My scientific interests revolve around pioneering research to develop sustainable solutions for river and coastal systems to mitigate impacts of increasingly extreme floods and droughts. Together with colleagues, I work on generating fundamental understanding and Nature Based Solutions for Flood Risk Management and Fresh Water Availability. I’m convinced that developing practical design tools is essential to ensure this knowledge is utilized. Therefore, I work closely with national and international partners, such as water-authorities, knowledge institutes and private companies.

In addition to research, educating the new generation of engineers, researchers and policy makers is equally if not more important. I’m an engaged teacher of the third year Bachelor course Multifunctional Flood Defences in which the students learn to integrate a multifunctional flood defence with the many other functions of an urban landscape in an interdisciplinary setting. I also teach the MSc course Hydraulic Engineering, in which students learn to assess and design flood embankments and hydraulic structures and develop integrated and climate-resilient solutions for flood protection within an increasingly complex world.

Expertise

  • Earth and Planetary Sciences

    • Model
    • River
    • Overtopping
    • Dyke (Water management)
    • Wave
    • Investigation
    • Roughness
    • Flood

Organisations

Together with PhD and MSc students my research has benefitted practical implementation in models and guidelines. I have co-authored over 35 papers in peer-reviewed journals and my work is presented in more than 120 conferences, workshops and professional articles and reports. My current research advances numerical modelling for dike cover erosion, laboratory experiments for improving sea wall design, stochastic modelling frameworks for flood risk management and sustainable solutions for river bed dynamics under extreme droughts. This knowledge feeds into more accurate process-based models and tools for flood risk reduction and resilience against droughts.

Publications

2024
Increasing the water level accuracy in hydraulic river simulation by adapting mesh level elevation, Article 106135, 106135 (E-pub ahead of print/First online). Khorsandi kuhanestani, P., Bomers, A., Booij, M. J., Warmink, J. J. & Hulscher, S. J. M. H.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2024.106135Understanding and forecasting low flow river dune dynamics in a highly engineered lowland river. University of Twente. Lokin, L.https://doi.org/10.3990/1.9789036560870Improving mesh set-up increase accuracy of discharge capacity representation for water level prediction, 62-63. Khorsandi Kuhanestani, P., Bomers, A., Booij, M. J., Warmink, J. J. & Hulscher, S. J. M. H.https://cdn.bullit.digital/kbase/20240227205343/ncr-54-book_of_abstracts_ncrdays_2024_web.pdfFast computation of dike breach growth and outflow, 64-65. Besseling, L., Bomers, A., Warmink, J. J. & Hulscher, S. J. M. H.https://cdn.bullit.digital/kbase/20240227205343/ncr-54-book_of_abstracts_ncrdays_2024_web.pdfAction perspectives on climate extremes in the Dutch river system: system-level impacts and mitigation strategies, 120-121. Welsch, N., Warmink, J. J., Augustijn, D. C. M. & Hulscher, S. J. M. H.Spatial variation in Dutch Wadden Sea salt marshes and nature-based coastal flood protection by Living Dikes, 94-95. Sipma, E. B., Warmink, J. J., Duong, T. M. & Hulscher, S. J. M. H.https://www.nck-web.org/boa-2024/800-spatial-variation-in-dutch-wadden-sea-salt-marshes-and-nature-based-coastal-flood-protection-by-living-dikesAction perspectives on climate extrems in the Dutch river system: system-level impacts and mitigation strategies, 120-121. Welsch, N., Warmink, J. J., Augustijn, D. C. M. & Hulscher, S. J. M. H.
2023

Research profiles

2022-now     Living Dikes (funded by NWO-ORC). https://www.nwo.nl/en/news/research-living-dikes-grow-rising-sea-level

2022-now     FutureDikes research project (funded by HWBP, lead by Waterboard Rivierenland). https://www.waterschaprivierenland.nl/future-dikes-sterke-en-natuurlijke-dijk

2021-now     Hydraulic river modelling approaches to simulate high flow and low flow conditions (funded by UTwente). https://www.utwente.nl/en/et/cem/research/wem/research/projects/khorsandi/

2021-now     Member Expert Network Fresh Water and Drought, advisory committee for Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management.

2021-now     Member editorial advisory board of international journal Natural Hazards. https://www.springer.com/journal/11069

2021            Chair organiser NCR-days 2021 conference, February 11-12 2021, Enschede (online). https://ncr-web.org/events/ncr-days-2021/

2020-now     Rivers2Morrow research project (funded by Rijkswaterstaat). https://ncr-web.org/projects/rivers2morrow/

2020            Associate editor special issue Resilient Flood Defences in Journal Marine Science and Engineering. https://www.mdpi.com/journal/jmse/special_issues/Resilient_Flood_Defences

2016-2022    All-Risk research project (funded by NWO-Perspectief). https://kbase.ncr-web.org/all-risk/.

                      PhD thesis Van Bergeijk: https://doi.org/10.3990/1.9789036553414.

                      PhD thesis Gensen: https://doi.org/10.3990/1.9789036553056.

                      PhD thesis Chen: https://doi.org/10.3990/1.9789036553001.

2015-2020    RiverCare research project (funded by NWO-Perspectief). https://kbase.ncr-web.org/rivercare/

                      PhD thesis Berends: https://doi.org/10.3990/1.9789036548823.

2014            Organizer of the NCR-days 2014 conference, October 2-3 2014, Enschede.

2012-2016:   Integral and sustainable design of Multifunctional Flood Defences research project (funded by NWO-Perspectief).

                      PhD thesis Aguilar-Lopez: https://doi.org/10.3990/1.9789036542586.

Address

University of Twente

Horst Complex (building no. 20), room W212
De Horst 2
7522 LW Enschede
Netherlands

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