**Athanasios Loukas**

Athanasios Loukas (Prof. Dr.) is a Full Professor of Engineering Hydrology–Water Resources Management and Development in the School of Rural and Surveying Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. He is the Director of the Master Program "Water Resources" (2018–) and the Director of Hydraulic Works and Environmental Management Lab (2023–). He served as the Director of the Transportation and Hydraulic Engineering Dept. (2019–2021). He is a visiting professor at Colorado State University (U.S.A.) and the University of Grenoble Alpes. He has received many academic awards, such as the Fulbright Research Scholarship.

He is Section Editor-in-Chief of the MDPI journal Water (Section of Water Resources Management, Policy and Governance) and Editor-in-Chief of the EWRA European Water journal and an Editorial Board Member of Water Resources Management and Scientific Review Engineering and Environmental Sciences journals. He has been an active reviewer for many international journals.

His research interests include: hydrological modelling, study and forecasting of extreme hydrological events (floods and droughts); climate change impacts on hydrology and water resources; water resources' managemen<sup>t</sup> and modelling; and GIS and remote sensing in hydrology and water resources. He has co-ordinated and participated in many national and European research projects. He is a reviewer and evaluator of National, International and European research proposals. He has supervised and supervises undergraduate and Master's theses and Ph.D. dissertations. He has delivered many keynote and invited talks. Prof. Loukas is the author and co-author of more than 400 international journal publications, conference proceedings publications and technical reports. His published work has received over 2500 citations, as indicated in the Scopus database (h-index=29), and over 4700 citations, as indicated in the Google Scholar database (h-index = 37, i10-index = 74).

### **Preface to "The 7th International Electronic Conference on Water Sciences"**

This book is the proceedings of the 7th International Electronic Conference on Water Sciences (ECWS-7), held online 15–30 March 2003, promoted by the open access MDPI journal *Water* (ISSN 2073-4441; IF 3.530). The title of ECWS-7 was "*Adaptive Water Resources Management in an Era of Changing Climatic, Environmental and Social Conditions*". This book of proceedings includes 102 papers, which were internationally and independently reviewed and presented in the conference.

The ECWS-7 conference was focused on adaptive water resources management, policies and governance to tackle the challenges brought about by the ongoing and dramatic climatic, environmental and societal changes. The ECWS-7 conference was a forum to explore and discuss the following key issues: adaptive water resources management; enhancement of water security for humans, their economic activities and the environment; and the formulation of new governance structures for water resources managemen<sup>t</sup> and development. The book of proceedings intends to assist in the formulation of innovative methodologies and produce recommendations for best practices and the building of institutions that can meet these recommendations.

The ECWS-7 proceedings include papers from researchers from academia, as well as water practitioners from around the globe, contributing original findings, novel ideas, scientific concepts and new technologies and experiences to deal with water resources management, policies and governance, with a special focus on sustainability, resilience, uncertainty, risk and adaptation, making reference to the following topics: integrated water resources management, policies and governance; systems modelling of global change to inform future development paths; hydrological response under climate variability and change; hydro-economic modeling; informing water policy through quantitative models; finding a balance between water availability and environmental protection; policies to enable climate change adaptation and the contribution of stakeholders to adaptive water resources management; instruments to assess environmental impacts and climate change effects (footprints, nexus approach, impact and risk assessment, life cycle assessment, etc.); sustainable managemen<sup>t</sup> of agricultural water and land resources; the urban water cycle and its adaptation to climate change; advanced technologies to facilitate industrial and municipal wastewater reuse; hydrological extremes under a changing climate; and water disasters as well as approaches to understanding vulnerable landscapes.

I want to express my personal thanks, as ECWS-7 Conference Chair, to the International Conference Committee members for their cooperation in the successful organization of the conference. I also want to thank and highly acknowledge the help and cooperation of the people of the Conference Secretariat (Ms. Shanika Zhu, Ms. Fionna Fu, Ms. Veakie Jia, Mr. Russell Wang) and the technical personnel of MDPI. Finally, I thank the large number of international independent reviewers who reviewed the papers included in the book of proceedings and helped to improve the quality of the papers with their comments.

> **Athanasios Loukas** *Editor*
