Dear Colleagues,

Most parts of the world will experience the consequences of climate change in the coming decades. In all climate change scenarios, a higher frequency of extreme weather events, such as excessive rainfall periods and droughts, is expected. In order to reduce the financial and societal costs related to the arriving climate change mitigation plans need to be developed at the level of watersheds. Since spatial patterns of urbanization, deforestation and afforestion and agricultural land use control to a large extent the hydrological cycle in a catchment, it is clear that land use planning and optimization is a key element in the development of resilient watersheds. Simulation tools that could assist watershed managers in developing pathways towards more sustainable land use patterns in their catchments are therefore highly needed.

Although most hydrological processes are well described and sophisticated hydrological simulations models have been developed, in relatively few studies this process knowledge is applied to optimize land use patterns, partly because of the complexity of the problem and partly because it requires an interdisciplinary approach that bridges the land use science and the water science communities.

This Special Issue aims to provide a state-of-the-art of the coupling of hydrological process models and land use optimization models. Both conceptual papers and case-studies illustrating various aspects of the integration of land use change models in watershed management are welcomed.

Prof. Dr. Anton Van Rompaey
Guest Editor

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• land use modelling
• watershed management
• urbanisation
• deforestation
• agricultural practices
• flooding
• droughts
• spatial planning.