Water Sustainability

Supporting Life

By understanding the complex interactions between water and human activity, we can work towards a future where this vital resource is accessible, clean, and supports healthy ecosystems and thriving communities.

Flowing throughout the Earth

Water is essential to the health of people and communities, ecosystems, regional and national economies, and the security of nations, supporting personal health, food production, manufacturing, energy generation, recreation, and a spectrum of other socially-valued ecosystem services.

Likewise, the biogeochemical cycles, such as nutrients and carbon, which are circulated through water, terrestrial ecosystems, and the atmosphere are essential to our world's health.

Population growth, development, and environmental changes put increasing stresses on water resources throughout the world. The challenges of droughts, floods, and degraded water quality—which serve to underscore our dependence on a balanced quantity and adequate quality of water—exacerbate population challenges.

Additionally, changes to our ecosystem place stressors on biogeochemical cycles.

Olivia Mroczko, graduate student in agricultural and biological engineering, is evaporating filtered wastewater samples with a nitrogen gas generator in the Natural Resources Engineering Water Quality Laboratory in the Agricultural Engineering Building. She will then analyze the filtered water for pharmaceuticals. — Olivia Mroczko, a former graduate student in agricultural and biological engineering, is evaporating filtered wastewater samples with a nitrogen gas generator in relation to a project that uses wastewater to detect COVID-19 outbreaks.

Water Sustainability Research

Featured IEE Researchers

Heather Preisendanz

Professor, Agricultural & Biological Engineering

Daniel Allen

Associate Professor, Ecosystem Science and Management

Institutes, Centers, & Programs

Water Sustainability News

Featured Stories

Penn State’s research expenditures reach record $1.337 billion

October 18, 2024 | psu.edu

Penn State’s total research expenditures reached a record high of $1.337 billion in fiscal year 2023-24, an 8% increase or $99 million jump from the previous year, bringing the research expenditures of external and internal funding to the largest total in the University’s history. For the first time in Penn State’s history, external funding from sponsored grants and contracts surpassed $1 billion — a nearly 11% increase over the last fiscal year.

Mentions: Andrew Read, Neeli Bendapudi

Atmospheric, climate researcher named IEE 'Person of the Year'

October 1, 2024 | psu.edu

Kenneth Davis, a professor of atmospheric and climate science in the Penn College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, has been named the Institute of Energy and the Environment's Person of the Year for 2024. He was selected from nominations submitted by the Penn State community.

Mentions: Kenneth Davis, Bruce Logan, Lee Kump

More Water Sustainability News

Water Initiative

A new University-wide Water Initiative involves faculty and staff engaged in research, teaching, and outreach.

Penn State has a long and rich history of engaged, innovative, and impactful water and water-related research. This portfolio of work encompasses the natural, social, and health sciences, engineering, policy and law, communications, the arts, and more.

Learn More about the Water Initiative