Archive News

March 30, 2026The sanitation objective of Sustainable Development Goal 6, sanitation for all, is off-track and far from being completed by 2030. Vermifiltration could help address this gap: The nature-based sanitation management system shows increasing promise globally because of its low cost. Researchers at Eawag’s Sandec department visited vermifilter installations in India and Switzerland to examine how local differences influence their optimal design.

February 24, 2026Estimates as to how much more electricity could be generated from hydropower in the absence of residual flow requirements vary widely, and they have previously been based on inadequate data. A team of researchers from WSL, the University of Bern and Eawag has now used a new database and simulations to show that, between now and 2050, the additional decrease in production due to residual flow requirements – amounting to barely 2% – is likely to be much lower than feared.

January 26, 2026Sociologist and political scientist Lisa Deutsch was awarded the ETH Medal for her doctoral thesis written at Eawag and ETH Zurich. Her research demonstrated how interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research can be successful and how theory and practice can be effectively combined in research.

January 23, 2026Aquatic ecosystems are fragile. But just how fragile they are has been revealed in a new study by the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag) and the University of Zurich. Researchers investigated how climate change is affecting amphipods by shifting the timing of leaf fall in autumn. These creatures feed on leaves and, as the base of the food chain, have an impact on the entire ecosystem.

November 28, 2025James Runnalls, software engineer at the aquatic research institute Eawag, receives the National Prize for Open Research Data (ORD) for developing the interactive online platform alplakes for monitoring and forecasting alpine lakes.

September 18, 2025Climate change is altering air temperature and precipitation patterns in Switzerland, thereby impairing the recharge and quality of groundwater. A mix of measures is needed to ensure the sustainable use of groundwater as a resource. Good forecasts enable timely action and support investment decisions.

September 12, 2025How much trees in cities actually help to cool their surroundings depends heavily on how moist the soil is.

September 4, 2025Groundwater, which provides 80 percent of Switzerland's drinking water, is the focus of the Eawag Info Day taking place today in Dübendorf.

August 27, 2025The water research institute Eawag and the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland are part of the new EU project UrbanM2O. It is led by the Danish Technical University DTU in Copenhagen. The aim of the six-million-euro project is to develop monitoring and modelling-based solutions to combat water pollution in cities – an issue that is becoming increasingly important with the expansion of sponge cities.

July 23, 2025Surprisingly little is known about the climate history of the greater Tibet-Himalaya region. However, this information is urgently needed to predict how climate change will alter the water cycle there. Information stored in the sediments of Tibet's Nam Co Lake should now allow new conclusions to be drawn. A video presents the project.