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Rosa Inguanzo is uniting her central California community to call for clean water.

As groundwater depletion accelerates amid climate change and growing agricultural demands, integrating Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) into water management strategies can safeguard India’s water security and resilience. Groundwater has sustained human societies for thousands of years, serving as a critical shared resource. However, the current rate of extraction — driven largely by climate change,

Sustainability-linked loan signals that major financial institutions are looking to direct more financing toward their customers’ sustainability efforts in innovative ways.

EDF is helping farmers address one of their core climate challenges: securing a reliable water supply. This September, an EDF team led by Ann Hayden, Nikhil Goveas, Gopal Penny and Leah Beaulac conducted a series of comprehensive site visits and workshops across drought-prone areas of central India. Water availability in India is a core climate issue …

A new, free leadership program in South Tucson and Ambos Nogales will offer a unique opportunity for the next generation of water leaders to explore water challenges in their communities and beyond.

The Water Leadership Institute demonstrates that local leaders want — and should have — a voice in water governance. As water crises deepen across the American West, we need more pathways for their participation. Rosanai Paniagua admits that she felt a sense of hopelessness after joining the Richgrove Community Services District board, eager to help …

"USDA’s water conservation investments are a welcome show of support for western communities facing the region’s driest stretch in a 1000 years,” said Kevin Moran, Associate Vice President, Environmental Defense Fund.

This spring, hundreds of scientists, engineers, water managers, farmers and ranchers gathered in New Mexico to share and learn about how OpenET data is being used to advance water resources management. OpenET has radically improved access to data on evapotranspiration (ET) — or how much water plants and other vegetation consume. The result has been …

Environmental Defense Fund and co-authors released new research that may prove beneficial to resource managers, aimed at evaluating and implementing actions to improve the Mississippi River Basin’s overall health and resilience. Based on this research, we are sharing a comprehensive framework that can be used to effectively manage the Mississippi River Basin. The post New research could help resource managers improve the health and resilience of the Mississippi River Basin first appeared on Growing Returns.

As the American West faces intensifying water challenges, landowners and water managers are increasingly turning to the Groundwater Accounting Platform as

Statement of Sarah Vogel, Senior Vice President, Healthy Communities

New Mexico’s rivers are under severe threat, further endangering already strained ecosystems, drinking water sources and livelihoods across the state, according to a new report. The state’s rivers now collectively rank as the most endangered in America according to new analysis released today by American Rivers.

The scale of the global freshwater crisis requires an all hands effort. Fostering diverse, sometimes difficult, partnerships — particularly between policymakers, producers, and frontline communities — is at the heart of EDF’s water program. Partnership is also at the center of an intriguing new book from Stanford law and environmental social sciences professor Barton “Buzz” …

Nearly 100 organizations are now working collectively on agricultural land transformation according to the first-ever annual report on California’s Multibenefit Land Repurposing Program released earlier this month. Launched by the Department of Conservation in summer 2022, the program seeks to increase regional capacity for repurposing irrigated agricultural land to uses that reduce reliance on groundwater while providing a range of new community benefits. EDF, alongside Self-Help Enterprises, is the official state support entity for the program.

Next time you find yourself looking up driving directions on your phone, scroll over to central California and zoom out a bit. Turn on the satellite layer. What you’ll see is a mindboggling patchwork. A massive brown and green checkerboard, cut up in rectangles, sliced by highways, besieged by a ring of arid foothills. This …

Today, a coalition of conservation groups across the Colorado River Basin jointly submitted the Cooperative Conservation Alternative to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) to protect the nation’s most endangered river after current management guidelines expire in 2026. Recognizing the essential role that natural systems play in supporting the Basin, the Alternative proposes a comprehensive set of operational activities to help maintain the integrity of Basin ecosystems, while working to support resilient communities, Tribal nations, businesses and agriculture.

Three new conservation agreements announced today by the Biden-Harris administration will yield up to 400,000 acre-feet of water savings in Lake Mead. All three agreements, totaling nearly $160 million in funding from the Inflation Reduction Act, involve California water districts.

This week, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) took an important step towards modernizing their approach to the nation’s investments in water resource projects and programs.

In 2022, Rosa applied for the Water Leadership Institute. Her motivation? To actively address severe water challenges impacting her family in El Nido in Merced County. Located in California’s breadbasket, Merced County is a scene of abundance with lush fields, orchards, and prospering dairy farms. Yet, beneath this scene lies a harsh reality. Rosa’s family …

Embarking on a field trip can often feel like stepping into a storybook, especially when the narrative and scenery revolve around transforming landscapes. This feeling was palpable last November when the Environmental Defense Fund organized a trip to Merced and Stanislaus Counties in California. The journey wasn’t just a tour; it was a vivid illustration …

New Mexico lawmakers’ unanimous support for proposed investments in water supply and science signal the Legislature is making water a priority this session and shoring up the state against increasing stressors to its finite water supplies.

It may seem like science fiction, but satellites are helping to fight climate change today. Here are five satellites helping the world with climate action. 

Global groundwater decline is widespread and accelerating, especially in dry regions with extensive croplands, according to a new study published this week in Nature. Ann Hayden, vice president of Climate Resilient Water Systems at the Environmental Defense Fund issued a brief statement in response to the findings of this landmark global analysis.

Environmental Defense Fund and Rural Community Assistance Corporation are accepting 2024 Water Leadership Institute applications for communities in the Delta Mendota Subbasin, including Sacramento, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Merced, Madera and Fresno counties.

The satellite-based water data platform OpenET, co-developed by EDF, demonstrates considerable accuracy in measuring evapotranspiration in agricultural settings according to a new study in Nature Water. Evapotranspiration—the amount of water lost to the atmosphere through soil evaporation and plant transpiration—is a key measure of water consumption in agriculture and has previously been difficult and expensive to monitor accurately at scale.