Langezijds
Guest staff

prof.dr. M.K. van Aalst (Maarten)

Honorary Professor
ITC-AES
Langezijds
m.k.vanaalst@utwente.nl
Business card

Maarten van Aalst is Director General and Chief Science Officer of the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI) andĀ Permanent Representative of the Netherlands at the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), the European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasting (ECMWF) and the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT). HeĀ is full professor of Climate and Disaster Resilience atĀ theĀ University of Twente's Faculty of Geo-information Science and Earth Observation (ITC), with several PhD students working on climate risk management across time and spatial scales.

Prof van Aalst is a member of the European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change and was Coordinating Lead Author at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate ChangeĀ Ā (AR6, AR5 and SREX). He is a Trustee at the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED).

Before coming to KNMI in February 2023, Prof van Aalst was director of the International Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre and held the Prinses Margriet Chair in Climate and Disaster Resilience at ITC. He was also adjoint Senior Research Scientist at the International Research Institute for Climate and Society at Columbia University in New York, and worked on climate risk management with, among others, the World Bank, the African Development Bank, UNDP and OECD.Ā He acted as expert on various bodies of UNFCCC, UNDRR and the UN Secretary Generalā€™s climate team. Prof van Aalst holds a PhD in atmospheric physics and chemistry from Utrecht University and the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz.

Expertise

  • Earth and Planetary Sciences

    • Climate
    • Climate Change
    • Risk
    • Event
    • Flood
    • Adaptation
    • Rainfall

  • Social Sciences

    • Disasters

Organisations

Ancillary activities

  • IIEDMember board of trustees
  • IIED EuropeMember, supervisory board
  • European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate ChangeMember
  • Royal Netherlands Meteorological InstituteDirector-General and Chief Science Officer
  • Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ)Institute Advisory Committee (Instituutsadviesraad) NIOZ

Publications

Jump to: 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022

2025

Evaluating impact-based forecasting models for tropical cyclone anticipatory action (2025)International journal of disaster risk reduction, 129. Article 105782. Sedhain, S., van den Homberg, M., Teklesadik, A., van Aalst, M. K. & Kerle, N.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2025.105782Untangling the fragmented landscape of extreme heat services and warning systems (2025)Environmental research letters, 20(10). Article 101002. Pereira Marghidan, C., Nairn, J., Blanford, J. I., van Aalst, M. K. & Mistry, M.https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/adfe00Weathering conflict:: Impacts and solutions for protecting hydrometeorological infrastructure during armed conflict (2025)Weather, Climate, and Society, 17(4), 1089-1108. Jaime, C., Scholz, C., Young, A., Coughlan de Perez, E. & van Aalst, M.https://doi.org/10.1175/WCAS-D-25-0073.1Early warning and early action in conflict-affected settings (2025)[Thesis › PhD Thesis - Research UT, graduation UT]. University of Twente, Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC). Jaime Sanchez, M. C.https://doi.org/10.3990/1.9789036567381Heat risk perceptions and limits to adaptation in urban Mozambique: insights from communities and health professionals (2025)[Contribution to conference › Abstract] 12th International Conference on Urban Climate, ICUC 2025. Pereira Marghidan, C., Marrufo, T., Inlamea, O., Blanford, J. I., Coughlan de Perez, E. & van Aalst, M. K.

2024

Off the grid: utilizing OpenStreetMap for early warning and early action in conflict settings in Sudan (2024)Frontiers in Climate, 6, 1-20. Scholz, C., Jaime Sanchez, M. C., Raju, E., Coughlan De Perez, E. & van Aalst, M.https://doi.org/10.3389/fclim.2024.1439940A database of 98 climate-relevant social protection programs in emerging and developing economies (2024)[Other contribution › Other contribution]. Costella, C., Banthiya, A., Reilly, R., Sivanu, S., Slater, R., Georgiadou, Y. & Aalst, M. V.https://doi.org/10.17632/BSBJ9FBGYY.2Mapping the integration of climate considerations in social protection in LMICs: An assessment of ninety-eight climate-relevant social protection programs (2024)Climate Risk Management, 46. Article 100660. Costella, C., Banthiya, A., Reilly, R., Sivanu, S., Slater, R., Georgiadou, Y. & van Aalst, M.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crm.2024.100660Detecting the human fingerprint in the summer 2022 western-central European soil drought (2024)Earth System Dynamics, 15(1), 131-154. Schumacher, D. L., Zachariah, M., Otto, F., Barnes, C., Philip, S., Kew, S., Vahlberg, M., Singh, R., Heinrich, D., Arrighi, J., Van Aalst, M., Hauser, M., Hirschi, M., Bessenbacher, V., Gudmundsson, L., Beaudoing, H. K., Rodell, M., Li, S., Yang, W., ā€¦ Seneviratne, S. I.https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-15-131-2024Beyond the forecast: knowledge gaps to anticipate disasters in armed conflict areas with high forced displacement (2024)Environmental research letters, 19(2), 1-13. Article 023001. Jaime Sanchez, M. C., Coughlan de Perez, E., Easton-Calabria, E. & Aalst, M. v.https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ad2023

2023

AR6 WGII Summary of observed global and regional impacts on ecosystems and human systems attributed to climate change (2023)[Dataset Types › Dataset]. MetadataWorks. Pörtner, H. O., Roberts, D. C., Adams, H., Adler, C., Adrian, R., Aldunce, P., Ali, E., Ara Begum, R., Bezner Kerr, R., Biesbroek, R., Birkmann, J., Bowen, K., Castellanos, E., Cissé, G., Constable, A., Cramer, W., Dodman, D., Fischlin, A., Garschagen, M., ā€¦ Gonzalez, P.https://doi.org/10.48490/2w53-yw15Attribution of the heavy rainfall events leading to severe flooding in Western Europe during July 2021 (2023)Climatic change, 176(7). Article 90. Tradowsky, J. S., Philip, S. Y., Kreienkamp, F., Kew, S. F., Lorenz, P., Arrighi, J., Bettmann, T., Caluwaerts, S., Chan, S. C., De Cruz, L., de Vries, H., Demuth, N., Ferrone, A., Fischer, E. M., Fowler, H. J., Goergen, K., Heinrich, D., Henrichs, Y., Kaspar, F., ā€¦ Wanders, N.https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-023-03502-7Extreme heat alerts and impacts across Mozambique 2016 - 2022: Gathering evidence from media articles (2023)In 26th AGILE Conference on Geographic Information Science ā€œSpatial data for designā€ (pp. 1-13). Article 11 (AGILE: GIScience Series). Copernicus. Pereira Marghidan, C., van Aalst, M. K., Blanford, J. I., Marrufo, T. & Maure, G.https://doi.org/10.5194/agile-giss-4-11-2023Climate change increased extreme monsoon rainfall, flooding highly vulnerable communities in Pakistan (2023)Environmental Research: Climate, 2(2), 025001. Otto, F. E. L., Zachariah, M., Saeed, F., Siddiqi, A., Kamil, S., Mushtaq, H., Arulalan, T., Achutarao, K., Chaithra, S. T., Barnes, C., Philip, S., Kew, S., Vautard, R., Koren, G., Pinto, I., Wolski, P., Vahlberg, M., Singh, R., Arrighi, J., ā€¦ Clarke, B.https://doi.org/10.1088/2752-5295/acbfd5Heatwaves in Mozambique 1983ā€“2016: Characteristics, trends and city-level summaries using high-resolution CHIRTS-daily (2023)Weather and climate extremes, 40. Article 100565. Pereira Marghidan, C., van Aalst, M., Blanford, J. I., Guigma, K., Pinto, I., Maure, G. & Marrufo, T.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wace.2023.100565Evaluating the explainability and performance of an elementary versus a statistical impact-based forecasting model (2023)[Contribution to conference › Abstract] EGU General Assembly 2023. Sedhain, S., van den Homberg, M., Teklesadik, A., van Aalst, M. K. & Kerle, N.https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-11434Adaptation to compound climate risks: A systematic global stocktake (2023)iScience, 26(2). Article 105926. Simpson, N. P., Williams, P. A., Mach, K. J., Berrang-Ford, L., Biesbroek, R., Haasnoot, M., Segnon, A. C., Campbell, D., Musah-Surugu, J. I., Joe, E. T., Nunbogu, A. M., Sabour, S., Meyer, A. L. S., Andrews, T. M., Singh, C., Siders, A. R., Lawrence, J., van Aalst, M. & Trisos, C. H.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2023.105926Can social protection tackle emerging risks from climate change, and how? A framework and a critical review (2023)Climate Risk Management, 40. Article 100501. Costella, C. V., van Aalst, M. K. & Georgiadou, P. Y.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crm.2023.100501

2022

Rapid attribution analysis of the extraordinary heat wave on the Pacific coast of the US and Canada in June 2021 (2022)Earth System Dynamics, 13(4), 1689-1713. Philip, S. Y., Kew, S. F., Van Oldenborgh, G. J., Anslow, F. S., Seneviratne, S. I., Vautard, R., Coumou, D., Ebi, K. L., Arrighi, J., Singh, R., van Aalst, M., Pereira Marghidan, C., Wehner, M., Yang, W., Li, S., Schumacher, D. L., Hauser, M., Bonnet, R., Luu, L. N., ā€¦ Otto, F. E. L.https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-13-1689-2022Limited role of climate change in extreme low rainfall associated with southern Madagascar food insecurity, 2019-21 (2022)Environmental Research: Climate. Article 021003. Harrington, L. J., Wolski, P., Pinto, I., Ramarosandratana, A. M., Barimalala, R., vautard, r., Philip, S., Kew, S., Singh, R., Heinrich, D., Arrighi, J., Raju, E., Thalheimer, L., Razanakoto, T., van Aalst, M., Li, S., Bonnet, R., Yang, W., Otto, F. & Oldenborgh, G. J. v.https://doi.org/10.1088/2752-5295/aca695

Research profiles

Courses academic year 2025/2026

Courses in the current academic year are added at the moment they are finalised in the Osiris system. Therefore it is possible that the list is not yet complete for the whole academic year.

Courses academic year 2024/2025

Internationally recognised expert on climate and disaster risk and resilience. Active in science, policy and practice, from early warning systems to global climate negotiations.

Director General of KNMI. Full professor in Climate and Disaster Resilience at ITC, University of Twente. Member of the European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change.

Former director of theĀ international Red Cross Red Crescent Climate CentreĀ and Coordinating Lead Author for theĀ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

Co-founder of the World Weather Attribution consortium.

Address

University of Twente

Langezijds (building no. 19)
Hallenweg 8
7522 NH Enschede
Netherlands

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