How can advances in modelling, data and stakeholder engagement be translated into better decisions for resilient water management? STARS4Water is bringing together key scientific results from the project in a dedicated article collection in the International Journal of River Basin Management. Entitled “From data to decision: stakeholder-driven approaches for a resilient water future,” the collection reflects the project’s interdisciplinary approach to connecting scientific innovation with the needs of water managers, policymakers and other stakeholders.
Journal’s landing page for the special issue: https://www.iahr.org/index/detail/2133
The STARS4Water contributions span a broad range of water-management challenges and methodological advances. They include machine learning and deep-learning approaches for hydrological forecasting, improved process-based modelling, climate-change impacts on water availability and hydropower, groundwater availability and nitrate contamination, ecological and navigation risks, and the application of the Safe Operating Space concept to balance competing water uses. The studies draw on research from several STARS4Water River Basin Hubs—including Drammen, Duero, East Anglia, Rhine and Seine—as well as research with broader applicability. A common thread across the collection is the move from data to actionable knowledge. Several contributions demonstrate how advanced modelling and data-driven approaches can support practical water-management questions, while others explicitly integrate stakeholder knowledge into the development of models and decision-support information. This reflects a central principle of STARS4Water: scientific advances become most valuable for water resilience when they connect with stakeholder priorities, operational realities and decision-making processes.
The collection currently brings together ten manuscripts led by STARS4Water partners, complemented by six contributions from researchers outside the project, demonstrating the wider scientific interest in the themes addressed. In line with STARS4Water’s commitment to open science, preprints of the project manuscripts are already openly available through the STARS4Water Zenodo Community, providing access to the submitted research while the journal publication process continues. Once published, the final papers will also be available open access through the journal.
More information can be found in the following STARS4Water project Deliverable: Martínez-Santos, P. et. al. (2026): Manuscripts on STARS4Water results for special issue in peer-reviewed journal. Deliverable 6.9 (D6.9). Horizon Europe project STARS4Water.
