Sustainability of the Water Cycle System and Water Utilization in a Changing Environment

Dear Colleagues,

Despite the denial of the geological dating of the "Anthropocene", it is irrefutable that the Earth's climate and environmental changes have been imprinted with human forcing at regional and global scales, whether fast or slow, strong or weak. As a critical foundation for human survival and development, water resources are undergoing dramatic changes of unknown magnitude and are facing increasingly severe challenges and risks on a regional and global scale. Climate change has led to changes in precipitation patterns and water resource distribution, population growth, urbanization, and industrialization, resulting in increasingly acute water supply demand conflicts. We urgently need to discuss and promote research on the sustainability of water resource utilization. This Special Issue aims to deeply explore the current challenges and countermeasures of water resource utilization around this theme, providing valuable academic support for water resource management and protection.

Existing research has analyzed the sustainability of water resource utilization from multiple perspectives, including key links in the water cycle, terrestrial water storage, tracing and quantifying precipitation sources, groundwater recharge mechanisms, global change and glacier melting, water supply and demand balance, water rights and benefit distribution, water environmental protection, and improvements in water use efficiency. However, these studies have mainly concentrated on specific fields or local issues, lacking systematicity and holism, such as coupled interactive system effects of climate change, land use/vegetation change, population movement, and transboundary water management on current water resources urgently requiring more innovative research. This Special Issue will strive to fill these research gaps and provide more comprehensive and forward-looking academic support for the sustainable utilization of water resources.

In conclusion, against the backdrop of global change, achieving sustainable utilization of water resources has become an urgent task for all of humanity. Systematic governance measures need to be taken, balancing economic development, ecological protection, and social equity, to promote a fundamental transformation of water resource utilization patterns. This Special Issue welcomes original research articles and reviews, particularly encouraging challenging and controversial research findings and forward-looking and innovative research perspectives. The research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

1. Ecohydrological and climatohydrological feedback mechanisms;
2. Synergistic changes in water resources-socioeconomic-ecological systems;
3. Impacts of climate change on water resource utilization and coping strategies;
4. Responses of water cycle elements to varying anthropogenic radiative forcings;
5. Structural characteristics of the water cycle system and the evolution of water cycle processes;
6. Physical mechanisms and driving factors of changing hydrological processes;
7. Interactions between surface water and groundwater;
8. Dynamic changes and mechanisms of groundwater systems under changing environments;
9. Atmospheric processes in the water cycle;
10. Water cycle processes and their resource, ecological, and disaster effects;
11. Mechanisms of global change and accelerated water cycle;
12. Response mechanisms of land use changes to precipitation;
13. Terrestrial water storage research in typical regions;
14. Water supply and demand balance and its mechanisms;
15. Fairness and efficiency of water rights and benefit distribution;
16. Water environmental protection and ecosystem services;
17. Improvement of water use efficiency and technological innovation;
18. Challenges and cooperation mechanisms of transboundary water resource management.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Miao Zhang
Dr. Gonghuan Fang
Dr. Jie Yang
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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• innovative strategies for water utilization
• climate hydrology and ecohydrology feedback mechanisms
• sustainability of the water cycle and water utilization
• evolution of water cycle processes and tipping points
• water resource supply and demand balance and management