Water: It’s vital to everything that lives and grows. We are creating the premier institution in the world for water research, education and policy analysis at the University of Nebraska. We are uniquely qualified to be the home and leader of this Global Water Institute. Nebraska sits atop a natural aquifer – a 174,000-square-mile underground reservoir that makes Nebraska and surrounding states home to the largest irrigation-sustained cropland in the world.

Agriculture’s use of water accounts for 86 percent of all water used worldwide.

Water is an extraordinary resource in an agriculture state and in fact, agriculture’s use of water accounts for 86 percent of all water used worldwide. As the world population grows, so will the demand for agriculture and for experts in water, like hydrogeologist James Goeke. Professor Goeke, and others across the university, are working on increasing crop production with less water, protecting water from degradation by agriculture, industry, animal and other contaminants, and establishing principles for water use at regional, national and global levels.

Nebraska is already on the leading edge in this research that affects every living thing on this planet. We want to be better.