The 5th International Electronic Conference on Water Sciences

Conference Title: Water and the Ecosphere in the Anthropocene

We are pleased to welcome you to the 5th International Electronic Conference on Water Sciences (ECWS-5), which will be held online, promoted by the open-access journal Water https://www.mdpi.com/journal/water.

In the last few years, four International Electronic Conferences on Water Sciences (ECWS-1, ECWS-2, ECW-3 and ECWS-4) have addressed important water-related aspects. A fifth conference, aiming at deepening the discussion on issues of Water and the Ecosphere in the Anthropocene (WEA), is needed, with attention focused on the water cycle in the ecosphere and its interactions with the different compartments during the Anthropocene. The Earth’s most recent geologic time period is human-influenced, based on overwhelming regional as well as global evidences that atmospheric, pedospheric, geologic, hydrologic, biospheric, and other earth-system compartments and processes are now altered by humans, including a wide diversity of anthropogenic activities and climatic changes. The ecosphere is considered, according to Cole (1958) and Hugget (1999), as a global ecosystem integrating all living organisms and their inorganic environments. During the Anthropocene, the ecosphere can be viewed as a global socio-ecosystem, including the Critical Zone, ecosystems, human societies, and their interactions with the environment. Different aspects of the interactions between water and the ecosphere in the context of global changes will be considered in this conference, including water quantity, quality, biology, ecology, sociology, economy, and law.

The ECWS-5 invites researchers from academia as well as stakeholders, to contribute original results, novel ideas and scientific concepts, and new technologies and experiences to deal with processes within the context of WEA, making reference to the following topics framed in a global changing environment with a special focus on sustainability, resilience, and adaptation:

• Water interactions with the different compartments of the Critical Zone
• Water resources management and ecosphere resilience and adaptation
• Water, ecosystem functioning and services
• Water and socio-ecosystems
• Integrated modelling of the interactions between water and the ecosphere
• New sensors, new methods and technologies, and new approaches
• Poster

Conference Secretariat: Ms. Vanessa Sun <ecws@mdpi.com>