Workshop TU Delft and KWR: Water and Soil as Guiding Principles in the Water Sector

Celebrating the collaboration between KWR and TU Delft

For a few years, the renewed collaboration agreement between KWR and TU Delft has been active. Various KWR employees have a part-time position at TU Delft. Also, KWR and the university partake in joint projects such as PUSH-IT, Fiware4Water, WarmingUP, FRESHMAN and Smart Water Futures. To celebrate our collaboration, to get to know each other better and to think of new research fields on which to take the following steps, we organized a workshop at KWR on 5 December. We focused on ‘Water-Bodem Sturend in de (Drink)watersector’, i.e. the integration of water and soil as key drivers in sustainable urban development and water management. The Dutch government will use this as a guiding principle for future spatial and subsurface planning.

Image 1. The workshop by KWR and TU Delft consisted of four presentations and an interactive session.

An open discussion and thoughts about future research subjects will be held

The workshop consisted of four presentations and an interactive session. We were welcomed by Mirjam Blokker (KWR) and Timo Heimovaraa (TU Delft). Timo introduced the topic by showing us the soil map of the Netherlands and giving some background to the guiding principles of soil and water. Fransje Hooijmeijer (TU Delft) gave us insight into the history of urban planning and the critical role of water and soil in it, now and in the future. Mirjam Blokker explained the role that drinking water demand and the distribution system play in the water transition. She also described the challenge of creating a sustainable balance between water demand and availability in the Netherlands. Klaasjan Raat (KWR) gave an overview of research on water resources management at KWR and described how the water management paradigm is shifting to deal with the future climate. After that, we divided into groups to discuss the topics with the speakers. We defined various research topics and touched on some options for funding future projects.  

We ended with drinks and snacks and a positive feeling about the afternoon. The atmosphere was very open; we had interesting discussions and the chance to meet new people. It’s definitely a good start of a tradition to do this every year.  

Quote from participant Konstantinos Glynis, PhD at KWR and TU Delft:  

“A highlight for me was the engaging group discussions, where participants brainstormed solutions emphasizing the need for synergies between diverse perspectives to develop inclusive and actionable strategies. The workshop underscored the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration in addressing complex water and soil-related challenges.”