The investigation and modelling of hydrological processes is a fundamental task to many hydraulic-engineering problems, such as flood risk mitigation and management, assessment of surface water availability, evaluation of water supply potential for hydropower generation, stream-pollution and water-quality management, ecological-flow assessment, evaluation of stream erosivity and sediment transport capacity.

Solutions to fundamental hydraulic problems (e.g., identification of the optimal flood risk mitigation measures, design of river engineering works, identification of the most suitable strategies for water resources planning and management, etc.) rely heavily on hydrological studies and predictions and must be able to deal with a changing environment as well as the uncertainty inherent in every hydrological process and measured data.

This session is co-sponsored by the International Association of Hydro-Environment Engineering and Research (IAHR) and serves as a meeting point between researchers and practitioners from hydrology and hydraulic engineering. A central focus to the session is the discussion on synergies and mutual feedbacks between these two scientific areas and how we can profit from them to

- Enhance water resources planning and management
- Solve hydraulic engineering problems in ungauged basins
- Reduce uncertainty of hydrologic predictions
- Better adapt to environmental change

Solicited speaker: Henrik Madsen (DHI, Horsholm, Denmark)
"Statistical downscaling of climate model projections for design and adaptation of water infrastructure" (H. Madsen & M.A. Sunyer)

For this session we foresee the publication of selected papers in the "Hydrology and Earth System Sciences" journal (http://www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci.net, IF2009:2.462)