Bonvehi Rosich, Denizen win 2026 J.B. Jackson Book Prize

Faculty members Montserrat Bonvehi Rosich and Seth Denizen have won the 2026 John Brinckerhoff Jackson Book Prize for “Thinking Through Soil: Wastewater Agriculture in the Mezquital Valley.” The juried prize, coordinated by the University of Virginia, recognizes outstanding scholarship that breaks new ground on a subject in landscape studies. The book, published last year by Harvard Design Press, explores the largest wastewater agricultural system in the world, centering soil as a way to examine complex environmental challenges.

Jury chair Elizabeth K. Meyer, a landscape architect and professor at UVA, appreciated the book’s ability to reveal “the agency of landscape, and particularly soil, through a powerful synthesis of words, images, and diagrams.” The work was also praised for bringing clarity to complex urban and rural entanglements that underpin the wastewater agricultural system.

The wastewater system carries combined sewage of 22 million people from Mexico City to irrigate agricultural fields in the Mezquital Valley, more than 30 miles away. This system results in soil contaminated by industrial waste, pharmaceuticals, parasites, and more, which poses significant implications for public health outcomes. At the same time, reusing wastewater increases the area’s climate resilience. Denizen and Bonvehi Rosich write that “over the next few decades, wastewater reuse will become a necessary and unavoidable part of addressing water scarcity in a warming world.”

With this case study, the authors ask not only what Mexico City would look like if sustainable, high-quality wastewater was sent to the Mezquital Valley, but also what a better environmental future could look like for all of us — and if soil, with its capacity for growing food and storing carbon — holds the answer.

Denizen shared their research in a video feature last year.

The J.B. Jackson Book Prize is awarded to the author of a book published within the past three years on a subject pertaining to landscape studies, based on original research and breaking new ground in method or interpretation. Bonvehi Rosich and Denizen will receive a cash prize and participate in a public discussion with Meyer at UVA in spring 2027.