Salutations from the Rector of the University of Naples Federico II, the Chair of C.I.R.AM., and the Chair of the Organizing/Scientific Committee.

All current hydrological observatories distributed are providing soil moisture data from in-situ and proximal sensor network systems in different spatial and temporal resolutions. Moreover large-scale global coverage of soil moisture data is provided by various remote sensing platforms. The increase in the amount of soil moisture data across spatial and temporal scales is leading to the era of “Big Soil Moisture Data”. The exponential growth in computational power and advancements in machine learning algorithms are unlocking scientific insights at an unprecedented rate in soil-moisture-related processes leading to improved hydrological, ecological and agricultural modeling and forecasting. Yet the abundant soil moisture data collected by new-generation ground-based, airborne-based and space-borne platforms are still affected by uncertainties and have gaps in both space and time. In this session, we welcome contributions that analyze soil moisture dynamics that have been made available in hydrological observatories aiming at improving our understanding of hydrological processes. We also invite contributions that address the aforementioned challenges.

Invited speaker: Yann Kerr, France (yann.kerr@cesbio.cnes.fr)

In the last few years, development in robotics, computer vision, and sensor technology led to the development of new remote sensing tools enabling environmental process dynamics to be described with unprecedented resolutions (both spatial and spectral). Innovation in this discipline is becoming a pervasive topic where new monitoring strategies have been implemented to enhance our current capacity in describing the water cycle and its interaction with all the connected physical processes. In this session, we envision the “journey” of the reflected energy from the soil surface to the estimation of the soil physical, chemical, and hydraulic properties. Additionally, we welcome contributions that reflect on the current revolution in remote sensing and identify trends, potential opportunities, and unavoidable limitations.

Invited speaker: Monica Garcia, Spain (monica.garciag@upm.es)

Our capacity to observe hydrological states and fluxes at the catchment scale has greatly increased over the last decades. Novel technologies allow measuring the components of the terrestrial water budget at an unprecedented spatial and temporal resolution. Data assimilation and artificial intelligence have gained increasing interest as they allow for the optimal integration of various data and models. It is repeatedly demonstrated that they are ideally suited for forecasting hydrological processes and managing water resources. This session welcomes contributions that link observational data with models of hydrological, crop, land surface, vadose zone, or subsurface processes to improve our understanding of hydrological processes and real-time management of water resources.

Invited speaker: Christian Massari, Italy (christian.massari@irpi.cnr.it)

Despite powerful tracer tools for deciphering water sources, flow paths, and transit times, hydrology remains a discipline that is measurement limited. With global change likely triggering increasingly intense hydro-meteorological events in the near future, there is a pressing need for new observational tools operating at unprecedented spatial and temporal scales. The natural abundance of the stable water isotopes (i.e. δ2H and δ18O) offers a suite of possibilities to track water fluxes in the critical zone. These measurements have the potential to serve as a catalyst for process analyses in the critical zone – ultimately delivering entirely new datasets for model calibration and validation. We encourage contributions on isotope-based studies to investigate and model processes within and between the various compartments of the critical zone, challenges related to water extraction techniques and isotope analyses, and novel datasets on past variability in isotope signatures in precipitation and stream water (e.g., from trees, speleothems, freshwater mussels).

Invited speaker: Adrià Barbeta Margarit, Spain
(adria.barbeta.margarit@gmail.com)

Water is the key factor for sustaining natural environments, agricultural and forest ecosystems as well as human activities. Our everyday activities rely on significant direct and indirect water use. For instance, food, feed, and biomass production for energy consumption (e.g. bio-based economy) are controlled by its availability. The water cycle is strongly influenced by climate and land-use change, but the extent and impact on water resources availability and ecosystem services and functioning are only roughly known. Global warming and economic growth are significantly impacting hydrological extremes, such as floods and droughts, and also on land cover. This may lead to severe economic, societal, and ecological impacts. This session solicits contributions outlining the impacts of climate and global change and exploring mitigation strategies for increasing hydrologic resilience in regions of high vulnerability.

Invited speaker: Florence Habets, France (florence.habets@ens.fr)

In the past decade, hydrological and critical zone observatories have been established that produce massive amounts of data for a range of critical zone processes. As it remains challenging to analyze such data sets, we solicit submissions that present novel strategies to support critical zone studies in the light of big data.

Invited speaker: Steffen Zacharias, Germany (steffen.zacharias@ufz.de)

For interested participants, work groups will be formed to debate longstanding questions in hydrology with the goal to identify promising future research directions. These groups will also allow early career scientists to benefit from interactive discussions with senior scientists and experts.

Please find more information at: https://egu-galileo.eu/gc8-hydro/call_for_abstracts/break-out_groups.html

Chairs present working group results, conference wrap-up, decide engagement, deliverables, and on-going commitments.