Iowa State University
Iowa State University 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.
Glaciologists measure, model hard glacier beds, write slip law to estimate glacier speeds
The field photos show the hard, rough country that some glaciers slide over: rocky domes and bumps in granite, rocky steps and depressions in limestone. The glacier beds dwarf the researchers and their instruments. (As do the high mountains pictured on the various horizons.) During their trips to glacier beds recently exposed by retreating glaciers […]
Heavy rainfall drives a third of nitrogen runoff, according to new study
Heavy rain events that occur only a few days a year can account for up to a third of the annual nitrogen runoff from farmland in the Mississippi River basin, according to a new study from Iowa State University scientists. The research, published Friday in the academic journal Communications Earth & Environment, uses innovative computer modeling […]
Geologists determine early Earth was a ‘water world’
The Earth of 3.2 billion years ago was a “water world” of submerged continents, geologists say after analyzing oxygen isotope data from ancient ocean crust that’s now exposed on land in Australia. And that could have major implications on the origin of life. “An early Earth without emergent continents may have resembled a ‘water world,’ […]
The benefits of updating agricultural drainage infrastructure
Massive networks of drains, pipes and tiles that enable food production on much of the world’s most productive cropland are due for expansion and replacement to meet the demands of agricultural intensification and climate change. How that infrastructure is updated will have enormous consequences on food production and the environment, according to a new study. […]
Climate change increases potential for conflict and violence
Images of extensive flooding or fire-ravaged communities help us see how climate change is accelerating the severity of natural disasters. The devastation is obvious, but what is not as clear is the indirect effect of these disasters, or more generally of rapid climate change, on violence and aggression. That is what Craig Anderson sees. The […]