While water-related conflicts and shortages abound throughout the rapidly changing societies of Africa, Asia and Latin America, there is clearly sufficient water to sustain food, energy, industrial and environmental needs during the 21st century, argues the Challenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF) of the CGIAR in two special issues of the peer-reviewed journal, Water International (Volume 35, Issue 5 and Volume 36, Issue 1), released at the XIV World Water Congress.
Scientists at Kansas State University and seven other collaborating institutions were recently awarded $3.3 million from the National Science Foundation to conduct a-large scale study of how stream organisms influence water quality across North America.
Geography professor Bruce Rhoads and geology professor Jim Best were conducting research where the Wabash River meets the Ohio River in the summer of 2008 when they heard about a new channel that had just formed, cutting off a bend in the winding Wabash just upstream from the confluence. That serendipity gave the researchers a rare view of a dynamic, little-understood river process that changed the local landscape and deposited so much sediment into the river system that it closed the Ohio River.
La Niña, which contributed to extreme weather around the globe during the first half of 2011, has re-emerged in the tropical Pacific Ocean and is forecast to gradually strengthen and continue into winter.
The percent of land area experiencing exceptional drought reached record levels in August in three U.S. states – Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas – amid new concerns about how long the conditions may persist, an official with the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln said.
This is the conclusion of a study in which data from the four largest rivers in northern Germany – the Elbe, Weser, Aller and Ems – were analyzed over ten years.
Research conducted in part at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has confirmed that in some production systems, planting potatoes in flat beds can increase irrigation water use efficiency
Drawing from game theory, a biomedical engineer argues that a successful common pool resource (CPR) depends on participant behavior, which requires monitoring and management.
As a blistering drought continues to plague huge portions of Texas, a Texas Tech University researcher says that even now in the midst of the fight, it’s time to plan ahead and logically plot a path for pulling more than 90 million acres of valuable rangeland back from the brink.
In response to community concerns, Kentucky’s Louisville Water Company thought up a gravity-fed riverbank filtration system that connects to a mile-and-a-half-long tunnel leading to a treatment plant.
- By Laura Williams
- Jun 27, 2011
A report ordered by Congress in 2005 on the connection between U.S. energy production and demands on water supplies is the target of a Freedom of Information Action lawsuit filed by Civil Society Institute against the U.S. Department of Energy.
Virtual water – the amount of water it takes to produce goods or a service – has been suggested as a possible solution to this growing problem by using virtual water values to inform international trade deals. But researchers say that the existing amount of virtual water is not large enough to overcome the existing inequalities.
New Jersey’s demand for water challenges an already strained water supply, requiring new sources and those likely will be expensive, said John Bigelow, president of New Jersey American Water.
Klaus Reichardt, CEO of Waterless Co., said his conclusion is based on a new book, "The Big Thirst," by Charles Fishman.
Mitigating damage from environmental problems is a daunting task, especially considering the scope of the project. Despite the great size of the problems facing the environment, the sheer size of these issues can leave those in a position to do a little something about it feeling paralyzed. But for those used to taking on the Earth’s biggest challenges – literally oceans and mountains – pursuing relief after such disasters is all in a day’s work.
- By Laura Williams
- May 23, 2011
Budweiser is asking adult men across America to help save one million gallons of water by not shaving in the days and weeks leading up to World Environment Day on June 5.
CWCO selected the devices and pumps based on its experience with them in two previous SWRO projects.
Yoshihiko Misono, executive director, will tell how the Japan Water Works Association has marshaled utilities to deliver treated drinking water and restore water service to more than 2 million impacted households.
This season will be the first time since 2008 that salmon fishermen will be able to work.
The Colorado Water Institute has studied what has been working in water transfers and offered some ground rules.