Photos: World's fair to focus on water

Ratti's waterfalls will release water droplets in shapes and spell out words.

"To understand the concept of digital water, imagine something like an inkjet printer on a large scale, which controls droplets of falling water," Ratti said in a statement.

A simulation of the special waterfalls can be seen on the Digital Water Pavilion's Web site.

Photo by Carlo Ratti Associati/Walter Nicolino/Carlo Ratti/Claudio Bonicco/Matteo Lai