Dear Colleagues,

Climate change has led to the intensification of the hydrologic cycle, causing a growing stress on urban water systems in a variety of ways. Some regions have exhibited frequent and intense precipitation events resulting in more extreme floods, which the existing infrastructure cannot accommodate. In other regions, the increase in drought severity and frequency has caused water shortages. Even for cities that have achieved lower per capita water usage, the total water demand continues to increase due to the ever-growing urban population. This increasing trend of urbanization has resulted in more impervious surfaces, further modifying urban hydrology. Additionally, areas reliant on snowpack for natural storage have exhibited shifts in runoff timing, which also augments the probabilities of water shortages. Furthermore, variations in both quantity and timing of runoff affect the quality of water reaching urban areas. For example, this occurs in coastal cities, where sea water intrusion becomes more prominent during drought and low runoff periods.

With the projected increase in atmospheric warming during the 21st century, the stress on urban water infrastructures will continue to rise. Therefore, to make these systems more resilient and attenuate the impact of the changing climate, it is inevitable to improve their design and management. When establishing the design criteria, the consideration of future climate scenarios can be crucial for the development of sustainable infrastructures. With the availability of high-resolution climate projections as a result of increased computational capacity, research investigating the effect of the changing climate on urban infrastructures has been growing.

This Special Issue focuses on highlighting state-of-the-art research that bridges the gap between climate and urban systems to advance our understanding of climate change impact on urban water infrastructures and propose ideas to make these systems more resilient. This Special Issue seeks articles that utilize approaches including, but not limited to, process-based modeling, empirical methods, and machine learning techniques at scales relevant to urban planning and management.

Dr. Deeksha Rastogi
Ms. Brianna Rita Pagan
Guest Editors

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• climate change
• climate scenarios
• urbanization
• urban water infrastructures
• hydrologic cycle