Water in the West is a partnership of The Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment and the Bill Lane Center for the American West and includes faculty, staff and students from the natural, physical and social sciences, law, business and humanities who engage in interdisciplinary research and teaching about freshwater. We identify contemporary applications for academic research and connect researchers with water managers, businesses and elected leaders. Water in the West collaborates with universities, trade associations, businesses, nongovernmental organizations, and government institutions and disseminates its efforts to each of these audiences. In addition to collaborating with and drawing from partners in the western United States, Water in the West has an active program to exchange ideas and solutions with our counterparts in Australia, Canada and around the globe who face similar challenges and opportunities.
Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment
The Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment is working toward a future in which societies meet people’s needs for water, food, health and other vital services while protecting and nurturing the planet. As the university’s hub of environment and sustainability research, Woods is the go-to place for Stanford faculty, researchers and students to collaborate on environmental research. Their interdisciplinary work crosses sectors and disciplines, advancing solutions to the most critical, complex environmental and sustainability challenges.
Working on campus and around the globe, the Stanford Woods Institute community develops environmental leaders; informs decision-makers with unbiased scientific data; and convenes experts from all of Stanford’s seven schools, other leading academic institutions, government, nongovernmental organizations, foundations and business. The Stanford Woods Institute is pursuing breakthrough solutions that link knowledge to action and solve the environmental challenges of today and tomorrow.
The Bill Lane Center for the American West
The Bill Lane Center for the American West is dedicated to advancing scholarly and public understanding of the past, present and future of western North America. The center supports research, teaching and reporting about western land and life in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
The center’s vision of the West extends from San Francisco Bay to the fabled 100th Meridian, from western Canada to all of Mexico and outward to the Pacific World.
Affiliated Programs
Reinventing the Nation’s Urban Water Infrastructure (ReNUWIt)
Reinventing the Nation’s Urban Water Infrastructure (ReNUWIt) is an interdisciplinary, multi-institution research center whose goal is to change the ways in which we manage urban water. Our vision is of safe, sustainable urban water infrastructures enabled by technological advances in natural and engineered systems and informed by a deeper understanding of institutional frameworks.
Our research team integrates the efforts of researchers trained in fields including environmental engineering, ecology, city planning, economics and law to develop innovative approaches to address the problems facing urban water systems. Working in close partnership with utilities, water service providers, equipment manufacturers and international research partners we, convert great ideas into practical and sustainable solutions.
The Center for Groundwater Evaluation and Management
The GEM Center is a research center that provides a multidisciplinary/crosscutting approach to groundwater evaluation and management. The focus of research is the integration of data, acquired across a wide range of spatial and temporal scales, to monitor and model subsurface hydrologic processes. The defining characteristic of the GEM Center is the use of geophysical data as an essential part of all aspects of groundwater evaluation and management. Central to our approach is the establishment of partnerships that allow the GEM Center to demonstrate state-of-the-science solutions to "real-world" problems. In this way, we hope to play a key role in encouraging the adoption of new approaches, and new technologies, for addressing the challenging problems we face in the evaluation and management of our groundwater resources.
Natural Capital Project
The vision of the Natural Capital Project is a world in which people, governments and corporations recognize the values of natural capital – embodied in Earth's lands, waters and biodiversity – in supporting human well-being, and routinely incorporate these values into decision-making. We are advancing three strategies to achieve this vision: creating innovative, practical tools; testing and implementing these in major policy decisions, in sites and sectors globally; and engaging leaders to magnify the impact of models of success
Precourt Energy Efficiency Center
The mission of the Precourt Energy Efficiency Center is to promote energy efficient technologies, systems, and practices, emphasizing economically attractive deployment. PEEC works to understand and overcome market, policy, technology, and human behavioral barriers to economically efficient reductions of energy use and to inform public and private policymaking. Energy efficiency is vital for the U.S. and world economy, for environmental protection, and for energy security.