News - Current Eawag contributions to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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.

July 15, 2025By the end of the century, water temperatures in Swiss rivers will rise by up to 3.5 degrees if no action to protect the climate is taken. The rivers in the Alps are particularly affected. This is the conclusion reached by researchers from Eawag and the University of Basel in a research project funded by the FOEN.

July 3, 2025Two workshops on urban development and biodiversity with participants from research and politics show how cities can be designed to be biodiversity-friendly, inclusive and resilient.

March 6, 2025For a long time, Eawag's research focus was primarily on water quality. Questions relating to hydrology, bed load or flooding tend to be investigated at WSL or ETH. Eawag is now strengthening its expertise in this area. Today, the ETH Board appointed hydrologist Paola Passalacqua as joint professor at the Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering and at Eawag.

December 12, 2024Plants and water can mitigate heat in cities. Using Zurich as a case study, Eawag researchers tested a climate model which indicates how large the effect of green and blue spaces is. The model supports urban planning and shows where improvements would be particularly effective.

November 15, 2024The 29th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP29) will take place in Baku, Azerbaijan, from 11 to 22 November 2024. The Aquatic Research Institute Eawag is organising three thematic panel discussions on the topic of ‘Swiss innovations for global climate action’ together with the Institute of Environmental Sciences at the University of Geneva.

October 31, 2024A new publication by Eawag shows that co-cultures of different microalgae are more resistant to pests than monocultures.

October 10, 2024Combined sewer overflows following heavy rainfall could be avoided through the use of Blue-Green Infrastructure, such as infiltration basins, retention ponds, and porous pavements.

September 3, 2024Biodiversity is not a political programme: Only just 1.6 % of all documents searched at federal level make reference to the term. This is one of the many results that the WSL and Eawag institutes have compiled in the joint research initiative ‘Blue-Green Biodiversity’ and which are being presented today at the Special Info Day to an expert audience from administration, politics, research and practice.

February 29, 2024The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is including Eawag as a non-state partner of the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC).

November 9, 2023Over the next 20 years, Austria and Switzerland will be investing more than CHF 1.4 billion in flood protection and ecological enhancement measures on the Alpine Rhine. As well as protecting the Rhine valley against flooding, the aim is to promote careful management of groundwater resources. With a new method, scientists from Eawag and the University of Neuchâtel are providing support for International Rhine Regulation planners.

September 14, 2023At today's Eawag Info Day, the Aquatic Research Institute outlined the steps that need to be taken to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

August 22, 2023Green spaces or trees can mitigate urban heat, but it takes time for the cooling effects to develop. Modelling using satellite data can show how much time is needed.

June 22, 2023CO2 emissions from heterotrophic respiration could increase by 40% by the end of the century.

May 9, 2023Environmental engineer Wenzel Gruber and microbiologist Robert Niederdorfer – both Eawag postdocs – founded the spin-off Upwater together with two other partners at the beginning of November 2022. It offers measurements for wastewater treatment plants to support them in reducing process instabilities, greenhouse gas emissions as well as energy consumption.

April 11, 2023Nitrous oxide is one of the main greenhouse gases and also contributes to the destruction of the ozone layer. One of the places where it is released is in wastewater treatment plants. A study has now investigated how much of this is due to the treatment of sludge liquid, which is to be expanded over the next few years.

February 27, 2023Where is there still untapped potential in the use of water bodies for energy generation and what are the associated risks for water systems?

December 13, 2022The Aqua Urbanica symposium, co-organised by Eawag, explored the question of what is needed to implement the sponge city concept. With the help of this concept, cities should be able to mitigate the consequences of climate change.

November 21, 2022Eawag researchers Wenzel Gruber and Urs Schönenberger have won this year's Otto Jaag Water Protection Prize for their dissertations. Reducing emissions of the climate-damaging nitrous oxide from wastewater treatment plants and reducing the leaching of pesticides from drainage systems are the topics.

June 16, 2022It is no secret that climate change has a serious impact on the quality and ecology of aquatic environments. Researchers at Eawag have revealed that human responses to climate change are just as impactful on our water systems – for example, in the areas of agriculture and hydropower.

June 14, 2022In the future, drones could open up new possibilities for taking water samples fully automatically in remote areas. To this end, Eawag researchers tested a drone model developed at Empa and Imperial College.

June 2, 2022Dominik Scheibler has been Eawag’s Environmental representative since 2021. On the occasion of Environmental Day on June 5, he tells us where Eawag stands in the field of the environment and energy, what the coronavirus could change and what the next milestones are, for example in the context of renewable heat supply.

May 5, 2022Eawag researchers Sabine Hoffmann, Kai Udert and Lisa Deutsch are committed to a sanitation and nutrient transformation. They use an example to explain why a transformation is needed and why collaboration with politicians in particular is a challenge.

May 4, 2022What has been a purification process in wastewater treatment plants for decades can also be used decentrally or semi-centrally as a recycling process for nutrients. Early separation of "solid and liquid" plays a key role here. It allows for flexible solutions in terms of process technology, especially in the treatment of urine. New studies also show that the processes can be used not only for human urine, but also for that of cows or pigs.

March 1, 2022The use of lake and river water to generate heat and cold is constantly increasing. The potential is enormous. Nevertheless, negative impacts on aquatic ecosystems must be avoided. A fact sheet from Eawag lists the key points in this regard.

January 20, 2022Switzerland has around 800 municipal wastewater treatment plants. A recent study by Eawag researchers reveals the burden these plants place on the climate, and explores how emissions of climate-damaging nitrous oxide can be reduced.

November 19, 2021Rising temperatures, invasive species and other factors have changed the composition of species in Lake Constance over the last century. Researchers are trying to understand how this could have happened and what it means for the lake.

November 2, 2021Our lakes, rivers and streams are teeming with the smallest creatures, plants and bacteria that are barely visible to the naked eye, if at all. An underwater camera makes it possible to observe and identify the species of these creatures in real time.

October 14, 2021Heatwaves and heavy local rainfall will increase with climate change, pushing traditional urban drainage systems to their limits. These problems can be addressed using the blue-green infrastructure approach. With careful planning, solutions of this kind can also increase biodiversity and improve the quality of urban life.

August 5, 2021Blue-green algae and other phytoplankton are very important for the proper functioning of aquatic ecosystems. When they accumulate in high quantities, however, they can be harmful to people and animals because some blue-green algae species produce toxic chemicals. For this reason, the aquatic research institute Eawag is currently working on methods to improve the prediction of bloom events.

July 8, 2021Eawag’s practice-oriented courses (known as PEAK) provide training for professionals. Isabelle Schläppi of the PEAK Office looks back over a year marked by the COVID-19 pandemic.