Drought is a complex phenomenon resulting from interactions between physical and social systems that impacts both societies and ecosystems around the world yearly. Drought risks are systemic and increasing (UNDRR, 2021). In 2019, scientists from African countries urged the world to end the drought in drought research and asked for more support to better identify and prepare for drought disasters (Padma, 2019). Preparing for future drought requires a thorough understanding of the complexities of systemic drought risk and adaptation feedbacks, effective drought risk management, and good communication of the risk and potential adaptation options. In the special issue on Drought, society, and ecosystems, we aim to showcase the diverse interdisciplinary research being done on the interactions between drought, ecosystems, and people (including human-induced climate change and management).

We solicit contributions (commentaries, review articles, original research articles) from different perspectives on this interdisciplinary topic from research scientists of different fields, students, practitioners, and stakeholders. It will be a unique opportunity to further our understanding of drought risk, adaptation, and feedbacks. The co-listing of this special issue under the Copernicus journals Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences (NHESS), Hydrology and Earth System Sciences (HESS), Geoscience Communication (GC), and Biogeosciences (BG) allows for more diversity in perspectives.

Abstracts that fall under one of the following (or related) themes will be considered:

• drought risk analysis
• drought impact attribution
• water security in diverse contexts
• drought risk management and communication
• co-creation of drought information services
• drought in (socio-)ecological systems
• drought and the food–water–energy–environment nexus
• influence of human activities on drought hazard
• socio-hydrology of human–drought interactions
• drought and vulnerability (in ecological and/or social systems)
• drought adaptation (in ecological and/or social systems)
• climate change impacts on drought/water security.

Manuscripts with diverse authorships and with case studies in different geographic regions are especially welcomed. The special issue arises from the International Association of Hydrological Sciences (IAHS) Panta Rhei working group Drought in the Anthropocene and aims to showcase the research done on drought–society–ecosystem interactions during the IAHS Panta Rhei decade (2013–2023). However, unsolicited contributions are also highly encouraged. The guest editors aim for diversity and balance in contributions and authors, encouraging researchers from countries underrepresented in science, women, and minorities to contribute to this special issue.

References:

UNDRR: GAR Special Report on Drought 2021, United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, ISBN 9789212320274, 2021.

Padma, T.V.: African nations push UN to improve drought research, Nature, 573, 319-320, https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-02760-9, 2019.

Climate change in high-mountain regions is associated with significant change in vegetation dynamics, snow coverage, glacier mass balance, and permafrost, which have led to profound changes in both hydrological regimes and their extremes, making the “water towers” vulnerable. Hydrological regimes and their responses to climate change and its associated cryospheric change in high-mountain regions are quite complicated due to intertwined interactions among multiple processes (i.e. ice melting, snow melting, permafrost degradation, and rainfall–runoff) as well as flow pathways. Critical knowledge gaps and large observational uncertainties pose additional challenges for predicting hydrological response to the co-evolution of climate, cryosphere, and biosphere in the high-mountain regions globally.

This special issue calls for a wide range of submissions across a series of disciplines with a hydrological, climatological, and cryospherical perspective across global or regional high-mountain regions, with a focus on exploring the co-evolutional mechanisms of the soil–ice–snow–vegetation system in the context of climate change and their impacts on both hydrological regimes and their extremes. Potential submissions can be in but are not limited to the following areas:

• review of the important issues and methodologies in global or regional high-mountain hydrological studies;
• novel approaches to studying hydrological response to climate and land surface property changes over alpine regions;
• spatial, seasonal/temporal, or elevational patterns and co-evolution mechanisms in vegetation, snow, glaciers, and permafrost as well as their response to climate change and impacts on hydrology in high-mountain regions;
• global or regional climate change and its impacts on the biosphere, cryosphere, and hydrosphere in high-mountain regions;
• observations and projections of changes and variability in hydrological regimes and their extremes in global or regional high-mountain regions;
• integrated database of hydrological and climatological variables in global or regional high-mountain regions.

This special issue aims to (1) provide a high-quality collection of papers showcasing methodological advances in compound- and multi-risk analysis and management, (2) consolidate and foster learning across the compound-risk and (multi-hazard) multi-risk research fields, and (3) identify future research avenues.

Recent years have demonstrated the immense challenges faced by society as a result of the increasing complexity of disaster risk and due to climate change. Societies impacted by multiple natural hazards (either in sequence or at the same time) face different challenges than when impacted by a single hazard that occurs in isolation (AghaKouchak et al., 2020; Hillier and Dixon, 2020; Raymond et al., 2020a). The impacts of compound- and multi-hazard disasters are complex and may be driven by the consecutive nature of the (drivers of) hazards themselves (Hillier et al., 2020; Mora et al., 2018; Ridder et al., 2020; Zscheischler et al., 2018), the spatiotemporal dynamics in exposure and vulnerability caused by earlier events (de Ruiter et al., 2020; de Ruiter and Van Loon, 2022; Reichstein et al., 2021), or the influences of risk management on the dynamics of risk (Simpson et al., 2022). This makes managing compound- and multi-risk disasters especially complex, and several studies have noted that their management may require more comprehensive approaches than single-hazard disasters (Simpson et al., 2023; De Ruiter et al., 2021; Schippers, 2020).

In recent years, international agreements such as the Paris Agreement (2015) and the UN’s Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (SFDRR) (UNDRR, 2015) have called upon the disaster risk science community to move away from siloed hazard thinking (i.e. assessing the risk from hazards one by one) and toward improving our understanding of these spatiotemporal complexities of disaster risk. Similarly, the latest series of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports recognizes the importance of accounting for multiple and complex risks. In a recent survey of members of the natural hazard research community, respondents noted that multi-hazards and resulting risks remain one of the core scientific challenges to be tackled (Sakic Trogrlic et al., 2022).

Subsequently, the past years have seen a rise in compound- and multi-risk (multi-hazard) studies that try to capture some of these complexities through advanced statistical methods (e.g. Zscheischler, 2017; Bevacqua et al., 2022; Couasnon et al., 2020), physically based models (Eilander et al., 2023; Couasnon et al., 2022), and multi-risk system analysis (e.g. Simpson et al., 2022; De Angeli et al., 2022; Van Westen and Greiving, 2017; Gill and Malamud, 2017; Ward et al., 2022). As a result, the compound- and multi-risk communities have developed largely in parallel with each other, and only in recent months have significant efforts been made to bring these two communities together, for example, as demonstrated by the American Geophysical Union (AGU) 2022 session focusing specifically on breaking silos between the two communities.

However, there is some interesting methodological and conceptual overlap between these communities and thus strong potential for catalyzing learning and innovation for (advancing) risk studies. The call from the international community has resulted in a proliferation of innovative methodological approaches across different disciplines, offering a vast array of possible options for multi- and systemic-risk reduction in practice. The importance of this topic is also apparent in recently funded research and networking projects including Damocles, The HuT, MIRACA, MYRIAD-EU, MEDiate, PARATUS, RECEIPT, CLIMAAX, Tomorrow’s Cities, Risk KAN, and NOAA’s Climate Adaptation Partnerships (formerly RISA), among others.

As early career researchers from both fields, we have contributed to shaping these two communities, and we perceive the need to bring them together to assess solutions for the future. However, despite these advances, there is still no single collection of high-quality scientific research papers focusing on methodological innovations for the analysis and management of both compound and multiple risks.

References:

AghaKouchak, A., Chiang, F., Huning, L. S., Love, C. A., Mallakpour, I., Mazdiyasni, O., Moftakhari, H., Papalexiou, S. M., Ragno, E., and Sadegh, M.: Climate extremes and compound hazards in a warming world. Annu. Rev. Earth Pl. Sc, 48, 519-548, https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-earth-071719-055228, 2020.

Bevacqua, E., De Michele, C., Manning, C., Couasnon, A., Ribeiro, A. F., Ramos, A. M., Vignotto, E., Bastos, A., Blesić, S., Durante, F., Hillier, J., Oliveira, S. C., Pinto J. G., Ragno, E., Rivoire, P., Saunders, K., Van der Wiel, K., Wu, W., Zhang, T., and Zscheischler, J.: Guidelines for studying diverse types of compound weather and climate events, Earth's Future, 9, e2021EF002340, https://doi.org/10.1029/2021EF002340, 2021.

Couasnon, A., Eilander, D., Muis, S., Veldkamp, T. I. E., Haigh, I. D., Wahl, T., Winsemius, H. C., and Ward, P. J.: Measuring compound flood potential from river discharge and storm surge extremes at the global scale, Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 20, 489-504, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-20-489-2020, 2020.

Couasnon, A., Scussolini, P., Tran, T. V. T., Eilander, D., Muis, S., Wang, H., Nguyen, H. Q. and Winsemius, H. C., and Ward, P. J.: A flood risk framework capturing the seasonality of and dependence between rainfall and sea levels—An application to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, Water Resour. Res., 58, e2021WR030002, https://doi.org/10.1029/2021WR030002, 2022.

De Angeli, S., Malamud, B. D., Rossi, L., Taylor, F. E., Trasforini, E., and Rudari, R.: A multi-hazard framework for spatial-temporal impact analysis, Int. J. Disast. Risk Re., 73, 102829, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2022.102829, 2022

de Ruiter, M. C. and Van Loon, A. F.: The challenges of dynamic vulnerability and how to assess it, IScience, 25, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2022.104720, 2022.

de Ruiter, M. C., Couasnon, A., van den Homberg, M. J., Daniell, J. E., Gill, J. C., and Ward, P. J.: Why we can no longer ignore consecutive disasters, Earth's Future, 8, e2019EF001425, https://doi.org/10.1029/2019EF001425, 2020.

de Ruiter, M. C., de Bruijn, J. A., Englhardt, J., Daniell, J. E., de Moel, H., and Ward, P. J.: The asynergies of structural disaster risk reduction measures: Comparing floods and earthquakes, Earth's Future, 9, e2020EF001531, https://doi.org/10.1029/2020EF001531, 2021.

Eilander, D., Couasnon, A., Leijnse, T., Ikeuchi, H., Yamazaki, D., Muis, S., Dullaart, J., Haag, A., Winsemius, H. C., and Ward, P. J.: A globally applicable framework for compound flood hazard modeling, Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 23, 823-846, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-23-823-2023, 2023.

Gill, J. C. and Malamud, B. D.: Hazard interactions and interaction networks (cascades) within multi-hazard methodologies, Earth Syst. Dynam., 7, 659-679, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-7-659-2016, 2016.

Hillier, J. K. and Dixon, R. S.: Seasonal impact-based mapping of compound hazards, Environ. Res. Lett., 15, 114013, https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/abbc3d, 2020.

Mora, C., Spirandelli, D., Franklin, E. C., Lynham, J., Kantar, M. B., Miles, W., Smith, C. Z., Freel, K., Moy, J., Louis, L. V., Barba, E. W., Bettinger, K., Frazier, A. G., Colburn IX, J. F., Hanasaki, N., Hawkins, E., Hirabayashi, Y., Knorr, W., Little, C. M., Emanuel, K., Sheffield, J., Patz, J. A., and Hunter, C. L.: Broad threat to humanity from cumulative climate hazards intensified by greenhouse gas emissions, Nat. Clim. Change, 8, 1062-1071, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-018-0315-6, 2018.

Raymond, C., Horton, R. M., Zscheischler, J., Martius, O., AghaKouchak, A., Balch, J., Bowen, S. G., Camargo, S. J., Hess, J., Kornhuber, K., Oppenheimer, M., Ruane, A. C., Wahl, T., and White, K.: Understanding and managing connected extreme events, Nat. Clim. Change, 10, 611-621, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-020-0790-4, 2020.

Reichstein, M., Riede, F., and Frank, D.: More floods, fires and cyclones—plan for domino effects on sustainability goals, Nature, 592, 347-349, https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-00927-x, 2021.

Ridder, N. N., Pitman, A. J., Westra, S., Ukkola, A., Do, H. X., Bador, M., Hirsch, A. L., Evans, J. P., Di Luca, A., and Zscheischler, J.: Global hotspots for the occurrence of compound events, Nat. Commun., 11, 5956, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-19639-3, 2020.

Šakić Trogrlić, R., Donovan, A., and Malamud, B. D.: Invited perspectives: Views of 350 natural hazard community members on key challenges in natural hazards research and the Sustainable Development Goals, Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 22, 2771-2790, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-22-2771-2022, 2022.

Schipper, E. L. F.: Maladaptation: when adaptation to climate change goes very wrong, One Earth, 3, 409-414, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2020.09.014, 2020.

Simpson, N. P., Mach, K. J., Constable, A., Hess, J., Hogarth, R., Howden, M., Lawrence, J., Lempert, R. J., Muccione, V., Mackey, B., New, M. G., O’Neill, B., Otoo, F., Pörtner, H.-O., Reisinger, A., Roberts, D., Schmidt, D. N., Seneviratne, S., Strongin, S., Van Aalst, M., Totin, E., and Trisos, C. H.: A framework for complex climate change risk assessment, One Earth, 4, 489-501, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2021.03.005, 2021.

Simpson, N. P., Williams, P. A., Mach, K. J., Berrang-Ford, L., Biesbroek, R., Haasnoot, M., Segnon, A. C., Campbell, D., Musah-Surugu, J. I., Joe, E. T., Nunbogu, A. M., Sabour, S., Meyer, A. L. S., Andrews, T. M., Singh, C., Siders, A. R., Lawrence, J., Van Aalst, M., and Trisos, C. H.: Adaptation to compound climate risks: A systematic global stocktake, IScience, 26, https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4205750, 2023.

UNDRR: Sendai framework for disaster risk reduction 2015–2030, United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, Geneva, Switzerland, https://doi.org/10.1163/2210-7975_hrd-9813-2015016, 2015.

van Westen, C. J. and Greiving, S.: Multi-hazard risk assessment and decision making, Environmental Hazards Methodologies for Risk Assessment and Management, 31, https://doi.org/10.2166/9781780407135_0031, 2017.

Ward, P. J., Daniell, J., Duncan, M., Dunne, A., Hananel, C., Hochrainer-Stigler, S., Tijssen, A., Torresan, S., Ciurean, R., Gill, J. C., Sillmann, J., Couasnon, A., Koks, E., Padrón-Fumero, N., Tatman, S., Tronstad Lund, M., Adesiyun, A., Aerts, J. C. J. H., Alabaster, A., Bulder, B., Campillo Torres, C., Critto, A., Hernández-Martín, R., Machado, M., Mysiak, J., Orth, R., Palomino Antolín, I., Petrescu, E.-C., Reichstein, M., Tiggeloven, T., Van Loon, A. F., Vuong Pham, H., and de Ruiter, M. C.: Invited perspectives: A research agenda towards disaster risk management pathways in multi-(hazard-)risk assessment, Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 22, 1487-1497, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-22-1487-2022, 2022.

Zscheischler, J., Westra, S., van den Hurk, B. J. J. M., Seneviratne, S. I., Ward, P. J., Pitman, A., AghaKouchak, A., Bresch, D. N., Leonard, M., Wahl, T., and Zhang, X.: Future climate risk from compound events, Nat. Clim. Change, 8, 469477, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-018-0156-3, 2018.

High-latitude regions are experiencing amplified anthropogenic global warming. Cryospheric changes (e.g. permafrost thaw, snow and ice accumulation, and melt) are strongly coupled with the hydrologic cycle and severely impact the amount and seasonality of groundwater recharge and streamflow generation and associated biogeochemical cycling. These widespread changes, in turn, affect ecological and human systems, with impacts evident even in the ocean. This special issue aims to foster knowledge exchange across communities to gain a better understanding of coupled processes between the cryosphere, hydrology, ecosystems, and humans. We welcome all contributions on topics related to cold-region hydrology with a focus on inter- and transdisciplinary approaches and particularly invite contributions targeting the following aspects:

• climate-change-induced cryospheric alterations and impacts on the water cycle in northern environments, e.g. changes in the snowpack, glacier recession, permafrost thaw, stream discharge, lake size, and wildfires;
• interdisciplinary research that furthers our understanding of the nexus between hydrological, biogeochemical, and ecosystem processes in cold-region environments;
• the impacts of current (e.g. mining, logging, dam building) and past (e.g. peatland drainage/restoration) land-use changes in high-latitude regions;
• transdisciplinary research, including knowledge of Indigenous communities and other interested parties, ideally aimed at sustainable co-development of climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies;
• studies providing open tools for the development and testing of transposable models in cold-region environments;
• studies providing information on or presenting new tools for the improvement and standardization of measurement techniques and network design in northern regions.

Macro-scale hydrological and earth system models are used increasingly to study the relationship between climate, water, energy, and land systems. In all these domains, the increased impact of anthropogenic interventions on wide-ranging hydrologic processes have prompted hydrologists to advance the representation of human–water interactions in macro-scale hydrological, land surface, and Earth system models. The simulation of water infrastructures (e.g., reservoirs, diversion dams) is receiving particular attention, owing to their growing presence and impact on both upstream and downstream hydrological, ecological, and socio-environmental processes.

This special issue calls for a broad spectrum of submissions on the representation of water infrastructures in hydrological and Earth system models, with particular emphasis on large-scale studies (from multi-basin to global scale). We welcome submissions focusing on — but not limited to — the following areas.

• Numerical schemes for the representation of spatio-temporal reservoir storage patterns and release decisions across a large fleet of dams
• Integrated models simulating the impact of reservoir systems on water temperature dynamics
• Novel techniques for inferring storage patterns, filling strategies, and operating rules from different data sources (e.g., in situ measurements, satellite data), and their integration in numerical models
• Innovative approaches to the conceptualization and calibration of hydrological and water management models (e.g., combination of process-based and machine learning models)
• Representation of major water transfer schemes (e.g., withdrawal and transfer of water for for urban supply or irrigation)
• Representation and conceptualization of human water use (withdrawal, consumptive use, return flows): source and sector apportionment and prioritization
• Novel applications of hydrological–water management models, such as national-scale river forecasting, multi-sector studies (e.g., water–energy–food nexus), or social, environmental, and ecological impact assessments of water infrastructures
• Comparative studies across basins or modelling approaches

This special issue aims to (1) provide a high-quality collection of papers showcasing methodological advances in compound- and multi-risk analysis and management, (2) consolidate and foster learning across the compound-risk and (multi-hazard) multi-risk research fields, and (3) identify future research avenues.

Recent years have demonstrated the immense challenges faced by society as a result of the increasing complexity of disaster risk and due to climate change. Societies impacted by multiple natural hazards (either in sequence or at the same time) face different challenges than when impacted by a single hazard that occurs in isolation (AghaKouchak et al., 2020; Hillier and Dixon, 2020; Raymond et al., 2020a). The impacts of compound- and multi-hazard disasters are complex and may be driven by the consecutive nature of the (drivers of) hazards themselves (Hillier et al., 2020; Mora et al., 2018; Ridder et al., 2020; Zscheischler et al., 2018), the spatiotemporal dynamics in exposure and vulnerability caused by earlier events (de Ruiter et al., 2020; de Ruiter and Van Loon, 2022; Reichstein et al., 2021), or the influences of risk management on the dynamics of risk (Simpson et al., 2022). This makes managing compound- and multi-risk disasters especially complex, and several studies have noted that their management may require more comprehensive approaches than single-hazard disasters (Simpson et al., 2023; De Ruiter et al., 2021; Schippers, 2020).

In recent years, international agreements such as the Paris Agreement (2015) and the UN’s Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (SFDRR) (UNDRR, 2015) have called upon the disaster risk science community to move away from siloed hazard thinking (i.e. assessing the risk from hazards one by one) and toward improving our understanding of these spatiotemporal complexities of disaster risk. Similarly, the latest series of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports recognizes the importance of accounting for multiple and complex risks. In a recent survey of members of the natural hazard research community, respondents noted that multi-hazards and resulting risks remain one of the core scientific challenges to be tackled (Sakic Trogrlic et al., 2022).

Subsequently, the past years have seen a rise in compound- and multi-risk (multi-hazard) studies that try to capture some of these complexities through advanced statistical methods (e.g. Zscheischler, 2017; Bevacqua et al., 2022; Couasnon et al., 2020), physically based models (Eilander et al., 2023; Couasnon et al., 2022), and multi-risk system analysis (e.g. Simpson et al., 2022; De Angeli et al., 2022; Van Westen and Greiving, 2017; Gill and Malamud, 2017; Ward et al., 2022). As a result, the compound- and multi-risk communities have developed largely in parallel with each other, and only in recent months have significant efforts been made to bring these two communities together, for example, as demonstrated by the American Geophysical Union (AGU) 2022 session focusing specifically on breaking silos between the two communities.

However, there is some interesting methodological and conceptual overlap between these communities and thus strong potential for catalyzing learning and innovation for (advancing) risk studies. The call from the international community has resulted in a proliferation of innovative methodological approaches across different disciplines, offering a vast array of possible options for multi- and systemic-risk reduction in practice. The importance of this topic is also apparent in recently funded research and networking projects including Damocles, The HuT, MIRACA, MYRIAD-EU, MEDiate, PARATUS, RECEIPT, CLIMAAX, Tomorrow’s Cities, Risk KAN, and NOAA’s Climate Adaptation Partnerships (formerly RISA), among others.

As early career researchers from both fields, we have contributed to shaping these two communities, and we perceive the need to bring them together to assess solutions for the future. However, despite these advances, there is still no single collection of high-quality scientific research papers focusing on methodological innovations for the analysis and management of both compound and multiple risks.

References:

AghaKouchak, A., Chiang, F., Huning, L. S., Love, C. A., Mallakpour, I., Mazdiyasni, O., Moftakhari, H., Papalexiou, S. M., Ragno, E., and Sadegh, M.: Climate extremes and compound hazards in a warming world. Annu. Rev. Earth Pl. Sc, 48, 519-548, https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-earth-071719-055228, 2020.

Bevacqua, E., De Michele, C., Manning, C., Couasnon, A., Ribeiro, A. F., Ramos, A. M., Vignotto, E., Bastos, A., Blesić, S., Durante, F., Hillier, J., Oliveira, S. C., Pinto J. G., Ragno, E., Rivoire, P., Saunders, K., Van der Wiel, K., Wu, W., Zhang, T., and Zscheischler, J.: Guidelines for studying diverse types of compound weather and climate events, Earth's Future, 9, e2021EF002340, https://doi.org/10.1029/2021EF002340, 2021.

Couasnon, A., Eilander, D., Muis, S., Veldkamp, T. I. E., Haigh, I. D., Wahl, T., Winsemius, H. C., and Ward, P. J.: Measuring compound flood potential from river discharge and storm surge extremes at the global scale, Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 20, 489-504, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-20-489-2020, 2020.

Couasnon, A., Scussolini, P., Tran, T. V. T., Eilander, D., Muis, S., Wang, H., Nguyen, H. Q. and Winsemius, H. C., and Ward, P. J.: A flood risk framework capturing the seasonality of and dependence between rainfall and sea levels—An application to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, Water Resour. Res., 58, e2021WR030002, https://doi.org/10.1029/2021WR030002, 2022.

De Angeli, S., Malamud, B. D., Rossi, L., Taylor, F. E., Trasforini, E., and Rudari, R.: A multi-hazard framework for spatial-temporal impact analysis, Int. J. Disast. Risk Re., 73, 102829, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2022.102829, 2022

de Ruiter, M. C. and Van Loon, A. F.: The challenges of dynamic vulnerability and how to assess it, IScience, 25, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2022.104720, 2022.

de Ruiter, M. C., Couasnon, A., van den Homberg, M. J., Daniell, J. E., Gill, J. C., and Ward, P. J.: Why we can no longer ignore consecutive disasters, Earth's Future, 8, e2019EF001425, https://doi.org/10.1029/2019EF001425, 2020.

de Ruiter, M. C., de Bruijn, J. A., Englhardt, J., Daniell, J. E., de Moel, H., and Ward, P. J.: The asynergies of structural disaster risk reduction measures: Comparing floods and earthquakes, Earth's Future, 9, e2020EF001531, https://doi.org/10.1029/2020EF001531, 2021.

Eilander, D., Couasnon, A., Leijnse, T., Ikeuchi, H., Yamazaki, D., Muis, S., Dullaart, J., Haag, A., Winsemius, H. C., and Ward, P. J.: A globally applicable framework for compound flood hazard modeling, Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 23, 823-846, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-23-823-2023, 2023.

Gill, J. C. and Malamud, B. D.: Hazard interactions and interaction networks (cascades) within multi-hazard methodologies, Earth Syst. Dynam., 7, 659-679, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-7-659-2016, 2016.

Hillier, J. K. and Dixon, R. S.: Seasonal impact-based mapping of compound hazards, Environ. Res. Lett., 15, 114013, https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/abbc3d, 2020.

Mora, C., Spirandelli, D., Franklin, E. C., Lynham, J., Kantar, M. B., Miles, W., Smith, C. Z., Freel, K., Moy, J., Louis, L. V., Barba, E. W., Bettinger, K., Frazier, A. G., Colburn IX, J. F., Hanasaki, N., Hawkins, E., Hirabayashi, Y., Knorr, W., Little, C. M., Emanuel, K., Sheffield, J., Patz, J. A., and Hunter, C. L.: Broad threat to humanity from cumulative climate hazards intensified by greenhouse gas emissions, Nat. Clim. Change, 8, 1062-1071, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-018-0315-6, 2018.

Raymond, C., Horton, R. M., Zscheischler, J., Martius, O., AghaKouchak, A., Balch, J., Bowen, S. G., Camargo, S. J., Hess, J., Kornhuber, K., Oppenheimer, M., Ruane, A. C., Wahl, T., and White, K.: Understanding and managing connected extreme events, Nat. Clim. Change, 10, 611-621, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-020-0790-4, 2020.

Reichstein, M., Riede, F., and Frank, D.: More floods, fires and cyclones—plan for domino effects on sustainability goals, Nature, 592, 347-349, https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-00927-x, 2021.

Ridder, N. N., Pitman, A. J., Westra, S., Ukkola, A., Do, H. X., Bador, M., Hirsch, A. L., Evans, J. P., Di Luca, A., and Zscheischler, J.: Global hotspots for the occurrence of compound events, Nat. Commun., 11, 5956, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-19639-3, 2020.

Šakić Trogrlić, R., Donovan, A., and Malamud, B. D.: Invited perspectives: Views of 350 natural hazard community members on key challenges in natural hazards research and the Sustainable Development Goals, Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 22, 2771-2790, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-22-2771-2022, 2022.

Schipper, E. L. F.: Maladaptation: when adaptation to climate change goes very wrong, One Earth, 3, 409-414, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2020.09.014, 2020.

Simpson, N. P., Mach, K. J., Constable, A., Hess, J., Hogarth, R., Howden, M., Lawrence, J., Lempert, R. J., Muccione, V., Mackey, B., New, M. G., O’Neill, B., Otoo, F., Pörtner, H.-O., Reisinger, A., Roberts, D., Schmidt, D. N., Seneviratne, S., Strongin, S., Van Aalst, M., Totin, E., and Trisos, C. H.: A framework for complex climate change risk assessment, One Earth, 4, 489-501, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2021.03.005, 2021.

Simpson, N. P., Williams, P. A., Mach, K. J., Berrang-Ford, L., Biesbroek, R., Haasnoot, M., Segnon, A. C., Campbell, D., Musah-Surugu, J. I., Joe, E. T., Nunbogu, A. M., Sabour, S., Meyer, A. L. S., Andrews, T. M., Singh, C., Siders, A. R., Lawrence, J., Van Aalst, M., and Trisos, C. H.: Adaptation to compound climate risks: A systematic global stocktake, IScience, 26, https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4205750, 2023.

UNDRR: Sendai framework for disaster risk reduction 2015–2030, United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, Geneva, Switzerland, https://doi.org/10.1163/2210-7975_hrd-9813-2015016, 2015.

van Westen, C. J. and Greiving, S.: Multi-hazard risk assessment and decision making, Environmental Hazards Methodologies for Risk Assessment and Management, 31, https://doi.org/10.2166/9781780407135_0031, 2017.

Ward, P. J., Daniell, J., Duncan, M., Dunne, A., Hananel, C., Hochrainer-Stigler, S., Tijssen, A., Torresan, S., Ciurean, R., Gill, J. C., Sillmann, J., Couasnon, A., Koks, E., Padrón-Fumero, N., Tatman, S., Tronstad Lund, M., Adesiyun, A., Aerts, J. C. J. H., Alabaster, A., Bulder, B., Campillo Torres, C., Critto, A., Hernández-Martín, R., Machado, M., Mysiak, J., Orth, R., Palomino Antolín, I., Petrescu, E.-C., Reichstein, M., Tiggeloven, T., Van Loon, A. F., Vuong Pham, H., and de Ruiter, M. C.: Invited perspectives: A research agenda towards disaster risk management pathways in multi-(hazard-)risk assessment, Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 22, 1487-1497, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-22-1487-2022, 2022.

Zscheischler, J., Westra, S., van den Hurk, B. J. J. M., Seneviratne, S. I., Ward, P. J., Pitman, A., AghaKouchak, A., Bresch, D. N., Leonard, M., Wahl, T., and Zhang, X.: Future climate risk from compound events, Nat. Clim. Change, 8, 469477, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-018-0156-3, 2018.

High-latitude regions are experiencing amplified anthropogenic global warming. Cryospheric changes (e.g. permafrost thaw, snow and ice accumulation, and melt) are strongly coupled with the hydrologic cycle and severely impact the amount and seasonality of groundwater recharge and streamflow generation and associated biogeochemical cycling. These widespread changes, in turn, affect ecological and human systems, with impacts evident even in the ocean. This special issue aims to foster knowledge exchange across communities to gain a better understanding of coupled processes between the cryosphere, hydrology, ecosystems, and humans. We welcome all contributions on topics related to cold-region hydrology with a focus on inter- and transdisciplinary approaches and particularly invite contributions targeting the following aspects:

• climate-change-induced cryospheric alterations and impacts on the water cycle in northern environments, e.g. changes in the snowpack, glacier recession, permafrost thaw, stream discharge, lake size, and wildfires;
• interdisciplinary research that furthers our understanding of the nexus between hydrological, biogeochemical, and ecosystem processes in cold-region environments;
• the impacts of current (e.g. mining, logging, dam building) and past (e.g. peatland drainage/restoration) land-use changes in high-latitude regions;
• transdisciplinary research, including knowledge of Indigenous communities and other interested parties, ideally aimed at sustainable co-development of climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies;
• studies providing open tools for the development and testing of transposable models in cold-region environments;
• studies providing information on or presenting new tools for the improvement and standardization of measurement techniques and network design in northern regions.

Drought is a complex phenomenon resulting from interactions between physical and social systems that impacts both societies and ecosystems around the world yearly. Drought risks are systemic and increasing (UNDRR, 2021). In 2019, scientists from African countries urged the world to end the drought in drought research and asked for more support to better identify and prepare for drought disasters (Padma, 2019). Preparing for future drought requires a thorough understanding of the complexities of systemic drought risk and adaptation feedbacks, effective drought risk management, and good communication of the risk and potential adaptation options. In the special issue on Drought, society, and ecosystems, we aim to showcase the diverse interdisciplinary research being done on the interactions between drought, ecosystems, and people (including human-induced climate change and management).

We solicit contributions (commentaries, review articles, original research articles) from different perspectives on this interdisciplinary topic from research scientists of different fields, students, practitioners, and stakeholders. It will be a unique opportunity to further our understanding of drought risk, adaptation, and feedbacks. The co-listing of this special issue under the Copernicus journals Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences (NHESS), Hydrology and Earth System Sciences (HESS), Geoscience Communication (GC), and Biogeosciences (BG) allows for more diversity in perspectives.

Abstracts that fall under one of the following (or related) themes will be considered:

• drought risk analysis
• drought impact attribution
• water security in diverse contexts
• drought risk management and communication
• co-creation of drought information services
• drought in (socio-)ecological systems
• drought and the food–water–energy–environment nexus
• influence of human activities on drought hazard
• socio-hydrology of human–drought interactions
• drought and vulnerability (in ecological and/or social systems)
• drought adaptation (in ecological and/or social systems)
• climate change impacts on drought/water security.

Manuscripts with diverse authorships and with case studies in different geographic regions are especially welcomed. The special issue arises from the International Association of Hydrological Sciences (IAHS) Panta Rhei working group Drought in the Anthropocene and aims to showcase the research done on drought–society–ecosystem interactions during the IAHS Panta Rhei decade (2013–2023). However, unsolicited contributions are also highly encouraged. The guest editors aim for diversity and balance in contributions and authors, encouraging researchers from countries underrepresented in science, women, and minorities to contribute to this special issue.

References:

UNDRR: GAR Special Report on Drought 2021, United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, ISBN 9789212320274, 2021.

Padma, T.V.: African nations push UN to improve drought research, Nature, 573, 319-320, https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-02760-9, 2019.

Macro-scale hydrological and earth system models are used increasingly to study the relationship between climate, water, energy, and land systems. In all these domains, the increased impact of anthropogenic interventions on wide-ranging hydrologic processes have prompted hydrologists to advance the representation of human–water interactions in macro-scale hydrological, land surface, and Earth system models. The simulation of water infrastructures (e.g., reservoirs, diversion dams) is receiving particular attention, owing to their growing presence and impact on both upstream and downstream hydrological, ecological, and socio-environmental processes.

This special issue calls for a broad spectrum of submissions on the representation of water infrastructures in hydrological and Earth system models, with particular emphasis on large-scale studies (from multi-basin to global scale). We welcome submissions focusing on — but not limited to — the following areas.

• Numerical schemes for the representation of spatio-temporal reservoir storage patterns and release decisions across a large fleet of dams
• Integrated models simulating the impact of reservoir systems on water temperature dynamics
• Novel techniques for inferring storage patterns, filling strategies, and operating rules from different data sources (e.g., in situ measurements, satellite data), and their integration in numerical models
• Innovative approaches to the conceptualization and calibration of hydrological and water management models (e.g., combination of process-based and machine learning models)
• Representation of major water transfer schemes (e.g., withdrawal and transfer of water for for urban supply or irrigation)
• Representation and conceptualization of human water use (withdrawal, consumptive use, return flows): source and sector apportionment and prioritization
• Novel applications of hydrological–water management models, such as national-scale river forecasting, multi-sector studies (e.g., water–energy–food nexus), or social, environmental, and ecological impact assessments of water infrastructures
• Comparative studies across basins or modelling approaches

Climate change in high-mountain regions is associated with significant change in vegetation dynamics, snow coverage, glacier mass balance, and permafrost, which have led to profound changes in both hydrological regimes and their extremes, making the “water towers” vulnerable. Hydrological regimes and their responses to climate change and its associated cryospheric change in high-mountain regions are quite complicated due to intertwined interactions among multiple processes (i.e. ice melting, snow melting, permafrost degradation, and rainfall–runoff) as well as flow pathways. Critical knowledge gaps and large observational uncertainties pose additional challenges for predicting hydrological response to the co-evolution of climate, cryosphere, and biosphere in the high-mountain regions globally.

This special issue calls for a wide range of submissions across a series of disciplines with a hydrological, climatological, and cryospherical perspective across global or regional high-mountain regions, with a focus on exploring the co-evolutional mechanisms of the soil–ice–snow–vegetation system in the context of climate change and their impacts on both hydrological regimes and their extremes. Potential submissions can be in but are not limited to the following areas:

• review of the important issues and methodologies in global or regional high-mountain hydrological studies;
• novel approaches to studying hydrological response to climate and land surface property changes over alpine regions;
• spatial, seasonal/temporal, or elevational patterns and co-evolution mechanisms in vegetation, snow, glaciers, and permafrost as well as their response to climate change and impacts on hydrology in high-mountain regions;
• global or regional climate change and its impacts on the biosphere, cryosphere, and hydrosphere in high-mountain regions;
• observations and projections of changes and variability in hydrological regimes and their extremes in global or regional high-mountain regions;
• integrated database of hydrological and climatological variables in global or regional high-mountain regions.