New Studies to Measure the Effects of Climate Change on the Increase in Environmental Risks

Dear Colleagues,

The consequences of climate change have increased exponentially in recent years. As per the director of NASA, the years 2016–2020 were the warmest four years on record, not only typifying the ongoing and dramatic warming trends, but also culminating in a host of extreme events with consequences such as the degradation of landscapes, agricultural losses, emerging diseases, water pollution, loss of monumental heritage, forest fires or floods. At the watershed scale, understanding the effects of such long-term climate trends is essential for the safety and quality of human life, allowing humans to adapt to the changing environment through, for example, planting different vegetation combined with soil and water conservation engineering, managing our water resources, and preparing for extreme weather events. Comprehensive watershed management, however, is still facing significant challenges.

In addition to climate change, anthropogenic activities are often found to cause land degradation, and the potential positive influences of their management are rarely studied at the watershed scale. While ecological management projects naturally aim at increasing vegetation cover, mitigating hydrogeological risks, and stabilizing the channel bed, the watershed scale success of such conservation efforts is not easily quantifiable. Knowledge regarding how ecosystems respond to climatic and anthropogenic impact at the watershed scale should be the foundation for implementing reasonable measures in the form of adaptation strategies to climate change.

This Special Issue invites papers on the management of both natural or agricultural lands and whole watersheds under climate change and aims at reaching a sustainable ecological function compatible with anthropogenic needs. The Special Issue welcomes contributions that explore the impacts of different experiences on management all over the world, and new methods/technologies used in the measurement of climate change influence are also welcomed.

Dr. María Fernández-Raga
Dr. Yang Yu
Dr. Julian Campo
Guest Editors

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