequency, intensity, and spatial extent of hydrological extremes—such as floods and droughts—have emerged as the most pressing environmental and societal challenges of the 21st century. These events, often exacerbated by anthropogenic climate change and unsustainable land and water use practices, not only disrupt hydrological cycles but also threaten water security, agricultural productivity, public health, ecosystem services, and infrastructure resilience. Moreover, the compound nature of hydro-climatic events—where multiple hazards occur either simultaneously or sequentially—poses an amplified risk that often exceeds the predictive power of conventional analytical frameworks.

The non-stationary behavior of hydrological systems under climate change has rendered traditional frequency analysis, risk assessment, and design protocols insufficient for reliable forecasting and long-term planning. In this context, the integration of advanced technologies—such as artificial intelligence (AI), deep learning (DL), machine learning (ML), Big Data Analytics, remote sensing, and the Internet of Things (IoT)—has revolutionized the landscape of hydrological monitoring, forecasting, and decision-making. These tools offer significant potential for spatiotemporal modeling of drought and flood dynamics, developing early warning systems, uncertainty quantification, and implementing adaptive water resources management strategies.

This Special Issue of Atmosphere, titled “Hydrological Extremes and Drought Management—Challenges, Innovations, and Solutions”, aims to compile a collection of high-quality studies that explore the intersection of hydrological extremes, novel modeling approaches, and sustainable management solutions. Potential topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Hybrid modeling frameworks that combine physics-based hydrological models with AI/ML methods;
• The development of integrated hydro-climate models for regional and local drought/flood forecasting;
• The use of Earth observation data and sensor networks for real-time hazard monitoring;
• Uncertainty analysis and ensemble projections using CMIP6, CORDEX, or other climate model datasets;
• The evaluation of adaptation and mitigation strategies under different socio-economic scenarios (e.g., SSPs);
• Risk mapping and resilience assessments of water systems in arid, semi-arid, and urban regions;
• The application of spatial statistics, time–frequency analysis, and nonlinear dynamics in hydro-climatology.
• Compound and cascading hazard analysis under climate extremes

We encourage submissions from a wide range of disciplines, including hydrology, water engineering, climatology, geography, remote sensing, computational modeling, environmental science, and decision sciences. Contributions may include original research articles, comprehensive review papers, methodological advancements, and well-documented case studies.

By bringing together interdisciplinary insights and showcasing cutting-edge methodologies, this Special Issue seeks to deepen our understanding of extreme hydrological events and foster the development of robust, scalable, and adaptive solutions to water-related challenges under a changing climate.

We look forward to receiving your valuable contributions.

Dr. Younes Khosravi
Dr. Taha B. M. J. Ouarda
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• hydrological extremes
• climate change
• spatiotemporal modelling
• integrated hydro-climate modeling
• machine learning applications
• water resource resilience