Research & Innovation

Delft Measures 2024 is about to start!

This year we are building on last year. After adding extra weather stations and soil sensors, we will further densify our measuring network this year with a few extra weather stations and groundwater measurements! Although the changing climate certainly causes different rainfall patterns, measuring climate is not only about rainfall, but also about local temperature, temperature differences, soil moisture and evaporation of water from the soil and plants.

We don’t have weatherstations to distribute anymore, but you can still register until August to participate in the groundwater measurements (via waterlab-sc@tudelft.nl).

Like to stay informed? Send an email to waterlab-sc@tudelft.nl to register for the Delft Meet newsletter!


Variability in rainfall across the city

Remko Uijlenhoet, Arjan Drost and Marie Claire ten Veldhuis conduct research at TU Delft into how cities influence local rainfall and temperatures. Within the city, it can vary per neighbourhood how much it rains, despite the relatively small distance between the neighbourhoods. Also, not every neighbourhood is equally green and, especially in the summer, the temperature can vary considerably from neighbourhood to neighbourhood. Due to climate change, those rain and heat patterns are also changing. That is why we also measure the local temperature and soil moisture to see whether the amount of greenery in the area affects how hot it is in the summer and how moist the soil remains.

The KNMI has an average of 1 weather station per 100 square kilometres throughout the Netherlands, in total there are about 300 of them throughout the country. Apps, such as Buienradar, measure rain per 1 square kilometre, but because the radar measures the rain in an indirect way, it is often inaccurate. During the Delft Measure Rain project, we are trying to increase the number of weather stations, so that we measure rain on every square kilometre in Delft.

Remko Uijlenhoet

Arjan Drost

Marie-Claire ten Veldhuis


Who and where?

During Delft Measures Rain, we try to increase the number of rain gauges, so that we can do a daily measurement for every km2 of Delft. We aim to do at least 1 measurement per km2 of the city for the duration of 3 months. To do this, we use manual rain gauges and sensors that will be connected to the WOW-KNMI network of local weather stations.