Professor Jasper Griffioen has a part-time chair Water Quality Management at the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development (section Environmental Sciences) at the Faculty of Geosciences of Utrecht University. He is also an expert researcher at TNO Geological Survey of the Netherlands. He has a M.Sc and Ph.D in Earth Sciences from the Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. He is specialised in environmental hydrology and geochemistry within the framework of sustainable management of soil and water resources. Preferably, he combines field characterization and assessment campaigns with modelling studies.
Initially, he studied soil and groundwater contamination from agricultural and urban activities. This has been broadened with research on the impacts of geo-energy related activities, where he addresses both the potential of green technologies (aquifer thermal energy storage, hydrogen storage, and also enhanced rock weathering) and the environmental risks of either these technologies or traditional ones (natural gas production, disposal of radioactive waste). Many of his projects refer to the risks and impact of anthropogenic measures on groundwater and soil, and associated effects on drinking water resources and groundwater-dependent ecosystems. For the latter, he introduced the concept of zoohydrology, in addition to ecohydrology, to study the two-way interrelationship between hydrology and animals. In the course of time, he has performed studies for a wide variety of geographical settings and a broad range of environmental management issues, ranging from an acid crater lake in Indonesia to leakage of gas wells in the deep subsurface of the Netherlands. In result, he addressed contaminants such as nitrate, phosphate, natural fluoride or arsenic, zinc and cadmium, pesticides, petroleum hydrocarbons as benzene, methane, PFAS and anti-biotics.
He is frequently involved in review assessments on invitation of Dutch and international authorities, as expert for Dutch courts and as member of ministerial and other committees. He is, for example, member of the Advisory Council Soil Protection which provides expert opinions on soil protection facilities. In addition to his peer-reviewed publications, he authored or co-authored 12 contributions as book, book chapter, lecture notes, more than 100 ministerial advices, about 20 expert reports and more than 200 technical reports. He applied his expertise internationally in Kenya, Tanzania, Slovakia, Indonesia, China, Lebanon, Nepal, India, Bangladesh and Uganda, and has been involved in PhD studies in Bangladesh, Italy, Iran, India, Brazil and Nepal as well as the Netherlands.