Earth & Environment

World Water Day 2023 – Accelerating Change

Published March 21, 2023 Curated Collections

This year marks two important milestones in the freshwater community. First, 2023 is the half-way point to the United Nations’ 2030 Sustainable Development Goals deadline. A growing sense of urgency is emerging as progress in achieving universal access to water sanitation, improving ambient water quality, and managing water resources more efficiently for humans and nature is assessed against these targets. Second, the 30th anniversary of World Water Day will be celebrated in 2023, this year with the fitting theme of ‘accelerating change.’

The papers in this special collection present the latest research on changes happening in the water cycle, in response to both deliberate and unintentional human impacts. They also propose strategic changes in tackling freshwater issues, such as positioning them within the broader climate discourse.

Image Credit: Lake by Jack Anstey

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PLOS Water, Biology and Climate

PLOS Blogs

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CC BY 4.0

PLOS Blogs Accelerating Change – the 2023 UN Water Conference
March 21, 2023
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PLOS Blogs CC BY 4.0

PLOS Blogs Reporting from the UN 2023 Water Conference in New York
March 20, 2023

PLOS Water, Biology and Climate

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10.1371/journal.pwat.0000111 CC BY 4.0

PLOS Water A paradox of accelerating change
March 20, 2023 Pierre Horwitz
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10.1371/journal.pwat.0000085 CC BY 4.0

PLOS Water Issues that should be addressed at the UN 2023 Water Conference
January 24, 2023 Jon Lane
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10.1371/journal.pwat.0000023 CC BY 4.0

PLOS Water The water industry and the decarbonisation of cities: A comprehensive review in the context of Cop26
June 2, 2022 Peter M. J. Fisher, David Smith

The urban water industry is a very energy intensive industry. Higher water quality standards are driving a level of energy growth that is…
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10.1371/journal.pwat.0000105 CC BY 4.0

PLOS Water Environmental biotechnologies can make water pollutants part of the path to mitigating climate change
March 15, 2023 Bruce E. Rittmann

To slow and ultimately reverse global climate change, society needs to replace fossil sources of energy and chemicals with renewable…
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10.1371/journal.pwat.0000058 CC BY 4.0

PLOS Water Water remains a blind spot in climate change policies
December 15, 2022 Hervé Douville, Richard P. Allan, Paola A. Arias, Richard A. Betts, Martina Angela Caretta, Annalisa Cherchi, Aditi Mukherji, Krishnan Raghavan, James Renwick

For the first time in the latest Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), water has been the focus of…
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10.1371/journal.pwat.0000020 CC BY 4.0

PLOS Water Gapu, water, creates knowledge and is a life force to be respected
April 28, 2022 Bawaka Country including , Laklak Burarrwanga, Ritjilili Ganambarr, Merrkiyawuy Ganambarr-Stubbs, Banbapuy Ganambarr, Djawundil Maymuru, Sarah Wright, Sandie Suchet-Pearson, Kate Lloyd, Lara Daley

In this piece, we share about gapu, water. Gapu gives life for a person and the land. Gapu nurtures and holds connection; it is knowledge…
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10.1371/journal.pwat.0000051 CC BY 4.0

PLOS Water Worldwide moderate-resolution mapping of lake surface chl-a reveals variable responses to global change (1997–2020)
October 18, 2022 Benjamin M. Kraemer, Karan Kakouei, Catalina Munteanu, Michael W. Thayne, Rita Adrian

Anthropogenic activity is leading to widespread changes in lake water quality—a key contributor to socio-ecological health. But, the…
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10.1371/journal.pwat.0000067 CC BY 4.0

PLOS Water Advancing antimicrobial resistance monitoring in surface waters with metagenomic and quasimetagenomic methods
December 14, 2022 Andrea Ottesen, Brandon Kocurek, Padmini Ramachandran, Elizabeth Reed, Seth Commichaux, Gunnar Engelbach, Mark Mammel, Sanchez Saint Fleurant, Shaohua Zhao, Claudine Kabera, Amy Merrill, Nathalie Bonin, Hannah Worley, Noelle Noyes, Christina Boucher, Patrick McDermott, Errol Strain

The National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System (NARMS) has monitored antimicrobial resistance (AMR) associated with pathogens of…
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10.1371/journal.pwat.0000065 CC BY 4.0

PLOS Water Improve water quality through meaningful, not just any, citizen science
December 7, 2022 Anne-Floor M. Schölvinck, Wout Scholten, Paul J. M. Diederen

…
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10.1371/journal.pbio.3001389 CC BY 4.0

PLOS Biology Microplastics and anthropogenic fibre concentrations in lakes reflect surrounding land use
September 14, 2021 Andrew J. Tanentzap, Samuel Cottingham, Jérémy Fonvielle, Isobel Riley, Lucy M. Walker, Samuel G. Woodman, Danai Kontou, Christian M. Pichler, Erwin Reisner, Laurent Lebreton

Pollution from microplastics and anthropogenic fibres threatens lakes, but we know little about what factors predict its accumulation.…
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10.1371/journal.pwat.0000094 CC BY 4.0

PLOS Water Significant antimicrobial-producing vegetation uniquely shapes the stormwater biofilter microbiome with implications for enhanced faecal pathogen inactivation
March 21, 2023 Penelope Jane Galbraith, Rebekah Henry, David Thomas McCarthy

Biofilters demonstrate promising yet inconsistent removal of faecal pathogens from stormwater. Antimicrobial-producing plants represent…
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10.1371/journal.pclm.0000088 CC BY 4.0

PLOS Climate Bridge over changing waters–Citizen science for detecting the impacts of climate change on water
November 1, 2022 Jan Seibert, H. J. (Ilja) van Meerveld
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10.1371/journal.pwat.0000113 CC BY 4.0

PLOS Water Increasing the visibility of transboundary groundwater
March 21, 2023 Sharon B. Megdal

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