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Water-Related Disasters in Adaptation to Climate Change
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Water-Related Disasters in Adaptation to Climate Change

A special issue of Water (ISSN 2073-4441). This special issue belongs to the section "Hydrogeology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2025 | Viewed by 4269

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Mikio Ishiwatari

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of International Studies, University of Tokyo, Chiba 277-8561, Japan
Interests: flood protection; climate change adaptation; water resource management; land-slide protection; disaster risk reduction; investment in disaster risk reduction
Dr. Akhilesh Surjan

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Emergency and Disaster Management Studies, Charles Darwin University, Darwin, NT 0909, Australia
Interests: urban disaster; local governance; climate change
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue addresses the critical intersection of water-related disasters and climate change adaptation strategies, presenting cutting-edge research that examines the complex challenges facing global communities. As climate change intensifies and destabilizes hydrological cycles, regions around the world are experiencing unprecedented and increasingly frequent shifts in precipitation patterns, extreme weather events, and water resource availability. This Special Issue aims to explore comprehensive and transdisciplinary approaches to understanding, anticipating, adapting, and responding to water-related disasters, including floods, droughts, sea level rise, landslides, and water scarcity.

This Special Issue will cover a wide range of critical and emerging topics, including the following:

  • Innovative risk reduction strategies for water-related disasters;
  • Advanced modeling and predictive techniques for extreme hydrological events;
  • Resilient community-based adaptation mechanisms;
  • Nature-based solutions and green infrastructure for water-related disaster management;
  • Comprehensive socio-economic impact assessments of water-related disasters;
  • Cutting-edge technological innovations for early warning systems;
  • Adaptive policy frameworks for climate change response;
  • Strategic approaches to investing in disaster risk reduction;
  • Integrative and transdisciplinary approaches to water-related disaster management.

By bringing together diverse perspectives and methodologies, this Special Issue will support policymakers, researchers, and practitioners in developing more effective, holistic, and adaptive approaches to climate change mitigation and disaster risk management.

Dr. Mikio Ishiwatari
Dr. Akhilesh Surjan
Guest Editors

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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

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. Water is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly 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 2600 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.

Keywords

  • climate change adaptation
  • mobilizing climate change finance
  • flood protection
  • transdisciplinary approach
  • pub-lic–private-partnership
  • community-based disaster risk reduction

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

26 pages, 6618 KB  
Article
From Flood Vulnerability Mapping Using Coupled Hydrodynamic Models to Optimizing Disaster Prevention Funding Allocation: A Case Study of Wenzhou
by Anfeng Zhu, Yinxiang Xu, Jiahao Zhong, Jingtao Hao, Yongkang Ma, Gang Xu, Zhiyang Chen and Zegen Wang
Water 2025, 17(23), 3369; https://doi.org/10.3390/w17233369 - 26 Nov 2025
Viewed by 340
Abstract
Urban areas face increasing flood risks due to extreme precipitation and anthropogenic activities, which threaten residents’ livelihoods. However, conventional research often lacks a forward-looking perspective, failing to integrate future flood vulnerability assessments with pre-disaster resource allocation. To address this gap, the combination of [...] Read more.
Urban areas face increasing flood risks due to extreme precipitation and anthropogenic activities, which threaten residents’ livelihoods. However, conventional research often lacks a forward-looking perspective, failing to integrate future flood vulnerability assessments with pre-disaster resource allocation. To address this gap, the combination of spatiotemporal flood vulnerability distributions and a pre-disaster funding allocation model serves to enhance urban flood resilience and recovery capabilities. Using Wenzhou City as a case study, a Hydrodynamic Flood Vulnerability Framework (VHCF) was applied to assess current and future vulnerabilities based on hydrodynamic modeling, which revealed distinct spatial patterns in vulnerability. Specifically, a coupled hydrological–hydrodynamic model and the Patch-generating Land Use Simulation (PLUS) model were integrated to simulate flood dynamics under future land-use scenarios for the years 2020 and 2030. A subsequent funding optimization model, based on the VHCF, was developed to prioritize disaster prevention resources for both current and projected high-risk areas. This approach achieves efficient resource allocation by balancing multidimensional flood vulnerability dynamics. The results indicate that extremely high-risk and high-risk zones are predominantly distributed along river corridors and urban centers. From 2020 to 2030, the areal proportion across all vulnerability levels exhibited an increasing trend. Following funding optimization, the coverage rates for low-risk and extremely low-risk zones reached 88.29% and 87.93% in 2020 and 2030, respectively. This methodology provides a scientific basis for decision-makers to enhance urban flood resilience, facilitate post-disaster recovery, and advance sustainable disaster prevention and mitigation strategies. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Water-Related Disasters in Adaptation to Climate Change)
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23 pages, 22503 KB  
Article
Enhancing Flood Inundation Simulation Under Rapid Urbanisation and Data Scarcity: The Case of the Lower Prek Thnot River Basin, Cambodia
by Takuto Kumagae, Monin Nong, Toru Konishi, Hideo Amaguchi and Yoshiyuki Imamura
Water 2025, 17(22), 3222; https://doi.org/10.3390/w17223222 - 11 Nov 2025
Viewed by 554
Abstract
Flooding poses a major hazard to rapidly urbanising cities in Southeast Asia, and risks are projected to intensify under climate change. Accurate risk assessment, however, is hindered by scarcity of hydrological and topographic data. Focusing on the Lower Prek Thnot River Basin, a [...] Read more.
Flooding poses a major hazard to rapidly urbanising cities in Southeast Asia, and risks are projected to intensify under climate change. Accurate risk assessment, however, is hindered by scarcity of hydrological and topographic data. Focusing on the Lower Prek Thnot River Basin, a peri-urban catchment of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, the study applied the Rainfall–Runoff–Inundation model and systematically augmented inputs: hourly satellite rainfall data, field-surveyed river cross-sections and representation of hydraulic infrastructure such as weirs and pumping. Validation used Sentinel-1 SAR-derived flood-extent maps for the October 2020 event. Scenario comparison shows that rainfall input and channel geometry act synergistically: omitting either degrades performance and spatial realism. The best configuration (Sim. 5) Accuracy = 0.891, Hit Ratio = 0.546 and True Ratio = 0.701 against Sentinel-1, and reproduced inundation upstream of weirs while reducing overestimation in urban districts through pumping emulation. At the study’s 500 m grid, updating land use from 2002 to 2020 had only a minor effect relative to rainfall, geometry and infrastructure. The results demonstrate that targeted data augmentation—combining satellite products, field surveys and operational infrastructure—can deliver robust inundation maps under data scarcity, supporting hazard mapping and resilience-oriented flood management in rapidly urbanising basins. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Water-Related Disasters in Adaptation to Climate Change)
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19 pages, 5201 KB  
Article
Mechanisms of Heavy Rainfall over the Southern Anhui Mountains: Assessment for Disaster Risk
by Mingxin Sun, Hongfang Zhu, Dongyong Wang, Yaoming Ma and Wenqing Zhao
Water 2025, 17(19), 2906; https://doi.org/10.3390/w17192906 - 8 Oct 2025
Viewed by 559
Abstract
Heavy rainfall events in the southern Anhui region are the main meteorological disasters, often leading to floods and secondary disasters. This article explores the mechanisms supporting extreme precipitation by studying the spatiotemporal characteristics of heavy rainfall events during 2022–2024 and their related atmospheric [...] Read more.
Heavy rainfall events in the southern Anhui region are the main meteorological disasters, often leading to floods and secondary disasters. This article explores the mechanisms supporting extreme precipitation by studying the spatiotemporal characteristics of heavy rainfall events during 2022–2024 and their related atmospheric circulation patterns. Using high-resolution precipitation data, ERA5 and GDAS reanalysis datasets, and the Hybrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory (HYSPLIT) model analysis, the main sources and transport pathways of water that cause heavy rainfall in the region were determined. The results indicate that large-scale circulation systems, including the East Asian monsoon (EAM), the Western Pacific subtropical high (WPSH), the South Asian high (SAH), and the Tibetan Plateau monsoon (PM), play a decisive role in regulating water vapor flux and convergence in southern Anhui. Southeast Asia, the South China Sea, the western Pacific, and inland China are the main sources of water vapor, with multi-level and multi-channel transport. The uplift effect of mountainous terrain further enhances local precipitation. The Indian Ocean basin mode (IOBM) and zonal index are also closely related to the spatiotemporal changes in rainfall and disaster occurrence. The rainstorm disaster risk assessment based on principal component analysis, the information entropy weight method, and multiple regression shows that the power index model fitted by multiple linear regression is the best for the assessment of disaster-causing rainstorm events. The research results provide a scientific basis for enhancing early warning and disaster prevention capabilities in the context of climate change. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Water-Related Disasters in Adaptation to Climate Change)
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11 pages, 1048 KB  
Article
Evolution of Water Governance for Climate Resilience: Lessons from Japan’s Experience
by Mikio Ishiwatari, Kenji Nagata and Miho Matsubayashi
Water 2025, 17(6), 893; https://doi.org/10.3390/w17060893 - 19 Mar 2025
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2359
Abstract
Water resources management needs to be strengthened to address increasing flood and drought risks exacerbated by climate change and socio-economic development. This requires effective water governance mechanisms that can reduce vulnerability in disasters while managing complex stakeholder relationships. This paper analyzes the evolution [...] Read more.
Water resources management needs to be strengthened to address increasing flood and drought risks exacerbated by climate change and socio-economic development. This requires effective water governance mechanisms that can reduce vulnerability in disasters while managing complex stakeholder relationships. This paper analyzes the evolution of water governance in Japan over more than half a century, examining how the country transformed from a centralized, top-down approach to a more collaborative model of water management. Through an analysis of three significant water infrastructure projects, this study identifies key drivers of governance change and evaluates the effectiveness of various stakeholder engagement mechanisms. The findings reveal how catalytic events prompted institutional innovations in addressing social impacts, environmental concerns, and climate resilience. Challenges remain in balancing diverse interests, managing implementation timeframes, and incorporating climate change uncertainties into decision-making processes. This paper offers important lessons for developing countries working to strengthen their water governance frameworks, particularly regarding stakeholder engagement, social impact mitigation, and the development of flexible institutional arrangements that can adapt to emerging climate risks. This research contributes to governance theory by demonstrating how institutional evolution occurs through the interaction of formal mechanisms and informal processes in response to changing social, environmental, and climatic conditions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Water-Related Disasters in Adaptation to Climate Change)
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