This special issue utilises the 50th anniversary of the 1976 drought as both a historical retrospective and a baseline to evaluate half a century of engineering and policy progression in the field of water management. Marking its 50th anniversary provides an opportunity to assess how drought research, planning and resilience have evolved. It also allows us to consider how droughts of similar or greater severity would affect water supply today, given changes in infrastructure, population, societal expectations, regulatory frameworks, and demand pressures. Looking ahead, climate change is expected to influence both the frequency and severity of droughts, requiring sectors to be better prepared, coordinated, and resilient.
The need for this special issue is underscored by the increasing frequency of flash droughts and multi-year deficits that have strained global water systems over the last decade, most notably the record-breaking European heatwaves of 2022 and 2023. While the 1976 drought remains the primary historical benchmark for water planning, recent literature, including the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report, highlights that changing climates may introduce new pressures to the water sector. This has created a critical need for new research that moves beyond traditional stationary modelling toward alternative approaches, such as Decision Making under Deep Uncertainty. Recent national frameworks, such as the UK’s National Framework for Water Resources, reflect a strategic pivot toward 1-in-500-year drought resilience, yet there is a lack of consolidated peer-reviewed engineering literature detailing how these ambitious targets will be met in practice. This special issue fills that void, providing a timely platform for the engineering community to synchronise 50 years of hindsight with the predictive requirements of an uncertain future.
List of topic areas
- Comparative studies that stress-test contemporary infrastructure against 1976-scale events.
- New methodological approaches that use modelling to account for climate change non-stationarity, population growth and changing regulation in the water sector.
- Research that aligns engineering interventions with environmental flows and habitat preservation.
- Perspectives on how regulatory frameworks have matured to facilitate better coordination of water resources.
Submissions Information
Submit your paper here by 1st September 2026
Author guidelines available here
Once you have registered with our Editorial system, ReView at https://ice-review.rivervalley.io/journal/jwama, choose article type “Special issue Paper” and then select ‘Drought and water resources management in the 21st Century’ from the drop-down menu on screen.
Please mention the name of the Special issue on the Author Questionnaire as well.
Author guidelines must be strictly followed.
Submitted articles must not have been previously published, nor should they be under consideration for publication anywhere else, while under review for this journal.
Guest Editors
Anna Murgatroyd, Newcastle University, UK
Lucy Barker, UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, UK
Jamie Hannaford, UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, UK
Geoff Darch, Anglian Water, UK
Stuart Allen, Environment Agency, England, UK
David M. Hannah, University of Birmingham, UK
Key deadlines
Opening date for manuscripts submissions: 1st June 2026
Closing date for manuscripts submission: 1st Spetember 2026
For more details refer here
