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Membranes are useful for removing pollutants from water, but the pore size of most commercial membranes is larger than the molecular size of many trace organic contaminants. Here an engineered covalent organic framework allows pore size regulation to efficiently remove organic pollutants.
Global water models are important tools for understanding the water cycle. This study evaluates eight global water models by focusing on functional relationships that capture the spatial co-variability of forcing and response variables.
Almost 250 years have passed since the invention of the modern flush toilet. With nearly half of the world’s population still lacking access to safely managed sanitation, it is time to accelerate change.
Access to sanitation is a fundamental right that is still missing, especially in many parts of low-income countries. This Perspective focuses on the impact of unclean school latrines on child health.
This Review identifies factors that lead to ‘unsafely managed sanitation’ in the United States, the specific types of access, and obstacles to characterizing and addressing the problem.
A hybrid photocatalyst–photothermal sheet can effectively harness sunlight to produce hydrogen fuel. At the same time, it can purify open-water sources such as seawater and industrial wastewater.
Droughts and heatwaves amplify water scarcity by decreasing water availability, worsening water quality and increasing sectoral water use. These three driving mechanisms interact strongly, but insights into this complex interplay, particularly between water quality and sectoral water use, are urgently needed to unravel the drivers of water scarcity and to identify robust solutions for sustainable water management.
A water splitting system capable of operating stably using contaminated water sources for decentralized H2 production would be a more practical approach towards solar H2 production. A floating hybrid photocatalyst sheet device can simultaneously perform photocatalytic gas-phase water splitting and clean water production using contaminated water sources such as seawater and other waste waters.
Farmer livelihoods and food production are impacted by water shortages in many regions globally. These shortages can be mitigated by changing the mix of crops produced in water-scarce regions, potentially resulting in reduced irrigation needs of 28–57%.
Solar-powered interfacial system has emerged as a sustainable, efficient and CO2-neutral strategy to produce clean water. The solar-powered graphene/alginate hydrogel-based clean water extractor shows super resistance to the transport of complex contaminants and has an ultra-antifouling capacity.
Sorption-based atmospheric water harvesting has the capability of capturing water from air anytime and anywhere. A facile strategy to synthesize bidirectionally aligned and hierarchically structured nanocomposite could realize scalable and efficient sorption-based atmospheric water harvesting.
Drinking water distribution systems are commonly being used to deliver new-quality water after decades of service, and monitoring the occurrence of transition effects is critical for both water utilities and customers. This 2 year longitudinal study offers an exceptional opportunity to explore transition effects when a distribution system receives new-quality water.
Increases in lake surface water temperature could threaten lacustrine ecosystems. This study explores the widespread temperature increases in 92,245 lakes across the globe, showing that less than half of the lake warming is due to surface air temperature change and that accelerated evaporation causes slower lake warming compared with surface air temperature.
Recharge net metering is an adaptable, performance-based incentive for groundwater recharge. It costs less than most methods, supports distributed recharge and imparts substantial benefits to both groundwater basins and programme participants.
The concept that planting trees will help mitigate climate change by storing CO2 is too simplistic, ignoring the large effect that plants have on the water cycle. Careful restoration of native plant ecosystems can rebalance that cycle, further mitigating climate change while also reducing flood and drought extremes.
Surface conductance variations in non-vegetated salt flats are similar to those in vegetated ecosystems and in an idealized boundary layer model. This suggests that soil moisture, and not vapour pressure deficit, controls surface conductance variations.
