Dr.ir. Gerrit Schoups

Background

I’ve been an Assistant Professor in the Water Resources Management group at the TU Delft since August 2007. Most of my time is devoted to research – this includes pursuing my own research interests and advising students (PhD, MSc, Bachelor) in their research projects. I’m also involved in teaching activities in the Civil Engineering Bachelor’s program at the TU Delft.

Previously, I studied at Gent University in Belgium, where I obtained a degree in agricultural engineering. Subsequently, I moved to California and completed my PhD research in hydrology at UC Davis in the Department of Land Air and Water Resources. This was followed by two post-doctoral research positions, one at Stanford University in the Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences, and the other at the Flemish Institute for Technological Research (VITO).

Research

My research revolves around developing and applying models to predict water quantity and quality of hydrologic systems, such as rivers, soils and aquifers. These models combine data with available knowledge of the physical and chemical processes involved. Over the years I have worked on different applications, including salinity in irrigated agriculture, conjunctive use in irrigated agriculture, groundwater remediation using reactive barriers, and rainfall-runoff modelling. As no model or dataset is perfect, model predictions should be accompanied by a characterization of prediction uncertainty , a research topic that I’m currently focusing on. 

Teaching

I co-teach Water Control (Waterbeheersing), a third-year Bachelor course in Civil Engineering. The course deals with the design of various water control measures, such as hydraulic structures in canals, surface and subsurface drainage systems, and groundwater pumping. Focus is on simple mathematical models to compute water flows in surface and subsurface hydrologic systems, as a prelude to more advanced courses in the MSc Water Management program.  

Publications

A list of publications can be found here.