Freshwater

Finding answers to the world’s pressing water supply and access challenges requires crossing disciplines and exploring a wide range of approaches. Stanford researchers are working together on sustainable solutions ranging from a low-cost water pump chlorinator to a high-tech, multi-million-dollar wastewater resource recovery center. They also are looking at water supply issues from a law and public policy standpoint, providing guidance to decision-makers through knowledge-based tools such as an interactive website illustrating California’s major groundwater challenges and potential solutions. To advance these and other innovative freshwater solutions, Woods supports the Global Freshwater Initiative, which develops strategies to promote the long-term viability of freshwater supplies; the Water, Health & Development Program, which identifies ways to improve and increase the sustainability of water supply and sanitation service delivery; and the Water in the West Program, which addresses multiple dimensions of realistic, integrated solutions to the American West’s water challenges. Read on for examples of work Woods-affiliated researchers are doing to ensure adequate supply and access to safe water for billions of people.

In The News

How Satellites Can Monitor California’s Underground Water

Mentions groundbreaking use of satellite data by Woods Senior Fellow Rosemary Knight (Geophysics) and Jessica Reeves, a former...
April 24, 2015 - By Danielle Venton, Wired

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Drying Up: The Race to Save California From Drought

Quotes Newsha Ajami, director of urban water policy at Water in the West, on the cost of desalination and cites Stanford research on technological...
April 23, 2015 - By Elijah Wolfson, Newsweek

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Star Wars' Moisture Farming Tech Won't Save California

Woods Co-Director and Senior Fellow Buzz Thompson states that while technology is part of the solution, moisture farming is not a viable solution on...
April 16, 2015 - By Larry O'Hanlon , Discovery News

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Redistribute California's Water? Not Without a Fight

Leon Szeptycki, Woods professor of the practice and executive director of the Water in the West program, discusses how California's senior water...
April 15, 2015 - By Dan Charles, NPR

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