Water utilities worldwide are facing increasing challenges related to imbalances between water demand and resource availability. Market-based policy tools, such as water pricing and utility subsidy, can be used in combination with information dissemination to reduce residential water consumption.

Based on case-specific operating parameters of each municipal wastewater treatment plant and the associated sewers and sludge disposal utilities, this study presents a detailed analysis of the current carbon footprint of the wastewater sector in China and scenarios for reducing future emissions.

Nature Water aims to be a venue for all research on the evolving relationship between water resources and society.

Academics, funders and publishers need to support interdisciplinary research processes in which social sciences are placed on an equal footing with the natural sciences and engineering.

Water infrastructure improvements are needed in rural America. A series of county-level spatial econometric models showed positive economic development associated with water infrastructure spending in rural America. However, these benefits are unequally distributed among ethnoracial populations in interaction models.

Curtailing water use during drought is costly, but those costs are not evenly distributed. Socio–hydrological modelling shows how water burdens fall more heavily on poor households in response to water conservation policies.