ETH Zurich
ETH Zurich is a university that is part of the pulse of the water sector. Here we bring together everything it publishes on Smart Water Magazine: its news, its blogs and the events it takes part in.
The Antarctic water puzzle – how flooding contributes to ice melt
Researchers have, for the first time, directly observed the flow of water beneath the ice of West Antarctica. They drilled a 500-metre-deep hole through the Antarctic ice sheet until they reached water. They were able to film the watercourse beneath the ice and analyse its properties. These subglacial watercourses play a crucial role in the melting of the ice shelves. The new findings help to improve our understanding of the melting process in Antarctica and to predict sea level rise with greater accuracy.
Exoplanets may contain more water than previously thought
We know that the Earth has an iron core surrounded by a mantle of silicate bedrock and water (oceans) on its surface. Science has used this simple planet model until today for investigating exoplanets—planets that orbit another star outside our solar system. "It is only in recent years that we have begun to realize that […]
Uncovering the link between meltwater and groundwater in mountain regions
An international group of experts in mountain hydrology argue that the traditional understanding of the mountain water cycle has largely ignored the role that cryosphere-groundwater interactions play. This oversight could lead to incomplete or inaccurate predictions of water availability in mountain regions, especially in the context of climate change, the authors suggest in a recent […]
A new model for measuring global water storage
In their recent publication in Nature Water, D-BAUG researchers Junyang Gou and Professor Benedikt Soja introduced a finely resolved model of terrestrial water storage using a novel deep learning approach. By integrating satellite observations with hydrological models, their method achieves remarkable accuracy even in smaller basins. This model promises significant benefits across various domains, including hydrology, climate science, sustainable water management, […]
Brumadinho dam collapse: The danger emerged after the decommissioning, study reveals
The disaster near the small town of Brumadinho in southeastern Brazil occurred shortly after midday on 25 January 2019. At a nearby iron ore mine, the tailings dam—a storage area for the sludgy, fine-grained residues from ore processing, or "tailings"—collapsed. A huge mudslide of about 10 million cubic meters of liquefied tailings flooded the site […]
Researchers study one of the world’s darkest rivers
When the researchers came upon the Ruki River, they were quite taken aback. The water in this river, a tributary of the mighty Congo River, is so dark that you literally can’t see your hand in front of your face. “We were struck by the colour of the river,” says ETH Zurich researcher Travis Drake, […]
Collecting clean water from fog
Researchers have for the first time combined water harvesting from fog with a water treatment method powered exclusively by solar energy. A property known as photocatalytic memory ensures that this also functions when skies are overcast and at night. Using the new technology, drinking water can be harvested in areas with heavy atmospheric pollution.
Climate change has a dramatic impact on the global water cycle, say researchers
For Christoph Schär, ETH Zurich's Professor of Climate and Water Cycle, "global warming" is not quite accurate when it comes to describing the driver of climate change. "A better term would be 'climate humidification,'" he explains. "Most of the solar energy that reaches the Earth serves to evaporate water and thereby drives the hydrological cycle." […]
Droughts increasingly reduce CO2 uptake in the tropics
Droughts and fluctuating water availability have had an increasing impact on the carbon cycle in the tropics over the last 60 years.