The management and utilization of water storage systems, including dams, reservoirs, natural lakes, and connected groundwater storage, have historically played a central role in securing water supply during dry periods and supporting domestic, industrial, agricultural, energy, and ecological needs. However, increasing water demand, climate change, and intensifying hydroclimatic extremes are placing growing pressure on both natural and human-made storage systems. Projected warming is expected to alter reservoir inflows, evaporation, storage efficiency, water quality, sediment dynamics, and ecosystem functioning, while more frequent droughts, heatwaves, wildfires, and extreme precipitation may generate compound and cascading risks. These pressures increasingly require water storage systems to be managed not in isolation, but as interconnected components of wider river basin and landscape systems.
This session invites theoretical, experimental, observational, and applied studies investigating the future of natural and human-made water storage under local and global environmental change. The session aims to bring together contributions using remote sensing, in situ observations, water resources systems modeling, AI, digital twins, and decision-support approaches to improve the monitoring, prediction, adaptive operation, and long-term sustainability of freshwater storage systems.
Key topics include:
• Impacts of climate variability and change on the need for water storage, reservoir performance, and water availability;
• Sedimentation, water quality, and ecological consequences of reservoir operation and trade-offs among water supply, hydropower, irrigation, flood protection, ecosystems, and other users;
• Reservoir operations modeling and Multi-reservoir and basin-scale management under changing climatic and socio-economic conditions;
• Remote sensing, AI, digital twins, forecasting, and decision-support tools for monitoring and adaptive reservoir operation;
• Governance, policy, and socio-economic dimensions of sustainable water-storage management;
• Case studies demonstrating innovative adaptation strategies and restoration initiatives.