To mark World Environment Day 2026, IDAEA is launching an illustrated artistic project inspired by the major scientific challenges that guide the institute’s research.
The initiative also highlights some of the most significant projects currently underway to better understand and address these challenges.
According to the United Nations, water scarcity, health, pollution and climate change are among the defining challenges of our time. Addressing them requires scientific knowledge to explain how our planet works and to understand how it is affected by human activities, providing robust evidence to support informed decision-making.
As the CSIC’s leading environmental research institute, the Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research (IDAEA) structures its scientific activity around four major challenges: pollution and its effects, water resources, ecosystem resilience, and the development of solutions to environmental challenges. Scientific research generates data, models and evidence, but it also raises important questions about our relationship with the planet.
Art is an extraordinary tool for bringing these scientific issues closer to society and strengthening the essential connection between people, the environment and science. With this aim, IDAEA has promoted an artistic project in collaboration with marine scientist and illustrator Claudia Sanz, who has visually interpreted these four scientific challenges, transforming complex concepts and processes into images capable of inspiring new questions, emotions and perspectives on the world we inhabit.
Challenge 1. Studying pollution and its effects
Identifying and quantifying environmental pollutants, their exposure pathways, and their effects on human health and ecosystems.
Environmental pollution is highly complex: hundreds of thousands of toxic substances with very different chemical properties and origins can coexist within the same environment. Their interactions are often still poorly understood, yet they may intensify harmful effects.
To address this challenge, IDAEA develops advanced analytical, toxicological, exposure assessment and modelling techniques to identify pollutants, understand how they disperse, determine exposure pathways, and assess risks to ecosystems and human health.
HARMONIE: Reducing the health impacts of air and noise pollution in Europe
Air pollution and environmental noise remain two of the most significant environmental problems affecting cities worldwide. The European project HARMONIE links urban pollution with health indicators, modelling the impacts of different urban planning scenarios and helping cities design fairer and more effective strategies to tackle these issues.
Funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe programme, HARMONIE combines sensor networks, mobile bicycle monitoring campaigns, household monitoring and digital models. It also analyses both traditional pollutants and emerging indicators such as black carbon, ultrafine particles and oxidative potential.
More specifically, the project will develop digital twins of five European cities (Barcelona, Barakaldo, Lausanne, Gävle and Sarajevo) based on real-world pollution measurements, behavioural patterns and health data. This will make it possible to simulate how different urban interventions—such as pedestrianisation schemes, mobility changes and green spaces—affect pollution patterns and, consequently, estimate their health benefits.
“One of the most exciting aspects is that we will study how exposure to pollution affects vulnerable groups, such as patients with respiratory diseases and children with asthma,” says Ioar Rivas, IDAEA researcher and member of the HARMONIE project.
Challenge 2. Understanding and protecting water and geological resources
Investigating how groundwater systems and subsurface physicochemical processes function in order to manage them more sustainably, safely and efficiently.
In the current context of climate change, both groundwater and surface water are becoming increasingly valuable resources. Population growth, aquifer overexploitation and pollution, together with drought, place water resources under growing pressure, creating major social and economic inequalities.
In addition, the subsurface offers significant potential for geological gas storage, with important implications for climate change mitigation solutions, such as CO₂ storage, and for renewable energy technologies, including green hydrogen.
HyDRA: Tools and protocols to accelerate geological hydrogen storage
Although renewable energies are the main driver of the energy transition, they pose a major challenge: because energy generation from natural sources is not always constant, storage systems are needed to retain surplus energy for periods when generation is insufficient.
One approach involves using renewable electricity to perform water electrolysis, separating hydrogen from oxygen. The excess hydrogen is then stored underground, typically in depleted gas reservoirs located deep below the surface, so that it can be used again when needed. This is known as green hydrogen because both its production and subsequent use generate clean energy.
However, certain subsurface bacteria can consume the stored hydrogen, reducing the amount available for future use. These microorganisms may also interact with hydrogen and produce by-products that complicate its later recovery and utilisation.
Funded by the Clean Hydrogen Partnership and the European Union, the HyDRA project investigates how these microorganisms interact with water, rock and hydrogen under conditions similar to those found underground.
“Studying bacteria–water–rock–hydrogen interactions helps minimise the risks associated with hydrogen storage and supports the identification of more suitable storage sites,” explains Josep M. Soler, IDAEA researcher involved in the HyDRA project.
Challenge 3. Assessing ecosystem resilience and environmental risks
Analysing how pollution, climate change and natural hazards jointly affect ecosystems and biodiversity.
Understanding how ecosystems respond to environmental pressures requires examining the processes that connect pollution, climate and Earth system functioning. To this end, IDAEA studies the entire life cycle of pollutants, from their sources of emission to their transport, transformation and potential impacts on ecosystems.
This challenge also addresses the effects of global change and the natural hazards that threaten societies and ecosystems. Through the study of natural palaeoarchives, IDAEA reconstructs past climate evolution to better understand current changes and improve future projections. The institute also investigates phenomena such as droughts, wildfires, earthquakes and volcanic activity in order to anticipate risks, reduce impacts and strengthen territorial resilience.
Anthropogenic pollution reaching the oceans and the most remote polar regions
The Marine and Polar Microbes and Pollutants (MP2) group studies how chemical pollutants can travel thousands of kilometres through the atmosphere and ocean currents to reach some of the most remote places on Earth, including the open ocean and Antarctica, where they directly affect global biogeochemical cycles.
Due to their high persistence, many of these compounds resist natural degradation and accumulate in living organisms, potentially causing toxic effects. As a result, even apparently pristine ecosystems contain pollutants generated thousands of kilometres away, threatening the health of polar and marine ecosystems.
To understand this phenomenon, the team analyses water, sediment, snow, atmospheric and marine organism samples collected during oceanographic expeditions in polar regions. This enables researchers to investigate the transport pathways and environmental sinks of these compounds.
“One of our main research focuses is marine microorganisms. Thanks to new genomic techniques, we can study how bacteria degrade pollutants and how these pollutants alter ecosystem functioning,” says Maria Vila-Costa, principal investigator of the MP2 group.
Challenge 4. Developing solutions for sustainable governance
Designing technologies, indicators and decision-support tools to advance the circular economy, risk assessment and evidence-based policymaking.
Transforming scientific knowledge into practical solutions is essential for addressing today’s environmental challenges. For this reason, IDAEA develops and implements solutions aimed at improving water quality, recovering valuable raw materials, restoring ecosystems, and supporting decision-making by public administrations, businesses and other societal stakeholders.
This challenge connects research with action, facilitating the transition towards a more sustainable and resilient society.
Nature-Based Solutions to improve water quality
Although wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) effectively remove conventional pollutants, some emerging contaminants (such as pharmaceuticals, pesticides, microplastics and industrial compounds) continue to reach rivers, aquifers and other aquatic ecosystems.
To address this challenge, IDAEA researcher Víctor Matamoros leads several projects focused on the development of nature-based solutions (NBS), systems inspired by natural processes that can complement conventional treatment technologies.
“Our results demonstrate the remarkable capacity of plants, microorganisms and other natural materials to remove pollutants, including emerging contaminants, in an efficient and sustainable way,” says Víctor Matamoros.
This line of research has led to projects such as NATURE, which assessed the potential of different nature-based solutions to reduce the presence of antibiotics, antimicrobial resistance genes and pathogens in aquatic ecosystems; UPWATER, which demonstrated how innovative biochar-based wetlands installed along the Besòs River can improve water quality while requiring less land area; and the new constructed wetland infrastructures being developed at the Rubí wastewater treatment plant, where the combination of wetlands, biochar, ponds and renaturalisation channels will enhance the removal of emerging contaminants while simultaneously improving local biodiversity.
The results obtained so far are highly promising. In the European LIFE SPOT project, for example, the team demonstrated that a combination of microalgae, bacteria and biofilters made from cork and wood waste removed up to 98% of nitrates and more than 90% of the pesticides and antibiotics present in contaminated groundwater.
From urban pollution to renewable energy storage, ecosystem protection and innovative solutions for water resources, IDAEA’s four scientific challenges reflect the complexity of today’s environmental issues.
The illustrations accompanying this World Environment Day initiative, which are inspired directly by these challenges, aim to foster new forms of dialogue between art, science and society. The materials will be freely available for download and will support a range of outreach activities organised by the institute.
Alicia S. Arroyo
Communication and Outreach | IDAEA
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