Anne Van Loon has received a positive decision on her ERC Starting Grant proposal. The PerfectSTORM (‘STOrylines of futuRe extreMes’) project will provide five years of funding for research on droughts and floods. Future climate projections show a strengthening of the hydrological cycle with more droughts and floods expected. This means a higher likelihood of … Continue reading ERC Starting Grant for Anne Van Loon
- By Anne Van Loon, Marthe Wens, Raed Hamed Like many others around the world, we have been forced to move our teaching completely online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the challenges, this has also been an opportunity for us to develop new teaching methods, try flipping the classroom, and explore the use of … Continue reading Online teaching in courses related to climate risk, drought, water resources and sustainability
Last week we had several discussions within our research group in Amsterdam about #BlackLivesMatter, #ShutDownSTEM & racism in academia. I'm really grateful for the open exchange we had about this sensitive subject, which I think is very important. We feel we should share the outcomes of these discussions, so that others might be inspired to … Continue reading Racism in academia
We are happy to announce that at IVM – VU Amsterdam we have 2 PhD vacancies related to the new EU-funded DOWN2EARTH project. DOWN2EARTH project will assess critical research gaps within the dryland regions of the Horn of Africa (HAD), including i) how climate change affects the characteristics of rainfall and groundwater storage, ii) how … Continue reading 2 PHD VACANCIES DROUGHT RISK IN EAST AFRICA
In Feb 2020 I have moved from my old home at the University of Birmingham (UK) to an exiting new opportunity at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (the Netherlands). I have slightly updated my profile here and also have an (empty) VU page here. At VU I will work as Associate Professor in Drought Risk at … Continue reading Transfer to VU Amsterdam
by Danny Croghan What is the meaning of life? What came before the big bang? And how do green roofs mitigate water quality? Truly among life’s great questions. Today I will take you through my attempts to answer the third. Green roofs for those unaware are essentially roofs with vegetation planted on them. Though a … Continue reading Going Green (Roof)
Our writing retreat in the Peak District took place from 4 to 9 August and had 12 participants from Physical and Human Geography and Environmental Science (University of Birmingham, Bristol, Loughborough, Bologna, China). The week was again very productive and collaborative. This time we trialled structured writing in the morning (Pomodoro-style writing blocks of 40 … Continue reading 2019 writing retreat
Stijn Beernink (KWR Water) presented our research on how to include hydrology in mangrove restoration at the MMM5 conference in Singapore last week. Have a look at the poster here: poster_MMM5_2019_mangrove restoration_portrait. TAKE HOME MESSAGES: 1) failure of mangrove planting can be prevented by considering hydrological conditions 2) hydrological classification can guide making suitable hydrological conditions … Continue reading The hydrology of mangrove restoration
By Anne Van Loon - with special thanks to Massimilliano Zappa, Angela Thuer and all participants of the discussion sessions Today Swiss women strike to demand equal pay. A good day to post a blog on gender (in)equality in science. On 7 May 2019 I was invited at WSL (Switzerland) for a Distinguished Lecture. Massimilliano … Continue reading Women in Science
Recently, two papers have been published from the work done in the NWO-funded project “Adding the Human Dimension to Drought”. Sally Rangecroft and Anne Van Loon developed the methodology to quantify how human activities influence drought based on observation data. It is a challenge to attribute droughts in streamflow to the variety of natural drivers … Continue reading Quantifying the human influence on streamflow drought
--- by Anne Van Loon --- Sir James Bevan, the Chief Executive of the Environment Agency, in a speech at the Waterwise Conference on 19 March 2019, warned that water demand could surpass water availability in England in 20-25 years (see BBC summary & full speech). In it he warned for complacency and argued for … Continue reading “Jaws of death” or sustainable solutions? About water shortage in England
-- posted by Anne -- More and more earth scientists, climate scientists, and geographers, are #flyingless. Many believe that in the Anthropocene, with climate change wreaking havoc around the world, it is important to align one's daily life choices with our views and research that require taking responsibility and raising awareness. Actions speak louder than … Continue reading #flyingless
--- by Giuliano Di Baldassarre --- Building dams and reservoirs is one of the most common approaches to cope with drought and water shortage. The aim is straightforward: reservoirs can store water during wet periods, and then release it during dry periods. As such, they can stabilize water availability, thereby satisfying water demand and alleviating … Continue reading Water shortage due to storage? – new paper in Nature Sustainability
--- by Clarissa & Doris --- “Panta Rhei – Everything flows” is the current scientific decade (2013-2022) of the International Association of Hydrological Science (IAHS) that focuses on the interaction between hydrology and society. One of IAHS most active working groups is “Drought in Anthropocene”. Regular meetings are initiated and there is an annual workshop … Continue reading The Birmingham delegation to the Panta Rhei Drought workshop in Utrecht
By Danny Croghan The Hydrological Extremes research group enjoyed a busy but productive week at the annual European Geosciences Union (EGU) conference for 2018. All research group members were present and active at the conference with a total of 5 oral presentations, 5 poster presentations, and 3 PICO presentations conducted by the group. The EGU … Continue reading Hydrological Extremes Research Group Enjoys Successful EGU 2018
