Azucena Rodriguez Yebra | Postdoctoral researcher and WP3 and case study (Belgium) co-leader

Vrije Universiteit Brussels

Azucena is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Water and Climate Department of VU Brussel. Her main areas of expertise are groundwater and surface water assessment and modelling, climate change adaptation and resilience; and water resources and drought management. Her interests focus on interdisciplinary research to advance scientific and technological achievements for a better future.

Marijke Huysmans | WP3 and case study co-leader (Belgium)

Vrije Universiteit Brussel

Marijke Huysmans is professor in Groundwater Hydrology at the Department of Water and Climate at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. Her research interests are hydrogeology, groundwater modeling, geostatistics, groundwater-surface water interaction, sustainable groundwater management, drought, climate adaptation and geothermal energy.

Anne Van Loon | Principal investigator

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

Anne is an associate professor of drought risk at the Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM) at VU Amsterdam. She is a hydrologist interested in the relationship between water, people and the environment. Her research focuses on hydrological extremes (droughts and floods) and uses interdisciplinary methods to understand hydrological processes and their interaction with human activities.

Dona Geagea  | Postdoctoral researcher and WP2 and case study (Netherlands) co-leader

Wageningen University & Research

Dona is postdoctoral researcher in the Public Administration and Policy Group at Wageningen University. Her research interests include the governance of water as commons through recommoning practices, public-commons partnerships and innovative public governance approaches to governing water resources under climatic uncertainty. Dona’s career encompasses ten years of consulting in the water sector as a stakeholder engagement specialist and facilitator of multi-disciplinary and stakeholder projects on water and climate.

Johanna Koehler | WP2 co-leader

Wageningen University & Research

Johanna Koehler is Assistant Professor of Environmental Risk Governance in the Public Administration and Policy Group at Wageningen University. Her research interests include the governance of sustainability transformations, especially with regard to innovations in water services and the governance of hydroclimatic extreme events. She investigates how risks and responsibilities are shared in innovative governance arrangements across state, market and civil society actors.

Jose David Henao Casas | Postdoctoral researcher, case study co-leader (Netherlands) and project manager

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

Jose has a background in hydrogeology and agriculture. In GroundedExtremes, he focuses on the impacts of drought on groundwater systems, employing data analysis and modeling techniques. He has previous experience in managed aquifer recharge, regional groundwater monitoring, and geospatial data analysis.

Marjolein van Huijgevoort | Postdoctoral research co-supervisor

KWR

Marjolein van Huijgevoort is a researcher in the Ecohydrology team of KWR Water and guest researcher at the Water and Climate Risk Group at IVM – VU. She works on projects related to drought, water availability, water management and human-water interactions, with a focus on the application of scientific knowledge in practice.

Rebekah Hinton | Postdoctoral researcher and WP2 and case study (Netherlands) co-leader

Wageningen University & Research

Rebekah has a passion for bridging the gap between science and policy, she has a background in hydrogeology, developing geospatial and numerical models of risks to groundwater resources and the implications on safe drinking water access. She is most interested in how these models can ensure impact and so has also worked closely with policy makers to translate findings into policy relevant formats and is pursuing this within the Public Administration and Policy Group at Wageningen University.

Ype van der Velde | Postdoctoral research co-supervisor and data manager

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

As an Associate Professor at VU Amsterdam, my research focuses on landscapes in transition, particularly changes due to shallow groundwater. My group studies soil subsidence, greenhouse gas emissions, and peatland evolution in the Netherlands, Canada, Scandinavia, and Ireland, as well as urban deltas and Arctic permafrost thaw. Shallow groundwater’s role in landscape change is our central theme.

Lucia De Stefano | Case study (Spain) co-leader

Complutense University of Madrid

Lucia De Stefano is Associate Professor at the Geological Department of Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain). Deputy Director of the Botin Foundation’s Water Observatory and co-founder of Caminar El Agua. Her main areas of work and research are hydrological planning and water resources management, the evaluation of environmental public policies, drought management, and the analysis of resilience to climate variability.

Natalia Limones | Case study (Spain) co-leader

University of Sevilla

Natalia Limones has a background in Physical Geography (PhD) and Water and Environmental Management (MSc), specializing in water resources and drought risk management. She is a Professor at the University of Seville, Spain, and her current research interests focus on drought risk and resilience assessment and on the implementation of nature-based solutions for drought risk reduction in semi arid areas.

María Fernández Martínez | Researcher

Complutense University of Madrid

María is a researcher at the External Geodynamics Area of the Complutense University of Madrid. She has a degree in Geology and a Master’s degree in Environmental Geology. She has supported groundwater projects related to hydrological planning.

Akhilesh S. Nair | Researcher and WP1 co-leader

University of Oslo

Akhilesh is a researcher in the Department of Geosciences at the University of Oslo. His academic background encompasses a range of disciplines including hydrology, land surface modeling, remote sensing, data assimilation, and climate modeling. He specializes in examining the impacts of climate change on water resources. Currently, his research is concentrated on the intricate dynamics of the hydrologic cycle, with a particular emphasis on groundwater extremes and compounding events.

Catharina Landström | WP2 collaborator

Chalmers University of Technology

Catharina Landström, Associate Professor in STS at Chalmers has examined the social aspects of water risks (flooding, drought, and urban river management) in the UK before returning to Sweden in 2018. She has a special interest in stakeholder and public engagement with water science and management.

Lena M Tallaksen | WP1 collaborator and impact leader

University of Oslo

Lena M Tallaksen is professor in hydrology at the University of Oslo. Her prime interest is within low flow and drought research, addressing a wide range of drought aspects – from drivers to impacts. She is editor of the 2nd edition of the Textbook on Hydrological Drought published in 2023 by Elsevier, and coordinator of the European Drought Centre – a virtual network of researchers. Her research focuses on Europe, although not limited to.

Martin Mickelsson | Postdoctoral researcher and case study (Sweden) co-leader

University of Gothenburg

Martin has a background in environmental and sustainability education with a keen research interest in how groundwater and surface water sits at the intersection of environmental health and human health. He explores social risks and trade-offs between sustainability and water supply access. His expertise includes stakeholder and community engagement to develop governance of shared water resources under extreme conditions.

Markus Giese | Postdoctoral research co-supervisor and data management

University of Gothenburg

Markus is a researcher in hydrogeology at the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Gothenburg. He has a background in hydrology and an interest in the impact of changing environmental and climatic conditions on water resources. His current research focuses on the dynamics of different processes within the hydrologic cycle, mainly the processes related to groundwater recharge.

Roland Barthel | WP1 and case study (Sweden) co-leader

University of Gothenburg 

Roland Barthel, professor in hydrogeology, has been studying the impact of Global Change on groundwater systems and water supply for over 20 years. He is particularly interested in regional scale hydrogeology and the dynamic behavior of groundwater systems. Moreover, he has a special interest in the interface between natural science and engineering and social sciences, in particular in relation to governance and other societal aspects of water resources management.