News

Storymap: Sand rivers tell a story of hidden water in India

Storymaps are visual tools to tell a story in a spatial format. In a new storymap, IHE Delft and partner researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi tell the story of a sandy riverbed in India – the Luni sand river in Rajasthan. The storymap offers users a chance to join the researchers on their journey along the sand river.

Annelieke Duker, IHE Delft Senior Lecturer/Researcher in Irrigation Management, explained why the research and the storymap, matter. Duker is an IHE Delft alumna – she earned her IHE Delft PhD in 2023, for research on farmer-led irrigation. She is an expert on farmer-led irrigation and sand rivers, which are dry riverbeds above hidden but often accessible water resources.

Apply now: 2026 Schlumberger Foundation Faculty for the Future fellowships

The Schlumberger Foundation is now welcoming new and renewal applications for the 2026 Faculty for the Future Fellowships, open from 1 September to 7 November 2025.

The Faculty for the Future programme supports gender equality in STEM by providing funding for talented women engineers from low- and middle-income countries to pursue PhD or postdoctoral research at leading universities abroad.

For more information on eligibility and how to apply visit the Faculty for the Future website.

The Schlumberger Foundation supports science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education. Since its inception, the Foundation has focused on funding a variety of programmes in scientific educational all over the world.

IHE Delft launches open online course on co-creation of human-centred climate services

IHE Delft announces the launch of a new Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on Co-Creation of Human-Centred Climate Services, developed under the European Commission–funded I-CISK project. This course offers participants the opportunity to explore innovative approaches to tailoring climate services to the needs of society.

Climate change is one of the defining challenges of our time. Increasingly variable climatic conditions and more frequent extreme weather events are already having profound impacts across nearly all sectors of society. To make climate-smart decisions, policymakers, public agencies, businesses, and citizens alike need tailored and relevant climate information. The development and application of such information to support decision-making are commonly referred to as “climate services”.

IHE Delft scientists appointed to key roles in new UN climate report

There’s little time to spare in preparing for a future in which the climate could wreak havoc more frequently and more intensely. It’s a stark warning from IHE Delft Professor of Climate Change Impacts & Coastal Risk Rosh Ranasinghe, who recently was appointed a lead author for the next UN climate assessment report.

“By 2050, extremes are going to be more intense. We have to act faster and more decisively, because it is already 2025,” he said.

Ranasinghe is one of a team of just over 100 scientists selected from more than 1,000 nominations worldwide to help write the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) Seventh Assessment Report (AR7), due out in 2028.

Delft Agenda 2.0: Four provocations for more just water capacity development

A more equitable and just water future requires a new approach to capacity development, say the 11 young delegates who developed the Delft Agenda 2.0 as part of the IHE Delft 7th International Symposium on Knowledge and Capacity for the Water Sector. They created an agenda that poses four provocative questions to foster a more local, inclusive and transformative approach to capacity development.

SENSE e-News May-June 2025

We are pleased to welcome you to this new edition of the SENSE newsletter!

We hope summertime is treating you well. This season marks an exciting time, with summer schools just around the corner, covering topics such as climate change governance, global energy transition, environmental justice, water politics, freshwater ecosystems, river studies, open geospatial tools, decolonising science, AI applications, sustainable finance and economics. To all of you joining the summer schools, we wish you a great experience and an inspiring time!

This edition highlights PhD courses, events, news, and other opportunities designed to support and inspire your academic journey.

Research: New project to improve groundwater governance awarded €2.5 million in EU funding

Half the world’s population depends on groundwater for its water supply. But nearly a third of the world’s largest aquifers is under threat because the water is used faster than it is replenished. A new research project led by Margreet Zwarteveen, IHE Delft Professor of Water Governance, and financed by a European Research Council (ERC) grant, will help to re-think, improve and support the governance of groundwater.

New book: Unravelling the story of water in Latin America

A new book takes a close look at the interplay between humans and water in Latin America, illustrating the complexities of water’s role in society with a blend of historical context, technical knowledge and socio-cultural insights.

High efficiency alumni irrigation projects boost productivity and halt desertification in India’s Madhya Pradesh

Once among India’s driest regions, western Madhya Pradesh is now thriving, thanks to a large-scale irrigation system created under the leadership of IHE Delft alumni. Their groundbreaking projects have not only reversed desertification but also reduced migration and quadrupled agricultural productivity — positively impacting the lives and livelihoods of millions of people living in the arid region.

Clara Lines Diaz earns PhD for research on information use in drought management

Clara Lines Diaz from Spain has successfully defended her PhD thesis on the usefulness of information for drought management decisions. Dr Lines Diaz was awarded with a doctoral degree on 7 April at Delft Technical University. Her promotor is Professor Graham Jewitt and her co-promotor Associate Professor Micha Werner. In this article, she reflects on her PhD work, which looked at how stakeholders such as irrigation associations and farmers use information about water availability to inform their decisions.

CS4Water Conference: Citizen science for water comes of age

The inaugural Citizen Science for Water Conference marked a new chapter in the evolution of citizen science for water. With 150 participants from 35 countries—half of them from Africa, Asia and Latin America — the conference was an exchange of views among citizen science practitioners, ranging from community activists and researchers to policy communities. Over three days, delegates explored how the role of citizen science in empowering people, informing policy and advancing equitable water governance can be strengthened.