Eco‐hydrology's past and future in focus

Lately, something called eco‐hydrology has blazed forth as the next big thing in hydrologic science. A series of four papers on the topic appeared in Advances in Water Research last year [Rodríguez‐Iturbe et al., 2001]. Before that, in 1996, the International Hydrology Programme (IHP) initiated a new project under the title of eco‐hydrology [Zalewski et al., 1997]; and the AGU Spring Meeting, also in 1996, included a special session on eco‐hydrology. Since then, a book of edited contributions has appeared [Baird and Wilby, 1999], and eco‐hydrology was the topic of both a “vision for the future” in Water Resources Research [Rodríguez‐Iturbe, 2000] and the Langbein Lecture at AGU's 2000 Spring Meeting. Another session on the topic will be featured at this year's AGU Spring Meeting, and a Chapman Conference on Eco‐hydrology of Semiarid Landscapes will be held in September 2002.