Water Institute
Addressing complex water challenges at all scales.
A world with 8 billion people requires water for food, energy, minerals and industry.
The Water Institute at Arizona State University is a new international center of excellence for scholarship and action designed to predict and address water challenges from community to national scale. Drawing from existing academic capacity across ASU and the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory®, the Water Institute will develop educational, research and communication projects that benefit communities across Arizona, the region, the nation and the globe.
Are we headed to a world besieged by water problems?
Visions of villages in Africa, Asia, Latin America and rural communities in the USA struggling with safe drinking water and sanitation are endemic. That some of the largest population centers around our world, from Mexico City to Cape Town to Delhi to Rio, face “day zero” with water is stunning.
Depleting groundwater reserves in India, China, Iran, Spain, the U.S. and other areas are making headlines. Floods are causing hundreds of billions in damage to infrastructure, property, food and supply chains annually. Exposure to extreme conditions from drought to flooding is increasing as our climate changes and threatens all elements of our critical infrastructure.
Commencing with a launch event on World Water Day 2024, the Water Institute will bring together leading thinkers and educators to discuss what lies ahead for water and how we as a collaboratory can address complex water challenges. What are the technological innovations, financing mechanisms, policy instruments and field implementation strategies that we need to develop and test to create a better future?
World Water Collaboratory
Please view the entire library of water solutions shared across the Collaboratory.
Leadership
Director and Professor
The Water Institute
Upmanu Lall is the director of the Water Institute at the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory at Arizona State University.