News & Comment

Water treatment technologies frequently fail to achieve lasting adoption when design processes overlook Indigenous and local knowledge systems and cultural context. Converging Indigenous and scientific knowledge systems can create pathways toward more adaptive and inclusive water innovation.

The global water agenda is outdated and narrow and is framed mainly as a downstream impact sector. Scientists must step up to help the world recognize water as an opportunity sector and to design a bolder water agenda.

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has protected human health and the environment for over five decades and it has achieved this while operating on a small budget. It is time to recognize the essential role that protecting the environment has on human health and to increase EPA funding rather than reducing it further.

In areas under siege, the growing of fruits and vegetables and the keeping of livestock have always provided a lifeline for desperate urban populations. Lessons from siege warfare in modern times should be applied to the development of innovative humanitarian interventions aimed at facilitating urban agriculture and food security programmes during future sieges.

Small islands provide early warning signals of climate- and disaster-driven impacts, while serving as real-world testbeds in which to develop adaptation strategies for continental water-supply infrastructure. This island-based approach could also be applicable to other critical infrastructure sectors on the mainland.

Urban water management often prioritizes engineering efficiency over local ecological and social contexts. Landscape architects can leverage high-resolution modelling and vernacular intelligence to design resilient, culturally embedded solutions.

The application of limestone to croplands has the potential to remove atmospheric CO₂ while improving crop yields and restoring ecosystems from the acidification associated with industrialization.

Aridification threatens over 2.3 billion people by reshaping landscapes and increasing socio-economic vulnerabilities, demanding immediate policy actions and global cooperation to enhance resilience and develop transformative solutions.

Ecohydrology integrates hydrological and ecological knowledge to promote the use of water ecosystem properties as innovative management tools (nature-based solutions), aiding water management solutions and advancing the Sustainable Development Goals.

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.

Inclusive water and climate-related decision-making has never been more critical to supporting the foundations for a peaceful and secure future.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Sustainable water management relies on water infrastructure that encompasses artificial structures and natural ecosystems, along with the cooperation of people and various organizations.