Freshwater systems worldwide are under increasing pressure. As populations grow and economies expand, water is being extracted faster than nature can replenish it. Pollution and climate change are further degrading water quality.
Together, these forces are intensifying water scarcity and threatening human health, ecosystems, and economic stability. Yet despite the urgency, researchers still lack integrated data to fully understand how freshwater systems are changing and how to respond.
A new $9.5 million research effort funded by Schmidt Sciences, known as Re-Analysis of Water for Society (RAWS), takes on that challenge by building a detailed, daily record of the world’s freshwater systems spanning 60 years. The project is led in part by Landon Marston , associate professor of civil and environmental engineering , whose research examines how people interact with rivers, lakes, reservoirs, and groundwater. He is partnering with researchers at Utrecht University, the University of Oklahoma, Radboud University, Politecnico di Milano, and CMCC Foundation.
Growing demand for freshwater has reshaped the global water cycle over the last decade. Infrastructure and withdrawals for irrigation, manufacturing, energy production, and household use have supported economic growth and met societal needs. At the same time, they have reduced water in rivers and underground aquifers, lowered water quality, and increased stress on freshwater ecosystems.
"While engineering solutions like dams and irrigation have driven economic growth, they have also altered water availability and quality in ways we don't fully understand yet at the global scale,” said Marston. “The problem is that our current view of these changes is too blurry. We lack the high-resolution data to see how local actions add up to global risks. Without that clarity, we are effectively trying to manage a critical resource in the dark."
Tackling these connected challenges means looking at the whole water picture at once. How much water is there? How clean is the water? How is it stored and moved? How do people use it? Marston notes that having these details can support real-world decisions. Right now, most global water data are too broad and updated too infrequently to be truly helpful for water managers and policymakers.
RAWS will change that. Building on Marston’s earlier research that focuses on water use in the United States, RAWS will create the first global map of how water is actually used and moved by people. By combining advanced water modeling with artificial intelligence (AI) and newly integrated global datasets, the project will produce a daily view of the world’s freshwater systems. This approach will offer a clearer picture of how water systems have changed over time and how human activity has played a role in shaping those changes, according to the study.
Marston said one of the most exciting parts of RAWS is its effort to build the most detailed picture yet of how people use water around the world.
The project will create a global map of land and water use, showing how places and patterns have changed going back decades, at an unprecedented level of spatial detail.
It will show where crops are grown, where cities are expanding, where irrigation water comes from, where wells are drilled, how canals and pipelines carry water, where reservoirs are located, and how water is shared between regions or countries.
Much of this information is currently scattered across local reports and national databases. RAWS uses satellite remote sensing, AI tools, and data provided by various government, research, and nongovernmental organizations to bring together information into one consistent global picture, using machine learning to fill in the gaps where data is missing.
The study brings a much clearer understanding of how water is used by farms, households, industries, and power plants, as well as how reservoirs around the world are operated. While this data fuels the RAWS project itself, it will also be a resource for scientists, policymakers, and organizations working on water issues worldwide.
RAWS is not just about building better models. The study aims to help people make better decisions. Another major part of the project focuses on working directly with regions facing serious or growing water shortages.
RAWS brings water managers, policymakers, and local experts into the process from the very beginning through in-person interviews and workshops accompanied by virtual listening and information-gathering sessions. Together, stakeholders help shape the questions being asked, decide what success looks like, and guide how the research is tested before detailed modeling begins.
“It is an incredible opportunity to join a global project that incorporates local knowledge to reveal how society shapes the water cycle and how water availability impacts us in return,” said Paul DeBole, graduate student in civil and environmental engineering. “By collaborating directly with stakeholders we are ensuring this data isn’t just accurate in a model, but actionable enough to drive real-world policy and decision making.”
Everything RAWS creates, including its models, data, software, and findings, will be openly available. Interactive tools will make it easier for researchers, nonprofits, and decision makers to explore and use the information.