2026 Roadmap on sustainable water management

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Abstract
Water is intrinsically entwined with multiple elements such as energy, food, resource (otherwise waste), greenhouse gas emissions, ecosystem, and land system, which make these complex interdependencies challengeable to manage at different regions and scales. This roadmap charts actionable pathways toward water-positive, waste-zero, and net-zero–aligned water resource management by treating water services as a coupled water–energy–waste–carbon system rather than a stand-alone infrastructure sector. It synthesizes current status, binding constraints, and deployment-ready interventions across treatment, reuse, resource recovery, agriculture, watershed management, and digital decision-support, with attention to technology readiness, institutional capacity, and regional feasibility. The roadmap emphasizes that many failures in water sustainability are not primarily technical but arise from governance, incentives, legitimacy, and data quality, and therefore integrates social-science insights on public acceptance, equity, and workforce development alongside engineering solutions. To move beyond aspirational recommendations, it proposes an auditable measurement framework, minimum indicators for water efficiency and security, energy intensity, greenhouse-gas emissions, materials circularity, and service equity, and outlines a phased implementation pathway (near-, mid-, and long-term) with stakeholder responsibilities and monitoring, reporting, and verification requirements. It also highlights cross-sector risks and trade-offs, including climate-driven volatility, emerging contaminants, cybersecurity, and the potential for burden shifting between water and energy decarbonization. By providing a systems-oriented structure for prioritization, scenario evaluation, and accountable deployment, this roadmap is intended to support policymakers, utilities, basin authorities, financiers, and researchers in designing credible, context-specific strategies that deliver resilient water services while advancing circular economy and climate goals.
Funding Information
  • Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh (B2024-20-23)
  • National Institute of Food and Agriculture (2020-67022-31144)
  • D. A. G.
  • S.W. Scientific Investments, LLC
  • National Science and Technology Council (111-2625-M-002-026)
  • National Science and Technology Council (113-2621-M-002-018)
  • BK21 FOUR Program
  • U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (840080010)
  • National Science Foundation
  • U.S. Department of Agriculture (2018-68011-28371)
  • U.S. Department of Agriculture (2020-67021-31526)
  • U.S. Department of Agriculture (2021-67021-34499)
  • The Tree Consortium
  • U.S. Forest Service (15-JV-11242308-114)
  • U.S. Forest Service (21-DG-11094200-242)
  • U.S. Forest Service (21-JV-11242305-069)
  • Inha University
  • National Research Foundation
  • Trường Đại học Bách khoa, Đại học Quốc gia Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh

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