World View in 2025

The number of emerging contaminants in our soil–water environments is increasing at an explosive rate. Risk avoidance as a strategy is often overlooked yet may be one of the most effective ways to safeguard human health in the future.

To advance the energy transition, we must improve energy models by accurately representing hydropower. This demands political and institutional commitment to establish harmonized, authoritative databases on river flow and dam design that are currently lacking.

People stand at the heart of water conflicts and their solutions. The way we act, cooperate, and decide will determine whether water fuels disputes or builds peace and sustainable growth. The Indus Waters Treaty, signed on 19 September 1960, demonstrated that diplomacy led by citizens can shape water management and policy. Sixty-five years later, it is time to reimagine it in a way that empowers citizens, beyond governments, to drive water cooperation and long-term security.

Technology alone cannot solve the water pollution crisis in local and Indigenous communities. Its potential must be reconciled with the ethos of those it aims to serve and with the historical mistrust bred by extractive practices.

While ocean processes have long dominated our understanding of climate variability, growing evidence reveals that changes in terrestrial water are an unseen force reshaping the Earth’s climate, with its decline potentially accelerating global warming and pushing us toward a dangerous tipping point.

Despite widespread use, many shoreline models rely on foundational assumptions that introduce significant uncertainties in coastal predictions and associated management decisions. As climate change intensifies risks to vulnerable coastal systems, it is imperative to strengthen efforts toward developing more robust and context-appropriate modelling approaches that reflect the evolving dynamics of coastal systems.

Vegetation restoration benefits ecosystems and climate resilience, yet it requires better integration of albedo effects, scale-dependent interdisciplinary investigations, and cross-sectoral collaboration to optimize its hydroclimatic and policy outcomes.

Interfacial solar evaporation technology is becoming versatile for addressing a range of global challenges, and is expected to play a more vital role in addressing water scarcity and energy shortages in the next decade.

Groundwater drains to the land surface, generating the baseflow of streams, lakes, and wetlands. The hydrologic resilience of baseflow during prolonged dry periods and after disturbance can be assessed with evolving remote sensing analysis paired with localized monitoring of groundwater drainage features and creative model calibration strategies.