Land & water
Site news
-
Soaring water utility bills force many households to ration water use for essential needs while still falling behind on payments. Stanford scientists offer a new approach to measuring water affordability that could help utilities and government agencies identify and aid those most at risk.
-
Stanford researchers and others are assessing an innovative curriculum and infrastructure maintenance program that could provide a blueprint for more effective school-based sanitation and hygiene interventions.
-
New research provides the clearest evidence to date that a rapid burst of evolution 540 million years ago could have been caused by a small increase in oxygen in Earth’s atmosphere and shallow ocean waters.
-
A Stanford researcher helped the World Bank integrate landscape and ecosystem approaches into development projects in new ways, influencing nearly $1 billion in development finance and supporting global climate investments.
-
The study simulated the economic, environmental, and climate impacts of new hydropower projects using computer models, seeking optimal outcomes across sectors.
-
A new study maps how energy and food systems depend on stored water to generate hydropower and feed irrigation. Dams and reservoirs won’t be able to meet the demand in coming decades.
-
Supported by a Sustainability Accelerator Seed Grant, researchers created a mapping software to help people actively manage the recharge of groundwater.
-
Severe wildfires can drive chemical changes in soil that affect ecosystem recovery and risks to human health. A new study finds broader surveillance and modeling of these changes could inform strategies for protecting lives, property, and natural resources, and managing wildlife.
-
Coastal marine ecosystems remove excess greenhouse gas from the atmosphere -- and much more, scholars explain.
-
Stanford economist Paul Milgrom won a Nobel Prize in part for his role in enabling today’s mobile world. Now he’s tackling a different 21st century challenge: water scarcity.
-
The future of water in the Southwest was top of mind for participants and attendees at the 10th Annual Eccles Family Rural West Conference.
-
Stanford water and climate experts discuss climate impacts on shared water sources and potential solutions.
-
As policymakers consider updates to the Bay-Delta Plan, a Stanford analysis outlines challenges and strategies to support future water security in the San Francisco Bay Area in the face of climate change.
-
Researchers have found that one-third of the organic carbon leached from peatland soils into canal waters in Southeast Asia gets broken down and released into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide.
-
A new report looks back at the most impactful environment and sustainability research from Stanford scholars in 2023.
-
A second-year PhD student in Earth and planetary sciences and bestselling science fiction author, Ashing-Giwa never misses a chance to blend lab and lit.
-
A Stanford dune expert discusses watching desert-based movies from the perspective of a geoscientist, the realities of otherworldly dunes, and what his research can tell us about the ancient environment of Earth and other planets.
-
Stanford researchers have found large thawed or close-to-thawed areas under coastal portions of the ice sheet that holds back glaciers in the Wilkes Subglacial Basin.
-
Ching-Yao Lai combines her passion for physics with climate science to better understand Earth’s polar ice sheets and how they contribute to climate change.
-
Professor Barton “Buzz” Thompson discusses his most recent book where he proposes various strategies for solving the United States’ freshwater crisis and argues that government and water authorities can’t do it alone.
-
A new model taps into the power of cooperation to promote sustainable palm oil production in Indonesia.
-
Stanford study on microbes in extremely salty water suggests life may survive conditions previously thought to be uninhabitable. The research widens the possibilities for where life may be found throughout our solar system and shows how changes in salinity may affect life in aquatic habitats on Earth.
-
Associate Professor Jane Willenbring brings her passion for people and surface processes to understand how environmental changes impact life on Earth, and how life impacts the planet.
-
A new book by Buzz Thompson focuses on how water managers can team up with the private sector to overcome the daunting obstacles to making safe, affordable, and sustainable water a reality everywhere.