Hydrol. Sci. J.-J. Sci. Hydrol.ISI Document Delivery No.: EB2CDTimes Cited: 0Cited Reference Count: 153Ceola, Serena Montanari, Alberto Krueger, Tobias Dyer, Fiona Kreibich, Heidi Westerberg, Ida Carr, Gemma Cudennec, Christophe Elshorbagy, Amin Savenije, Hubert Van der Zaag, Pieter Rosbjerg, Dan Aksoy, Hafzullah Viola, Francesco Petrucci, Guido MacLeod, Kit Croke, Barry Ganora, Daniele Hermans, Leon Polo, Maria J. Xu, Zongxue Borga, Marco Helmschrot, Jorg Toth, Elena Ranzi, Roberto Castellarin, Attilio Hurford, Anthony Brilly, Mitija Viglione, Alberto Bloeschl, Guenter Sivapalan, Murugesu Domeneghetti, Alessio Marinelli, Alberto Di Baldassarre, GiulianoPeople Programme (Marie Curie Actions) of the European Union [329762]; IRI THESys; German Excellence Initiative; EU [603587]IW acknowledges the support of the People Programme (Marie Curie Actions) of the European Union's 7th Framework Programme FP7/2007-2013/(grant agreement no. 329762). TK is funded, through IRI THESys, by the German Excellence Initiative. SC, AM, AC, and ET acknowledge financial support from the EU funded project SWITCHON (603587).Taylor & francis ltdAbingdon ; We explore how to address the challenges of adaptation of water resources systems under changing conditions by supporting flexible, resilient and low-regret solutions, coupled with on-going monitoring and evaluation. This will require improved understanding of the linkages between biophysical and social aspects in order to better anticipate the possible future co-evolution of water systems and society. We also present a call to enhance the dialogue and foster the actions of governments, the international scientific community, research funding agencies and additional stakeholders in order to develop effective solutions to support water resources systems adaptation. Finally, we call the scientific community to a renewed and unified effort to deliver an innovative message to stakeholders. Water science is essential to resolve the water crisis, but the effectiveness of solutions depends, inter alia, on the capability of scientists to deliver a new, coherent and technical vision for the future development of water systems.