Call for Papers: Assessing the Risks of Climate Change for Water Resources and Coastal Environments

A special issue of International Journal of Risk Assessment and Management 

Climate change is now widely recognised as one of the major challenges facing the world. This phenomenon refers to a statistically significant variation in weather patterns leading to a long-term shift in weather conditions. While we are certain that climate change is in our future, our ability to predict the magnitude of these changes is limited due to uncertainties in forecasting anthropogenic interference with the climate system.

 We expect climate change to have wide-ranging effects on the environment and on socioeconomic factors. For densely populated urban areas, the impact of climate change on water resources and coastal zones is of critical importance for the social, economic and environmental sustainability of the region. This reinforces the need to assess the risks of and vulnerability to climate change and formulate adaptation strategies to address the impending changes.

 The objective of this special issue is to invite original research papers focused on the risks of climate change for water resources and coastal environments. We hope this will promote the advancement and propagation of knowledge in this field and provide a resource for policy makers involved in regulating the increasing demands of climate change.

Suitable topics include but are not limited to:

• Coastal and/or inland inundation associated with storm surges and sea-level rise 
• Salinity intrusion of surface water or ground water due to rising sea levels 
• Hydrologic response to changes in temperature, precipitation patterns and snowmelt 
• Wetland and estuarine habitat restoration in adapting to climate change 
• Climate change impacts and adaptation strategies for coastal seaports 
• Application of risk assessment methods in the context of climate change 
• Challenges of freshwater availability and quality due to climate change 
• Effects of climate change on marine and/or freshwater ecosystems and biodiversity 
• Changes to lake dynamics due to climate change

Important Dates
Submission deadline: 1 March, 2012
Notification of acceptance: 1 May, 2012
Final paper due: 1 July, 2012