Professor Lu Xixi and Dr Dongfeng Li from the Department of Geography at the National University of Singapore (NUS) Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences led an international team of researchers to conduct a new analysis of observations of headwater rivers in the area. The study revealed that fluvial sediment loads have been increasing substantially, even much faster than river water discharge. This is due to the recent warmer and wetter climate, and has important implications for water quality, hydropower development and maintenance, and for the riverine carbon cycle.

The award sees Prof Yeoh joining the who’s who in the geography pantheon which includes David Harvey, Marxist economic geographer and Distinguished Professor of anthropology and geography from The Graduate Center of the City University of New York, and Prof Doreen Massey – a British social scientist and geographer renowned for her work on space, place and power.