Members of the Hydroclimatology group of IHCantabria have been awarded the Botin Foundation’s Prize for Sustainable Water Management
This award was obtained for a project that addresses the estimation of inflows to reservoirs under climate change scenarios.
In its mission to promote innovation and the dissemination of ideas, projects, initiatives and technologies with proven results in sustainable water management, the Botin Foundation announced the IX edition of the Sustainable Water Management Awards between March and July of this year. The list of winners, in its three modalities, was made public at the end of September. In modality A, which corresponds to the “M.R. Llamas” (Manuel Ramón Llamas) Young Talent Award, the prize was awarded to the candidacy led by Manuel del Jesus Peñil for a project developed in the Hydroclimatology Group of the Environmental Hydraulics Institute of Universidad de Cantabria (IHCantabria), for which he is responsible and was the representative in this candidacy.
The winning project is entitled “Estimation of minimum inflows to reservoirs under climate change” and was developed by some members of the Hydroclimatology Group of IHCantabria (Manuel del Jesus, Salvador Navas and Dina Gomez) for the Fundación Canal de Isabel II, with the collaboration of Canal de Isabel II. In the study the “Methodological guide for the estimation of minimum inflows to reservoirs in the context of climate change” was developed. This guide proposes a complete and updated methodology, based on existing and freely available data in Spain, for the evaluation of the impacts of climate change on inflows to reservoirs. Therefore, this guide offers a didactic tour to understand the most accessible techniques for assessing the effects of climate change on water resources.
As a complement, developed as IHCantabria’s initiative, an innovative open source and free-to-use software tool was also created, which allows to easily apply the analysis described in the methodological guide, in order to make climate change forecasts on reservoir inflows. It is a software tool called Simulator for Climate Change Forecasting in Reservoirs(SIMPCCe, by its acronym in Spanish).
The call for the Sustainable Water Management Awards, promoted by the Botin Foundation’s Water Observatory, was open to creators, researchers, technologists, social entrepreneurs, activists or communicators who have contributed to sustainable water management.
In modality A, any person under 40 years of age, as an individual or as the leader (representative) of a team, of any nationality, could apply. Manuel del Jesus participated as a representative of the Hydroclimatology Group team of IHCantabria that developed the aforementioned guide and application. In this category, awards were given to projects that have contributed to sustainable water management, in any context or location.
The award categories change every year, as does the jury, which is made up of professionals from different fields of water management. This year, the IX edition of the Sustainable Water Management Awards included the following three modalities: A) a “M.R. Llamas” Young Talent Award, B) an award for projects with educational or outreach purposes; and C) an award for actions taken to address conflicts over water issues.
For more information about the results of the IX edition of the Botin Foundation’s Sustainable Water Management Awards, please visit the following link: https://fundacionbotin.org/programas/observatorio-del-agua/premios-al-talento-joven/#convocatoria-2022
