Mandy van den Ende MSc

Vening Meineszgebouw A
Princetonlaan 8a
Kamer 7.24
3584 CB Utrecht

Mandy van den Ende MSc

PhD Candidate
Environmental Governance
m.a.vandenende@uu.nl

"Transformative governance approaches offer sight on spatial planning in which technical innovation is no longer seen as a one-size-fits-all solution, but in which the strategy most suitable for each specific landscape context is determined."
 

About me

Mandy is a PhD researcher on transformative governance for sustainable land use. The empirical focus of her work is land subsidence in the Dutch peatlands. Land subsidence is the result of centuries of drainage for agricultural purposes and the weight of buildings/infrastructure: manifestations of unsustainable land-use. Mandy's research provides insights into the potential and areas of improvement of existing governance approaches to facilitate transformative change towards more sustainable land use. Her project is part of an inter-university program Living on Soft Soils (LOSS) - funded by the National Science Agenda (NWA) of NWO, the Dutch organization for scientific research.

What is land subsidence?

The Netherlands is a country lying mostly below sea level, whose geology is characterized by unconsolidated sediment (peat, sand, clay) rather than hard rock. In built-up areas on peat soil, the weight of buildings has caused land subsidence and has greatly increased the risk of damage to infrastructure and real estate. Hitherto, measures to prevent subsided buildings being flooded such as drainage, have proven ineffective because of unintended effects (e.g., rot in wooden pile foundations). In rural areas on peat, subsidence mainly results from the traditional water management practice of water table lowering for agricultural purposes. This causes peat to oxidize, which leads to a release of greenhouse gases, degradation of natural resources and increased flood risk. 

The broader relevance of my research

In my papers, I use land subsidence as an illustrative example of a wicked sustainability problem that has evolved in a creeping crisis. Wicked problems characterize complexity, uncertainty and norm plurality. There are, for example competing land-use claims (e.g., agriculture, urbanization) in a densely populated area. It is also a creeping crisis, because the lack of adequate strategies reflects the absence of a collective sense of urgency about the potential crisis in terms of financial costs, national safety, and ecological degradation. Other land-use problems in the Dutch peatlands, such as biodiversity loss and flood risk, can be seen as stand-alone yet interconnected wicked problems and creeping crises. Only a few land-use problems (climate change and nitrogen pollution) have been declared as crises in the Netherlands, although that does not guarantee an effective crisis response. 

Research output

So far, my research has resulted in two research papers, the first being about typical governance issues stemming from wicked problems/creeping crisis and the second about the transformative potential of experimentation as an environmental governance approach.

Non-academic time

Free time I usually spend outside: roadcycling, running, hiking, gardening. On rainy days I go to museums or I make my own art.