Land & water
From forests and farms to glaciers, coastal waters, and oceans, the science and future of land use and water on our changing planet.
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Site news
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The Environmental Law Clinic’s case for the Pit River Tribe culminated in the designation of Medicine Lake Highlands as a national monument, reflecting decades of commitment from students and tribal advocates.
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The latest awards enable development and implementation of cross-disciplinary projects tackling real-world sustainability challenges in food and agriculture, industry, water, electricity, and biology.
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Stanford researchers are developing new ways to curb deforestation while boosting rural incomes. Their work pairs economic theory with on-the-ground trials to advance practical climate solutions.
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A new water market model for the Colorado River basin could improve water security and restore ecosystems amid intensifying shortages.
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A sweeping new analysis finds that rising global temperatures will dampen the world’s capacity to produce food from most staple crops, even after accounting for economic development and adaptation by farmers.
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The Sustainability Accelerator at the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability will support three scholars exploring creative and commercially viable solutions to challenges in food, wind energy, and cooling systems.
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Diego Gutierrez, Earth Systems ’25, looks to the ground beneath us to understand how equitable food systems can lift up communities.
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As water becomes more scarce and demand rises, researchers are pioneering a new management approach that can help avert disastrous drought impacts. By collaborating with experts in Chile, the team aims to provide policymakers with the tools needed to integrate long-term environmental and social changes into water governance and ensure resilience in a warming world.
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A Stanford food and agriculture expert discusses a record-setting slab of lab-grown meat – and what it means for the future of food.
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A Stanford study reveals how climate change has altered growing conditions for the world’s five major crops over the past half century and is reshaping agriculture. The impacts corroborate climate models used to predict impacts, with a couple of important exceptions, according to the researchers.
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A new initiative led by Stanford Bio-X unites all seven Stanford schools to integrate research, education, and innovation for a healthier, more sustainable food future. At the kickoff symposium, researchers discussed topics including optimal diets, climate resilience, and AI.
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Bioengineering professor Michael C. Jewett shares how Stanford researchers are working with the building blocks of biology to produce greener chemicals, more climate-resilient agriculture, and new ways to repurpose food waste.
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Scholars are developing a way to make wastewater drinkable while also recovering valuable products like fertilizer components.
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New research shows that when predator species like California sheephead thrive, they keep hungry sea urchins and other grazers from devouring kelp forests struggling to recover from marine heat waves. Scientists estimate kelp forests’ annual exposure to once-rare heat will more than quintuple by 2100.
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Researchers found that up to 13 million acres of California’s Central Valley may be suitable for recharging groundwater. The largest portion of this area occurs on agricultural land, with most corresponding to orchards, field crops, and vineyards.
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Stanford researchers found increased meltwater and rain explain 60% of a decades-long mismatch between predicted and observed temperatures in the ocean around Antarctica.
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Nearly half of all dredge operators extract sand from protected areas of the ocean, highlighting the need to mitigate demand for the world’s most mined material.
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Dozens of faculty members at Stanford are working to transform the way the world grows, distributes, and consumes food, with research and scholarship spanning topics including sustainable food systems, food security, health equity, culture, and diet.
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Stanford researchers have combined machine learning with high-resolution satellite and airplane observations to understand the physics behind large-scale ice movements in Antarctica. The results show that current models are missing key complexity needed to accurately predict the dynamics and mass loss of the Antarctic ice sheet now and in the future.
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Climate change and flagging investment in research and development has U.S. agriculture facing its first productivity slowdown in decades. A new study by researchers at Stanford, Cornell, and the University of Maryland estimates the public sector investment needed to reverse course.
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Interdisciplinary researchers at Stanford’s Center for Turbulence Research are using rapidly advancing tools to solve interdisciplinary problems connected to fluid flow.
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Historic rains filled Greater Los Angeles reservoirs and shallow aquifers nearly to capacity in 2023. But drought conditions persisted in deeper aquifers, according to a new analysis of seismic data from California’s earthquake monitoring network.
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A collaboration between Stanford researchers and Indonesian organizations aims to capitalize on aquatic food sources to improve nutrition, food security, and livelihoods.
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New research shows grain yields critical to India’s food security are dragged down 10% or more in many parts of the country by nitrogen dioxide pollution from power stations that run on coal. Economic losses from crop damages exceed $800 million per year.
