Sweden

Dr. Pietro Campana studied environmental engineering with a focus on fluid dynamics, hydrology, and water resource management, before undertaking a PhD on solar irrigation systems. He is working on the water-food-energy nexus and is currently evaluating the first agrivoltaic system (a photovoltaic system that allows the combination of both electricity production and crop production on the same land to increase the land use efficiency) in Sweden. He constantly strives to work on something that can make a difference to people’s lives and finds developing tools and services that can solve water issues very exciting. He believes that to address the nexus challenges, we need novel technologies and more research and development funding.

Dr. Pietro Campana studied environmental engineering with a focus on fluid dynamics, hydrology, and water resource management, before undertaking a PhD on solar irrigation systems. He is working on the water-food-energy nexus and is currently evaluating the first agrivoltaic system (a photovoltaic system that allows the combination of both electricity production and crop production on the same land to increase the land use efficiency) in Sweden. He constantly strives to work on something that can make a difference to people’s lives and finds developing tools and services that can solve water issues very exciting. He believes that to address the nexus challenges, we need novel technologies and more research and development funding.

The challenge

Water is one of the most important substances on Earth and covers 70% of the planet. However, freshwater makes up a very small fraction with 97% being saline and ocean-based. While the amount of freshwater on the planet has remained fairly constant over time, the world’s population has exploded, meaning that freshwater is threatened by significant forces, like overdevelopment, polluted runoff, and global warming.