INTRODUCTION

Water resources are sources of water that are useful or potentially useful to humans. It is important because it is needed for life to exist. Many uses of water include agricultural, industrial, household, recreational and environmental activities. Virtually all of these human uses require fresh water. Only 2.5% of water on the Earth is fresh water, and over two thirds of this is frozen in glaciers and polar ice caps. Water demand already exceeds supply in many parts of the world, and many more areas are expected to experience this imbalance in the near future. It is estimated that 70% of world-wide water use is for irrigation in agriculture. Climate change will have significant impacts on water resources around the world because of the close connections between the climate and hydrologic cycle. Due to the expanding human population competition for water is growing such that many of the worlds major aquifers are becoming depleted. Many pollutants threaten water supplies, but the most widespread, especially in underdeveloped countries, is the discharge of raw sewage into natural waters.

Journal of Water Resources provides a forum for the presentation of fundamental scientific advances in the understanding of water resources systems. The scope of Journal of Water Resources includes any combination of theoretical, computational, or experimental approaches used to advance fundamental understanding of surface or subsurface water resources systems or the interaction between these systems. Manuscripts involving applications or design, but not advancing fundamental understanding, are not appropriate for Advances in Water Resources.
Examples of appropriate topical areas that will be considered include the following:

• Surface and subsurface hydrology
• Hydrodynamics and hydrometeorology
• Multiphase transport phenomena
• Modeling fluid flow and species transport and reaction processes
• Mathematical and stochastic analysis of water resources systems