About this Research Topic
Water and environmental sustainability in watersheds are challenged by climate change and human disturbances, which is a global issue that concerns scientists, policymakers, and the public. Climate and land use changes significantly affect hydrological processes and water resources in watersheds. Increasing demands in human water usage intensify water resources stress and enhance the competition between human and ecosystem water uses in some rapidly developed watersheds. Meanwhile, water and environmental sustainability in watersheds are threatened by excess nutrients (e.g., nitrogen and phosphorus) and emerging pollutants like microplastics. Changes in hydrological and hydrodynamic processes lead to complex dynamics of instream pollutant transportation and transformation, thereby affecting watershed water quality. In addition, watersheds play an important role in the global carbon cycle. Understanding the watershed ecosystem feedback to changes in climate and water pollution status is significant for predicting carbon cycling dynamics and pursuing environmental sustainability.
The Research Topic aims to address watershed environmental changes under multiple disturbances and adaptive management for water and environmental sustainability. Specifically, interdisciplinary research is needed to analyze the dynamics and underlying mechanisms of watershed hydrological, water quality, carbon cycling, and ecological changes. Interactions and feedbacks of processes within the natural system (i.e., interactions among hydrological, environmental, and ecological processes) and among the natural and social systems further complicate the water problems in a watershed and require further investigation. As a result, the complexity and uncertainty associated with climatic change and human activities call for adaptive management approaches that can be used to adapt watershed management actions over time in response to changes in system drivers. Moreover, it is significant to manage watersheds from a systems perspective and promote integrated watershed management in the context of environmental change.
The Research Topic focuses on watershed environmental changes and sustainable management, and welcomes submissions of all article types that are accepted by the journal (e.g., Original Research, Perspective, Review) from any country. Potential themes include, but are not limited to, the following:
• Impact of climate and land use changes on watershed hydrology and water availability
• Water quality modeling and assessment for rivers, reservoirs, lakes and estuaries
• Interactions among hydrological, environmental and ecological processes
• Water pollution remediation and ecological restoration in watersheds
• Watershed greenhouse gas emission dynamics and mitigation strategies
• Analysis and modeling of coupled human-natural systems
• Water management for sustainable socioeconomic development and ecosystem services
• Integrated watershed management adapting to environmental change.
The Research Topic aims to address watershed environmental changes under multiple disturbances and adaptive management for water and environmental sustainability. Specifically, interdisciplinary research is needed to analyze the dynamics and underlying mechanisms of watershed hydrological, water quality, carbon cycling, and ecological changes. Interactions and feedbacks of processes within the natural system (i.e., interactions among hydrological, environmental, and ecological processes) and among the natural and social systems further complicate the water problems in a watershed and require further investigation. As a result, the complexity and uncertainty associated with climatic change and human activities call for adaptive management approaches that can be used to adapt watershed management actions over time in response to changes in system drivers. Moreover, it is significant to manage watersheds from a systems perspective and promote integrated watershed management in the context of environmental change.
The Research Topic focuses on watershed environmental changes and sustainable management, and welcomes submissions of all article types that are accepted by the journal (e.g., Original Research, Perspective, Review) from any country. Potential themes include, but are not limited to, the following:
• Impact of climate and land use changes on watershed hydrology and water availability
• Water quality modeling and assessment for rivers, reservoirs, lakes and estuaries
• Interactions among hydrological, environmental and ecological processes
• Water pollution remediation and ecological restoration in watersheds
• Watershed greenhouse gas emission dynamics and mitigation strategies
• Analysis and modeling of coupled human-natural systems
• Water management for sustainable socioeconomic development and ecosystem services
• Integrated watershed management adapting to environmental change.
Keywords: Climate change, Human disturbance, Environmental sustainability, Watershed hydrology, Water quality, Ecological restoration, Adaptive management, Integrated watershed management
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
