Research highlights: water

December 8, 2009 in Research by TBG | 1 comment

Photo by Lee Otis

This week we launch our second installment in “research highlights.” In October, we featured fire. Now, in December, as we wait for the next winter storm to sweep across the Bay Area, we turn our attention to water.

Water makes a compelling research topic because it is fundamental to life and so central to the way we live. Many believe that the management and distribution of the world’s water supply will be the critical environmental challenge of the twenty-first century. Already more than a billion people lack clean water to drink and for basic sanitation. And because many of climate change’s impacts will be related to water—e.g., melting glaciers and more severe droughts—additional changes to the availability and quality of the earth’s water resources are expected. While some of these concerns may seem abstract from the relative security of Berkeley’s campus, floods, droughts, tsunamis, and hurricanes, repeatedly remind of us water’s tremendous power to reshape human lives and challenge human institutions. Not surprisingly, water has gripped the imaginations of authors, artists, chemists, designers, historians, lawyers, and policy makers to name just a few.

With just two weeks left in the semester, it has been hard to find people with the free time to talk about their research. Nevertheless, until the end of the semester, we’ll be featuring Berkeley graduate students’ water-related research projects along with relevant campus resources. Up first, the Water Resources Center Archives.