University of Kansas
University of Kansas 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.
New grant to fund water management data ecosystem in Kansas
The U.S. National Science Foundation Convergence Accelerator has awarded $650,000 to a team led by University of Kansas scientists to develop a water management data ecosystem that collects water quality and quantity data, models it with machine learning algorithms, and makes insights available on a dashboard for local government officials and state government agencies. KU researchers will […]
Global study details microplastics contamination in lakes and reservoirs
Around 14 million tons of plastic end up in the ocean every year. But that is not the only water source where plastic represents a significant intrusion. “We found microplastics in every lake we sampled,” said Ted Harris, associate research professor for the Kansas Biological Survey & Center for Ecological Research at the University of […]
Groundwater levels fall in central and western Kansas
After three years of small increases, average groundwater levels in central and western Kansas dropped during 2020 as most of the area experienced abnormally dry conditions for much of the year, according to preliminary data compiled by the Kansas Geological Survey. "It was hot and dry last summer, and water levels pretty much dropped everywhere," […]
Study details effectiveness of Kansas program that pays farmers to conserve water
Crops need water. And in the central United States, the increasing scarcity of water resources is becoming a threat to the nation’s food production. Tsvetan Tsvetanov, assistant professor of economics at the University of Kansas, has analyzed a pilot program intended to conserve water in the agriculture-dependent region. His article “The Effectiveness of a Water Right […]
‘Dream team’ to study ice loss on critical Greenland glacier to better forecast rising oceans
Last month a new projection of sea-level rise by the year 2050 spurred headlines showing more coastal cities around the world will be submerged than earlier models have predicted. Just how fast and how high sea levels rise globally will be determined by the melting of ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica. However, the acceleration, retreat and […]
New approach to flood mapping supports emergency management and water officials
When Jude Kastens was developing a new floodplain mapping model more than a decade ago as part of his doctoral dissertation at the University of Kansas, he aimed to address a critical information gap that often hindered officials during major flooding events: the lack of real-time, wide-area predictions for floodwater extent and depth. Dependable, detailed inundation estimates […]