Saskia van Vuren

Profile

Saskia van Vuren started working in 2000 in the field of risk assessment and management in riverine and coastal systems. After a MSc degree at Twente University, a PhD degree at TU Delft and three years research at WL | Delft Hydraulics, she is now working as an Risk Management expert at HKV Consultants. In 2013 she joined the section of Hydraulic Engineering at TU Delft as a part-time researcher (one day a week).

The leading thread in her career is advising policy makers and managers in multidisciplinary and risk-based projects, using technical, stochastic and economical tools. Saskia is involved in advisory projects focusing on risk assessment in riverine and coastal areas. These projects require often information about the physical behavior of these systems (viz. hydraulics and morphodynamics), the uncertainty in this physical behaviour and its consequences. The use of numerical process-based models (Delft3D, WAQUA) to describe the physical behavior of natural systems under the influence of climate change or human interventions, as well as impact assessment instruments to assess consequences of a natural hazard (i.e. economic damage, victims, fatalities, identification of vulnerable objects), probabilistic methods and risk assessments methods, is thereby important. Saskia gave advisory on climate change adapting, impact assessments, risks mitigation strategies, optimization of the design of physical systems and its operational and maintenance stage.

Saskia emphasizes the importance of understanding of risks and uncertainty, as it enhances the quality of decision making. Her focus is on water-related risks due to flooding, drought-related issues, salt water intrusion and fresh water supplies. She advises clients on how to handle uncertainties and incorporate appropriate risk levels in decision making.

Saskia has been involved in a large number of re-landscaping projects within the Dutch Delta programme, European Flood Directive Water, River restoration programme (i.e. Room for the River) and Coastline protection programme. She was also involved in projects to derive new safety standards for the primary flood defenses in the Netherlands, based on cost-efficiency considerations, group risk and individual risk.

In 2013 Saskia became a member of the Expertise Network for Flood Protection (Workgroup Rivers).