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

Sanjay Srinivasan

Department Head and Professor, John and Willie Leone Department of Energy & Mineral Engineering (EME)

Peter Stempel

Associate Professor in Landscape Architecture, Landscape Architecture

Institutes, Centers, & Programs

Water Sustainability News

Featured Stories

USDA grant to fund project developing AI-powered database on water quality

August 26, 2024 | psu.edu

Nitrate, a common chemical compound that occurs naturally and is found in plants, water and soil, can break down into molecules harmful to human, animal and ecological health and accumulate as a pollutant. Nitrate contamination in streams, lakes and estuaries is a critical problem in many agricultural watersheds, but water-quality data is limited, making monitoring stream health and making management decisions difficult, according to researchers at Penn State. To enhance available data, the U.S.

Mentions: Cibin Raj, Jonathan Duncan, Chaopeng Shen

Solar farms with stormwater controls mitigate runoff, erosion, study finds

July 18, 2024 | psu.edu

As the number of major utility-scale ground solar panel installations grows, concerns about their impacts on natural hydrologic processes also have grown. However, a new study by Penn State researchers suggests that excess runoff or increased erosion can be easily mitigated — if these “solar farms” are properly built.

Mentions: Lauren McPhillips, Rouhangiz (Nasim) Yavari, Cibin Raj, Margaret C. Hoffman, Jonathan Duncan

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