Special issue  

Climate change impacts on the water cycle have become more evident during the last decade with several parts of the hydrological cycle affected. Consequently, the increase in natural hazards, especially droughts and floods, directly affect society, e.g. by water stress, urban floods, limitations in irrigation and many more. In order to cope with these impacts, the associated risks need to be analysed and prioritized. Based on the risk assessment, measures can be derived to mitigate the impact of climate and hydrological change on society. Therefore, this special issue aims at research following the modelling and analysis chain climate–hydrology–risks–measures. The research topics should also address their direct applicability to stakeholders in order to provide established transferability links of research results to practical implementation. Six hotspot regions in Europe have been chosen, which are prone to a large variety of natural hazards due to climate change, such as droughts and floods: (1) Bergen, Norway; (2) Cyprus; (3) Tagus River basin, Portugal; (4) Wupper River basin, Germany; (5) the Veluwe, the Netherlands; (6) and Barcelona and nearby coastal cities, Spain.