Nature Water

Nature Water, Published online: 11 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s44221-026-00658-1 Coastal urban areas are increasingly threatened by sea-level rise and extreme weather, necessitating hard-engineering solutions such as storm-surge barriers. Here the authors examine the Mo.S.E. barriers in Venice Lagoon, revealing that while they are effective for urban flood protection, they compromise wetland resilien…

Nature Water, Published online: 11 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s44221-026-00651-8 This Perspective synthesizes ten key insights from drought research for policy and practice, and identifies priority research gaps to strengthen drought governance and resilience.

Nature Water, Published online: 11 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s44221-026-00660-7 Wastewater-based epidemiology has been proposed as a faster, near real-time window into community substance use, but national-scale implementation in the United States has been elusive. A National Institute on Drug Abuse-funded pilot with Biobot Analytics spanning 76 sites across 41 states demonstrates that harmonized, n…

Nature Water, Published online: 09 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s44221-026-00661-6 Atmospheric water harvesting helps unlock clean water access wherever it is needed but practical deployment remains limited by low water productivity. A modular, field-portable, and solar-powered platform now brings litre-scale water production across diverse environments.

Nature Water, Published online: 09 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s44221-026-00645-6 A portable atmospheric water-harvesting device empowered by solar energy has been developed using adaptive sorbent materials and delivers reliable and climate-resilient drinking water across diverse environments.

Nature Water, Published online: 09 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s44221-026-00662-5 Brazil’s national mangrove conservation policy and Santos’s plan to formalize historic mangrove settlements may seem incompatible. With thoughtful integration, however, environmental protection and housing justice can strengthen rather than undermine each other.

Nature Water, Published online: 08 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s44221-026-00663-4 Antibiotic transformation products (TPs) are common in aquatic environments but are largely ignored in antimicrobial resistance risk assessments. This study demonstrates that many TPs select for resistance at levels comparable to or exceeding those of their parent antibiotics across multiple drug classes.

Nature Water, Published online: 08 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s44221-026-00655-4 This study demonstrates a low-cost, self-powered capsule that integrates sensing and disinfection, achieving rapid water quality assessment and microbial removal without external power or chemicals.

Nature Water, Published online: 04 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s44221-026-00654-5 Low temperature limits anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) activity. Now a low-crystallinity covalent organic framework-based photoelectron injection strategy restores intracellular ATP and cold shock protein-mediated mRNA stability, enabling efficient anammox activity at 4 °C.

Nature Water, Published online: 02 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s44221-026-00647-4 Safe drinking water is vital for reducing childhood diarrhoea, but evidence on which service elements matter most has been unclear. Data from 24 low- and middle-income countries show that safely managed drinking water reduces child diarrhoea risk, with water availability and absence of faecal contamination at point of us…

Nature Water, Published online: 01 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s44221-026-00667-0 This study introduces a sunlight-activated copper-based catalyst that can rapidly break down a wide range of pollutants and microorganisms, offering a durable, practical way to clean contaminated lakes and other natural waters.

Nature Water, Published online: 01 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s44221-026-00656-3 Wetland conservation is an undervalued strategy for managing flood risk exacerbated by climate change. This study quantifies the impact of wetland loss on flood insurance claims across the USA, revealing a US$10.1 billion increase in claims since 1985. The analysis also highlights regions where conservation benefits outw…

Nature Water, Published online: 01 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s44221-026-00669-y Author Correction: Spontaneous electrochemical uranium extraction from wastewater with net electrical energy production

Nature Water, Published online: 28 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s44221-026-00657-2 The future of hydrology lies in learning from patterns to understand processes across scales.

Nature Water, Published online: 22 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s44221-026-00653-6 Weather whiplash events in 2024–2025 across Europe and the Americas exposed how interacting atmospheric drivers can trigger unprecedented floods with major socio-economic and environmental consequences. These events highlight governance gaps and underscore the need for integrated hydrosocial strategies combining improved …

Nature Water, Published online: 22 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s44221-026-00659-0 Antimicrobial resistance in the environment cannot be understood by genes or antibiotics alone. A system-level perspective integrating ecological, hydrological, and functional processes is needed to capture how resistance emerges and spreads.

Nature Water, Published online: 21 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s44221-026-00650-9 This Perspective examines how a systemic, service-oriented framing of nature-based solutions can enhance multifunctionality and long-term resilience within complex social–ecological systems. Aligning adaptive co-management, integrated indicators and governance–finance structures enables nature-based solutions intervention…

Nature Water, Published online: 14 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s44221-026-00649-2 This work presents a scalable and flexible mixed-matrix membrane to overcome mass-transport limitations in sorption-based atmospheric water harvesting, enabling ultrafast sorption–desorption kinetics and high-productivity water harvesting prototypes driven by sunlight or electricity.

Nature Water, Published online: 11 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s44221-026-00648-3 A pioneering environmental engineer who transformed fundamental research on the chemistry of arsenic and other contaminants into practical solutions for delivering safe drinking water.

Nature Water, Published online: 06 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s44221-026-00641-w Urea is the world’s most widely used nitrogen fertilizer. Elevated urea use can induce detrimental eutrophication of shallow surface waters in agricultural regions, accelerating water quality deterioration globally in these regions.