Overview

The team of Chunmiao Zheng (Eastern Institute of Technology, Ningbo, China)

Zheng and his team have made significant contributions to advancing the process-based understanding of groundwater. They have shown how groundwater processes function in arid to semi-arid ecohydrological systems, while considering crucial environmental and socioeconomic factors. This knowledge can then be employed by water managers to make effective decisions at both local and national levels. The team has developed and applied various tools and strategies, including: (1) a water management model for assessing water policies aimed at the conjunctive management of both surface water and groundwater in large river basins under diverse hydrological and climatic conditions; (2) an integrated framework accounting for both environmental and socioeconomic aspects to use as an effective tool in support of decision making as part of China’s South-to-North Water Transfer Project; (3) a comprehensive analysis of water management scenarios using coupled hydrological and system dynamics models; and (4) a national-scale numerical groundwater model of China that provides a mechanistic tool to test nation-wide water management strategies in view of China’s growing economy and other factors.

Team members include: Yingying Yao (Xi'an Jiaotong University, China) and Erhu Du (Hohai University, Nanjing, China)

Winner Profile

Chunmiao Zheng

Chunmiao Zheng is Chair Professor and Vice President of the Eastern Institute of Technology, Ningbo, China.

Education:

• 1988 – PhD; University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA (Groundwater Hydrology)
• 1984 – Postgraduate; Chengdu University of Technology, China (Geology & Applied Mathematics)
• 1983 – BSc; Chengdu University of Technology, China (Geology)

Selected Awards:

2019 – Fellow, American Geophysical Union
2014 – Distinguished Alumni Award, Department of Geoscience, University of Wisconsin- Madison
2013 – O.E. Meinzer Award, Hydrogeology Division, Geological Society of America
2013 – M. King Hubbert Award, National Ground Water Association
1998 – John Hem Excellence in Science and Engineering Award, National Ground Water Association

Acceptance Speech

Your Highness, Esteemed Guests, and Colleagues,

I am deeply honored and humbled to receive the Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz International Prize for Water in the Groundwater category. Groundwater has been at the heart of my research for decades, and this recognition reinforces its vital role in addressing some of the most urgent water challenges the world faces today. Throughout my career—from studying dryland ecohydrology in the arid northwest of China and addressing groundwater depletion in the North China Plain, to my earlier work in the United States developing simulation tools such as MT3D to tackle groundwater contamination—I have been privileged to help uncover the immense potential of this largely invisible resource in meeting global water needs.

The Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz International Prize for Water has long championed groundbreaking research, and I am proud to contribute to this mission. Though often unseen, groundwater sustains billions of lives and keeps ecosystems healthy. Our research on conjunctive surface water–groundwater management, the role of groundwater in ecohydrological systems, and strategies to address China's groundwater crisis underscores the critical need to manage this resource with foresight and care. The papers recognized for this award, coauthored with team members Yingying Yao, Erhu Du, and other colleagues, emphasize the pressing demand for sustainable solutions.

This award would not have been possible without the support of countless collaborators, students, and institutions including the University of Alabama; Peking University; the Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen, China; and the Eastern Institute of Technology in Ningbo, China. I am especially grateful to my Ph.D. advisor, Mary Anderson, at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and to my family for their unwavering support throughout my career.

As we look forward, I hope our collective efforts will continue to safeguard groundwater, ensuring its sustainable use for future generations. My heartfelt thanks to the PSIPW Council for this tremendous honor, and to all of you who are working tirelessly to ensure a brighter water future for our world.

Thank you.

Winning Work

[1] Yao, Y., Y. Tian, C.B. Andrews, X. Li, Y. Zheng, C. Zheng, 2018, Role of groundwater in the dryland ecohydrological system: A Case study of the Heihe River Basin, Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 123(13), doi: 10.1029/2018JD028432.

[2] Du, E., Y. Tian, X. Cai, Y. Zheng, F. Han, X. Li, M. Zhao, Y. Yang, C. Zheng, 2022, Evaluating distributed policies for conjunctive surface water-groundwater management in large river basins: Water uses versus hydrological impacts, Water Resources Research, 58, e2021WR031352, doi: 10.1029/2021WR031352.

[3] Yao, Y., C. Zheng, C.B. Andrews, X. He, A. Zhang, J. Liu, 2019, Integration of groundwater into China's south-north water transfer strategy, Science of The Total Environment, 658, 550-557, doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.12.185.

[4] Qin, H., C. Zheng, X. He, J.C. Refsgaard, 2019, Analysis of water management scenarios using coupled hydrological and system dynamics modeling, Water Resources Management, 33, 4849–4863, doi: 10.1007/s11269-019-02410-9.

[5] Lancia, M., Y. Yao, C. B. Andrews, X. Wang, X. Kuang, J. Ni, S.M. Gorelick, B.R. Scanlon, Y. Wang, C. Zheng, 2022, The China groundwater crisis: A mechanistic analysis with implications for global sustainability, Sustainable Horizons, 4, 100042, doi: 10.1016/j.horiz.2022.100042.