Ongoing subsidence is an complex problem in the Dutch lowlands for cities and polder land. Old strategies for coping have bottom limits. New strategies will be arranged and the pacing of subsidence mapped and modelled, so that the measures to negotiate and decide on have figures in mm and €.

• prof. mr. dr. Frank Groothuijse
• dr. ir. Dries Hegger
• dr. Gilles Erkens
• dr. ir. M.M. (Mariet) Hefting
• prof. dr. Peter Driessen
• dr. Kim Cohen
• prof. dr. Esther Stouthamer
• Ruth de Klerk
• dr. Oscar van Vliet
• Duygu Tolunay
• Kim de Wit MSc
• Bente Lexmond MSc
• Pepijn van Elderen MSc

• Gilles Erkens (Deltares)
• Bernardien Tiehatten (LOSS)
• Prof. Ramon Hanssen (TU Delft)
• J.G. Rots (TU Delft)
• K.G. Gavin (TU Delft)
• Prof. Ekko van Ierland (WUR)
• Prof. Hans-Peter Weikard (WUR)
• Jan Willem van Groenigen (WUR)
• Jan JH van den Akker (WUR)
• Dr. Mandy Korff (TUD
• Deltares)
• Dr. Peter Fokker (TNO Geological Survey of the Netherlands)

Dit NWO TTW project onderzoekt manieren om het risico op overstromingen beter te voorspellen en te voorkomen. Meer kennis over de risico’s kunnen de aanstaande miljardeninvesteringen in met name waterkeringen een stuk efficiënter maken. Onderzoekers, bedrijven en overheden gaan wetenschappelijke kennis koppelen aan de praktijk en aan de wet- en regelgeving. Het onderzoek richt zich onder andere op waterkeringen, het modelleren van extreme waterstanden en golven, het schatten van faalkansen, de ondergrond, kettingreacties bij dijkdoorbraken en wie op welk moment waarvoor verantwoordelijk is. Het project sluit aan bij het hoogwaterbeschermingsprogramma van het Rijk en de waterschappen

• prof. dr. Herman Kasper Gilissen LLM
• mr. dr. Willemijn van Doorn-Hoekveld

This research project proposes to develop a water, energy and food nexusing approach that increases resilience capabilities in the Cape Town Metropolitan region. The water-energy-food nexus has emerged as a framework for integrated resource management. To date, however, the practical adoption of nexus approaches into governance practices and policies has lagged behind policy ambitions. The contention of this proposal is that to increase the scientific and societal value of nexus approaches, an expanded view on nexusing processes is required.

Therefore, this project will critically explore the water-energy-food nexus through three main points of departure: the first is to understand the multi-dimensional interaction of water, energy and food systems. The second is to assess how the water-energy-food nexus materialises in selected socio-spatial contexts in Cape Town. Thirdly, the aim is to
understand the wicked governance challenges of mitigating, coping with, preparing for, and adapting to urban resource crises. Finally, the project will develop multi-scale procedural guidelines and policy briefs to inform nexusing practices. To achieve these objectives, the research adopts a complex systems approach which systematically addresses the multi-dimensional nature of the water-energy-food nexus. Through a multi-disciplinary approach and in close collaboration with societal partners, WEF nexusing will be explored as a broader process-oriented approach to howresources do, and can, interact and be governed across siloed domains.

This is a crucially important endeavour in the city of Cape Town which faces a triple exposure to interrelated water, energy and food crises. Through this expanded perspective, and emerging from the urgent need for concerted urban action, this broader view of nexusing will be framed through the conceptual lens of urban resilience. The research will assess the vulnerabilities and resilience of complex system interactions to develop recommendations for coordinating resilience strategies that work complementary to existing governance arrangements.

• dr. Shaun Smith
• prof. mr. Anoeska Buijze
• prof. dr. Maarten Hajer
• prof. dr. Jochen Monstadt
• Nicola Harvey
• dr. Shaun Smith

Delta areas, as unique ecosystems, are among the most densely populated areas in the world. Deltas are under increasing human and natural pressure. Future global change, with intensifying human activity, increasing weather extremes, changing river flow regimes and accelerated sea-level rise, will put deltas and their societies at increasing risk.

We therefore need deltas that are resilient to natural hazards, make sustainable use of natural resources, have healthy environmental conditions, and are able to cope with future climate change and sea-level rise. It is now the moment for science and society to find sustainable pathways into such future. This requires addressing the wide variety of processes - physical, chemical, biological, institutional and socio-economic – that interact in deltas in an integrated approach.

In the hub Water, Climate and Future Deltas researchers from varying disciplines at Utrecht University cooperate with external partners to design and evaluate pathways to sustainable delta development. The hub will provide policy makers and delta managers with the essential scientific basis for informed decision-making on pathways towards sustainable deltas.

https://www.uu.nl/en/research/sustainability/research/water-climate-future-deltas

• prof. dr. Martin Wassen
• prof. dr. Esther Stouthamer
• prof. mr. dr. Frank Groothuijse
• dr. ir. M.M. (Mariet) Hefting
• prof. dr. Detlef van Vuuren
• prof. dr. Roderik van de Wal
• prof. dr. Hans Middelkoop
• dr. Murray Scown
• dr. H. (Haomiao) Du

• Dr. Marjolijn Haasnoot - Deltares
• Dr. Gilles Erkens - Deltares
• Drs. Henk van Hardeveld - HDSR

This hub addresses one of the big open question within Deep Decarbonization of the Energy System, namely the decarbonization of Industry. The energy transition is well underway and gathering pace as far as electric renewables and electrification are concerned. However, it is still unclear how industry will deal with the carbon it needs for fuel and feedstock, when total CO2 (and other GHG) emissions must be brought down to zero around mid-century to meet the Paris target. It will even be necessary for Industry to deliver negative emissions, to offset unavoidable emissions in other sectors. How to achieve this transformation in the decades to come is the challenge that this Hub takes on.

It does so on the understanding that technical options abound, but are in aggregate insufficient or unattractive, warranting the study of new options. Within the hub programme we focus on two promising options: biofuels options with negative emissions, and the use of the subsurface to achieve negative emissions.  

Against the backdrop of this evolving landscape of existing and new technical options, society has to create the conditions under which the required investment decisions can be made now. This involves creating new infrastructure, regulatory frameworks and governance structures that reduce the long-term non-technical risk that now prevents industry to invest. 

This hub brings together a broad group of researchers with an equally broad group from industry, government and civil society. We aim to develop a shared understanding and a shared narrative of how to deliver this the energy transition in industry. The focus will be on the Netherlands. This regional specificity is crucial to answer the central question of industry transformation. But as one small, open and industrialized economy, the results will have relevance for industry transitions globally. "Towards Industry with Negative Emissions"

• prof. dr. Gert Jan Kramer
• prof. dr. Chris Spiers
• prof. dr. P.C.A. (Pieter) Bruijnincx
• dr. Jesse Hoffman
• drs. ing. Udeke Huiskamp MBA
• prof. dr. Ernst Worrell

This research project aims at identifying and understanding energy transition issues and opportunities for innovation from a governance, legal and economic perspective. In this project we will both employ a retrospective as well as an onward looking perspective into these issues in order to suggest instruments to facilitate the energy transition in the power and energy intensive industry.

The power and energy intensive industries present substantial challenges in the transition towards more sustainable energy because of the large quantities of energy consumed, the fossil resources of this energy and, therefore, the amount of CO2 emissions. Through societal and political awareness of this issue, these sectors are increasingly pressured to make considerable changes to the ways they consume and generate energy.

Social, legal and economic research into these two industries and their connection to each other, the energy system at large and renewable energy is lagging behind other research aspects of the energy transition, such as technical research, consumer behaviour and market regulation. Research has only just begun to uncover the complexities of these two industries and, insofar as it exists, mainly focuses on China and Germany.

https://www.uu.nl/en/research/regulation-of-innovation/sustainable-energy

• prof. mr. Anoeska Buijze
• prof. dr. Wouter Botzen
• dr. Ank Michels

Floods are among the most expensive disasters for delta areas. Delta areas are economically very vulnerable because of their intensive land uses. However, traditional approaches to diminish the risks of floods – as for example dikes - provide only limited protection. This project focusses on flood risk management related to planning and land use and discusses alternative approaches to store abundant water from river floods (and also flash floods) in more innovative ways. The technical and hydrological conditions for these options are relatively well known, but such measures inevitably affect private land use. Interventions in private land uses are complicated (especially because of fragmented land ownership), time-consuming and expensive. Implementation of retention areas and increase of resilience are hampered by lacking land management tools for private land.

The main innovation in this project is the focus on private land. Usually, flood risk management deals first with technical and hydrological issues before addressing land management. This is in sharp contrast with the urgent need for flood retention and resilience on private land in urban areas. This project turns the traditional perspective upside down and prioritizes the land users’ perspective. Therefore, new concepts and approaches for implementing flood retention and resilience on private land need to be elaborated. The central question is this: how can private land use and users be encouraged or forced to store water and thus create a more resilient urban land use in deltas?

This question is be addressed in a 2,5 day academic workshop, where the consortium works on a HORIZON project to ultimately submit a major research application.One of the main aims of Future Deltas is to bring together expertise on pressing issues in delta regions. This workshop is not only highly interdisciplinary and international cooperation and research but it is also highly innovative in its approach.

• prof. dr. Tejo Spit
• prof. mr. drs. Jan Biemans

• Prof. Dr. Jirina Jílková (J.E.P. University Ústí nad Labem; Czech Republic)
• Prof. Dr. Jochen Schanze (TU Dresden & IÖR Dresden; Germany)
• Dr. Simon McCarthy (Flood Hazard Research Centre London; UK)

In dit multidisciplinaire project wordt door UCWOSL (faculteit REBO, UU) samengewerkt met de faculteit geowetenschappen (UU) KWR Watercycle research Institute, Wageningen UR, Brabant Water N.V., Oasen N.V. en N.V. Waterleidingmaatschappij Limburg. Het onderzoek richt zich op het in kaart brengen van de risico's van schaliegaswinning in Nederland en vanuit juridisch perspectief welke Europeesrechtelijke en nationaalrechtelijke regelgeving relevant is voor schaliegaswinning en de bescherming van grondwater en drinkwaterbronnen. Onderzocht wordt waar deze regelgeving hiaten vertoont en hoe omgegaan kan worden met (onzekere) risico's, verantwoordelijkheden en aansprakelijkheden.

• prof. dr. Annemarie van Wezel
• prof. dr. Kees van Leeuwen
• prof. dr. Herman Kasper Gilissen LLM

In water management, a shift has taken place from a government to a governance approach. This approach is characterised by proceduralisation and by participation of stakeholders in norm setting, compliance and enforcement. This approach is assumed to be legitimate and effective and it should eventually lead to equitable and sustainable water management. Case studies will be conducted to test these assumptions in the area of water quality, by using the position of the stakeholders as starting point. See http://www.nwo.nl/en/research-and-results/research-projects/19/2300178119.html.

• prof. mr. Rob Widdershoven