EDITORIAL article
Front. Water
Sec. Water and Hydrocomplexity
This article is part of the Research TopicClimate, Water and Land in Africa: Research Trends and ChallengesView all 12 articles
Editorial: Climate, Water and Land in Africa: Research Trends and Challenges
Provisionally accepted
- 1University of Botswana, Gaborone, Botswana
- 2University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany
- 3University of South Africa, Pretoria, South Africa
- 4Karlsruher Institut fur Technologie, Karlsruhe, Germany
- 5Universitat Augsburg, Augsburg, Germany
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Water availability is essential to Africa's socio-economic prosperity in particular for both rain-fed 20 and irrigated agriculture, municipal water supply, energy production and industry. Sustainable 21 management of water resources is key for sustaining ecosystem health, natural resources and 22 wellbeing for the local population. Yet, the African continent's water resources are currently facing 23 severe pressures from (over) exploitation of water storages, severe pollution, and infrastructural 24 challenges. In addition to pressure on water resources, it faces increased risks of hydro extremes like 25 large river floods, flash floods after local high-intense rainstorms, and droughts. 26As a continent Africa currently has over 1.4 billion people and is expecting > 3 billion people till end 27 of the century. It has a distinctly diverse climate and environment and, as elsewhere, faces problems 28 related to insufficient interaction between hydrology and society.
Keywords: African water resources, Climate Change, Hydrological extremes, hydrological processes in Africa, Sustainable Water Management
Received: 02 Feb 2026; Accepted: 11 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Alemaw, Bronstert, ILUNGA, Kunstmann and Lorenz. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Berhanu Alemaw
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