Science

ENOHA aims to find answers to the following questions:

• How will climate change affect major hydrological fluxes?
• How will climate change affect major hydrological fluxes?
• How can predictions of flood and drought risks be improved?
• How can the management of ecosystems be adapted to changing hydrological and climatic conditions?
• How will expected changes of land use (e.g. agro-climatic cropping zones, forestation and deforestation) influence the hydrological cycle? What are the consequences for the water quality of storage systems? What will be the socio-economic consequences?
• What will be the effect of climate and man-induced changes on physical-chemical and biological indicators used to assess the status of water bodies?
• How do interface processes and feedback mechanisms between  different compartments of the terrestrial system (soil, plant, atmosphere, and groundwater) affect long-term predictions of hydrological and atmospheric processes?

The further vision of ENOHA is the development of new modelling approaches that do not rely on calibration but on a insightful analysis of landscape heterogeneity and process complexity through systematic learning from innovative hydrological observation data. Within the international network, dedicated hydrological experiments to gain knowledge for new hydrological theories, e.g. large scale labelling and tracer experiments can be conducted, as well als, interdisciplinary measuring programs, including Climatology, Geology and Ecology, to embrace new scientific perspectives.