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Taikan Oki, Special Advisor to President, the University of Tokyo / Professor, Graduate School of Engineering
Prof. Taikan Oki becomes 2024 Stockholm Water Prize Laureate
Taikan Oki, Special Advisor to President, the University of Tokyo / Professor, Graduate School of Engineering
The Stockholm Water Prize, determined by the Stockholm International Water Institute in cooperation with the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which selects the Nobel Prize, is the most prestigious water-related prize in the world. In 2024, Prof. Taikan Oki was selected as the winner, and the award was announced on the United Nations-designated “World Water Day” (March 22). He is the third Japanese recipient, and the first in 23 years, to be awarded the prize. The award will be presented by King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden at a royal ceremony at Stockholm City Hall in August as part of “Stockholm World Water Week”.
Prof. Oki has provided important insights into how humans are changing water, climate, and the biosphere through numerical modeling of complex systems, and has demonstrated outstanding scholarship that has greatly advanced our understanding of the nexus between hydrology, climate change, and sustainability. His main scientific contribution is in shedding light on a key variable in water management and climate change: total water storage. In particular, his Total Runoff Integrating Pathways (TRIP), a digital mapping of the world’s major rivers, is the most widely used in the world, quantifying global river flows much more accurately than previously possible and revealing the green water resources (soil moisture) required under various land management and climate scenarios. His outstanding contributions to research on the global water balance, global flows of virtual water, and spatio-temporal variations in renewable water resource quantities have been recognized with this award.
