THE 2025 TISON AWARD GOES TO RUIRUI XU, DEXUN QIU and CHANGZUE WU (China)
IAHS is pleased to announce that the Tison Award for the year 2025 is awarded to Dr. Ruirui Xu, Dr. Dexun Qiu, and Dr. Changxue Wu, in China, for their paper titled, “Quantifying climate and anthropogenic impacts on runoff using the SWAT model, a Budyko-based approach and empirical methods,” published in Hydrological Sciences Journal in 2023 (doi.org/10.1080/02626667.2023.2218551). The paper was co-authored by Professors Xingmin Mu, Guangju Zhao, Wenyi Sun, and Peng Gao, who were not eligible for the Tison Award due to age criteria.
Citation given by Professor Attilio Castellarin, Editor-in-Chief of Hydrological Sciences Journal on behalf of the Jury of the 2025 Tison Award.
The Tison Award for the year 2025 is awarded to Dr. Ruirui Xu, Dr. Dexun Qiu, and Dr. Changxue Wu, affiliated with the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Ministry of Water Resources, Northwest A&F University, and University of Chinese Academy of Science, in China, for their paper titled, “Quantifying climate and anthropogenic impacts on runoff using the SWAT model, a Budyko-based approach and empirical methods,” published in Hydrological Sciences Journal in 2023. The paper was co-authored by Professors Xingmin Mu, Guangju Zhao, Wenyi Sun, and Peng Gao, who were not eligible for the Tison Award due to age criteria.
The award committee particularly recognized this paper for its comprehensive and comparative assessment of four widely used methods—SWAT modeling, Budyko-based analysis, and two empirical approaches (DMC and MDMC)—to disentangle the respective impacts of climate variability and human activities on runoff changes. Using the Wei River Basin in China as a case study, the authors demonstrated that human activities, including ecological restoration and water consumption, are the dominant drivers of runoff reduction, although climate change also plays a significant role. The study stands out for its methodological rigor, clarity in comparative analysis, and relevance to water resource management in data-scarce and human-impacted regions. The jury particularly appreciated the integration of process-based modeling with empirical and theoretical frameworks, which enhances the robustness of the conclusions and broadens the applicability of the findings.
Out of the 43 papers nominated for the 2025 Tison Award, this paper garnered substantial support and was ultimately selected as the clear recipient. As of this writing, the paper has been viewed over 1300 times and cited 17 times in the literature. We warmly congratulate Dr. Xu, Dr. Qiu, and Dr. Wu, and trust that this recognition by the International Association of Hydrological Sciences will further encourage their valuable contributions to the advancement of hydrological research.