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INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION ON WATER SCIENCES AND RESEARCHBouwer, Dr Howard S. Wheater, Dr Patricia Gober, Dr WolfgangKinzelbach and many other prestigious water scientists. In 2010, atits 4th Award, PSIPW reached a turning point in its history whenit presented the Creativity Prize for the first time. This newly-inauguratedprize was shared by two teams of researchers for two verydifferent water-related achievements.One of the joint prizewinners of the 4th Award was the teamof Dr Marek Zreda (University of Arizona) and Dr Darin Desilets(Sandia National Laboratory, United States). They were awardedfor their groundbreaking work on the Cosmic Ray Probe, a technologythat uses cosmic-ray neutrons to measure soil moisturecontent and snow pack thickness over an area of tens of hectares– passively, non-invasively and economically. These measurementsprovide hydrologists and atmospheric scientists with an entirely newperspective on water near the interface between the ground and theatmosphere, as well as giving water managers, engineers and agriculturalistsan invaluable but economical new tool to monitor a criticalpart of the hydrologic cycle. Before their invention, measuring techniquesonly operated at the point scale (for example, invasive probesinserted into soil or snow) or at the kilometre scale (for example,satellite and airborne remote sensing images). However, manyhydrologic processes operate at a scale of tens to hundreds of metres– and it is this critical ‘blind spot’ that the Cosmic Ray Probe reveals.The second team to share the Creativity Prize was that ofDr Ignacio Rodriguez-Iturbe (Princeton University) and DrAndrea Rinaldo (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausan).They were honoured for inventing and developing the scienceof Ecohydrology. Bridging the gap between the physical andlife sciences, Ecohydrology is a multi-disciplinary research fieldborrowing from a number of classic disciplines in the physicaland life sciences, which aims to achieve a unified picture ofwater-supported biological dispersion. In practical terms, this newresearch field presents itself as a comprehensive blend of theory(mathematical modelling), interpretation of past andpresent biological records, and field experimentation.The joint Princeton-Lausanne research group, whichthe two prizewinners built through years of collaboration,has produced exemplary work. Some of theirresearch shows how river networks act as ecologicalcorridors and how they influence the spread of awater-borne disease like cholera, which still plaguessociety today.Other 4th Award prize winners included Bart Vander Bruggen (Katholieke Universiteit, Leuven), whowon the Alternative Water Resources Prize for hiswork in the use of nanofiltration membrane technologyfor industrial water recycling; and Dr SorooshSorooshian (University of California, Irvine), whowon the Water Management and Protection Prize forhis development and refinement of the PrecipitationEstimation from Remotely Sensed Information usingArtificial Neural Networks (PERSIANN) system. Thisis a method that uses artificial neural networks – aform of artificial intelligence – and infrared (GOES IR)and TRMM satellite data to estimate global precipitationfrom remotely sensed data.Prizewinners for the 5th Award, 2012PSIPW again honoured major water-related innovativeresearch in its 5th Award. Dr Ashok Gadgil andhis team at the University of California, Berkeley, wonthe Creativity Prize for developing ElectrochemicalArsenic Remediation (ECAR), an innovative and effectivemethod of treating the arsenic contamination of5th Award: focus on arsenicHRH Prince Khaled Bin Sultan Bin Abdulaziz heads the Prize Council of PSIPWImage: PSIPWIn 2012, PSIPW recognized two research teams whose workrelates to the arsenic contamination of ground water, acrisis threatening the lives of millions of people worldwide –particularly in Bangladesh where it is causing what may bethe greatest mass poisoning in human history.Why is it happening? Dr Charles Franklin Harvey ofMIT and Dr Abu Borhan Badruzzaman of the BangladeshUniversity of Engineering and Technology won theGroundwater Prize for providing the answer. What theyfound, after a decade of painstaking research, is that arelatively recent shift in geochemical conditions is mobilizingarsenic from the sediments. Though the quantity ofarsenic is not particular large in the contaminated areas,a large proportion is being dissolved in the water, creatingtoxic concentrations. They also learned how land-usechanges and groundwater pumping affect arsenic levels.Understanding these processes provides guidance forwhere wells can be placed and how deep they need to be toextract safe water.The second critical question is: what can be done toprovide safe water for people in affected areas? Dr AshokGadgil and his team at the University of California, Berkleywon the Creativity Prize for developing an innovative,cost-effective method of treating arsenic contaminationusing electrocoagulation, ECAR. They did not stop withtechnological development. They also considered thedisposal of wastes and conducted a thorough analysis ofECAR’s implementation in society. The estimated priceof safe ground water at four US cents per ten litres iscomparatively low and acceptable even for the very poor.[ 326 ]