水文学研究进展与展望

水文学是研究地球上水的起源、存在、分布、循环运动等变化规律,并运用这些规律为人类服务的知识体系。水文学研究经历了由经验到理论、由简单过程到复杂系统、由定性描述到定量模拟的发展历程,其学科体系演进与科学技术进步及社会发展需求紧密联系,并由此衍生出诸如生态水文学、气象水文学、冰冻圈水文学、遥感水文学、同位素水文学、城市水文学、社会水文学等多种交叉研究领域与分支学科。当今水文学研究在水文多尺度观测、陆面—水文—社会耦合模拟及多源观测—模型同化技术等领域取得显著进展,水文学研究的广度和深度不断拓展。未来水文学研究将面向陆地水文循环的变化规律及其效应,重点关注水文循环变化特征和机理、水文循环变化趋势预估及水文循环变化的自然和社会影响等前沿课题;从原有就水论水研究思路转向在自然地理综合分析框架下以水循环为纽带开展的多尺度、多过程集成研究。

Progress and prospect of hydrological sciences

Hydrology is the science that describes the continuous movement of water, the related biogeochemical and geophysical processes, and their interactions with the environment. Hydrology research has evolved from experience-based to theories, from single process to complex systems, and from qualitative interpretations to quantitative models. The progress and evolution of hydrology has been intimately intertwined with the scientific and technological progresses and socioeconomic development, which creates many branches and interdisciplinary areas of hydrology, such as ecohydrology, hydrometeorology, cryosphere hydrology, hydrologic remote sensing, isotope hydrology, urban hydrology, and socio-hydrology. Hydrology research has made notable progress in the fields of multi-scale observations, coupled land surface-hydrology-society modeling, and multi-source data and model assimilation techniques, which further expands the connotation of hydrological study. In the future, hydrology research will focus on the characteristics and mechanism of the changes of water cycle, prediction of the changes of water cycle, and natural and social impact assessment of the changes of water cycle, in order to offer sustainable solutions to water security. In summary, the research paradigm of hydrology would shift from the traditionally self-focused approaches to the emerging integrated approaches that focus on all the water-related processes across multiple scales and sectors in the earth system.