Coupled Human Water Systems at Eawag

Research Highlights

Click on description to access manuscripts. A complete list of publications is available on Dr Muller's Google Scholar Profile.

Click on the Eawag icon to access the group's official webpage within the Department of System Analysis, Integrated Assessment and Modeling (SIAM) at the Swiss Federal Institute for Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag).

Land Grabs and Commercial Agriculture

Nature Communications 2022

What are the consequences of transnational agricultural land deals on water security?

[Press release]

Water and Armed Conflict

PNAS 2020

Will changing rainfall distribution increase or decrease the propensity for armed conflicts?

[ScienceBreaker]

[Press Release]

PNAS 2016

How do Violent Conflicts affect Land and Water Resources? Evidence from Syria

[Policy Brief (Brookings)]

[Press release]

Nature Communications 2023

How does refugee migration redistribute global water stress?

Nature Food 2023

What effect did wheat export disruptions from Ukraine have on calorie intake in vulnerable countries?

Transboundary Groundwater

National Science Foundation Grant ICER 1824951: "CNH: What does it take to collaborate over transboundary groundwater resources?"

Water Resources Research 2017

How did an international agreement emerge over fossil groundwater in the Arabian Desert?

Advances in Water Resources 2021

What role can trust play in the emergence of transboundary groundwater treaties?

Water resources Research 2022

How do economic and hydro-geologic differences between countries affect their propensity to collaborate over groundwater?

Transboundary Rivers

Water Resources Research 2020

Was the Ganges Water Treaty effective at reducing downstream river salinity?

Journal of Hydrology 2022

How should the Ganges Water Treaty be re-designed to account for climate change?

Hydrology and Earth System Sciences 2021

What made the flow of the Jhelum river in the transboundary Indus basin decrease by 50% in the last 20 years?

Water and Human Rights

Industry Research Grant: "Realizing Human Rights for Water in Industry"

How to reconcile the broad and universal nature of the human right to water with the local realities of water security and water governance?

Our new framework addresses this question to facilitate a preemptive implementation of the human rights to water in the context of water-intensive industrial operations, such as mining, commercial agriculture, hydropower beverages and textiles.

Check out the video of our session at World Water Week 2022, and access the white paper describing the framework here
We recently presented this work at the Social Forum of United Nations High Commission for Human Rights in Geneva (Switzerland). Read more about it here.
We hosted a side event at the UN Water conference at the United Nations HQ in New York City in March 2023 where we presented the framework in discussion with a roundtable panel of experts from the industry, academia and civil society. Read more about it [here]
Muller participated in the expert consultation process for Draft Principles for the Responsible Governance of Water Tenure at the Food and Agricultural Organization in Rome, June 2025. Read more about it [here]