Out of the Forest and Into the Concrete Jungle: Challenges, Opportunities, and Innovations in Urban Hydrology

Abstract

Urbanization markedly alters the movement, storage, and quality of water resources, and two-thirds of the global population will live in urban areas by 2050. In the context of this accelerating urbanization and the compounding effects of climate destabilization and entrenched environmental injustice, urban hydrologists have the opportunity and responsibility to advance scientific understanding of complex anthropogenic landscapes and support informed decision-making that effectively meets the needs of these growing urban communities. To meet this challenge, the study of hydrology in cities must integrate built infrastructure, public policy, social justice, public health, and socioeconomic systems. Here we share a collective perspective on the current challenges, recent innovations, and future opportunities for urban hydrology. We identify three key foci for advancing the discipline including (a) a refocused conceptual organization that better integrates physics and people, (b) strategies for building an urban hydrology community of practice, and (c) the enhancement of societal impacts of research. Within these three overarching focal areas, we identify 10 action items for the urban hydrology community, which highlight that advancing the field requires interdisciplinary research collaborations, improved strategic investment in education and training, and institutional support for community-engaged and/or participatory research and outreach. This perspective offers a comprehensive, yet transferable and adaptive, roadmap for the rapidly evolving field of urban hydrology to address the grand intellectual challenges and community needs surrounding urban water.