Stockholm Water Prize Laureate Taikan Oki presented his work at KTH
Professor Taikan Oki, University of Tokyo, participated in a seminar at KTH Campus on 29 August, the day after he received this year's Stockholm Water Prize from HM the King "Based on his world-renowned research on the virtual water trade, digital river mapping, and inclusion of human activity in the water cycle". He was accompanied in the seminar by three other scholars, Luigia Brandimarte and Anders Wörman from KTH and Fernando Jaramillo from Stockholm University. The seminar was organized by KTH Climate Action Centre and WaterCentre@KTH.
The seminar began with an introduction by Stefan Östlund, KTH's vice-president for international relations. He pointed out that KTH has a valuable partnership with University of Tokyo, through the Stockholm Trio collaboration with Stockholm University and Karolinska Institutet. Stefan Östlund also mentioned the important function of the KTH research centers and described the seminar as an excellent example of both international collaboration and interdisciplinary research.
In his presentation, Professor Taikan Oki, talked about it being strange to receive a prize for work he did decades earlier, pointing out that it must have been easier for the victorious athletes in the Paris Olympics, who received their prizes immediately after their performance. And the comparison to Olympic champions does not seem far flung when seeing what Professor Oki has achieved. Among other things he has helped evolve global hydrology by making important contributions to water – rivers, groundwater and the entire water cycle – becoming part of the climate models being used by the IPCC. He has made interventions by humans an important part of global water resources models. And in his work on virtual water – water having been used to produce commodities traded from one place to another – he has shown that there are no countries that are both poor and water scarce. In his presentation, Professor Oki highlighted the researcher that he has collaborated with in his endeavours. He also pointed out the great improvements in global access to safe drinking water in the last decades.
After the presentation, Professor Oki was joined by the three Stockholm-based scholars: Luigia Brandimarte, Fernando Jaramillo and Anders Wörman who reflected on his work and achievements. This was followed by a conversation that covered topics from the impact of artificial intelligence, the relation between scholars and policy makers, the benefits and challenges from combining the natural sciences with the humanities and the social sciences, the risk of running out of water and competing interests in the energy transition. The seminar ended with questions from the audience highlighting the challenges that still needs to be addressed, as well as the importance of the research already done and the work that lies ahead.
The seminar was moderated by Johan C Thorburn, who represented the organizers – KTH Climate Action Centre and WaterCentre@KTH.