At Acacia Water we aim at making a long-term impact on sustainable water availability and usage. Being curious, creative and pragmatic is in our DNA. We apply these skills to develop new insights through our projects and to apply scientifically based knowledge to practice. In order to align our projects to long-term sustainable solutions we also work on Research and Development.

In our R&D team and in close collaboration with the other AW teams we focus on developments within four R&D themes. In a world where climate change is clearly affecting the water cycle and water demand is growing we believe these themes contribute to good and fair water-stewardship and remain relevant far in the future.

Our R&D themes are:

1. Data4Impact: Achieving sustainable impact with water solutions requires ongoing assessment of their effectiveness through impact monitoring. However, accurately gauging impact across short-, medium-, and long-term projects can be challenging, particularly for interventions in remote areas or for evaluating long-term effects. With the Data4Impact theme, we focus on innovative, cost-effective solutions for long-term impact monitoring, e.g. by making smart use of satellite imagery and other open source data.
2. Salinization: in coastal zones longer periods of droughts, rising sea levels and land subsidence increase salinization of surface and groundwater. This requires water smart solutions for water users, such as agriculture. At Acacia Water we ensure freshwater availability for farmers, drinking water providers and coastal communities. This, through innovative solutions as smart drainage systems, ASR (Aquifer Storage and Recovery) and optimized irrigation based upon a deep understanding of  unsaturated zone processes.
3. Management of the unsaturated zone: the soil above groundwater (the unsaturated zone) is the most important to sustain soil life and plant growth, because often both water and oxygen are present. It is the connecting zone between the activity’s at surface level and the groundwater. Many processes (hydrological, biological and chemical) like plant growth, the formation of certain greenhouse gases and effects of salinization on plant growth take place in the unsaturated zone.  Therefore a good understanding and inclusion of this zone is key when we want to influence and optimize system processes. At many Acacia projects we take the unsaturated zone into account when looking for the best water solutions.
4. Sustainable Water Markets: water is currently undervalued while in many areas water demand is rising (e.g., population growth, higher consumption rates) and water availability is decreasing (e.g., floods and droughts). This will lead to tough decisions now, or in the future. At Acacia we want to contribute to support decisions leading to a fair water distribution, and price water for its true value. Within this theme we focus for example on innovative finance opportunities, water compensation, and water distribution.