water

Wetlands are areas of land that are covered by a changing amount of shallow water. If wetlands are not protected, flooding may occur where it is not supposed to, causing damage. In our photo, a hydrologist inspects an area in California.

To photograph the lakes and mountains of New York state's Adirondack Park, David John Weber did more than just hire a seaplane; he paid attention to certain techniques in photography. Learn some camera vocabulary as you learn the story behind his photos.

Hydrologists in San Francisco Bay take measurements in a former salt pond that is slowly turning back into a wetland. As transition zones between oceans and continents, wetlands form a natural buffer that helps to prevent flooding of areas further inland.

A Hispanic farmworker clears an irrigation ditch in a cornfield in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. The agricultural labor force in the US is largely foreign-born Hispanics, of whom 77 per cent are from Mexico. In recent years, a growing number have come from Guatemala and Honduras.

It's been the year of the iPad and Dubai's Burj Khalifa, to name two of 2010's extraordinary things. But when it comes to improving the lives of millions affected by deforestation and over-farming, the Groasis Waterboxx is the innovation of the year.

Driving between San Francisco and Los Angeles, through the Central Valley, you see empty fields because there's no water anymore. Suddenly, there's an old sign on the side of the road, like a prayer, and then it starts raining.