Climate Action Programme

Water is of vital importance for human survival. Human activity influences the way water moves around the earth but the complexity of the system is such that it is hard to tell how far-reaching its effects really are. Scientists like Lan Wang-Erlandsson are working hard to chart the earth’s water cycle with more precision. Wang-Erlandsson, who grew up in Sweden, became involved in this area of research when she worked as a volunteer at the annual World Water Week conference in Stockholm.

How much water is intercepted by the canopy of a tree? That was the question PhD candidate Tim van Emmerik had to find an answer to in order to gain a better understanding of the earth’s water cycle. But how to go about it? Fitting every leaf with expensive equipment was not an option, so Tim and colleagues had to develop smart measuring methods to infer the right data. And learn to climb trees, in the Brazilian Amazon.

Green roofs are hot! Roofs completely covered in plants are becoming a familiar sight in our cities. After all, what’s not to like? They offer a home to birds and insects, and because the plants hold on to moisture they cool down the city in summer. And, as an added bonus, it’s clear for everyone to see you’re doing your bit for the environment. Except that Anna Solcerova’s PhD research project (Department of Water Management) shows that these roofs are having quite a different effect.

With palm oil being the most widely used vegetable oil in the world, the industry is likely to stay with us for the foreseeable future, despite its controversial reputation of pollution, deforestation and ignoring the needs of local communities. “The palm oil industry is only expanding, so doing nothing is not going to solve the problem,” says Dr Ralph Lindeboom of the department of Sanitary Engineering. Together with the PhD-researcher and Delft Global Fellow Saqr Al-Muraisy , he aims to help make the industry more sustainable for both the environment and local people.

In a channel at TU Delft’s Water lab a stream of purple-tinted water makes its way past thousands of small wooden pegs. The water was dyed by PhD-candidate Son Truong Hong, who is closely observing the flow with an empty bottle of paint in his hands. This test forms part of his research into the importance of the mangrove forests in the Mekong Delta estuaries. Son is fascinated by the tangled roots of these extraordinary trees. What is the mangrove’s role in preventing river bank erosion? And, most crucially, how much of the mangrove forests needs to remain to support a healthy ecosystem?