Our mission is to creatively tackle water challenges of a rapidly changing world where water and climate interact with food, energy, ecosystems, and urbanization.
What We Do
The Columbia Water Center combines multidisciplinary academic research with solutions-based fieldwork to develop and test creative responses to water challenges around the world.
In collaboration with other Columbia Climate School centers and programs as well as external partners, the Columbia Water Center is leading intellectual inquiry into the assessment, understanding, and resolution of the most pressing global water issues.
Water Risk & Security ● Floods ● Global initiatives ● Global Climate Forecasts
Basic & Applied Research
Our researchers pose and explore critical questions at the nexus of water-climate-food-energy-materials-infrastructure in the context of social, ecological, and financial outcomes. They do it with hydrologic and climate modeling, risk analytics, infrastructure systems, and financial modeling.
Field Projects
The CWC engages with governments, corporates, and NGOs to develop technical and policy solutions to specific problems.
Thought Leadership
The CWC convenes and joins focused meetings and webinars, and disseminates research through publications, blogs, and interviews in different media. It also serves as advisor to federal, state, and city governments, and to development banks, public and private corporations.
Where We Are
To address the globally interconnected character of the world’s water crisis, CWC has assembled expert teams in key hot spots around the world, directed by a core group of researchers at Columbia University in New York.