Water Best Paper Award 2015

To better recognize the outstanding papers in the area of water sciences and technology published in Water, we announce the institution of an annual award.

We are therefore pleased to announce the first “Water Best Paper Award” for 2015. Nominations were made by the Editor-in-Chief and Editorial Board members from all papers published in 2011. The awards are issued to reviews and full research articles separately. The following three papers were chosen:

• Article Award:

  • First Prize
    Michael D. Dettinger, Fred Martin Ralph, Tapash Das, Paul J. Neiman and Daniel R. Cayan
    Atmospheric Rivers, Floods and the Water Resources of California
    Water 2011, 3(2), 445–478; doi:10.3390/w3020445
    Available online: http://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/3/2/445
  • Second Prize
    Arjen Y. Hoekstra
    The Global Dimension of Water Governance: Why the River Basin Approach Is No Longer Sufficient and Why Cooperative Action at Global Level Is Needed
    Water 2011, 3(1), 21–46; doi:10.3390/w3010021
    Available online: http://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/3/1/21
• Review Award:
  Pauline M. Ross, Laura Parker, Wayne A. O’Connor and Elizabeth A. Bailey
  The Impact of Ocean Acidification on Reproduction, Early Development and Settlement of Marine Organisms
  Water 2011, 3(4), 1005–1030; doi:10.3390/w3041005
  Available online: http://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/3/4/1005

The prize awarding committee recognizes that the article “Atmospheric Rivers, Floods and the Water Resources of California” presents “… an analysis of the effects of specific large scale atmospheric circulation (i.e., Atmospheric Rivers and Pineapple Express) on floods and water resources of California…” and conceded “…that the fractions of precipitation and streamflow totals in California, are associated with ARs, which contribute 20%–50% to the state’s precipitation totals, on long-term average, with area-average contributions ranging from zero to 54% from year to year…”, which is well supported by “…data plus analysis and very good graphics…”. The article “The Global Dimension of Water Governance: Why the River Basin Approach Is No Longer Sufficient and Why Cooperative Action at Global Level Is Needed” addresses “…an emerging research field, water footprint assessment, linking the relations among water management, consumption, and trade beyond a river basin…” and was a valuable policy research paper “…because of the broad worldwide water policy/governance implications…”. The article “The Impact of Ocean Acidification on Reproduction, Early Development and Settlement of Marine Organisms” comprehensively reviews “our current knowledge of ocean acidification on the early life-history of invertebrates, providing future research needs for integrating temperature effects and long-term multigenerational experiments…” and indicates “the implications for ocean climate change induced acidification effects on marine organisms”.

These three exceptional papers are all worthy contributions to Water and the water resources field. On behalf of the Prize Awarding Committee and the Editorial Board of Water, we would like to congratulate the authors and co-authors of these three papers for their excellent work. In recognition of their accomplishments, Drs. Michael D. Dettinger and Arjen Y. Hoekstra will receive 600 CHF and 400 CHF, respectively. They will also have the privilege of publishing an additional open access format paper free of charge in Water, after standard peer-review. Dr. Pauline M. Ross will be awarded the privilege of publishing an additional research paper free of charge in open access format in Water, after standard peer-review.

Civil Engineering Research Group, School of Computing, Science and Engineering, The University of Salford, Newton Building, Salford, Greater Manchester, M5 4WT, England, UK

E-Mail: m.scholz@salford.ac.uk

Department of Civil Engineering, University of Thessaly, 38334 Volos, Greece

E-Mail: aloukas@civ.uth.gr

Department of Environmental Analytical Chemistry, Institute of Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences, J.W. Goethe University, Altenhöferallee 1, 60438 Frankfurt am Main, Germany

E-Mail: puettmann@iau.uni-frankfurt.de

Climate Change Studies of Aquatic & Marine Ecosystems, Annis Water Resources Institute, Grand Valley State University,131 Lake Michigan Center,740 W. Shorelind Dr., Muskegon, MI 49441-1678, USA

E-Mail: strychak@gvsu.edu

Department of Environmental Studies, School of Renewable Natural Resources, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, USA

E-Mail: yjxu@lsu.edu

¹ National Foundation for Agricultural Research (N.AG.RE.F.), Institute of Iraklio, 71110 Iraklio, Greece

² Hellenic Union of Municipal Enterprises for Water Supply and Sewerage, 41222 Larissa, Greece

E-Mail: info@a-angelakis.gr

The James Hutton Institute, Craigiebuckler, Aberdeen AB15 8QH, Scotland, UK

E-Mail: benoit.demars@hutton.ac.uk

Department of Environmental Studies, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, State University of New York, 211B Marshall Hall, 1 Forestry Drive, Syracuse, NY 13210, USA

E-Mail: rsmardon@esf.edu