Marston Research Group

exploring the interactions between water and society

what we do

Communities around the world are experiencing worsening water availability and quality issues. Drivers of water scarcity and degradation stretch across multiple spatial and temporal scales and involve diverse stakeholders, making effective management of these human-water systems challenging. The aim of the Marston Research Group is to understand the scale of this challenge and find ways to meet it.

Our research answers fundamental scientific questions that help address pressing water sustainability issues afflicting the environment and society. We are guided by the following questions: How is water used within the economy and what are the environmental and societal implications of these water uses? How do interconnected hydrologic, economic, and infrastructure systems meet societal water demands? How resilient are these systems to climate change and infrastructure failure? How do changes in policy, regulations, and water rights propagate through human-water systems and what are the implications for society and environmental sustainability?

what's new

Marston Research Group awarded USGS grant to study water conflict related to water transfers   

August 5, 2022

This project will enable our team to improve understanding of the environmental, socioeconomic, and regulatory drivers of interbasin water transfers and related conflict. Marston Research Group members (and soon-to-be members) AB Siddik, Maria Amaya, and Chung-Yi Lin contributed to the writing of this proposal, which makes this grant particularly exciting for our group to receive! 

 Several Marston Research Group members receive fellowships 

July 5, 2022

In the spring and summer terms, four members of our research group received competitive fellowships! Gambhir Lamsal and AB Siddik both received the Edna Bailey Sussman Fellowship. Ben Winter was awarded the American Water Works Association Scholarship, while Yunus Naseri was awarded a scholarship from VT’s College of Engineering! Congratulations to everyone! 

Prof. Marston receives NSF CAREER Award

January 11, 2022

Dr. Landon Marston was awarded the National Science Foundation’s CAREER award! The award will help support the Marston Research Group efforts advancing the frontiers of research and education of sustainable and resilient water use within the U.S. economy. This CAREER project will answer fundamental questions regarding how water can be used more sustainably within interconnected hydrologic, economic, and infrastructure networks. More specifically, this career development plan will (i) determine the economic, environmental, technological, and regulatory determinants of industrial water uses; (ii) connect aquifers, rivers, and supporting infrastructure to the irrigated croplands that underpin the nation’s food supply; and (iii) reveal local and nonlocal vulnerabilities and opportunities for improved sustainability within the interconnected hydrologic, infrastructure, and supply chain networks. The scientific advances and student training stemming from this career development plan supports a pressing national need for more resilient supply chains and infrastructure to support a more sustainable economy.

Paper named Top 25 by Nature Communications

January 7, 2022

The paper “Comparison of potential drinking water source contamination across one hundred U.S. cities” led by Dr. Sean Turner, with contributions from the Marston Research Group (Dr. Landon Marston and Dr. Kerim Dickson), was selected as a 2021 Top 25 Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences Articles. 

Marston Research Group awarded USDA grant 

October 10, 2021

This project, led by PI Kyle Davis, along with Co-PIs Aaron Hrozencik, Kim Van Meter, and Landon Marston, will quantify current spatial patterns of streamflow depletion and nitrogen pollution from croplands across the Mississippi River Basin and to identify configurations of targeted land conservation payments that can maximize water availability benefits. 

Marston Research Group awarded a $1.6 million NSF grant

July 8, 2021

This NSF project will integrate environmental and social sciences to develop new theory and modeling tools to help groundwater dependent agriculture communities create more effective, resilient, and adaptive groundwater management strategies. The project team comprises researchers from Virginia Tech (Landon Marston, PI), Kansas Geological Survey (Sam Zipper and Jim Butler, Co-PIs), Purdue University (David Yu, Co-PI), and Colorado School of Mines (Steven Smith, Co-PI). Graduate assistants, summer interns, and a postdoctoral fellow are being recruited to work within our interdisciplinary research project.

*Last updated August 2022.

Copyright © 2022 by Landon Marston