To which extent are socio-hydrology studies truly integrative? The case of natural hazards and disaster research

Abstract

Given the recent developments in socio-hydrology and its potential contributions to disaster risk reduction (DRR), we conducted a systematic literature review of socio-hydrological studies aiming to identify persisting gaps and discuss tractable approaches for tackling them. A total of 44 articles that address natural hazards or disasters were reviewed in detail. Our results indicated that: (i) most of the studies addressed floods, whereas few applications were applied to droughts and compound or multi-hazard events; (ii) none of the reviewed articles investigated interactions across temporal and spatial scales; (iii) there is a wide range of understandings of what “social” means in socio-hydrology; (iv) quantitative approaches were used more often in comparison with mixed and qualitative approaches; (v) monodisciplinary studies prevailed over multi- or interdisciplinary ones; and (vi) one-third of the articles involved stakeholder participation. In summary, we observed a fragmentation in the field, with a multitude of social and physical components, methods, and data sources being used. Based on these findings, we point out potential ways of tackling the identified challenges to advance socio-hydrology, including studying multiple hazards in a joint framework and exploiting new methods for integrating results from qualitative and quantitative analyses to leverage the strengths of different fields of knowledge. Addressing these challenges will improve our understanding of human–water interactions to support DRR.