Solving challenges around agriculture, food policy, and water access.
The challenge of feeding a global population that is expected to reach 11 billion this century looms large. The availability of water—largely used for food production—is also an enormous challenge, made more difficult by the droughts associated with climate change. The School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences is home to much of Stanford’s expertise in this area. With faculty in areas such as sustainable agriculture, land use, economics, geographic analysis, watershed analysis, and ecosystem services and benefits analysis, Stanford brings an innovative and interdisciplinary approach to this tangled but vitally important set of issues.
Meet some of our faculty involved In Food and Water Security
Our faculty are world class teachers and researchers in their fields, leveraging the latest remote-sensing and data science technologies to understand everything from crop yields to groundwater availability and the economics of famine.
David Lobell
Associate Professor of Earth System Science
Rosemary Knight
Professor of Geophysics
Steven Gorelick
Professor of Earth System Science
Rosamond Naylor
Economist and Professor of Earth System Science
Scott Fendorf
Professor of Earth System Science
Marshall Burke
Economist and Assistant Professor of Earth System Science
Related research groups
Our multidisciplinary research groups bring together cutting-edge knowledge to test ideas for new solutions.
All research groups
How do we manage our freshwater future?
Professor Rosemary Knight explains how amazing new technologies allow us to "see" the groundwater hidden beneath our feet at TEDx Stanford. Watch.
Courses related to food and water security
News related to food and water security
When will California's San Joaquin Valley stop sinking?
A Stanford University study simulates 65 years of land subsidence, or sinking, caused by groundwater depletion in California’s San Joaquin Valley. The results suggest significant sinking may continue for centuries after water levels stop declining but could slow within a few years if aquifers recover.
Saving the Mekong River Delta from drowning
Southeast Asia’s most productive agricultural region and home to 17 million people could be mostly underwater within a lifetime. Researchers recommend policy solutions including strict regulation of sediment mining, limits on groundwater pumping, and coordination among countries, development agencies and other private and civil society stakeholders. (Source: Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment)
