Land & water

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.

In two courses during winter and spring quarters, student groups developed policy reports with the goal of informing government decisions about how to incorporate fisheries and aquaculture into Indonesia’s national development strategy.

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.

Residents of the wildfire-choked San Joaquin Valley desperately want something done about their air quality – but they want researchers to approach the work in a new way.

With support from a Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability Accelerator seed grant, an interdisciplinary team has developed a groundbreaking optical sensor that measures DNA and other key molecules in seawater using light, potentially revolutionizing the study of biodiversity in the enigmatic depths below the ocean’s surface.

Coastal marine ecosystems remove excess greenhouse gas from the atmosphere -- and much more, scholars explain.  

To understand trade-offs for coastal communities along the Mesoamerican Reef, new research looks at watershed interventions regionally versus nationally.

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.

A new report looks back at the most impactful environment and sustainability research from Stanford scholars in 2023.

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.

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.