Today it is clear that the development and delivery of climate services is of great interest to the water resources sector, reflecting the importance of climate predictions and projections to both our society and to our economy. Across varied stakeholders, from hydropower dam operators, shipping traffic controllers and irrigation managers to flood risk policy makers and drinking water utilities, many economic sectors depend on reliable information on hydrological forecasts and projections at different time scales. Development of the design and uptake of hydrological climate services is the subject of a range of ongoing research projects, including the H2020 project IMPREX. A further development towards operational services is promoted by the Copernicus C3S project EDgE.

A common interest for many stakeholders in the water sector is a Hydrological Risk Outlook: an assessment of atmospheric and oceanic conditions that may lead to anomalous hydrological conditions and risks at the (sub)seasonal to annual time scale. Both IMPREX and EDgE are working towards the development of prototypes of such a hydrological risk outlook system, based on a combination of seasonal forecasts and on site-specific, sector-specific information.

This session invites studies reporting on developments that may contribute to the design and implementation of a hydrological risk outlook system. Underlying drivers and methodologies to extract the relevant information from the available data are welcome contributions to this session. We are also particularly keen to host papers outlining service requirements and experience with past or current services from professional stakeholders in the water sector.