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Article
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Thermodiffusive desalination
Current desalination technologies are energy intensive and suffer from membrane degradation and fouling. Here, authors propose and explore the potential of thermodiffusion as a means of membrane-free, single-phase thermal desalination. A pathway towards a feasible thermodiffusive desalination is provided.
- Shuqi Xu
- , Alice J. Hutchinson
- & Juan F. Torres
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Article
| Open Access
Imprint of urbanization on snow precipitation over the continental USA
This study shows that urban areas in the continental US are associated with decreased snowfall likelihood and frequency, in large part due to surface albedo contrasts with neighboring areas. They also see a faster decline in snow precipitation frequency with time.
- Kaustubh Anil Salvi
- & Mukesh Kumar
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| Open Access
Light-responsive and ultrapermeable two-dimensional metal-organic framework membrane for efficient ionic energy harvesting
With porous structure and photothermal conversion performance, Cu-porphyrin framework membranes exhibit high efficiency in the extraction of electrical energy from salt solutions, opening avenues for renewable energy.
- Jin Wang
- , Zeyuan Song
- & Lei Wang
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| Open Access
Global and regional ocean mass budget closure since 2003
This study shows that ice loss and human water use models explain global and regional satellite-observed ocean mass changes since 2003 and thereby pinpoint the main cause of sea level rise, with a negligible role coming from natural variability.
- Carsten Bjerre Ludwigsen
- , Ole Baltazar Andersen
- & Matt A. King
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A triple increase in global river basins with water scarcity due to future pollution
Here the authors find one third of global sub-basins will face severe clean water scarcity in 2050. Nitrogen pollution aggravates water scarcity in >2,000 sub-basins thus 3 billion more people will be posed with severe water scarcity in 2050.
- Mengru Wang
- , Benjamin Leon Bodirsky
- & Maryna Strokal
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| Open Access
An artificial intelligence-based model for optimal conjunctive operation of surface and groundwater resources
Towards optimizing the conjunctive operation of surface and groundwater resources in arid and semi-arid regions, here the authors propose a hybrid method involving moth-swarm and symbiotic organism search algorithms and artificial neural networks and demonstrate it for the HalīlRood basin.
- Saeid Akbarifard
- , Mohamad Reza Madadi
- & Mohammad Zounemat-Kermani
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| Open Access
Managing urban development could halve nitrogen pollution in China
Here the authors demonstrate how managed urbanization in China could halve reactive nitrogen pollution to both the atmosphere and water resources. Investing 61 billion USD could provide 245 billion USD in benefits, while contributing to multiple SDG goals.
- Ouping Deng
- , Sitong Wang
- & Baojing Gu
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| Open Access
Higher emissions scenarios lead to more extreme flooding in the United States
This paper assesses future changes in flood magnitude across the conterminous United States based on multiple climate change scenarios. The results suggest that annual maximum peak discharge is projected to become more extreme under higher emission scenarios.
- Hanbeen Kim
- & Gabriele Villarini
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A super liquid-repellent hierarchical porous membrane for enhanced membrane distillation
Membrane distillation is an emerging desalination technology to obtain freshwater from saline based on low-grade energy. Here the authors report on novel superhydrophobic hierarchical porous membranes with enhanced distillation flux suitable for desalination or wastewater treatment.
- Youmin Hou
- , Prexa Shah
- & Hans-Jürgen Butt
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Dual water-electricity cooperation improves economic benefits and water equality in the Lancang-Mekong River Basin
Li and colleagues develop a dual water-electricity cooperation (DWEC) framework that combines water and electricity trading to meet the often-conflicting demands of participating countries in the Lancang-Mekong river basin. They discuss the potential of this framework for application in other transboundary river systems.
- Bingyao Zhang
- , Yu Li
- & Ximing Cai
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| Open Access
Sustainably developing global blue carbon for climate change mitigation and economic benefits through international cooperation
Sustainable development of blue carbon has increased globally over the past two decades. Global cooperation could enable countries to improve blue carbon sustainable development, increase carbon sequestration, and generate up to $136.34 million in 2030 in economic benefits.
- Cuicui Feng
- , Guanqiong Ye
- & Zhenci Xu
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Article
| Open Access
Global land and water limits to electrolytic hydrogen production using wind and solar resources
This study composes a country-specific analysis of land and water requirements for electrolytic hydrogen production, revealing nations constrained in achieving self-sufficiency in hydrogen supply and nations who can become hydrogen exporters.
- Davide Tonelli
- , Lorenzo Rosa
- & Francesco Contino
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| Open Access
Stakeholder integration predicts better outcomes from groundwater sustainability policy
This paper shows that integrating diverse stakeholders into management plans results in better protection, especially for those most vulnerable to the impacts of natural resource depletion.
- Debra Perrone
- , Melissa M. Rohde
- & E. J. Remson
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| Open Access
Food demand displaced by global refugee migration influences water use in already water stressed countries
While minimal in most host countries, the water needed to produce the food consumed by refugees can have a large effect on water stress in vulnerable countries. Small changes to food trade and refugee resettlement policies can alleviate this unequal burden.
- Leonardo Bertassello
- , Marc F. Müller
- & Michèle C. Müller-Itten
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| Open Access
Scalable and switchable CO2-responsive membranes with high wettability for separation of various oil/water systems
Smart membranes with responsive wettability show promise for controllably separating oil/water mixtures but it remains challenging to fabricate responsive and stable scalable membranes. Here, the authors develop a capillary force-driven self-assembling strategy to construct a scalable and stable CO2-responsive membrane for the smart separation of various oil/water systems.
- Yangyang Wang
- , Shaokang Yang
- & Xiaowei Yang
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| Open Access
Groundwater depletion in California’s Central Valley accelerates during megadrought
Liu et al. used the NASA GRACE/FO missions to show that since 2019, groundwater depletion in California’s Central Valley has accelerated by 31% compared to recent droughts, and has increased by a nearly a factor of 5 compared to the 60-year average.
- Pang-Wei Liu
- , James S. Famiglietti
- & Matthew Rodell
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| Open Access
Three-dimensional open architecture enabling salt-rejection solar evaporators with boosted water production efficiency
Conventional salt-rejection evaporators typically exhibit low evaporation rate due to large heat loss. Here, authors demonstrate a solar evaporator featuring vertically aligned mass transfer bridges that takes advantage of the conductive heat to enable optimized water transport and salt backflow.
- Kaijie Yang
- , Tingting Pan
- & Yu Han
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| Open Access
Split westerlies over Europe in the early Little Ice Age
A new stalagmite record from northern Italy and other published data from Europe and northern Africa reveals a split in the climatological westerlies during the early LIA, possibly attributed to sea ice melting.
- Hsun-Ming Hu
- , Chuan-Chou Shen
- & Robert Korty
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Inequality of household water security follows a Development Kuznets Curve
A new study considering data from 7603 households across 28 sites in 22 low- and middle-income countries show that inequality of household water security follows a Development Kuznets Curve.
- Feng Mao
- , Joshua D. Miller
- & Zeina Jamaluddine
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| Open Access
Global analysis and prediction of fluoride in groundwater
A global fluoride hazard prediction map was created using machine learning and over 400,000 fluoride measurements, this shows ~180 million people are potentially affected by chronic fluoride exposure worldwide, mostly in Asia and Africa.
- Joel Podgorski
- & Michael Berg
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| Open Access
Accounting for interactions between Sustainable Development Goals is essential for water pollution control in China
The UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are highly interrelated. This study finds 319 interactions between SDGs for the case of water pollution in China. Results show that effective pollution control requires accounting for these interactions.
- Mengru Wang
- , Annette B. G. Janssen
- & Carolien Kroeze
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| Open Access
Hotspots for social and ecological impacts from freshwater stress and storage loss
This work identifies the world’s most vulnerable basins to social and ecological impacts from freshwater stress and storage loss: a set of 168 hotspot basins for global prioritization that encompass 1.5 billion people, 17% of global food crops, 13% of global GDP, and hundreds of significant wetlands.
- Xander Huggins
- , Tom Gleeson
- & James S. Famiglietti
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From calibration to parameter learning: Harnessing the scaling effects of big data in geoscientific modeling
Much effort is invested in calibrating model parameters for accurate outputs, but established methods can be inefficient and generic. By learning from big dataset, a new differentiable framework for model parameterization outperforms state-of-the-art methods, produce more physically-coherent results, using a fraction of the training data, computational power, and time. The method promotes a deep integration of machine learning with process-based geoscientific models.
- Wen-Ping Tsai
- , Dapeng Feng
- & Chaopeng Shen
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| Open Access
Collaborative management of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam increases economic benefits and resilience
Integrating river system and economy-wide models in a dynamic, iterative, bidirectional fashion allows assessing some economic impacts of interventions in river systems. Here the authors use this framework to compare water resources management strategies for the Nile in a quest for efficient use of the river’s limited and stressed water resources.
- Mohammed Basheer
- , Victor Nechifor
- & Julien J. Harou
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| Open Access
Sustainable irrigation based on co-regulation of soil water supply and atmospheric evaporative demand
Irrigation is the most important use of water. A newly developed irrigation management scheme leads to a significant reduction in water use and increase in economic gains while maintaining crop yields, presenting opportunities for real-world impacts under current and future climate conditions.
- Jingwen Zhang
- , Kaiyu Guan
- & Grace L. Miner
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| Open Access
Future global urban water scarcity and potential solutions
This paper quantifies global urban water scarcity in 2016 and 2050 and explores potential solutions. One third to nearly half of the global urban population is projected to face water scarcity problems.
- Chunyang He
- , Zhifeng Liu
- & Brett A. Bryan
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| Open Access
The widespread and unjust drinking water and clean water crisis in the United States
Proper water and sanitation access remains an issue for many in the United States. Here the authors estimate and map the full scope of water hardship, including both incomplete plumbing and water quality across the country.
- J. Tom Mueller
- & Stephen Gasteyer
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Article
| Open Access
Protecting local water quality has global benefits
Clean water is a fundamental resource, yet the economic impacts of pollution, drinking water availability, and greenhouse gas emissions from freshwaters are unknown. Here the authors combine models with economic assessments and find trillions of dollars in savings by mitigating lake methane emissions.
- John A. Downing
- , Stephen Polasky
- & Stephen C. Newbold
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| Open Access
Ultra-strong polymeric hollow fiber membranes for saline dewatering and desalination
Osmotically assisted reverse osmosis can overcome limitations of the reverse osmosis process but a strong membrane which can withstand a high hydraulic pressure is crucial. Here, the authors develop strong polymer thin film composite hollow fiber membranes with exceptionally high hydraulic burst pressures of up to 110 bar, while maintaining high water permeance and salt rejection.
- Can Zeng Liang
- , Mohammad Askari
- & Tai-Shung Chung
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Matters Arising
| Open Access
Oxic methanogenesis is only a minor source of lake-wide diffusive CH4 emissions from lakes
- F. Peeters
- & H. Hofmann
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Article
| Open Access
Understanding and managing new risks on the Nile with the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam
Several dams and reservoirs exist along the Nile, most notably the HAD (Egypt) and GERD (Ethiopia) dams. Due to the lack of strategies, the authors here explore potential risks and solutions how to use both dams simultaneously.
- Kevin G. Wheeler
- , Marc Jeuland
- & Dale Whittington
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| Open Access
A nature-inspired hydrogen-bonded supramolecular complex for selective copper ion removal from water
Heavy metals and metalloids pose major threats to health and environmental ecosystems, thus systems for low-cost remediation are needed. Here the authors report the scalable design of a hydrogen-bonded organic–inorganic framework for selective removal of trace heavy metal ions from water.
- Ngoc T. Bui
- , Hyungmook Kang
- & Jeffrey J. Urban
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| Open Access
South-to-North Water Diversion stabilizing Beijing’s groundwater levels
The authors here address water sustainability in the greater area of Beijing, China. Specifically, the positive effects towards Beijing groundwater levels via water diversion from the Yangtze River to the North are shown.
- Di Long
- , Wenting Yang
- & Yoshihide Wada
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| Open Access
Preserving nanoscale features in polymers during laser induced graphene formation using sequential infiltration synthesis
High temperatures induced during lasing can deform the substrate polymer used for fabrication of electrically conductive membranes. Here, the authors show that sequential infiltration synthesis of alumina stabilizes polyethersulfone (PES) membranes against deformation above the polymers’ glass transition temperature.
- David S. Bergsman
- , Bezawit A. Getachew
- & Jeffrey C. Grossman
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| Open Access
Ion sieving by a two-dimensional Ti3C2Tx alginate lamellar membrane with stable interlayer spacing
Two dimensional lamellar membranes are attractive for anomalous water and ion transfer, but performance is hindered by swelling. Here, the authors stabilize a MXene membrane laminar architecture with fixed nanochannels, achieving highly selective acid recovery from iron-based wastewater.
- Jin Wang
- , Zhijie Zhang
- & Lei Wang
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Article
| Open Access
Gainers and losers of surface and terrestrial water resources in China during 1989–2016
The authors of this study compile data on spatial and temporal dynamics of surface water bodies across China, covering a time span from 1989 – 2016. The study describes hot-spot areas with strongly decreasing trends in surface water area and terrestrial water storage in North China and discusses implications of water resources and security in China.
- Xinxin Wang
- , Xiangming Xiao
- & Bo Li
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| Open Access
Groundwater level observations in 250,000 coastal US wells reveal scope of potential seawater intrusion
The authors here investigate in the susceptibility of coastal aquifers to seawater intrusion. Based on 20 years’ worth of observational data, the study finds that 15% of the US coastline is affected by landward hydraulic gradients conducive to seawater intrusion.
- Scott Jasechko
- , Debra Perrone
- & James W. Kirchner
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Climate change will affect global water availability through compounding changes in seasonal precipitation and evaporation
Adequate water availability is key to human and ecosystem sustainability. Here, the authors show that seasonally variable regimes become more variable, and the combined influence of seasonality and magnitude of climate variables will affect future water availability.
- Goutam Konapala
- , Ashok K. Mishra
- & Michael E. Mann
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| Open Access
Drought and climate change impacts on cooling water shortages and electricity prices in Great Britain
The impacts of power plant water shortage during drought on electricity prices are understudied. Here the authors show that on extreme days, almost 50% (7 GWe) of the freshwater thermal capacity is unavailable in the Great Britain and annualized cumulative costs on electricity prices are in the range of £29-95m per year.
- Edward A. Byers
- , Gemma Coxon
- & Jim W. Hall
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| Open Access
New insights into US flood vulnerability revealed from flood insurance big data
Economic estimates of flood damages rely on depth–damage functions that are inadequately verified. Here, the authors assessed flood vulnerability in the US and found that current depth–damage functions consist of disparate relationships that match poorly with observations which better follow a bimodal beta distribution.
- Oliver E. J. Wing
- , Nicholas Pinter
- & Carolyn Kousky
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| Open Access
Global resource potential of seasonal pumped hydropower storage for energy and water storage
The potential of seasonal pumped hydropower storage (SPHS) plant to fulfil future energy storage requirements is vast in mountainous regions. Here the authors show that SPHS costs vary from 0.007 to 0.2 US$ m−3 of water stored, 1.8 to 50 US$ MWh−1 of energy stored and 0.37 to 0.6 US$ GW−1 of installed power generation capacity.
- Julian D. Hunt
- , Edward Byers
- & Keywan Riahi
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| Open Access
Solar and wind energy enhances drought resilience and groundwater sustainability
The role of solar and wind energy (SWE) in management of water-food-energy (WFE) nexus is largely neglected. Here the authors developed a trade-off frontier framework to quantify the water sustainability value of SWE and applied it in California, where they found that SWE penetration creates beneficial feedback for the WFE nexus by enhancing drought resilience and benefits groundwater sustainability over long run.
- Xiaogang He
- , Kairui Feng
- & Justin Sheffield
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Article
| Open Access
Impact hotspots of reduced nutrient discharge shift across the globe with population and dietary changes
The environmental impacts of increasing wastewater management are poorly understood. Here, the authors simulate impacts for 173 countries between 1990 and 2050; despite the development of wastewater infrastructure, they identify hotspots of unexpected detrimental effects which are shifting from Asia to Africa.
- Xu Wang
- , Glen Daigger
- & David Butler
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| Open Access
Learning about climate change uncertainty enables flexible water infrastructure planning
Water resources planning requires infrastructure development consider regional climatic uncertainties. Here the authors introduce a new dynamic planning framework that captures opportunities to learn about climate change over time. By applying it to reservoir planning in Kenya, they show the value of flexible approaches in responding to learning.
- Sarah Fletcher
- , Megan Lickley
- & Kenneth Strzepek
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Article
| Open Access
Benchmark decadal forecast skill for terrestrial water storage estimated by an elasticity framework
A reliable decadal hydrological prediction is challenging but critical to managing water resources. Here the authors incorporate decadal climate prediction information with an elasticity framework over global river basins, and obtain a new benchmark skill that is significantly higher than before.
- Enda Zhu
- , Xing Yuan
- & Andrew W. Wood
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| Open Access
State-of-the-art global models underestimate impacts from climate extremes
Impact models projections are used in integrated assessments of climate change. Here the authors test systematically across many important systems, how well such impact models capture the impacts of extreme climate conditions.
- Jacob Schewe
- , Simon N. Gosling
- & Lila Warszawski
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| Open Access
Societal decisions about climate mitigation will have dramatic impacts on eutrophication in the 21st century
Impacts of future changes to land use and land management on eutrophication are not well understood. Here, the authors examine these impacts over the 21st century and find that societal choices will have a huge impact on riverine total nitrogen loading for the continental United States and beyond.
- E. Sinha
- , A. M. Michalak
- & P. J. Lawrence
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| Open Access
Forecasting dryland vegetation condition months in advance through satellite data assimilation
Forecasting drought and its impact on agriculture and ecosystems is challenged by a lack of knowledge of vegetation access to deep moisture. Here the authors show that combining vegetation and water storage remote sensing can be used to infer this knowledge, allowing drought impact forecasts months in advance.
- Siyuan Tian
- , Albert I. J. M. Van Dijk
- & Luigi J. Renzullo
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Article
| Open Access
The evolution of human population distance to water in the USA from 1790 to 2010
There are dynamic and complex interactions between population and water resources. Here the authors studied the spatio-temporal relationship between human and water resources in conterminous US and found that dynamic human distance to water reflects the changing societal reliance on adjacency to major rivers.
- Yu Fang
- & James W. Jawitz
Meta-analysis indicates better climate adaptation and mitigation performance of hybrid engineering-natural coastal defence measures