In the Netherlands, some flood control systems are designed to adapt to future climate change.
Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management
With adaptive design, infrastructure is ready to be expanded in the future. It’s working for the Dutch.
The Bui Dam was the subject of political contestation during its construction.
ZSM/Wikimedia Commons
Dam politics have resurfaced in Africa as the continent’s urban population grows.
Ilona Kater
The Arctic is particularly vulnerable to climate change, but efforts to tackle it risk alienating the people who live there.
The Caban Coch dam, in Wales’ Elan Valley, is just one of the estimated 1.2 million river barriers in Europe.
Sara Barrento/Nature
New research published in the journal Nature reveals that more than 1.2 million flow barriers exist on European rivers and that approximately 10% are obsolete.
Peter Lorrimer/AAP
Downpours in eastern Australia this year have been good for crops and some dams. But when it comes to drought, Australia is not out of the woods yet.
Valley Journal/Shutterstock
Fish need to cross roads too. But the tunnels built to channel rivers under roads and railways can block their migrations.
Lake Urmia, Iran.
Artem Grachev / shutterstock
Salt storms are an emerging threat, as Lake Urmia dries up and exposes huge salt marshes.
Canada’s budgeting process needs to regard vaccination programs, to name just one example, the same way it regards investments in physical infrastructure like bridges and highways.
(CDC/Unsplash)
Canada needs to reform budgeting and reporting methods to recognize the true underlying nature and value of expenditures on social infrastructure.
Lance Lloyd
The number of visitors to the restored wetlands is increasing each year, as is the wildlife.
Maine’s Penobscot River flows freely where the Veazie Dam once stood. Dam removals have reopened the river to 12 native fish species.
Gregory Rec/Portland Portland Press Herald via Getty Images
Thousands of dams across the US are aging and overdue for maintenance. Taking them down can revive rivers, restore fish runs and create new opportunities for tourism and outdoor activities.
LARINE STATHAM/AAP
The review examined hundreds of studies and concluded the lower Murray should remain a freshwater ecosystem, or severe environmental and economic damage will result.
The January 2019 collapse of a dam in Brumadinho, Brazil, sent mining tailings and mud over the landscape for miles, destroying this bridge and killing 300 people.
Andre Penner/AP
Dams built to hold enormous quantities of toxic mining waste have a long history of spills. Decisions in the Pacific Northwest threaten three free-flowing rivers there.
Waters from the Herbert River, which runs toward one of northern Australia’s richest agricultural districts, could be redirected under a Bradfield scheme.
Patrick White
The ‘New Bradfield’ scheme seeks to revive a nation-building ethos supposedly stifled by bureaucratic inertia. But there are good reasons the scheme never became a reality.
The Delta’s rich array of wildlife makes it a popular tourist destination.
Ger Metselaar/Shutterstock
It’s imperative that we understand what creates and sustains the delta for the future management of the system.
Shutterstock
The real crisis with water supply is that South Africa doesn’t know what it doesn’t know.
The Ganges delta spans India and Bangladesh and is home to more than 100m people.
Elena11 / shutterstock
Sea levels are rising, while deltas are being starved of sediment by upstream dams.
A senior water researcher at the institute said politicians don’t want to talk about private dams because “they do nothing for drought-stricken communities”.
Shutterstock
A report from The Australia Institute says at least 20 to 30 large private dams have been constructed in the Murray-Darling basin in recent years.
Let’s say we took a lot of water from the coast and piped it to a dry inland area. How might that affect the soil in both places?
Shutterstock
The Australian landscape is very old and the soils in inland areas can be very fragile.
The Volta River In Ghana, downstream from the dam.
Iain Jackson
Resettlement plans for large infrastructure projects don’t always go according to plan.
Shutterstock
Water is crucial to the spread of malaria because mosquitoes breed and lay their eggs in or near bodies of water.