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Changes to terrestrial groundwater should be considered in coastal wetland climate change vulnerability assessments and resilience planning due to their effects on ecosystem hydrology, biogeochemistry, and vertical land motion.
Three major implications stemming from the water supply narratives around the Los Angeles fires have emerged: the need for greater infrastructure resilience, considering the uneven costs of new expectations, and combating disinformation.
By harnessing the power of the Sun, interfacial solar evaporation provides a sustainable approach to addressing water challenges, advancing the mission of ensuring clean water for everyone.
Glaciers, especially the small/local ones, are rapidly melting and disappearing due to their heightened sensitivity to climate change. A holistic understanding of the key criteria and fundamental challenges in developing materials for local glacier conservation is urgently needed, coupled with a call for interdisciplinary collaboration to effectively address the pressing issue of local glacier retreat.
The global drought community and policy representatives gathered at the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification’s 16th Conference of the Parties (UNCCD COP16) in Riyadh in December 2024 to discuss the urgent need for improvements in assessing and quantifying drought risks, in developing and implementing transformative solutions, and in boosting policy actions and investments. Only through unprecedented global cooperation can we facilitate pathways towards drought-resilient futures.
Solar evaporation ponds are widely used in brine mining but face environmental and societal challenges. Advancing interfacial solar evaporation technology from lab discovery to field demonstration shows promise in improving pond efficiency and sustainability.
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.
Observation, involving a combination of conventional and modern techniques that allow for knowledge on the dynamics of water quantity and quality, is the first step towards understanding water resources.
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.
XPRIZE Water Scarcity was introduced to stimulate measurable innovations in desalination systems and materials, which will contribute substantially to solving the water crises of the coming decades.
Climate strategies focus primarily on carbon, largely ignoring the destabilized water cycle that’s amplifying disasters and accelerating climate change. Slow Water projects can reverse this trend.
On its 50th anniversary, we highlight how despite its limitations, the Safe Drinking Water Act and its amendments represent a milestone in environmental legislation that should be improved and protected.
We have the tools and solutions we need to address shared water challenges in a changing climate; however, we lack the political will to implement them through effective cooperation.
By simultaneously integrating the measurements from the Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite and those from other Earth-observing satellites into hydrological modelling systems, we could transform our understanding of the global terrestrial water cycle. This opportunity comes with big challenges for the scientific community.
In its 50 years, the Safe Drinking Water Act has improved public water supplies across the United States, but it has not advanced the right to safe drinking water in America to address water inequities and injustices.
Water solutions across different scales can prevent or mitigate conflict if existing obstacles to their implementation can be overcome so that water can act as catalyst to bring people and communities together to co-create collective solutions for peace.
A range of co-existing and integrated sanitation systems, from onsite to sewered and centralized to decentralized, is needed to improve sanitation access in rapidly expanding cities around the globe.
Sanitation could evolve beyond its traditional focus on public health and environmental protection to address broader challenges. A portfolio approach is proposed, integrating diverse systems at various scales to optimize benefits including economic value, resource efficiency, climate resilience and human dignity.
