Tag: sustainability
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California Groundwater Law Means Big Changes Above Ground, Too
The state’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act is likely to result in fallowing thousands of acres of farmland. Local governments are just waking up to the big opportunities, and risks, in how that land gets reused. New housing construction in California’s San Joaquin Valley poses a threat to some of the best groundwater recharge lands. California’s…
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Nature is teaching … are we learning?
The three major challenges in the water sector can be summed up as too little, too much or too dirty. Water use over the last century has been growing by more than twice the rate of population increase. A central challenge for sustainable development is how to balance the competing uses of water; ensure that…
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Strengthening policy innovation for water use in agriculture
Experts from high-income countries and client countries came together last week during a joint World Bank-OECD workshop to discuss the shared goal of improving policy design and implementation for water use in agriculture. Although efficient use of water is becoming a central aim of agricultural practices, much work is yet to be done to meet…
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How dairy processors can reduce water waste
Dairy processors could look to new technologies to address water sustainability challenges A 2015 report from the World Economic Forum said that water shortages will be the Earth’s biggest threat in the next decade. Meanwhile, data from UN-Water show that by 2025, 1.8 billion people will be experiencing water scarcity, while two-thirds of the world’s…
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Algae from wastewater solves two problems: biofuel and cleanup
In one of the first studies to examine the potential for using municipal wastewater as a feedstock for algae-based biofuels, Rice University scientists found they could easily grow high-value strains of oil-rich algae while simultaneously removing more than 90 percent of nitrates and more than 50 percent of phosphorus from wastewater. The findings, which are…
