ASCE Publications: How do you differentiate your journal from similar journals in the civil engineering field?

Chu: The Journal of Hydrologic Engineering (JHE), sponsored by Environmental and Water Resources Institute (EWRI), has experienced decades-long growth since it published its first paper in 1996. The scope of the journal has expanded to account for all facets of water in both natural and built environments and, more importantly, to adapt to new challenges and changes in natural phenomena (e.g., climate change), society needs, advances in technologies (e.g., remote sensing and advanced computing capabilities), availability of big data, and development of novel approaches and algorithms (e.g., artificial intelligence and soft computing). As indicated in its title, one unique feature of JHE that differentiates it from other journals in the field of hydrology and water resources is its inherent engineering nature. It covers both hydrologic science and hydrologic engineering and publishes both theoretical research and practical applications to solve engineering problems. .

ASCE Publications: What are the critical topics you want to see covered in this journal?

Chu: JHE covers a broad range of hydrologic science and engineering areas such as surface water hydrology, vadose zone hydrology, groundwater hydrology, watershed hydrology, statistical hydrology, environmental hydrology, computational hydrology, as well as hydrologic systems analysis and engineering design. It encompasses analytical, numerical, experimental, and data-driven approaches. To answer this question, I would like to highlight the following three critical topics that are of particular interest and importance:

1. Novel artificial intelligence (e.g., machine learning, deep learning) and other data-driven approaches to advance hydrologic science and engineering practices. These approaches supported by emerging technologies and big data have exhibited great potentials to model the behavior of highly complex, dynamic hydrologic systems and seek sustainable and resilient engineering solutions to real-world water and environmental problems.


2. Integrated approaches to cope with the interwoven water-related problems across multidisciplinary areas, such as hydrometeorology, ecohydrology, sociohydrology, and hydroeconomics.


3. Improved approaches to adapt to climate change and, in particular, to predict hydrologic extremes (e.g., floods and droughts) and mitigate their adverse impacts and hazards. This topic is of importance since it involves not only the natural processes influenced by climate change, but also social, economic, and many other aspects. This will continue to be one of the focal areas to be covered by JHE.

ASCE Publishing: What inspired you to become a civil engineer?

Chu: “Water” links my interest in hydrology to civil engineering. I started my undergraduate engineering education in water resources and continued my M.S. and Ph.D. graduate studies in hydrogeology and hydrologic science. In the recent decades, I have been actively involved in more research and teaching in the field of civil engineering with focus on hydrology and water resources, more professional service for the civil engineering community through ASCE, and more interactions with civil engineering industry.

ASCE Publications: What aspirations do you have for the future of the journal.

Chu: I will diligently work with all editorial board members and the ASCE staff to maintain the high standards of technical and professional quality of the journal and make further improvements to adapt to new changes and challenges in the field. We recently revised/updated the aims and scope of the journal. JHE will continue to publish a variety of papers (including technical papers, technical notes, case studies, state-of-the-art reviews, discussions, and forums) that cover a broad spectrum of topics within its scope and a wide range of geographic regions around the world.

We plan to initiate a series of special collections featuring emerging hot topics and regional studies with engagement of the editorial board members and other guest editors from different countries and different expertise areas. They will not only serve as a proposer and lead of the special collections, but also a liaison to facilitate direct collaborations with worldwide regional water organizations, and particularly with the associated EWRI councils and technical/task committees. For this reason, I would like to see more submissions from different regions and countries. In addition, I would like to invite the leaders in the field to publish high-impact, topic-oriented technical papers, and state-of-the-art review papers.

ASCE Publications: What emerging technologies are impacting your area and how do you address these in the journal?

Chu: Yes, I can list some of emerging technologies that are impacting and will continue to affect the future direction of hydrologic research down the road, such as remote sensing, high-performance computing, big data, artificial intelligence/machine learning/deep learning, and soft computing. It is expected that more emerging technologies and methodologies will be developed and applied in the field of hydrology for various purposes such as hydrologic prediction across scales, flood/drought management, water resources and sustainable development, and water infrastructure resilience. JHE aims to provide a unique forum for hydrologic researchers and practicing engineers and publish the related technology-driven research and practical applications. Experts in these areas are encouraged to propose and lead special collections. Actually, we have already started the relevant efforts.

ASCE Publications: Any advice for new researchers?

Chu: I would like to encourage new researchers to make their contributions to the journal by submitting their work for publication and serving as a reviewer to support the review process. Writing a high-quality peer-reviewed journal paper is a difficult task, especially for new researchers. Editors and reviewers may comment on their English and technical writing and organization of the materials, and more importantly, on the novelty of their work, new contributions to the field, and broader implications. Undoubtedly, new researchers will benefit tremendously from the interactions with editors and reviewers during the entire process.

Serving as a reviewer is a rewarding professional service. In addition, young professionals at the early stage of their career may also consider joining the Early Career Editorial Board (ECEB). The Editor’s Note published in 2020 (Volume 25 Issue 1) provided the relevant details on this ASCE program. An ECEB member will have an opportunity to be actively involved in the journal review and evaluation process under the mentorship of an editor and other journal editorial board activities such as attending editorial board meetings and assisting with the coordination of special collections.

Learn more about contributing to the Journal of Hydrologic Engineering.