Lowlands cover almost a quarter of the Earth’s surface. Often, but not always, lowlands are at the same time wetlands, i.e. where soils are almost saturated and/or groundwater levels are high and groundwater - surface water interactions are essential processes. Several of these are located in densely populated regions (e.g. river deltas, coastal regions, lakes). In most of cases, such regions are characterized by land reclamation practices. Humans reclaimed lands and installed artificial drainage networks able to support agriculture and life. Following the land-use changes, drainage networks faced deep alterations due to urbanization and soil consumption, but also changes in technological innovation, and agricultural techniques. Now such regions are under threat. Human forcing and climate change (e.g. change in the rainfall distribution patterns across time and scale and rising sea levels) are deeply affecting the hydrological processes with direct consequences on the environment, but also on society. In the last decades disasters such as floods have become one of the major threats, especially in lowland regions. It is time for the Earth science community to take up this challenge by improving the understanding of the hydrological processes of such regions, and providing solutions. The purpose of this session is to stimulate the debate about this challenging topic by presenting its state of the art, new case studies from different regions of the World, and also outlining future directions.
The session welcomes novel studies covering disciplines such as geomorphology, subsurface and surface hydrology, and ecohydrology. Applications of different technologies (e.g. remote sensing) are welcome. We also welcome any advances in environmental planning strategies for the mitigation of the consequences of such issues.
Early stage researchers are strongly encouraged to present their research.

If the session will collect enough innovative papers, the plan is to publish the main outcomes in a ISI Journal Special Issue.