The Peer-Reviewed Foundation

Built on cited research — not narrative.

EquariusAI is the only commercial water-risk platform built directly on top of a body of refereed research from the University of Michigan and partner institutions. Below is a selected list of finance, water-risk, ESG, and infrastructure-finance publications by Peter Adriaens and colleagues that form the methodological foundation of waterBeta®, GBRI™, and the Drought AI Engine.

Company-Years
7,200+
Time Window
2013–2022
Index
S&P 500
Imputation Coverage
~90%
// 2025–2026

In press & under review

Active pipeline of publications — the immediate scientific spine of waterBeta® v2 and the Drought AI Engine.

  • 2026
    Tokenized IRA Infrastructure Accounts: Can Defined 401(k) Pension Plans Close the Finance Gap? in press
    Adriaens, P., Park, M., Tian, Y., Wang, C.
    Journal of Management in Engineering
  • 2026
    Debt Financing of Nature-Based Solutions: A Combinatorial Investment Approach Using Revenue Generating Assets. submitted
    Rohde, G.M., Maharani, N., Wolf, C., Adriaens, P.
    Journal of Environmental Management
  • 2026
    Financial Implications of Depot Autonomy: A Comparative Analysis of Value Capture by REITs and Owner-Operators. submitted
    Gao, H., Adriaens, P.
    Journal of Facilities Risk Management
  • 2026
    Regional Impact of Financial Flood Risk Exposure of Nikkei 225 Sectors due to Property Damage and Business Interruption. submitted
    Abe, M., Adriaens, P.
    International Journal of Disaster Risk Science
  • 2026
    Beyond Structural Centrality: Machine-Learning Identification of Endogenous Systemic Risk in Copper Value Chain Networks. in review
    Liu, Q., Adriaens, P.
    International Journal of Production Economics
  • 2025
    Predictive Learning of Operational Water Intensity from Corporate Financial Indicators: Implications for AI-Based Resource Management. published
    Tian, M., Adriaens, P.
    Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 220, 108383
  • 2025
    Green Bond Issuance and Carbon Emissions: Can Causal Machine Learning Inform Forward-Looking Policy Decisions? published
    Li, D., Adriaens, P.
    Environmental Science & Technology, 59(46), 24672–24682
  • 2025
    Unraveling Risk Propagation in the Copper Value Chain: A Firm-Level Network Analysis. published
    Liu, Q., Adriaens, P.
    Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 222, 108435
  • 2025
    Assessment of Corporate Financial Flood Risks Due to Property Damage and Business Interruption Loss. published
    Abe, M., Adriaens, P.
    International Journal of Disaster Risk Science, 16(3), 464–480
// 2024

Capital markets, ESG & bond pricing

Foundational empirical work on climate-financial premia, ESG cost-of-capital effects, and the water/bond pricing channel that underpins waterBeta®.

  • 2024
    Impact of Flooding and Drought Risks on the Cost of Bond Financing for Water Utilities. published
    Li, D., Saigal, R., Adriaens, P.
    Environmental Science & Technology, 58(32), 14068–14077
  • 2024
    Empirical Evidence of ESG Premium in the U.S. Corporate Bond Market: A Propensity Score Matching Approach. published
    Li, D., Chung, K., Adriaens, P.
    Journal of Sustainable Finance & Investment
    DOI: 10.1080/20430795.2024.2426485
  • 2024
    Blockchain Technology for Pay-for-Outcome Sustainable Agriculture Financing: Implications for Governance and Transaction Costs. published
    Chung, K.H.Y., Adriaens, P.
    Environmental Research Communications, 6(1), 015009
  • 2024
    Deconstruction of ESG Impacts on US Corporate Bond Pricing: The Cost of Capital Benefits Across Industry Sectors. published
    Li, D., Adriaens, P.
    Journal of Management in Engineering, 40(1), 04023052
  • 2024
    A Capital Markets-Based Water Risk Assessment of Key Industrial Water Users in the Great Lakes Region: Indicators for Portfolio Managers. in review
    Arnold, A., Jiang, C., Adriaens, P., Sinha, S., Teener, A.
    Sustainability — SSRN preprint
  • 2024
    Bridging Physical and Financial Business Water Risk: waterVaR and waterBeta Metrics for Equity and Portfolio Risk Assessment. re-write
    Adriaens, P., Sun, K., Ouyang, C., Gao, R.
    Ross School of Business Paper No. 1237 (SSRN 2445580)
  • 2024
    Leveraging Physical Assets for Value Creation Through Cleanweb Firms: The Finnish Cleantech Space in Transition. submission prep
    Kotiranta, A., Tahvanainen, A., Ritola, M., Adriaens, P.
    Ross School of Business Paper No. 1279 (SSRN 2611231) · California Management Review
// 2021–2023

Infrastructure finance, fintech & tokenization

Methodological extensions — blockchain rails, environmental impact bonds, hedonic pricing of environmental liabilities, and digital infrastructure finance.

  • 2023
    Technology-Enabled Financing of Sustainable Infrastructure: A Case for Blockchains and Decentralized Oracle Networks. published
    Chung, K.H.Y., Li, D., Adriaens, P.
    Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 187, 122258
  • 2023
    Financial Exposure to Environmental Liabilities in Lake Huron Drainage Area Farmlands: A GIS and Hedonic Pricing Approach. published
    Chung, K.H.Y., Adriaens, P.
    Agricultural Finance Review, 83(1), 144–167
  • 2022
    Maritime Transport Efficiency to Inform Demand-Driven User Fees for Harbor Infrastructure. published
    Sugrue, D.P., Adriaens, P.
    Journal of Waterway, Port, Coastal, and Ocean Engineering, 148(1)
  • 2021
    A Data Fusion Approach to Predict Shipping Efficiency for Bulk Carriers. published
    Sugrue, D., Adriaens, P.
    Transportation Research Part E, 149, 102326
  • 2021
    Environmental Impact Bonds: A Common Framework and Looking Ahead. published
    Brand, M., …, Adriaens, P., …, Gibbons, J.P.
    Environmental Research: Infrastructure and Sustainability, 1(2), 023001
  • 2021
    Infrastructure and the Digital Economy: Impacts of Data on Our Role in the Design, Financing, and Governance of Essential Services for Society. published
    Adriaens, P., Ajami, N.
    Journal of Environmental Engineering, 147(5), 02521001
  • 2021
    Asset Tokenization: A Blockchain Solution to Financing Infrastructure in Emerging Markets and Developing Economies. published
    Tian, Y., Adriaens, P., Minchin, R.E., Lu, Z., Qi, C.
    ADB-IGF Special Working Paper Series (SSRN 3837703)
  • 2021
    Applied Financial Metrics to Measure Interdependencies in a Waterway Infrastructure System. published
    Sugrue, D., Martin, A., Adriaens, P.
    Journal of Infrastructure Systems, 27(1), 05020010
  • 2020
    Financing Infrastructure Through Blockchain-Based Tokenization. published
    Tian, Y., Lu, Z., Adriaens, P., Minchin, R.E., Zhang, Y., Caithness, A., Woo, J.
    Frontiers of Engineering Management, 7(4), 485–499
// Foundational

Water risk & environmental economics

The original work that defined business water risk as a financial — not a sustainability — concept. The intellectual headwaters of the platform.

  • 2012
    Mitigating Corporate Water Risk: Financial Market Tools and Supply Management Strategies. published
    Larson, W.L., Freedman, P.L., Passinsky, V., Grubb, E., Adriaens, P.
    Water Alternatives, 5(3), 582–602
  • 2012
    The Case for Clustering. published
    Adriaens, P., Taube, B., Lesser, S.
    Global Environmental Politics, Issue 3
  • 2011
    Increasing the Role of Economics in Environmental Research. published
    Characklis, G.W., Adriaens, P., Braden, J.B., Davis, J., Hamilton, B., Hughes, J.B., Small, M.J., Wolfe, J.
    Environmental Science & Technology, 45, 6235–6236
  • 2008
    Green Roof Valuation: A Probabilistic Economic Analysis of Environmental Benefits. published
    Clark, C.E., Adriaens, P., Talbot, B.
    Environmental Science & Technology, 42(6), 2155–2161
Patents & Trademarks

Dual IP layer underneath the methodology.

// USPTO Provisional
waterBeta® — Evaluating Asset Risk in View of Water Exposure

U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/656,627. Adriaens, 2017.

// Trademark
Equarius Risk Analytics™ & Equarius Risk™

Adriaens, 2014.

// Method
waterBeta & waterVaR

Adriaens, Freedman, Marr (2013).

// Trademark
Corymbus™ — cluster-based investment framework

Adriaens, 2017.

// Method
KeyStone Compact™ & KeyStone Score™

Adriaens & Faley, 2011–2012. Data-driven business design and positioning tools.

// Method
Multi-Asset Renewal Funds (MARF)

Adriaens, Tahvanainen, Haeuselmann (2016).

Want the methodology one layer deeper?

Talk to Peter directly — or request the full investor research dossier including the orthogonalization derivation and the WIPS imputation validation curves.

Contact the team →