As society seeks to meet demands for goods and services for a growing population, it is important to improve understanding of the fundamental science of the hydrological cycle, its links with related global processes, and the role it plays in ecological and societal well-being. Solving challenges related to the hydrologic cycle will require improving our systems for managing, sharing, and analyzing all kinds of water data, and our ability to model and forecast aspects of both the hydrological cycle and the systems we put in place to manage human demands for water.

This chapter from the book Climate Science for Serving Society: Research, Modeling and Prediction Priorities provides a short summary of current World Climate Research Program efforts and addresses challenges related to hydrological data, modeling, and multidisciplinary research.