Acceptance speech Summary of submitted works

Howard Wheater obtained a first class degree in Engineering Science from the University of Cambridge and worked for Rolls-Royce as a fluid mechanics specialist before undertaking a PhD in Hydrology at Bristol University and joining the staff of the Civil Engineering Department of Imperial College in 1978.

He holds the appointment of Professor of Hydrology at Imperial College and is Head of the Environmental and Water Resource Engineering Section of the Civil and Environmental Department. He is past-President of the British Hydrological Society, a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (London), a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers (London), and is a life member of the International Water Academy (Oslo).

His research interests are in hydrology and water resources; wide-ranging applications include surface and groundwater hydrology, water resources, water quality and waste management. He has published some 200 refereed papers and 6 books. Academic awards include prizes from the UK Institution of Civil Engineers, the British Hydrological Society and Cambridge University. Invited key-note lectures include the World Water Conference, various invited lectures in the USA and a wide range of international conferences in Europe, Africa, India and the Middle East.

He has a wide international experience of flood, water resource and water quality studies, including work in the Middle East, Far East, Africa and South America, and recently acted as Counsel and Advocate for Hungary at the International Court of Justice, the Hague, concerning the environmental impact of the GNBS Danube Dams.

Professor Wheater has a major interest in the Hydrology of Arid areas and has been working for some 25 years to improve the understanding of the hydrology of these areas, to develop suitable modelling tools for management, to apply these in practice for improved water resources management, and to disseminate state-of-the-art information to students and practitioners.  He has worked in Oman, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Jordan, Syria and Egypt, as well as Arizona. Previous major projects include the first flood study of Northern Oman, in 1981, the Saudi Arabian Five Wadis Representative Basins study in the late 1980s, and work on recharge management in Oman in the 1990s.  He was involved in the initiation and development of UNESCO’s Wadi Hydrology programme for the Arab Region, and currently co-chairs UNESCO’s global wadi hydrology programme, G-WADI . He was recently invited by the Government of Chile to assist in the development of a centre for Arid Zone water resources for Latin America and the Caribbean, and was invited by the Japanese government to give a key-note address on water scarcity to the 2003 Kyoto World Water conference. He is currently consultant to the State of Nevada concerning safety assessment for a proposed repository for high level radioactive waste at Yucca Mountain.

In the UK he has been a member of national Water Resources and Water Boards and member and chair of various Committees and Strategy Panels for the Natural Environment Research Council, including chair of the Programme Development Group on Land and Water Resources Research. He recently initiated a £10 million UK research programme into Lowland Catchment Research (LOCAR) to meet the needs of the EU Water Framework Directive for integrated water resources management. He is an advisor to the UK Government on Flood R&D and on nitrate vulnerability assessment, and member of the government Advisory Panel on Reservoir Safety. He leads a national research programme into land use management impacts on flooding. Other current research includes rainfall simulation under climate change, rainfall-runoff and surface water quality modelling, and flow and transport processes in the subsurface. For the last 18 years he has led an interdisciplinary research team at Imperial focusing on biosphere aspects of risk assessment for the deep disposal of nuclear waste.