Master’s Thesis Award in Asian Studies 2016 goes to Marko Kallio

The winner of the Master’s Thesis Award in Asian Studies 2016 is Marko Kallio from the Master’s Programme for Geoinformatics in Aalto University School of Engineering.

The prize sum of 1,000 euro is presented each year to an outstanding Master’s thesis on Asia. This year five excellent entries were recieved. In the selection of the winner the following aspects are emphasized : academic excellence and importance of obtained results for Asian studies. This year the selection was made by Professor emeritus Olavi Fält.

The title of Marko Kallio’s thesis is “An Exploration of Water Poverty in Lao People’s Democratic republic”. Kallio’s thesis examines the spatio-temporal distribution and the causes of water poverty in Lao PDR through Water Poverty Index (WPI). WPI is a holistic tool to assess water resources in an integrated way, combining water resource availability, social dimensions of access and capacity to manage water resource as well as the environmental requirements for utilization of water. Kallio’s convincing research findings are based on broad data. In addition his study proposes several measures to alleviate water poverty in Laos and also makes suggestions on the improvement of the WPI.