Wetlands are often vital physical and social components of a country’s natural capital, as well as providers of ecosystem services to local and national communities. We performed a network analysis to prioritize Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets for sustainable development in iconic wetlands and wetlandscapes around the world. The analysis was based on the information and perceptions on 45 wetlandscapes worldwide by 49 wetland researchers of the Global Wetland Ecohydrological Network (GWEN). We identified three 2030 Agenda targets of high priority across the wetlandscapes needed to achieve sustainable development: Target 6.3—“Improve water quality”; 2.4—“Sustainable food production”; and 12.2—“Sustainable management of resources”. Moreover, we found specific feedback mechanisms and synergies between SDG targets in the context of wetlands. The most consistent reinforcing interactions were the influence of Target 12.2 on 8.4—“Efficient resource consumption”; and that of Target 6.3 on 12.2. The wetlandscapes could be differentiated in four bundles of distinctive priority SDG-targets: “Basic human needs”, “Sustainable tourism”, “Environmental impact in urban wetlands”, and “Improving and conserving environment”. In general, we find that the SDG groups, targets, and interactions stress that maintaining good water quality and a “wise use” of wetlandscapes are vital to attaining sustainable development within these sensitive ecosystems.

Flash floods are a significant threat to arid and semi-arid regions, causing considerable loss of life and damage, including roads, bridges, check dams and dikes, reservoir filling, and mudslides in populated areas as well as agricultural fields. Flood risk is a complex process linked to numerous morphological, pedological, geological, anthropic, and climatic factors. In arid environments such as where Bayech basin is located in southwestern Tunisia, the hydrometric data are insufficient due to the absence of measuring points. Using the hybrid fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process (F-AHP) and the frequency ratio statistical methods, this study aims to map flooding risks in an ungauged basin that is extremely prone to flooding. Data related to soil texture, slope, land use, altitude, rainfall, drainage density, and distance from the river were used in the risk analysis. The obtained flood risk maps from both F-AHP and FR models were validated on the basis of the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC), the Area Under the Curve (AUC), and the inventory map. Results revealed that areas of high and very high susceptibility to flooding are mainly located in the downstream part of the basin, where the town of Gafsa is located. Other upstream sites are also at risk. In this basin, slope is predominantly behind runoff accumulation, whereas soil type plays a major role in amplifying waterproofing and therefore overflow. The results derived from both methods clearly demonstrate a viable and efficient assessment in flood-prone areas. The F-AHP and FR methods have ROC values of 95% and 97%, respectively. Considering these results in the decision-making process, these outputs would enable the implementation of the necessary measures to mitigate flood risk impacts ensure sustainable development along with an effective management in Tunisian arid environments, for the well-being of local communities at risk.

Geography and associated hydrological, hydroclimate and land-use conditions and their changes determine the states and dynamics of wetlands and their ecosystem services. The influences of these controls are not limited to just the local scale of each individual wetland but extend over larger landscape areas that integrate multiple wetlands and their total hydrological catchment – the wetlandscape. However, the data and knowledge of conditions and changes over entire wetlandscapes are still scarce, limiting the capacity to accurately understand and manage critical wetland ecosystems and their services under global change. We present a new Wetlandscape Change Information Database (WetCID), consisting of geographic, hydrological, hydroclimate and land-use information and data for 27 wetlandscapes around the world. This combines survey-based local information with geographic shapefiles and gridded datasets of large-scale hydroclimate and land-use conditions and their changes over whole wetlandscapes. Temporally, WetCID contains 30-year time series of data for mean monthly precipitation and temperature and annual land-use conditions. The survey-based site information includes local knowledge on the wetlands, hydrology, hydroclimate and land uses within each wetlandscape and on the availability and accessibility of associated local data. This novel database (available through PANGAEA https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.907398; Ghajarnia et al., 2019) can support site assessments; cross-regional comparisons; and scenario analyses of the roles and impacts of land use, hydroclimatic and wetland conditions, and changes in whole-wetlandscape functions and ecosystem services.

The authors wish to make the following correction to this paper

The Bayech basin is located in southwestern Tunisia, a highly prone region to flooding risks. The Bayech basin is characterized by wadis that adopt a wide, sometimes ill-defined bed, often intersected by low-lying areas, resulting in a semi-endoreismo, greatly disrupting the flow regimes. The Bayech basin drains the slopes of the Nementchas and Tebessa mountains in Algeria, collecting water from the Medjen Bel Abbes plain in its middle course before crossing the Gafsa djebls chain at the Gafsa gap. In this basin, flooding is generally caused by high-intensity storms and is often relatively limited in extent. The slope shape and soil type can promote rapid surface runoff during intense rainfall. Therefore, the purpose of creating a web application, labeled ClimInonda, is to respond to a critical need of readily available information on climatic, environmental, and land use data collected in this basin and its morphometric characteristics using recent methods. The application consists of three essential components: the front-end, back-end, and database. The front-end focuses on the user interface, allowing users to interact with the application’s features. It communicates with the back-end through Hypertext Transfer Protocol requests for data processing and retrieval. The back-end handles the server-side operations, processes requests, and provides responses by retrieving data from the database. The database stores and manages the application’s data, ensuring integrity and efficient access. This modular architecture ensures a user-friendly interface, seamless data processing, and reliable data storage. Visualizations can include different types of data, such as satellite imagery, weather data, and terrain data, and can be displayed using various techniques, such as heat maps, contour maps, and 3D models, by providing easy-to-understand visualizations. ClimInonda is an application developed to expand upon existing platforms by providing a suite of exploratory data analysis features, including the ability to calculate the total precipitation depth recorded for any period, interpolate the annual recurrence interval for rainfall events, etc. A simple evaluation of the platform was performed to assess the usefulness and user satisfaction of the tool by professional users, and positive feedback was received. There is clear evidence that ClimInonda would provide the necessary basis for informed decision making by stakeholders and development agencies in arid and semi-arid Tunisia.