Expanding and mainstreaming sociohydrology toward transdisciplinary praxis

Shinichiro Nakamura^1*Heidi Kreibich²Melissa Haeffner³Jenia Mukherjee⁴Giuliano Di Baldassarre⁵Maiko Sakamoto⁶Mikiko Sugiura⁷Günter Blöschl⁸Taikan Oki⁹Murugesu Sivapalan¹⁰

• ¹Nagoya University, Nagoya, Japan
• ²GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geoscience, Potsdam, Germany
• ³Portland State University, Portland, United States
• ⁴Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur, India
• ⁵Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
• ⁶The University of Tokyo, Kashiwa, Japan
• ⁷Sophia University, Tokyo, Japan
• ⁸Vienna University of Technology, Vienna, Austria
• ⁹The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
• ¹⁰University of Illinois Urbana-ChampaignU, Urbana, United States

Since its development in the early 2010s, sociohydrology has deepened our understanding of the long-term coevolution of humans and water by integrating insights from both the natural and social sciences, while also fostering an interdisciplinary community. Its modus operandi to date has been to focus on emergent phenomena, manifesting as unintended consequences, in a variety of contexts. The compound disaster that struck Japan's Noto Peninsula in 2024, and similar experiences in other parts of the world, underscore the urgent need for systemic approaches that are co-developed by experts academia and practitioners stakeholders and focus on context-specific solutions. This perspective piece thus calls for expanding and mainstreaming sociohydrology toward transdisciplinary praxistransforming it into a dynamic and solution-oriented field that is more inclusive at all levels. Sociohydrology must become a driving force for innovation-promoting sustainable solutions that Commented [jm1]: It's a value-loaded term I believe.