Research on changes in the pace of the water cycle dates back to the 1970s. In the last few decades, leveraging a number of new regional and global datasets, research has highlighted changes in the water cycle and distribution attributed to secular trends in relevant processes and/or to anthropogenic activities, such as irrigation, groundwater pumping, dam and reservoir operations. For example, studies have investigated changes in the rate of exchange across terrestrial water storages and land-atmosphere interactions using different datasets, including remotely sensed, modeled, or data-assimilated, and reanalysis products. Past studies have also differed in their period of analysis, regional focus, and methods for change detection, attribution, and uncertainty assessment. This session aims to provide a platform to present and discuss studies that seek to understand:

(i) The current state of knowledge regarding the role of climatic change and human water management in influencing land-atmosphere interactions.
(ii) How these factors result in accelerating or decelerating water cycle processes, with implications for droughts, floods, and other hydroclimatic extremes.
(iii) Attribution of changes in water fluxes, storages, and land-atmosphere interactions to climate variability, long-term climate change, and human water and land management.
(iv) Uncertainties and open questions related to this critically important research topic.

Studies focused on change analysis of individual or integrated water cycle components and land atmosphere interactions using one or more of the above-mentioned data types and conceptual, coupled, or impact modeling techniques are encouraged, with either a regional or global focus. Contributions utilizing emerging observational capabilities, including gravity-based observations, surface water monitoring, and flux measurements, are particularly welcome. We also encourage studies that quantify and attribute changes in water fluxes, storages, and land-atmosphere interactions, highlight associated uncertainties, and disentangle the relative roles of climate variability, long-term climate change, and human water and land management. This especially includes interdisciplinary studies that improve our understanding of Earth system feedbacks and inform sustainable water management under global change.