Editorial

In this issue of Water Management a number of papers are concerned in one way or another with the solution to generic hydraulic problems or consequences of hydraulic design, in the case described here, on water quality. The importance of hydraulic precision and understanding of water flow on broader scale impacts of designs or mitigation measures is amply illustrated by Villada Arroyave and Crosato (2010). This paper provides an interesting hydraulic modelling study to assess the effectiveness of some current Dutch river management policies. The fifth paper in this issue describes a hybrid treatment technology to bring sewage effluent to a high quality (Chanan et al., 2010). All of these contributions to understanding and managing fluid flow become even more important when considered in the light of climate change and the possibility of increasing frequency of extreme events. Flood control and mitigation is an ever-growing societal issue, whether considering its economic effects or the great human hardships that can follow flood devastation. This has been exemplified by the UK summer floods of 2007, as well as the recent events in the north-west of England and elsewhere in Europe and most recently in Pakistan.