Water Sustainability

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

Yashar Mehmani

Assistant Professor, Leone Family Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering (EME)

Emily Pakhtigian

Assistant Professor in School of Public Policy, School of Public Policy

Institutes, Centers, & Programs

Water Sustainability News

Featured Stories

Fourteen interdisciplinary research teams receive 2026 IEE seed grants

July 1, 2026

Fourteen interdisciplinary research teams have received funding through the Institute of Energy and the Environment’s (IEE) 2026 Seed Grant Program. The program supports basic and applied research that lays the groundwork to pursue external funding and is guided by IEE’s five strategic research themes. This year, the program awarded seed funding to more than 40 researchers across 10 colleges and campuses and 21 departments and units.

Mentions: Vineet Vishwakarma, Saya Lee, Wesley Reinhart, Linxiao Zhu, W. Larry Kenney, Julian Wang, Bishwodeep Adhikari, Femeena Pandara Valappil, Hong Wu, Shirley Clark

U.S. Geological Survey grant to fund ag study of PFAS in small watersheds

May 18, 2026 | psu.edu

Researchers in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences have received a grant of nearly $309,000 from the U.S. Geological Survey, part of the U.S. Department of the Interior, to study the movement and impacts of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, in small agricultural watersheds across the Chesapeake Bay Watershed.

Mentions: Heather Preisendanz, Tyler Groh, Faith Kibuye, Odette Mina, Jon Sweetman, Onur Apul

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