Please note that this session was withdrawn and is no longer available in the respective programme. This withdrawal might have been the result of a merge with another session.
HS5.3.2 | Data-driven approaches in water management and policy: Addressing hydrologic challenges and human adaptation
EDI
Data-driven approaches in water management and policy: Addressing hydrologic challenges and human adaptation
Convener: Christian KlassertECSECS | Co-conveners: Taís Maria Nunes CarvalhoECSECS, Jim Yoon, Carlos Dionisio Pérez Blanco, Marthe Wens
Individual and collective human behavior is increasingly recognized as a critical determinant of our ability to cope with climate change, increasing water scarcity, and more frequent extreme events, as sectoral resource demands and adaptation challenges grow. Yet, severe uncertainties characterize our forecasts of societal pathways, behaviors, and vulnerabilities, compared to projections of biophysical systems. Furthermore, the extent of human responses to climatic and hydrological variability and change remains underexplored. Our ability to foresee non-linear changes in human behavior is limited, creating the risk of encountering unexpected abrupt developments. We must improve our ability to understand the role of human actors in water management and policy to anticipate negative impacts and find solutions before they arrive.

Increasing data availability and an expanding set of analysis tools offer new opportunities to address these limitations. This session provides a forum for inter- and transdisciplinary exchange around emerging data-driven approaches to understand and model the role of human actors and institutions across all sectors related to water policy and management (e.g., irrigated land-use, urban water demand, reservoir management, etc.), and their responses to changing hydrological challenges. These approaches include, but are not limited to, machine learning, data mining, econometric, and remote sensing methods, as well as data-driven simulation and optimization models for hydro-economic, socio-hydrological, multi-sector, and coupled human-natural systems. We also welcome contributions on transferring knowledge gained from these methods to water management strategies, plans, and policies in practice.