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Developing socio-hydrology: Research progress, opportunities and challenges

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Abstract

The development of industrialization and urbanization has intensified the coupling of human activities and hydrological processes and promoted the emergence of socio-hydrology. This paper addresses the issue of socio-hydrology due to new development and social demand for hydrological sciences and sustainable development. Four key scientific issues are identified through systematic analysis and summary of the relative research and international progress, i.e., (1) the long-term dynamic process of socio-hydrological system evolution; (2) quantitative description and driving mechanism analysis of socio-hydrological coupling system; (3) prediction of the trajectories of socio-hydrological system co-evolution, and (4) integrated water resource management from the perspective of water systems. Moreover, opportunities and challenges for developing socio-hydrology are emphasized, including (1) strengthening the research of interdisciplinary theoretical systems; (2) improving and broadening socio-hydrological research technical methods, and (3) supporting integrated water resources management (IWRM) for sustainable utilization goals (SDGs). The review is expected to provide a reference for the future development of socio-hydrology discipline.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Water Cycle and Related Land Surface Processes, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, CAS, Beijing, 100101, China

    Jun Xia, Yi Dong & Lei Zou

  2. State Key Laboratory of Water Resources and Hydropower Engineering Science, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430072, China

    Jun Xia

  3. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Yi Dong

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  1. Jun Xia
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  2. Yi Dong
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  3. Lei Zou
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Correspondence to Yi Dong.

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Xia Jun, PhD and Professor, specialized in hydrology and water resource research. E-mail: xiaj@igsnrr.ac.cn

Foundation

National Nature Science Foundation of China, No.41890824, No.42101043; Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, No.XDA23040304

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Xia, J., Dong, Y. & Zou, L. Developing socio-hydrology: Research progress, opportunities and challenges. J. Geogr. Sci. 32, 2131–2146 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11442-022-2040-3

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