Nature waterPub Date : 2026-10-16DOI: 10.1038/s44221-026-00723-9
Matthew R. Landsman, Sarah A. Hesse, Pinar Aydogan-Gokturk, Chenhao Yao, Hans A. Bechtel, Alexander V. Dudchenko, Alexander Hexemer, Zhang Jiang, Lynn E. Katz, Manish Kumar, Volker S. Urban, Iradwikanari Waluyo, Meagan S. Mauter, Christopher J. Tassone, Ethan J. Crumlin
{"title":"Water treatment research opportunities at synchrotron and neutron user facilities","authors":"Matthew R. Landsman, Sarah A. Hesse, Pinar Aydogan-Gokturk, Chenhao Yao, Hans A. Bechtel, Alexander V. Dudchenko, Alexander Hexemer, Zhang Jiang, Lynn E. Katz, Manish Kumar, Volker S. Urban, Iradwikanari Waluyo, Meagan S. Mauter, Christopher J. Tassone, Ethan J. Crumlin","doi":"10.1038/s44221-026-00723-9","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44221-026-00723-9","url":null,"abstract":"X-ray and neutron sources have driven major advancements in our understanding of the chemistry, structure and function of materials ranging from biomolecules to batteries. User facilities make these complex and costly-to-operate tools accessible to researchers. Yet these facilities remain underutilized by the water treatment community. Here we describe how these techniques have advanced water treatment research and highlight opportunities to develop transformative solutions via experiments that leverage user-facility infrastructure and capabilities (for example, in situ and operando sample environments and advanced computational modelling). Expanding user bases at these facilities will accelerate the molecular-level design of next-generation water treatment systems, including membranes for brine management, catalysts for contaminant degradation, and sorbents for resource recovery. Investigating dynamic structures and chemical heterogeneities under realistic operational conditions can reveal complex nanoscale processes such as partitioning or fouling that govern macroscopic performance. Such insights bridge laboratory-scale discoveries to system-level improvements, ultimately strengthening global water, resource and energy security. X-ray and neutron sources have significantly advanced material science, yet remain underutilized in water treatment research. This Review shows how these techniques can transform water treatment by enabling molecular-level insights, potentially leading to next-generation systems that enhance global water, resource and energy security.","PeriodicalId":74252,"journal":{"name":"Nature water","volume":"4 10","pages":"1244-1258"},"PeriodicalIF":30.7,"publicationDate":"2026-10-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149190070","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nature waterPub Date : 2026-10-08DOI: 10.1038/s44221-026-00729-3
Tingting Gao, Faxue Li
{"title":"Synergistic water and mineral harvesting from seawater","authors":"Tingting Gao, Faxue Li","doi":"10.1038/s44221-026-00729-3","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44221-026-00729-3","url":null,"abstract":"Solar desalination is a promising technology for freshwater production. Coupling solar-driven interfacial evaporation with selective ion adsorption for the concurrent recovery of freshwater, lithium, and uranium provides a sustainable paradigm for managing the water–energy–resource nexus.","PeriodicalId":74252,"journal":{"name":"Nature water","volume":"4 10","pages":"1220-1221"},"PeriodicalIF":30.7,"publicationDate":"2026-10-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149190078","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Calibrating antimicrobial resistance influent and effluent signals in wastewater systems","authors":"Αndrea Naziri, Stelios Chatzimichail, Popi Karaolia, Despo Fatta-Kassinos","doi":"10.1038/s44221-026-00701-1","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44221-026-00701-1","url":null,"abstract":"Here, in this Perspective, we discuss how the detailed measurements of microbial hazards generated by wastewater surveillance remain fundamentally underdetermined: they quantify variation without resolving the biological states they represent. This limitation is particularly evident for antimicrobial resistance, where large-scale monitoring is advancing in the absence of parameters that link wastewater concentrations to population-level burden and environmental risk. This Perspective explores how the interpretation of wastewater surveillance data is constrained by the lack of key biological parameters linking measured microbial hazards, including antimicrobial resistance, to population burden and environmental risk.","PeriodicalId":74252,"journal":{"name":"Nature water","volume":"4 10","pages":"1222-1232"},"PeriodicalIF":30.7,"publicationDate":"2026-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149190064","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nature waterPub Date : 2026-10-02DOI: 10.1038/s44221-026-00722-w
Laura Braun, Sophie Boisson, Eline Boelee, Pauline Chivenge, Melanie Connor, Chris Drakeley, Georgia Drew, Bruce Gordon, Seth R. Irish, Jo Lines, Tafadzwanashe Mabhaudhi, Marc F. Müller, Jaume Pinsach Boada, Gerard Arbat Pujolras, Daniel Said-Pullicino, Didier Tharreau, Oliver Cumming
{"title":"A planetary health approach is needed to manage the wider impacts of rice production","authors":"Laura Braun, Sophie Boisson, Eline Boelee, Pauline Chivenge, Melanie Connor, Chris Drakeley, Georgia Drew, Bruce Gordon, Seth R. Irish, Jo Lines, Tafadzwanashe Mabhaudhi, Marc F. Müller, Jaume Pinsach Boada, Gerard Arbat Pujolras, Daniel Said-Pullicino, Didier Tharreau, Oliver Cumming","doi":"10.1038/s44221-026-00722-w","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44221-026-00722-w","url":null,"abstract":"Rice production is critical to global food security, but it has unintended consequences: water stress, greenhouse gas emissions and disease-vector mosquitoes and snails, usually addressed by separate sectors in isolation. A planetary health approach that integrates agriculture, water, climate, ecosystems and health can identify rice growing practices that deliver benefits across these domains.","PeriodicalId":74252,"journal":{"name":"Nature water","volume":"4 10","pages":"1215-1217"},"PeriodicalIF":30.7,"publicationDate":"2026-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149190065","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Redefining advanced oxidation processes for low-carbon water treatment","authors":"Yafei Fan, Weiwei Zhang, Wenjie Lv, Minghui Zhu, Pengbo Fu, Yue Jiang, Mingyang Xing","doi":"10.1038/s44221-026-00714-w","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44221-026-00714-w","url":null,"abstract":"Advanced oxidation processes are essential for securing high-quality water resources by deploying reactive oxygen species to mineralize organic pollutants. While decades of innovation have pushed contaminant removal efficiency towards their thermodynamic limits, pursuing kinetics alone paradoxically escalates environmental burdens in a carbon-constrained world. Sustainable development requires advanced oxidation processes to balance traditional catalytic activity against the associated chemical footprint, energy intensity and secondary waste generation. Here we define a low-carbon water treatment framework that optimizes the water–energy–carbon nexus, driven by three comprehensive sustainability vectors: minimized chemical consumption, optimized energy inputs and solid waste valorization. Furthermore, we discuss the evolution from atomic-level catalyst design to system-level process intensification while highlighting digitalization via artificial intelligence-driven intelligent process control, operational stability and transformation process safety. We propose embedding life-cycle assessment and transformation risk metrics into future technology evaluations, providing a structured, carbon-aware roadmap for next-generation water engineering. Ultimately, this unified paradigm aims to redefine water purification infrastructure, transitioning it from a conventional end-of-pipe remediation asset into a core engine of circular regeneration and value creation. This Perspective redefines advanced oxidation processes by shifting the paradigm from efficiency-centric pollutant mineralization to a low-carbon, sustainability-driven framework that integrates chemical mitigation, energy optimization, solid waste valorization and life-cycle assessment to transform water treatment into a circular regeneration platform.","PeriodicalId":74252,"journal":{"name":"Nature water","volume":"4 10","pages":"1233-1243"},"PeriodicalIF":30.7,"publicationDate":"2026-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149190069","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nature waterPub Date : 2026-09-30DOI: 10.1038/s44221-026-00720-y
Inge de Graaf, Anton Urfels, Fatemeh Karandish, Sida Liu, Iwan Supit
{"title":"Balancing groundwater for crop production and a healthy environment","authors":"Inge de Graaf, Anton Urfels, Fatemeh Karandish, Sida Liu, Iwan Supit","doi":"10.1038/s44221-026-00720-y","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44221-026-00720-y","url":null,"abstract":"Global groundwater modelling has shown the extent of groundwater depletion worldwide, but provides a limited understanding of how groundwater can be used sustainably across food and environmental systems. We propose a shift towards integrated, process-based frameworks that support decision-making across scales.","PeriodicalId":74252,"journal":{"name":"Nature water","volume":"4 10","pages":"1202-1206"},"PeriodicalIF":30.7,"publicationDate":"2026-09-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149190075","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nature waterPub Date : 2026-09-29DOI: 10.1038/s44221-026-00719-5
Chenyang Duan, Qian Cheng, Zhu-Jun Wang
{"title":"Ancient water infrastructure as a millennial-scale laboratory for material degradation","authors":"Chenyang Duan, Qian Cheng, Zhu-Jun Wang","doi":"10.1038/s44221-026-00719-5","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44221-026-00719-5","url":null,"abstract":"By redefining archaeological remains as natural ‘long-term laboratories’, researchers can extract insights from millennia of structural and material adaptation to inform the lifecycle design of resilient urban water systems.","PeriodicalId":74252,"journal":{"name":"Nature water","volume":"4 10","pages":"1207-1214"},"PeriodicalIF":30.7,"publicationDate":"2026-09-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149190068","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nature waterPub Date : 2026-09-28DOI: 10.1038/s44221-026-00718-6
Phoebe Koundouri
{"title":"Making river cooperation fairer","authors":"Phoebe Koundouri","doi":"10.1038/s44221-026-00718-6","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44221-026-00718-6","url":null,"abstract":"Shared river-basin planning often maximizes total benefits, without considering fairness. A new welfare-based optimization framework shows how equity can be made transparent, negotiable and operational in transboundary water and energy decisions.","PeriodicalId":74252,"journal":{"name":"Nature water","volume":"4 10","pages":"1218-1219"},"PeriodicalIF":30.7,"publicationDate":"2026-09-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149190077","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nature waterPub Date : 2026-09-25DOI: 10.1038/s44221-026-00713-x
Aiperi Stambekova, Avidesh Seenath
{"title":"Flood risk governance must put social vulnerability at the centre","authors":"Aiperi Stambekova, Avidesh Seenath","doi":"10.1038/s44221-026-00713-x","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44221-026-00713-x","url":null,"abstract":"Flood risk management has advanced rapidly in modelling flood routing and inundation patterns, yet the consequences of physically comparable floods continue to fall unevenly across communities. Anticipating where impacts will concentrate, therefore, requires looking beyond where floodwater will flow to identify who lacks the capacity to avoid, withstand, and recover from flooding.","PeriodicalId":74252,"journal":{"name":"Nature water","volume":"4 10","pages":"1193-1195"},"PeriodicalIF":30.7,"publicationDate":"2026-09-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149190067","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nature waterPub Date : 2026-09-25DOI: 10.1038/s44221-026-00712-y
Ahmed Rachid El-Khattabi
{"title":"Make the invisible visible by strengthening utility literacy to sustain water services","authors":"Ahmed Rachid El-Khattabi","doi":"10.1038/s44221-026-00712-y","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44221-026-00712-y","url":null,"abstract":"Water, wastewater and stormwater systems face converging stressors that threaten service reliability. Yet most residents remain unaware of how household behaviours, governance decisions and financial contributions shape utility performance. Addressing these challenges requires utility literacy — that is, practical knowledge that enables households, community leaders and decision-makers to support water services effectively and sustainably.","PeriodicalId":74252,"journal":{"name":"Nature water","volume":"4 10","pages":"1196-1198"},"PeriodicalIF":30.7,"publicationDate":"2026-09-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149190076","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}