Description: Is the hydrology community focusing on the right research questions? Should it focus more on practical issues? This panel is motivated by an editorial in Nature Sustainability in August 2021 (https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-021-00766-8) with the same title as this plenary. The editorial argued that “water studies needs to confront the reality that it may be pursuing too many publications and not enough ideas”. The panel will draw on a variety of voices from within the water science community and will be moderated by one of the editors of Nature Sustainability to discuss where hydrologic research should focus its attention. The panel will draw on a variety of voices from within the water science community and will be moderated to discuss where hydrologic research should focus its attention.

Speakers:

Moderator: Stephanie Olen, Ph.D - Associate Editor, Nature Sustainability

Safeeq Khan, Ph.D - Assistant Cooperative Extension Specialist, Water and Watershed Sciences, University of California Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources (UCANR); Assistant Adjunct Professor, Civil & Environmental Engineering, University of California, Merced

Megan Konar, Ph.D - William J. and Elaine F. Hall Faculty Fellow, Associate Professor, University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign

Claudia Pahl-Wolst, Ph.D - Professor for Resources Management, Director of the Institute for Environmental Systems Research, University of Osnabrück, Germany