Future of Hydrology

Dear Colleagues,

Hydrology has witnessed a tremendous growth during the past century, largely facilitated by the invention of powerful computers, scientific theories and mathematical techniques, measurement devices and data collection, and networking facilities, not to mention the important role of the significant growth in research in the field. Despite this growth, there still remain many concerns in our approach to hydrologic teaching, research, and practice. Some of the concerns dominating debates and discussions are: (1) highly complex and sophisticated hydrologic models are developed, but they do not perform well even for the same situations they are developed; (2) there are significant gaps among hydrologic theory, data collection, and catchment physics; (3) there are far too many models and comparisons for small-scale and local problems, but only very little emphasis is placed on large-scale and global hydrologic challenges; (4) hydrologic modeling is impeded by the absence of an integrated and generalization framework; and (5) our knowledge of the interactions between hydrologic systems and other systems (e.g. climate system, ecosystem, socio-economic system) is very limited. Such concerns will only likely grow in the future, especially with the anticipated impacts of rapid technological growth, socio-economic development, global climate change, and other natural and anthropogenic factors. These issues are being addressed in many different forms in the hydrologic literature. However, cohesive efforts to bring these disparate forms together and establish better guidance for future hydrologic teaching, research, and practice are largely lacking. As a result, what will the future of hydrology look like is anyone’s guess. This Special Issue invites contributions that aim to shed light on the future course of hydrology and offer proper directions to conduct future hydrologic teaching, research, and practice. Contributions are expected especially in the form of Opinions that will lead to serious debates and discussions on the future of hydrology. The interested contributors are requested to first contact the Guest Editor.

Prof. Dr. Bellie Sivakumar
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Hydrology is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 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.

• Hydrologic systems
• Model complexity
• Generalization framework
• Global-scale hydrologic issues
• Climate change impacts
• Human-water interactions