On September 10th, 2015, Dr. Akiyo Yatagai (Visiting Associate Professor at the Research Institute for Humanity and Nature, and a researcher at the Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute at The University of Tokyo) was selected as winner of the “International Award” of the Japan Society of Hydrology and Water Resources. The award is given annually to researchers who make outstanding contributions to international hydrology and water resources science.

The award recognizes Dr. Yatagai’s leadership of the Asian Precipitation―Highly Resolved Observational Data Integration Towards Evaluation of Water Resources (APHRODITE) project, which made outstanding contributions in three areas: 1) scientific value of APHRODITE data; 2) APHRODITE team members’ high level of academic achievement; and 3) the international contributions of the project, including capacity building activities in developing countries. Developed while Dr. Yatagai was Assistant Professor at RIHN with funding from the Ministry of the Environment (2006 to 2010) and collaboration with the Meteorological Research Institute of Japan’s Meteorological Agency, APRHRODITE developed the most accurate and comprehensive dataset of long-term precipitation in Asia.

The APHRODITE project team created and released daily gridded precipitation datasets over Asia (.25 degree; 1951-2007) and Japan (.05 degree; ~1900-2007), as well as long-term daily averaged gridded temperature data of Monsoon Asia (1951-2007).

APHRODITE data are highly regarded as the most accurate quantitative observational datasets of international precipitation in Asia. APHRODITE data are regularly used by many of the world’s top environmental research and operational institutions, and are a valuable resource in the science of hydrology, meteorology, climatology and climate change.

Dr. Yatagai has also negotiated user-agreements with numerous national hydro-meteorological agencies throughout Asia, and Dr. Yatagai and APHRODITE project team members have conducted capacity-building workshops and studies of user-needs in order to support high quality national and local monitoring and analysis of precipitation and temperature change in Asia.

Awarding Ceremony on September 10th, 2015
Left: Dr. Yatagai, Right: Prof. Yamada（Society Chairman of JSHWR ）