R&D highlights edition 2019

Flood risk 9 R&D Highlights 2019 PROFESSORSHIPS FOR ENABLING EARLY WARNING Martin Velaan: ‘My goal is to be able to make reliable predictions about variations in water levels around the world.’ T he R&D programme ‘Enabling Early Warning’ boasts two professors. Both Albrecht Weerts and Martin Verlaan became full professors in 2017 in fields that are very closely related to the objectives of the programme. Albrecht Weerts, senior hydrologist in the Deltares Operational Water Management department, is Professor of Hydrological Predictability at Wageningen University. Under his supervision, various PhD candidates, post-doctoral researchers and M.Sc. students are studying a range of topics in the area of fluvial flood forecasting. These include rainfall-runoffmodelling for the Rhine & Meuse basin, radar- based nowcasting, hydrological data assimilation and hydrological forecasting on the global scale. Martin Verlaan, senior modelling expert at the Deltares Environmental Hydrodynamics and Forecasting department, is Professor of Data Assimilation at Delft University of Technology. He is the lead researcher of two NWO/STW-funded projects. FAST4NL explores the effects of the impact of Arctic sea ice decline on future global tidal and storm surge levels along the Dutch coast. The “Versatile Hydrodynamics” project explores the real-time forecasting of North Sea water depths for the purposes of managing navigation. Both Albrecht and Martin ensure that the R&D programme benefits from the latest academic insights through intensive cooperation between Deltares and the respective universities on R&D and Ph.D. research projects and through staff exchanges. Albrecht and Martin’s involvement in the research of Deltares ensures academic rigour and allows Deltares to benefit from the various academic networks and communities of which they are members. Contact: Prof. Albrecht Weerts, Albrecht.Weerts@deltares.nl, t +31 (0)6 2033 2696 Prof. Martin Verlaan, Martin.Verlaan@deltares.nl, t +31 (0)6 2155 7644 Further reading : https://www.wur.nl/en/newsarticle/Prediction-of-floods-and-droughts- is-an-effective-measure-for-adapting-to-climate-change.htm https://www.tudelft.nl/ewi/actueel/humans-of-eemcs/martin-verlaan/ The “Enabling Early Warning” R&D programme boasts two professors: both Albrecht Weerts and Martin Verlaan are full professors in fields very closely related to the objectives of the programme. Albrecht Weerts: ‘More accurate and reliable predictions that can help us improve the management of our waterways in times of drought, or when floods threaten, will have an excellent return on investment regardless of the extent of climate change.’