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PROJECT: STOCKHOLM WATER PRIZE2025: Professor Günter Blöschl
Based on his world-renowned work on flood risk reduction, water resource management, flood scaling, and regional process hydrology – Professor Günter Blöschl wins the Stockholm Water Prize 2025.
Professor Blöschl, pioneer of water engineering, whose comprehensive database and analysis have revolutionized and deepened the global understanding of flood risk reduction and water resource management. His contributions make him the founder of the new and growing scientific field, regional process hydrology, and cofounder of sociohydrology, both of which advance our knowledge of flood risks under climate change on a global scale.
Professor Blöschl has contributed to global research on flood estimation, scaling, and adaptation strategies. His work has proven that a more subtle, context specific solution is needed, as flood patterns, scaling, and adaptation are much more complex than previously known. His meticulous research led to the construction of a flood database that analyzed the patterns and scales of flood movements over the span of 500 years.
His published work brought to light the significant impacts of climate change, land use, and hydraulic structures in the causation of flooding.
In its citation, the Stockholm Water Prize Nominating Committee said: “Professor Günter Blöschl at the Technical University of Vienna (TUW) is the world’s leading flood hydrologist. He has made groundbreaking contributions to understanding the drivers of increasing flood risks under climate change coupled to the strong influence of regional flood processes. His observation-based connection between climate and floods revealed that the last two decades have been markedly flood-prone compared to the historical record.”
Günter Blöschl is a professor at the Vienna University of Technology, the current head of the Institute of Hydraulic Engineering and Water Resources Management at the Vienna University of Technology, as well as the Director of the Doctoral Programme of Water Resources Systems at the Vienna University of Technology, that he founded more than 15 years ago, and a part time professor at the University of Bologna.
Watch the announcement video