Meet & Greet researchers - 'Water'

On 19 September 2024, from 9:30 am till 1:00 pm, the University of Groningen is hosting a Meet & Greet, specifically for researchers from various faculties and external organizations who are deliberately working on the theme ‘water’. The aim of this event is to get acquainted in an inspiring environment and to explore current societal issues about water in an interdisciplinary way. Below are short descriptions of the speakers confirmed so far and their topics.

Information about the speakers

Speaker: Lieselot Smilde

Stichting Natuurbelang De Onlanden

Title: New narrative needed for 'renovation of the Netherlands'

“God created Earth and the Dutch created The Netherlands”. We strongly believe that we can shape our world. Today, challenges like climate change, loss of biodiversity, food production and growing population need answers. This time, soil and water will be leading in solutions. This may seem a ‘technical’ challenge, but is it? This ‘renovation of The Netherlands’ will influence everyone as it changes our environment. It asks for both acceptance of change and a change in behavior: it’s about transition. Thus we need a ‘new narrative’ about how we relate to our natural environment, how we inhabit it now and pass it on to next generations. What role could you play in this transition? Both in interdisciplinary research and in connection with the region? De Onlanden may be an interesting case to start exploring.

Speaker: Floris Boogaard

Lector Spatial Transformations - Water, Hanzehogeschool Groningen, and researcher at Deltares

Title: Climate balancing: support for too much or too little clean water

When we talk about climate adaptation, we look at water nuisance and drought. Challenges we face are water quantity and quality, but also support from residents. In concrete terms: we place thousands of climate-adaptive facilities per year in the Netherlands to purify rainwater (water quality), store it (water nuisance) and infiltrate it (drought). However, to achieve our ambitions for 2050, hundreds of thousands of facilities must be added. Think of facilities in the municipality, but also facilities in the front- and backyards of citizens and companies. The questions are: is there support for this? And will this improve the water quality in the Netherlands with all the new substances such as microplastics and PFAS? How do we balance water drainage to prevent water nuisance with the coming of more intensive rainfall, but also retaining water due to longer dry periods?

Speakers: Rozanne van Bodegom, Casper Oukes and Daniël van Buren

Provincie Fryslân

Title: Provincie Fryslân and water

Province Fryslân and water go hand in hand. After an introduction on the Frisian water, soil system and our ‘blue’ vision Friesland Climate-proof 2050+, we zoom in on our Wadden coast and the water issues in this unique area. There will be two round table discussions with the following cases:

1. Wadden: spatial planning, economy and society. If we want to tackle salinization, we can opt for technological solutions, or adopt the attitude of ‘let it go’. This also raises a philosophical question. Although we do not yet exactly know what salinization means in quantitative terms, we must already think about how we deal with this in the light of transitions in, for example, agriculture, spatial planning and society.
2. Frisian context: Society and economy. WABOS (Water and Soil Control) contains a number of principles. But suppose we work entirely according to WABOS: would we then even break through the dikes? The question is what the limits of WABOS are, and whether this leads to the desired result from a social perspective. Should we focus on the robustness of the system, or is that exaggerated and do we continue to stick to business as usual? Are we on the right track and what do scientists think of this? For example, consider the 'flooding of Frisian polders': what does this yield and what do we lose?

Registration

The location of the event is the House of Connections in Groningen (Grote Markt 21). Are you excited already? Then we are pleased to invite you to register:

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to contact us by email: water@rug.nl.

We look forward to welcoming you on 19 September at the House of Connections!