Water used to be something people tried to get rid of. Drain by drain, wetlands were cleared to make room for agriculture. Fields replaced marshes. Productivity replaced standing water.

Now, the movement is reversing.

Across Europe, and in Denmark, water is being brought back. Wetlands are being restored as part of the climate solution. But according to newly appointed professor Shubiao Wu from the Department of Agroecology at Aarhus University, we may still be thinking too small.

“We’re restoring one site at a time,” he says. “But ecosystems don’t work like that. They are connected.”

More cows than computers

His own journey into science started far from laboratories and climate models.

“I usually say I come from a cowboy background,” he says, smiling. “I grew up in a rural area in China. There were more cows than computers.”

From that starting point, he went on to study environmental science in China and Germany before building an academic career focused on one of the most overlooked, and most complex, ecosystems: wetlands.

The ecosystems no one wanted

For decades, wetlands were seen as useless. Wet, muddy, difficult to farm, and often full of mosquitoes they were considered obstacles to development.

“They were the places no one wanted,” he says.

Draining them made sense at the time. It allowed agriculture to expand and helped feed growing populations. But the long-term consequences are now becoming clear.

When wetlands are drained, carbon stored in the soil is released into the atmosphere. Water systems change. Landscapes become more vulnerable to drought and flooding. 

“We gained economic benefits, but we destabilised the system,” as Shubiao Wu frames it in his research. 

A hidden infrastructure

Today, wetlands are being re-evaluated: not as wastelands, but as critical infrastructure.

“Without wetlands, we can’t regulate water,” says Shubiao Wu. “They work like a sponge. When there is flooding, they absorb water. When there is drought, they release it.” 

They also provide habitats, store carbon and help buffer the impacts of a changing climate.

The challenge is no longer whether to restore them but how.

The implementation gap

Ambitions are high. Policies and targets for wetland restoration are being set across Europe. But progress is slow.

“There’s a clear gap between what we aim for and what we actually implement,” he says. 

Part of the problem is uncertainty. Where should wetlands be restored? How large are the climate benefits? And can we predict the outcome?

“We still lack the data and the tools to support decisions,” Shubiao Wu explains. 

Not all wetlands are equal

One of his research findings challenges a common assumption: that restoring wetlands always delivers the same climate benefits.

It does not.

Depending on soil type and land use, the effect can vary dramatically: from modest reductions in greenhouse gas emissions to reductions of nearly 90 percent. 

“It’s not just about restoring wetlands,” Shubiao Wu says. “It’s about restoring the right ones, in the right places.” 

In some cases, the most effective sites are marginal agricultural lands, areas that are already less intensively used and easier to convert.

Thinking in landscapes, not sites

For Shubiao Wu, the core issue is how we define success. Today, restoration is often evaluated locally: Are plants returning? Is biodiversity increasing? Are emissions reduced?

“These are all site-level metrics,” he explains. 

But climate resilience, he argues, is not a local property.

“It’s a landscape property.” 

That means individual projects cannot be planned in isolation. They must be understood as part of a larger system connected through water flows, ecological processes and species movement.

“If we restore one place, it affects everything else,” he says. 

From reacting to predicting

This shift in thinking also requires new tools.

Traditionally, restoration has been something we evaluate after the fact. A site is restored and then monitored over time. But that is no longer enough.

“Restoration outcomes are not static. They change over decades,” his research shows. 

Instead, he envisions a more predictive approach:

Using continuous monitoring, modelling and data integration to forecast what will happen before restoration even begins. In practice, this could help decision-makers answer key questions: Where should we restore? When should we act? What will the long-term impact be?

A complex system

Wetlands may appear simple. Water, soil, vegetation. But in reality, they are anything but.

“Some people think this is an easy field of research,” says Shubiao Wu. “But it’s one of the most complex systems we have.” 

Unlike engineered systems, natural ecosystems cannot be fully controlled or predicted. They respond to climate, history, hydrology and biological interactions all at once.

“In a robot, everything is designed,” he says.“In wetlands, everything is connected and often unpredictable.” 

What he hopes to change

For him, the motivation is clear. Not just to study wetlands, but to move the entire field forward.

“My goal is to push our understanding of these complex systems a bit further,” he says. 

Because the stakes are high. The future of wetland restoration is not just about bringing nature back. It is about creating landscapes that can withstand climate change.

“The goal is not just restoration,” Shubiao Wu says. “It’s resilient landscapes.” 

Inaugural lecture at AU Viborg

On 2 September, Shubiao Wu will take the next step in that journey, when he gives his inaugural lecture at the Department of Agroecology Aarhus University. Here, he will present his vision for how wetland research can move beyond individual sites and toward a more integrated understanding of entire landscapes.