Instructors

These are the anchor persons for this MOOC.

Prof. em. Ir. Dirk Sijmons

Dirk Sijmons (1949) is one of the founders of H+N+S Landscape-architects. At the office he was responsible for regional plans and research projects. H+N+S received the Prince Bernard Culture award in 2001. In 2002 he received the Rotterdam-Maaskant award and in 2007 the prestigious Edgar Doncker award for his contribution to ‘Dutch Culture’.

His book publications in English are = Landscape (1998), Greetings from Europe (2008), Landscape and Energy (2014), Moved Movement (2015) and Room-for-the-River (2017). Sijmons was appointed first State Landscape Architect of the Netherlands (2004-2008) and in that capacity chair of the Quality-team Room-for-the-Rivers.

Dirk held the chair of Environmental Design (2008-2011) and that of Landscape Architecture (2011-2015) at TU Delft. He was curator of IABR–2014 themed Urban-by-Nature. At the World Design summit 2017 in Montreal, he received the Global IFLA sir Geoffrey Jellicoe award.

Dr. ir. Martine Rutten

Martine Rutten is associate professor Water Management and Climate adaptation. She has a background in civil engineering with specializations Hydraulic Engineering (ETHZurich) and Water resources management (TUDelft) and a PhD degree on remote sensing for water resources management. Parallel to her PhD she developed education programs for Integrated water resources management at Lentiz Vocational university, Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences and universities abroad. This broad integrated perspective is also reflected in her research portfolio which spans a wide set of topics, from nexus modelling, to optimal control to citizen science. She has a strong background in transdisciplinary learning for water resources management and vast experience with learning communities and living labs.

In September 2019 she started the Delta Futures lab. The Delta Futures lab is a multidisciplinary network for MSc-students, staff and practice with the ambition to become interdisciplinary leaders in spatial design, engineering and governance of deltas. The Lab unites master students, researchers and professionals in multidisciplinary projects. It enriches and supports master students in becoming the mission-oriented engineers that future delta societies need. More information can be found on deltafutureslab.org.

She is also acting as scientific lead and learning community coordinator for the theme Climate Adaptation at The Green Village. At TGV she conducts transdisciplinary research together with different academic disciplines, applied universities, vocation education, entrepreneurs, municipalities, water boards, provinces and other actors in this field. More information can be found on thegreenvillage.org/

Drs. ir. Ellen Minkman

Ellen Minkman is an assistant professor in governance of socio-technical systems. In her research she focusses on decision making and governance of water and delta management.

Ellen Minkman studied Civil Engineering and Science Communication at TU Delft. In 2021 she obtained a PhD in public administration at Erasmus University Rotterdam. Her PhD researched focussed on policy transfer of Adaptive Delta Management practices from the Netherlands to Asian countries. During her PhD, she furthermore worked part-time as water trainee at the National Water Traineeship for 2 years.

Dr. Minkman’s research concentrates on water governance. Her research interests include decision making and governance for future-proof urban deltas as well as governance transitions in water management and related policy fields (e.g. agriculture, energy). The key research theme is delta management, especially in relation to climate change adaptation and international development cooperation. Conceptually, her research focusses on policy transfer, organizational learning and knowledge sharing.

Prof. dr. Frans Klijn

Frans Klijn is specialist in Adaptive Delta Panning, working at Deltares (The Netherlands) since 1996, and as professor at TPM from 2015. Trained as a physical geographer and geo-ecologist, he has been working on River Basin Management since 1980. His experience ranges from policy analysis to the practical planning and design of river management measures. He has a broad experience in environmentally sound planning, with special emphasis on resilience strategies for flood risk management.

In the 1990s Frans Klijn played in important role in the societal debate on the management of the large Dutch rivers, regarding a.o. nature rehabilitation and flood protection measures, which culminated in the Room-for-Rivers policy. He is a member of the ‘Quality Team’, which ensures that all 39 room-for-river plans deliver not only flood protection but also Spatial Quality.

Recently, he co-ordinated the research on ‘Climate-proof flood risk management’ for the Netherlands’ Knowledge for Climate programme and he advised the Netherlands’ Delta Programme.

Dr. ir. Floortje d’Hont

Floortje d’Hont is a policy analyst, particularly interested in the role of systems thinking for generating innovative and creative solutions for wicked problems. She is currently employed as a teacher at the Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management in Delft, where she teaches system dynamics simulation models and design of complex systems. In her PhD research ‘Co-design in the coastal context’ she sought ways to elicit and utilize specialized expert knowledge across disciplinary boundaries. She  investigated how collaborative design can contribute to finding creative solutions that support flood safety, spatial quality and other community interests. Systems thinking and policy analysis were key in this research, especially in relation to integrated water and coastal management.