The first 'Invited Review Paper' from the Journal of Water & Climate Change is now available!

'A review of the effects of climate change on riverine flooding in subtropical and tropical regions'

Rohan Eccles, Hong Zhang and David Hamilton.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2166/wcc.2019.175 

                               
Please see below a note from Editor-in-Chief Professor Chris Perera, PhD, FIE (Aust), CPEng about 'Invited Review Papers' in the Journal of Water & Climate Change: 

Late last year, the Journal of Water & Climate Change introduced an ‘Invited Review Paper’ category. These papers are written by the experts on a specific topic related to water and climate change. These review papers are aimed to produce the state-of-the-art knowledge on the topic, considering also the issues, challenges and potential solutions, and ideas for future research. We are pleased to publish our first such review. This first review is on a timely topic on floods and climate change particularly focusing on tropical and subtropical regions.

Climate has changed throughout Earth history and in recent years, Earth’s climate has begun to change again, mostly producing a warmer climate producing consistent higher temperatures above the long term average. Most scientists believe this warmer climate change is because of the human activities that release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

Climate change will affect human societies and the natural environment. With climate change, the water cycle is expected to undergo significant change and disturbs the natural balance that may have seen under the stable climate. The potential direct consequences of climate change on water include wet areas becoming wetter and dry areas drier, longer periods of drought in some regions, an increase in the number, duration and intensity of tropical storms, decline in water quality in rivers and lakes, and rise in sea level. There are also indirect consequences such as the effect of human health and the risks associated with development of cities and towns.

During the latter half of the last century, significant progress has been made in the development of climate models and climate change impact models. This significant progress is due to rapidly developing high computer power.

The United Nations formed the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 1988 to provide the world with an objective, scientific view of climate change, its natural, political and economic impacts and risks, and possible response options.  The IPCC is currently in its Sixth Assessment cycle. Similar to the preceding cycles, this assessment cycle will review and provide recommendations on the state-of-the-art knowledge on climate science and impact analysis, focusing on climate modelling, model evaluation, predictions, scenarios and projections, detection and attribution, on global and regional scales. Therefore it is timely that the Journal of Water and Climate Change produces a series of review papers by recognised experts in the area on various aspects related to water and climate change to provide the state-of-the-art knowledge on the topic to its readers.