This paper is the outcome of a community initiative to identify major unsolved scientific problems in hydrology motivated by a need for stronger harmonisation of research efforts. The procedure involved a public consultation through online media, followed by two workshops through which a large number of potential science questions were collated, prioritised, and synthesised. In spite of the diversity of the participants (230 scientists in total), the process revealed much about community priorities and the state of our science: a preference for continuity in research questions rather than radical departures or redirections from past and current work. Questions remain focused on the process-based understanding of hydrological variability and causality at all space and time scales. Increased attention to environmental change drives a new emphasis on understanding how change propagates across interfaces within the hydrological system and across disciplinary boundaries. In particular, the expansion of the human footprint raises a new set of questions related to human interactions with nature and water cycle feedbacks in the context of complex water management problems. We hope that this reflection and synthesis of the 23 unsolved problems in hydrology will help guide research efforts for some years to come. ARTICLE HISTORY

Melting produced at the surface of subfreezing permeable firn does not freely percolate but instead refreezes near its point of origin, raising the firn temperature and decreasing the pore space. If sufficient meltwater is introduced, the firn will warm to 0°C, and subsequent water will fill the remaining pore space without freezing. Only after the residual water content of the firn is exceeded will water flow through the firn and possibly escape as runoff. This process prevents summer melt on high Arctic glaciers and ice caps from escaping in its entirety, and it must be accounted for in modeling glacier runoff on the basis of surface energy balance. A model is presented here which describes in a simple way the transient process of infiltration, refreezing, and runoff in a future warming climate. The model is applied to Greenland, for which predictions of runoff‐induced sea level rise that do not consider the refreezing process could be as much as 5.0 cm too high over 150 years.

The effect of particle concentration, size distribution (polydispersity) and magnetic attractive forces (Fe(0) content) on agglomeration and transport of poly(styrene sulfonate) (PSS) modified NZVI was studied in water-saturated sand (d(p) = 300 microm) columns. Particle concentrations ranged from 0.03 to 6 g/L in 5 mM NaCl/5 mM NaHCO3 at a pore water velocity of 3.2 x 10(-4) m/s. Three NZVI dispersions with different intrinsic particle size distributions obtained from sequential sedimentation are compared. The influence of magnetic attraction (Fe(0) content) on NZVI agglomeration and deposition in porous media is assessed by comparing the deposition behavior of PSS-modified NZVI (magnetic) having different Fe(0) contents with PSS-modified hematite (nonmagnetic) with the same surface modifier. At low particle concentration (30 mg/L) all particles were mobile in sand columns regardless of size or magnetic attractive forces. At high concentration (1 to 6 g/L), deposition of the relatively monodisperse dispersion containing PSS-modified NZVI (hydrodynamic radius (R(H)) = 24 nm) with the lowest Fe(0) content (4 wt%) is low (attachment efficiency (alpha) = 2.5 x 10(-3)), insensitive to particle concentration, and similar to PSS-modified hematite. At 1 to 6 g/L, the attachment efficiency of polydisperse dispersions containing both primary particles and sintered aggregates (R(H) from 15 to 260 nm) of PSS-modified NZVI with a range of Fe(0) content (10-60%) is greater (alpha = 1.2 x 10(-2) to 7.2 x 10(-2) and is sensitive to particle size distribution. The greater attachment for larger, more polydisperse Fe(0) nanoparticles with higher Fe(0) content is a result of their agglomeration during transport in porous media because the magnetic attractive force between particles increases with the sixth power of particle/agglomerate radius. A filtration model that considers agglomeration in porous media and subsequent deposition explains the observed transport of polydisperse PSS-modified NZVI at high concentration.

To test the effects of sewage-derived organic matter on virus attachment, 32P-labeled bacteriophage PRD1, linear alkylbenzene sulfonates (LAS), and tracers were injected into sewage-contaminated (suboxic, elevated organic matter) and uncontaminated (oxic, low organic matter) zones of an iron oxide-coated quartz sand and gravel aquifer on Cape Cod, MA. In the uncontaminated zone, 83% of the PRD1 were attenuated over the first meter of transport by attachment to aquifer grains. In the contaminated zone, 42% of the PRD1 were attenuated over the first meter of transport. Sewage-derived organic matter contributed to the difference in PRD1 attenuation by blocking attachment sites in the contaminated zone. At greater distances down-gradient (to a total transport distance of 3.6 m), a near-constant amount of PRD1 continued to break through, suggesting that aquifer grain heterogeneities allowed a small amount of reversible attachment. Injection of an LAS mixture (25 mg L-1), a common sewage constituent, remobilized 87% of the attached PRD1 in the contaminated zone, but only 2.2% in the uncontaminated zone. LAS adsorption promoted virus recovery in the contaminated zone by altering the PRD1−surface interactions; however, the amount of LAS adsorbed was not sufficient to promote release of the attached PRD1 in the uncontaminated zone.