Dr. Hiroaki Furumai is a professor of the Research Center for Water Environment Technology, the University of Tokyo. He also has a joint appointment as professor at the Department of Urban Engineering. His research group has conducted research on 1) Sustainable urban drainage management focusing on flood control and wet weather pollution, 2) Control of microbial function in water treatment and microbial community in water distribution system, 3) Management of unregulated organic matter in water environment and water use.

He was the project leader of the research project entitled by “Development of well-balanced urban water use system adapted to climate change”, which is financially supported by Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST). In the project, they focus on safe and stable water supply in highly-populated metropolitan areas in Asia. Climate change and increased water demand through rapid urbanization have caused more severe water scarcity. Concern about the sustainability of urban water use is the strong motivation to understand the potential use of rainwater and reclaimed water in urbanized cities. He conducted the JST research project entitled by “Real-time Prediction and Control of Urban Flood Risk”. The project realizes the advanced control of urban drainage facilities based on integrated management of river and drainage networks by developing a novel inundation forecast model that can integrate meteorological observation and rainfall forecast information.