This special issue aims to pool studies dealing with past to recent geomorphological processes, environmental changes and human–environmental interactions in drylands. Drylands are especially interesting for geoscientific and geoarchaeological research, since they show high sensitivity to both small-scale environmental changes and anthropogenic activities, which makes them indicator regions of global environmental changes. Furthermore, many prehistoric and historic cultures developed in drylands that currently host >40% of the world’s population. This special issue welcomes studies spanning the entire Quaternary until today, working with all types of sedimentary and morphological archives or recent processes in drylands at different spatial and temporal scales.

Review process: all papers of this special issue underwent the regular interactive peer-review process of Earth Surface Dynamics handled by guest editors designated by the ESurf editors.