FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 13, 20182018 BLUE PLANET PRIZE:
ANNOUNCEMENT OF PRIZE WINNERS

This year marks the 27th awarding of the Blue Planet Prize, the international environmental award sponsoredby the Asahi Glass Foundation, chaired by Kazuhiko Ishimura. Two Blue Planet Prizes are awarded toindividuals or organizations each year that make outstanding achievements in scientific research and its
application, and in so doing help to solve global environmental problems. The Board of Directors decided thefollowing recipients for this year.
1. Prof. Brian Walker (Australia)
Hon. Research Fellow of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research
Organisation (CSIRO)
Hon. Professor, Australian National University

He has had a most significant influence on the development of the concept of resiliencein social-ecological systems and has highlighted the need to increase it to maintainhuman society under changing circumstances. His ideas have exerted a significant
influence as resilience has been introduced as a fundamental concept and developed inmany fields, including environmental conservation, economics, protection, sustainable
development and disaster prevention policy. Inspired by his research and leadership,studies on sustainability and resilience have expanded tremendously. He has produced significant achievements
as a pioneer of resilience science and has had an enormous impact on society.
2. Prof. Malin Falkenmark (Sweden)
Professor of Applied and International Hydrology
Senior Researcher at Stockholm Resilience Center,
Senior Scientific Advisor to the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI)
She has been the most renowned global hydrologist for many years and has placed
water problems onto the global policy agenda. Her novel ideas, such as seeing water
as the bloodstream of the biosphere, and her wide-ranging activities for making theworld more sustainable, have had an enormous impact on today’s thinking for solving
environmental problems. The Falkenmark index is an essential indicator forcomparative water analyses. Her green/blue water concept is currently a standard for analysis of agricultural
production, which comprises a significant portion of the Planet’s consumptive water use. Since she noticed
the relationship between poverty and hunger and water problems in Africa in the 1960’s, she has contributed
analyses of both global water scarcity and other environmental challenges.
Both recipients will be awarded a certificate of merit, a commemorative trophy and a supplementary award of
50 million yen.
The awards ceremony will be held on October 10, 2018 (Wednesday) at the Palace Hotel Tokyo (Chiyoda
Ward, Tokyo). The commemorative lectures by the prize recipients will be held at the United Nations
University (Shibuya Ward, Tokyo) on Ocotber 11.
*This press release may also be viewed on our web site at www.af-info.or.jp. from 15:00, June 13, 2018.
The photos of the recipients are available from the web site of the Asahi Glass Foundation.

Report on the Selection Process (27th Annual Prize, 2018)
A total of 510 nominators from Japan and 780 nominators from other countries recommended 130 candidates.
The fields represented by the candidates, in order of number, were environmental economics and policy
making (28), ecology (25), atmospheric and earth sciences(19).
The candidates represented 34 countries; 23 persons, 18 percent of the total, were from developing
countries.
After individual evaluation of the 130 candidates by each Selection Committee member, the committee
was convened to narrow down the field. The results of their deliberation were examined by the Presentation
Committee, which forwarded its recommendations to the Board of Directors. The Board formally resolved toaward the Prize to Prof. Walker, and to Prof. Falkenmark.
The Laureates
1992

Dr. Syukuro Manabe (USA)International Institute for Environment andDevelopment (UK)2006

Dr. Akira Miyawaki (Japan)
Dr. Emil Salim (Indonesia)

1993

Dr. Charles D. Keeling (USA)IUCN—The World Conservation
Union (headquartered in Switzerland)

2007

Professor Joseph L. Sax (USA)Dr. Amory B. Lovins (USA)1994

Professor Dr. Eugen Seibold(Germany)
Mr. Lester R. Brown (USA)2008

Dr. Claude Lorius (France)
Professor José Goldemberg (Brazil)

1995

Dr. Bert Bolin (Sweden)
Mr. Maurice F. Strong (Canada)

2009

Professor Hirofumi Uzawa (Japan)
Lord Nicholas Stern of Brentford (UK)1996

Dr. Wallace S. Broecker (USA)The M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (India)

2010

Dr. James Hansen (USA)
Dr. Robert Watson (UK)1997

Dr. James E. Lovelock (UK)Conservation International (head­quartered in the USA)2011

Dr. Jane Lubchenco (USA)
Barefoot College (India)

1998

Professor Mikhail I. Budyko (Russia)
Mr. David R. Brower (USA)

2012

1999

Dr. Paul R. Ehrlich (USA)Professor Qu Geping (China)

2013

Professor William E. Rees (Canada)
and Dr. Mathis Wackernagel (Switzerland)
Dr. Thomas E. Lovejoy (USA)Dr. Taroh Matsuno (Japan)
Professor Daniel Sperling (USA)2000

Dr. Theo Colborn (USA)Dr. Karl-Henrik Robèrt (Sweden)

2014

2001

Lord (Robert) May of Oxford(Australia)
Dr. Norman Myers (UK)Dr. Harold A. Mooney (USA)Professor J. Gustave Speth(USA)2015

Dr. Gene E. Likens (USA) and
Dr. F. Herbert Bormann (USA)Dr. Vo Quy (Vietnam)
Dr. Susan Solomon (USA)Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland (Norway)

2017

Prof. Hans J. Schellnhuber (Germany)
Prof. Gretchen C. Daily (USA)2018

Prof. Brian Walker (Australia)
Prof. Malin Falkenmark (Sweden)

2002
2003

2004
2005

2016

Prof. Herman Daly (USA)Prof. Daniel H. Janzen (USA)and Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad(INBio)Professor Sir Partha Dasgupta
FBA FRS (UK)
Professor Jeffrey D. Sachs (USA)Mr. Pavan Sukhdev (India)
Prof. Markus Borner (Switzerland)

Professor Sir Nicholas
Shackleton (UK)
Dr. Gordon Hisashi Sato (USA)For more information, please contact: Junichi Shimizu
THE ASAHI GLASS FOUNDATION
2nd Floor, Science Plaza, 5-3 Yonbancho Chiyoda-ku,
Tokyo 102-0081 Japan
Phone +81-3-5275-0620 Fax +81-3-5275-0871
e-mail: post@af-info.or.jp URL: h ttp ://www.af -info.or.jp

1Attachment

Profile of the 2018 Blue Planet Prize Recipient
Prof. Brian Walker (Australia)
Major Research and Activities
In the 1980s, Prof. Walker was a member of a small network of scientists collaborating on research into
resilience*1 and advocating its importance, asserting that it was key to the sustainability of ecosystems. In the
1990s, he began to expand his research on resilience, conducted up to then in the field of natural ecosystems, toinclude the social sciences. He was among the first to demonstrate that there are also thresholds in linked socialecological systems*2 and called for the creation of a human society with high resilience to cope with societal
and environmental changes to enable sustainable use of natural capital.
Ecosystems were once commonly thought to return to their original state even if they experience a large
disturbance. Under this idea, fishing or forestry resources, for example, would return to their original states bythemselves, even if they were heavily fished or logged. However, Prof. Walker and his colleagues found that if
the use of resources exceeds some particular limit, the ecosystem will undergo a sudden shift to an alternative
state in which it behaves differently and will not return to its original state. He has sent a socially relevant
message saying that it was a mistake to think that over-used nature will gradually recover with time and wemust regulate the use of nature to allow only development within limits by giving careful attention to thethreshold-based resilience of ecosystems, in order to realize a sustainable society. This approach has become
one of the foundations of the Planetary Boundaries concept, which focuses on the resilience of the Earth system.
The resilience research led by Prof. Walker has expanded remarkably today. The number of published research
papers on resilience and the environment, for example, increased from 250 in 2000 to more than 6,000 in 2015,
an increase of almost 25 times.
Academic and Career Background
After graduating from the Agricultural Department of the University of Natal, South Africa, in 1961,
Prof. Walker received his Ph.D. in Plant Ecology from the University of Saskatchewan, Canada, in 1968. Backin Africa he specialized in the dynamics of ecosystem function and how this related to the resilience of tropicalsavannas and grazing lands. From 1969 to 1975, he served as Lecturer and Senior Lecturer in Ecology at the
University of Rhodesia in the Republic of Zimbabwe. From 1975 to 1985, he served as Professor in the
Department of Botany (Head of the Department of Botany from 1983) and Director of the Centre for Resource
Ecology at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa. From 1985 to 1999 he served as Chief of theDivision of Wildlife and Ecology in the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation(CSIRO)*3 in Australia. At that time, the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP)*4 waslaunched. In response to a request from the International Council for Science, Prof. Walker led the IGBP core
project on Global Change and Terrestrial Ecosystems (GCTE)*5 as Chairman of its Scientific Steering
Committee from 1990 to 1997. At the Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics*6 in the Royal Swedish
Academy of Science, he served as a Member of the Board from 1998 to 2000 and Chair of the Board from 2000
to 2003.
He was a founding member of the Resilience Alliance*7, an international research group working on
resilience in social-ecological systems, and served as Chair of the Board from 1999 to 2014. In 2007 theStockholm Resilience Centre (SRC)*8 was established in Sweden as a base for resilience research, where Prof.
Walker served as Research Fellow and Member of the Advisory Board from 2008 to 2013. During this period,
he continued his research mainly on resilience science.
Prof. Walker published numerous essential research papers during this time, and had a considerable influence on
younger researchers.
He remains active, serving as Chair of the Advisory Board of the Australian Research Council Centreof Excellence for Coral Reef Studies (since 2010), Fellow of the Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics (since2007) and working with young scientists in the CSIRO and the Fenner School of Environment and Society in
the Australian National University. His next book, Finding Resilience, which will appear early in 2019 (CSIRO
Publishing), is written in non-scientific language aimed at a general readership, with the aim of helping to
spread a public understanding of what resilience is all about.

Note:*1 Resilience
Resilience is the capacity of a system to absorb shocks and disturbance and reorganize so as to avoid anunrecoverable shift to an alternative state. The term resilience originated in physics and is now used also in2

ecology, psychology and many other fields - the scope of the concept has expanded. For risk management of
economic crises and natural disasters it is considered essential to have the ability to withstand external shocks,
to re-organise and continue to function in much the same way.
In contrast to engineering resilience, which Prof. Walker described as “the duration of time until a system
returns to the original state upon a disturbance” (return rate from a shock), ecological resilience is defined as“the capacity of a system to absorb a disturbance and re-organise so as to still retain essentially the samefunction, structure and feedbacks – to have the same identity”.
[The Nature of Resilience (Ball-in-the-Basin Model)]In his book with science writer David Salt Resilience Thinking, 2006, Prof. Walker explained the nature ofresilience using the analogy of the ball at the bottom of the basin. In a deep and large basin, the position of theball (the state of the system) will remain in the basin, returing to the “attractor”, even if disturbed a lot. However,if the basin somehow becomes shallower and smaller, when it receives an external shock the ball can moreeasily be moved beyond the edge into an alternative basin and is unable to return to its original state.
Thus, the nature of resilience includes latitude (size of the basin), resistance to being changed (depth of thebasin), precariousness (distance from the ball to the edge) and susceptibility of these three elements to external
impacts (cross-scale relationship). By crossing the edge of the basin – that is, the threshold - the feedbacks
between structure and function change such that the system is attracted towards a different composition.
Furthermored, the resilience of the system (size/ shape of the basin) can change such that the threshold (edge ofthe basin) may cross the position of the ball (state of the system) and the system now tends towards a different
composition, even though there has been no change in the state of the system itself (as in the figure below).

*2 Social-ecological systems (SESs)
A social-ecological system (SES) is an integrated system of ecosystems and human society with reciprocal
feedbacks and interdependence. The concept emphasizes the “humans-in-nature” perspective, and focuses on
the interaction between the natural world and the world made by humans.
Problems in natural resource management are not necessarily just ecological, social or economic problems, butinvolve many comprehensive elements that are inextricably linked. The concept assumes that problems innatural resource management are evaluated from the perspective of a wider system that involves both ecologicaland social elements, complex space-time scales and unexpected dynamics.
Prof. Walker and other researchers have named nine factors as necessary elements for the resilience of socialecological systems, including 1. Diversity (especially response diversity), 2. Ecological variability,
3. Modularity, 4. Acknowledging slow variables, 5. Tight feedbacks, 6. Social capital, 7. Innovation, 8. Overlap
in governance and 9. Ecosystem services.
Response diversity is a key feature of resilience, emphasized by Prof. Walker in his research. It is the diversityof ways in which an important function in the system can be performed, like having several different species oflegumes in an ecosystem, all performing the function of fixing nitrogen, but in different ways and with different
abilities to respond to environmental disturbances. Striving for efficiency in using a system can unintentionallyreduce response diversity.
This concept of resilience lays the foundation for today’s environmental economics, which introduces natural
capital, with a great influence on a wide range of fields.
*3 The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO)
Established in 1916, CSIRO is Australia’s largest integrated research and development institution under thejurisdiction of the Department of Education, Science and Training of Australia. CSIRO aims to conduct researchand development to solve national issues, serving to the country's industries or public interest. The research fieldcovers a broad spectrum of subjects, including agriculture, environment, information communication, health,3materials, manufacturing, minerals and energy. With over 6,000 staff members, CSIRO leads the National
Research Flagships, the leading research programs of the Innovation Action Plan promoted by the Australian
government.
*4 International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP）
Held in Berne in 1986, the 21st General Assembly of the International Council for Science (ICSU) decided to
implement the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP), which would conduct a study on globalchanges. It requested that every participating country responds to this problem, initiating a global effort.
The objective of the IGBP was to describe and understand the interactive physical, chemical, and biologicalprocesses that regulate the total Earth system, the unique environment that provides for life. It focuses thechanges in the earth system affected by human activities. IGBP stressed research on key fundamental
interactions especially those that most affect the biosphere and that are most susceptible to human perturbation
on time scales of decades to centuries. They expect the research will lead to practical, predictive capability.
Its research was mainly carried out by core projects or research groups organized for each subsystem of the
Earth, and framework activities supporting them, while mutual relations were maintained. Its research findings
were reflected mainly in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and used worldwide as thebasis for policy decisions. In 2015, it ended its activities after the compilation of its research and integration of
its projects.
*5 Global Change and Terrestrial Ecosystems (GCTE）
Prof Walker was a core member of the overall IGBP Planning Committee (1987 – 1989) and was asked to lead
GCTE, one of the IGBP core projects, launched in 1990. GCTE focused on global change in the context ofclimate, atmospheric composition, and land use effects on the dynamics of terrestrial ecosystems. It was
intended to understand and so far as possible predict the effects of global and local changes on terrestrial
ecosystems, including agriculture and forestry, and to clarify the mechanism of the feedback influence of suchchanges on climate systems. Its office was in Pof. Walker’s CSIRO Division in Australia.
*6 the Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics
Founded in 1977 and reorganized in 1991, the Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics is an international
research institute in Stockholm, Sweden that focuses on ecological economics. It operates under the auspices of
the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, while its main funding is provided by the Kjell and Märta Beijer
Foundation.
Its primary research objective is to promote a deeper understanding of the interplay between ecological systems
and social and economic development. It conducts international research programs, publishes research findings,
plans and organizes workshops, develops educational programs, engages in scientific policymaking, and so on.
*7 Resilience Alliance (RA)The Resilience Alliance (RA) is a research organization consisting of natural and social scientists across a wide
range of specialties who promote the sharing of knowledge and ideas to explore the dynamics of socialecological systems. The aggregated knowledge developed by RA incorporates the key concepts of resilience,
adaptability and transformability, to provide a basis for policies and practices for sustainable development.
Its members are leaders in ecology and sociology with extensive expertise. The research programs use aparticipatory approach to regional case studies, applied adaptive management, model development, scenariosand other methods to explore and test the validity of theories. To promote the sharing of knowledge and ideas,
the RA continuously searches for ways to develop collaboration between researchers and practitioners. Since its
establishment in 1999, RA members have been enrolled in universities, government agencies and NGOs in eight
countries and have collaborated with other scientists in many more.
*8 Stockholm Resilience Centre (SRC）
The Stockholm Resilience Centre (SRC) is an international research institute operated as a joint initiative
between Stockholm University and the Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics. The Centre is funded by the
Swedish Foundation for Strategic Environmental Research, Mistra.
It aims to promote understanding of complex social-ecological systems and to stimulate research to practice
ecosystem management and achieve long-term sustainability.
The research themes focus on particular social-ecological systems connected to marine, urban and foodproducing landscapes, while the research streams cut across sectors, scales and social-ecological systems.

4

To date, many prominent researchers have worked here actively and successfully, including Dr. JohanRockström, Ph.D., Centre director who led the research on Planetary Boundaries; Professor Carl Folke,
Research Director of the Centre; Dr. Will Steffen, a colleague of Prof. Walker’s from CSIRO; and Prof. Malin
Falkenmark in hydrology.

Biographical Summary
Academic and Career Record
1961
BSc in Agriculture, University of Natal, South Africa
1968
Ph.D. in Plant Ecology, University of Saskatchewan, Canada
1969-1975 Lecturer/Senior Lecturer in Ecology, University of Rhodesia, Harare, Republic of Zimbabwe
1975-1985 Professor, Department of Botany (Head, Department of Botany, from 1983), and Director, Centre for
Resource Ecology, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
1985-1999 Chief, Division of Wildlife and Ecology, CSIRO, Australia
1990-1997 Chairman, Scientific Steering Committee of IGBP core project on Global Change and Terrestrial
Ecosystems (GCTE)
1998-2000 Member of the Board, the Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics, Royal Swedish Academy of
Science
2000-2003 Chair of the Board, the Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics, Royal Swedish Academy of Science
1999-2014 Chair of the Board, The Resilience Alliance2007Fellow of the Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics
2008-2013 Research Fellow and Member of the Advisory Board, Stockholm Resilience Centre, University of
Stockholm
2010Chair of the Advisory Board, Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies

Awards and Fellowships (Selected)
2013
2007
2004
2003
2001
1999
1991
1986
1971
1964 - 1968

Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science(Joint recipient) Nobel Peace Prize awarded to the IPCC
(Joint recipient) Ecological Society of America Sustainability Award
Australian Centenary Medal for Service to Australian Society in Ecology
Foreign Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Forestry.
Ecological Society of Australia Gold Medal
Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering.
Distinguished Graduate in Agriculture Award, University of Saskatchewan
75th Anniversary of the College of AgricultureCharles Bullard Research Fellow, Harvard University
Canadian Commonwealth Scholar

5Prof. Malin Falkenmark (Sweden)
Major research and activities
From the mid-1960s to the mid 1990’s, Prof. Falkenmark was involved in the International
Hydrological Decade (IHD) *9 later International Hydrological Programme (IHP)*10During that time, shelearned about poverty and water-related problems in developing countries and their seriousness. Since then,she has committed to striving to solve water-related problems and has studied human nature for more thanhalf a century. She explains the reason just as follows: “Why were people in low latitudes so poor, and what
did water have to do with it? It turned out water had everything to do with it.” *11
In 1989, she became the first person to inform the whole world of the status of water-related
availability by presenting the Falkenmark Index*12for quantifying the degree of water scarcity based on theannual amount of water available per capita in a country or region, or “water crowding” for the number ofpeople sharing every unit of available water. In 1995, she presented the concept of green/blue water*13 Thus
she became the first person in the world to argue that rainwater which is available to plants in the soil (socalled green water), is as important a water resource as groundwater and river water (so-called blue water),which was mostly the focus of hydrology*14until that time. Subsequently, she also worked on quantitative
estimates around the concept. The study made a significant contribution and become a theoretical basis fortoday’s efforts to analyze global water-related problems using of an integrated water resources management
approach. She has put out more than 500 publications and has been deeply involved in the development of thefront lines of global water studies.
Prof. Falkenmark also engages in multiple international activities relating to water-related problems.
She was elected Rapporteur General of the United Nations Water Conference in Mar del Plata in 1977 *15 thefirst global discussion on water-related issues. For 13 years, she chaired the Scientific Programme Committee
for the annual Stockholm Water Symposia, subsequently developed into the current World Water Week in
Stockholm *16 She was also involved in developing the Stockholm Water Prize*17 so-called water version of
the Nobel Prize. For a series of years, a symposium in her name has been organized at the World Water Week,
in 2016 making crucial recommendations on the importance of green water for the eradication of hunger inAfrica.
Academic record and professional career
Prof. Falkenmark majored in mathematics, chemistry and physics at Uppsala University and acquired
Fil Mag.(Master’s degree) in 1950. In 1953, she joined the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute
before completing her studies, at Uppsala University and Royal Institute of Technology, with specialties inhydrology and hydraulics. In 1964, she became the first person to acquire a licentiate (parallel to today’s PhD)
in hydrology in Sweden, and co-published her first book, the Swedish “Vattnet I vår värld (Water in ourworld)”. In 1965, she joined the Swedish Natural Sciences Research Council (SNSRC)*18as ecutive Secretaryof the IHD (later IHP) National Committee which she later chaired from 1986 to 1995. In 1977, she copublished “Water for a Starving World”, launched as part of the information program of the UN Water
Conference in Mar del Plata, where she was elected Rapporteur General. In 1986, she was promoted toProfessor of Applied and International Hydrology. Subsequently, she was also involved in the development ofwater resources programs at several universities, including Linköping University where she for 15 years acted
as part time Professor. In 1989, she co-published the UNESCO book “Comparative hydrology.”
In 1991, Prof. Falkenmark joined Stockholm Water Co. for was organizing the annual Stockholm
Water Symposium, later developed into World Water Week in Stockholm. She for 13 years chaired its
Scientific Programme Committee, and also contributed to the first years of the Stockholm Water Prize. In
1992, she co-wrote a paper for the Dublin Principles*19that she presented at the International Conference on
Water and the Environment (ICWE)*20 After the Global Water Partnership (GWP)*21as established in 1996,
she for 7 years acted as a member of its Technical Advisory Committee , and argued the importance ofincorporating the protection of ecosystems in integrated water resources management. In 2004 she copublished the book “Balancing water for humans and nature”. In 2007 she joined the new Stockholm
Resilience Center, in 2014 co-publishing the book “Water resilience for human prosperity”. In 2008, she cowrote a paper in which she warned that water resources management would no longer be possible underclimate change if it remained nothing more than the act of assuming stationarity and learning from the past. At
the Malin Falkenmark Symposium held in 2016, she advocated a Green Water Initiative in Africa forachieving the second SDG (no hunger), and published a written request.
As shown by these facts, Prof. Falkenmark has been a leading figure and the global pioneer ofhydrology for many years. Today, she acts as a senior scientific advisor to the Stockholm International Water
Institute*22. Even at 92 years old, she is still active.

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Note:*9 International Hydrological Decade (IHD)
In 1965, UNESCO established IHD, an international project for collaborative research, with the aim of
improving hydrological observation around the world and developing water-related science and education.
*10 International Hydrological Programme (IHP）
IHP was launched in 1975 to replace IHD. IHP is currently in its eighth phase (2014 - 2021).
*11 “Why were people in low latitudes…”“Problems in the developing nations were completely different from the ones we had in Sweden. It was
fascinating to me and through my travels my curiosity developed. Why were people in low latitudes so poor
and what did water have to do with it? It turned out water had everything to do with it.”Abve note is an excerpt from an interview in the November 2014 issue of WATER FRONT.

*12 Falkenmark Index
The Falkenmark Index quantitatively shows the degree of water scarcity based on the annual amount ofwater available per capita in a country or region. It defines the annual amount of water resources per capita
below which water can be seen as scarce, 1,700 m3per person and year country or region in which the amountof water is below this line is considered to be under water stress. If the annual amount of water resources per
capita is below 1,000 m3, it is supposed to be chronic water scarcity. Below 500 m3, it is considered to beabsolute water scarcity.
Today, the Indicator is used by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, UN-Water, the World Bank’s
World Development Indicators and others to determine water scarcity and water stress at regional and global
levels.

Annual Runoff

The Falkenmark indicator =Population SizeClassification of the Falkenmark Indicator
Index (m3 per capita)

Category
No Stress> 1,700

Stress1,000-1,700

Scarcity

500-1,000

Absolute Scarcity< 500

Source: Created by the Asahi Glass Foundation in accordance with Falkenmark, M. 1989. The Massive water scarcity now
threatening Africa: Why isn’t it being addressed? Ambio 18: 112-118.
Falkenmark, M., and J. Lundqvist, and C. Widstrand. 1989. Macro-scale water scarcity requires micro-scale approaches.
Natural Resources Forum 13: 258-297.

*13 Concept of Green/Blue water
The concept of Green/Blue water relates to water resources. The idea is epoch-making in that it advocatesthe importance of green water or rainwater, which is typically used by plants, whereas only blue water (e.g.
groundwater and river water) had conventionally been used as water resources. In particular, the concept isvital for the development of agriculture in semi-arid regions that are prone to water scarcity.
Prof. Falkenmark published the concept for the first time in 1995 and developed it by advocating The New
Blue and Green Water Paradigm in a paper she co-wrote with Dr. Johan Rockström in 2006.
She set out a new framework for the management of water resources based on green waterflow, a departurefrom the conventional blue waterflow-based practice of managing water resources.

57

Terminology

Definition

Green Water

Green water refers to the rainwater that seeps into the soil before
returning to the atmosphere by evaporation and transpiration and is partly
supplied to forests, grass, rain-fed crops and the like.

Green Flow

Green flow is a flow in which rainwater seeps into the soil before returning
to the atmosphere by evaporation and transpiration.

Blue Water

Blue water is the water that stays in rivers, lakes, ponds, reservoirs or
underground aquifers.

Blue FlowBlue flow is a flow in which rainwater-generated flow reaches a river or
first passes as groundwater through an undergound aquifer or otherroutes to move to a river, lake, pond, reservoir or the like.

Source: Falkenmark, M., and J. Rockström. 2006. Editorial: The New Blue and Green Water Paradigm: Breaking New Groundfor Water Resources Planning and Management.

*14 Hydrology
Daijirin: Hydrology is an area of learning in which the state, distribution and physical and chemical
characteristics of water on Earth, its relationship with the environment and other related issues are studied
from the perspective of circulation. Hydrology applies to the management of water quality, water rights,
water-related laws and other social and economic issues.
Kojien: Hydrology studies the circulation of water to understand the state and change of water on Earth. The
main subject of study in hydrology is terrestrial water such as the water in rivers or lakes or under the ground.
Knowledge of hydrology is indispensable for the development and maintenance of water resources. The
physical aspect is strong in hydrology.
Random House English Dictionary: Hydrology/limnology is a category of geology and is about the generation,
circulation and attributes of water on and under the ground and in the atmosphere.
Definition by UNESCO (1965): Hydrology is an area of science regarding water on Earth. The subjects ofstudy in hydrology are the generation and circulation of water and the distribution of water on this planet, thephysical and chemical properties of water, the interaction between the physical/biological environments, andwater’s response to human activities. The scope of study in hydrology spans the entire route of water
circulation on Earth (source: Mizukiki Hontono Hanashi (True Stories about Water Crisis)).
*15 United Nations Water Conference in Mar del Plata
The conference is the first intergovernmental event to focus on water as a subject of environmental issues. It
took place in 1977 in Mar del Plata, Argentina. The conference adopted the Declaration of Mar del Plata, anaction plan that consists of recommendations on essential factors of water management and resolutions
concerning different areas.

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*16 World Water Week in Stockholm
Organized by the Stockholm International Water Institute, this is a forum about water-related problems on
Earth. The annual one-week conference and exhibition focuses on water, and takes place every August. In
2017, World Water Week had more than 3,300 participants from 130 countries. World Water Week was
initiated in 1991 under the name “Stockholm Water Symposium”. In 2001, it was renamed World Water
Week in Stockholm.
*17 Stockholm Water Prize
This prize is awarded to one researcher or NGO every year that has contributed to solving water environment
issues. The commendation ceremony is held in the same format as that of the Nobel Prize, and is attended by
the King of Sweden.
*18 Swedish Natural Sciences Research Council (SNSRC）
SNSRC is an agency that aims to fund basic research in the areas of natural science and mathematics. Also,
SNSRC provides grants to international scientific research and supports and encourages Swedish researchers
and research institutes to take part in efforts that are aimed at facilitating international cooperation.
*19 Dublin Principles
These are the four principles on water-related problems that were adopted at the International Conference on
Water and the Environment (ICWE). The principles consist specifically of four terms below.
(1) Freshwater is a finite resource(2) Water management should be based on a participatory approach involving all people concerned(3) Women play a central part in the management of water(4) Water has an economic value and should be recognized as an economic good.
The principles are also reflected in Chapter 18 of Agenda 21 (Protection of The Quality and Supply Of
Freshwater Resources) created at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (alsoknown as the Rio Summit) held in the same year. The Dublin Principles have formed the common keynote ofinternational water-related discussions.
*20 International Conference on Water and the Environment (ICWE)
Held in Dublin, Ireland in 1992, ICWE was an international conference on water-related problems that was
attended by nearly 500 persons from 114 countries, 38 NGOs and 28 U.N. agencies. The conference discussed
topics such as the conditions of water resources around the world and desirable ways of managing water
resources. As a result, four principles were adopted and are known as the Dublin Principles. The conference
also discussed the concept of the integration of water resources development and management, whichsignificantly changed the basic idea of water resources management.
*21 Global Water Partnership (GWP）
In 1977, the UN Water Conference in Mar del Plata became the first conference to focus on water as a subjectof environmental issues. The decade from 1981 was designated as the International Drinking Water Supply
and Sanitation Decade. In 1992, international conferences on water and the environment took place in Dublin
and Rio de Janeiro. After all of these, no significant international actions for water management were taken.
Against this backdrop, GWP was established in 1996 as an international network or NGO that is open to allagencies around the world concerned with water management. The mission of GWP is to help each country infacilitating the sustainable management of water resources.
*22 Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI）
SIWI is a research institute that discloses the results of research on water-related problems and also provides
policy recommendations on the issue. SIWI is based in Sweden and was established for the follow up of two
events that took place in Stockholm in 1991, the Stockholm Water Symposium (later World Water Week in
Stockholm), and the Stockholm Water Prize. Today, SIWI offers research and advisory services in five major
areas that include water governance; transboundary water management; water and climate change; therelationship between water, energy and food; and water economics. The Institute also organizes World Water
Week, which is globally recognized as a significant event regarding water-related problems. Numerous
researchers and organizations participate in World Water Week from around the world.

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Biographical Summary
Academic and professional career
1950
1953
1964
1965
1975
1977
1978
1986
1991
1997
2000
2007

Fil.Mag. at Uppsala University (Master’s degree)
Begins working at the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI)
Uppsala University Fil.Lic (Swedish equivalent of current Ph.D.)
Swedish Natural Sciences Research Council and National Committee for International Hydrological
Decade (IHD)
Honorary doctorate (Fil Dr honoris causa) from Linköping University
Rapporteur General of the United Nations Water Conference in Mar del Plata
Executive Secretary for International Hydrological Programme (IHP)
Chairperson for the International Hydrological Programme (IHP)
Professor of Applied and International Hydrology
Chair of Scientific Programme Committee for Stockholm Water Symposium
Member of the Technical Advisory Committee of Global Water Partnership (GWP)
Honorary doctorate from Lund University (Techn Dr honoris causa)
Senior Researcher at Stockholm Resilience Center

Major awards
1995 KTH Stora Pris
European Geophysical Society’s Henri Darcy medal
1998 Volvo Environment Prize
International Hydrology Prize2005 Rachel Carson Prize
Crystal Drop Award
2010 Prince Albert II Award

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5

Remarks from the Award Recipients upon Notification of their Selection
Prof. Brian Walker (Australia)
I am deeply honoured by the award of this prestigious Blue Planet Prize, and am most grateful to the Asahi
Glass Foundation for considering me a worthy recipient. The aims of this prize are fundamental to the longterm wellbeing of our planet, and they have been a motivating force behind the development of my life’s
research. I have followed the award of the prize for many years and am always impressed by the calibre andthe work of the recipients. I am humbled to now be included amongst them.
In the latter part of my career I have been working to put into practice the theoretical developments that
motivated my earlier years. What I am trying to do aligns closely with the aims of the Blue Planet Prize andthis award gives me inspiration and renewed energy to further the incorporation of resilience into planetary
sustainable development, from local to global scales.

Prof. Malin Falkenmark (Sweden)
I owe my deepest gratitude to the Blue Planet Prize Committee for selecting me for one of the two Blue Planet
Prizes 2018, thereby drawing high level attention to the lasting efforts I have since the 1970’s devoted totrying to understand the implications of water being the bloodstream of the biosphere.
Water’s profound involvement is an issue of essential importance that has partly remained in the shadow ofpast water resources development efforts.
A contributing reason is that much of the analyses remained in the hands of environmental professionals,
mainly focusing on liquid water in rivers and aquifers as a natural resource, but neglecting the invisible waterin the soil, and its contribution to the biomass production. A global dilemma is that, meanwhile, humanpopulation has been increasing to currently 7 billion, with most of the poor and hungry living in Africa withits dominantly arid climate.

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