Dear Colleagues,

The watershed approach has been a powerful tool in ecosystem ecology research for over 50 years, integrating biogeochemical systems to observe input–output fluxes and processes, and has been central to urban water research in the urban Phoenix and Baltimore LTERs. Given the keen interest in green infrastructure and nature-based solutions for urban environmental problems, the integrating power of the watershed approach makes it a powerful tool for understanding the ecohydrological systems of the built environment.

Urban ecology has matured over the last three decades by fully incorporating people and their institutions into ecological theory and research. People and their infrastructure are the dominant forces in determining the pathways, magnitudes, and fluxes of chemicals, nutrients, water, etc. Urban watersheds are very complex because waterflows have been so extensively engineered both above and below ground. Given the extreme alterations in stormwater, sewage, and potable water networks in addition to soils and the large magnitudes of basin transfers (e.g., water imported into cities), urban watersheds can function like a kind of urban karst, producing a complex hydrology with numerous direct connections to streams. This creates a novel urban stream continuum network because these connections are spread across the entire watershed in ways that more natural watersheds are not.

Despite the apparent dominance of the built infrastructure and its altered hydrology and chemistry, the functions of “natural” infrastructure (soil, water, microbes, vegetation, animals) still have important roles, and the greening of urban landscapes suggests a need for an ecohydrological approach to urban ecosystem watersheds. Ecohydrology is an excellent framework for these “mixed” watershed systems. It is an interdisciplinary science that pursues applied solutions to environmental problems and often employs modern techniques (e.g., in environmental sensing, data, modeling, and experimentation) to explore the integrated role of water and biology in a wide range of ecosystem processes.

Against this broad ecohydrological backdrop, submissions (research articles and reviews on modeling or management) are sought that address ecohydrological linkages, at any scale, that are a part of urban ecosystems and their management.

Dr. Kenneth T. Belt
Prof. Dr. Sujay S. Kaushal
Guest Editors

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• Biogeochemistry
• Ecohydrology
• Ecosystem processes
• Groundwater
• Hydrology
• Microbial ecology
• Nature-based solutions
• Plant physiology
• Pathogens
• Sensor technology
• Socioecohydrology
• Stormwater management
• Urban ecology
• Urban forestry
• Urban karst
• Urban sustainability
• Urban water management
• Urban watershed continuum