Leon Hermans works as associate professor on topics related to water and environmental policy analysis at IHE Delft and at TU Delft, Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management.
Leon works on the multi-actor processes involved in adaptive delta management and water-related transformations to sustainability. Of specific interest is the use of monitoring, evaluation and learning in these dynamic multi-actor settings. This is combined with a longer-standing interest in the use of actor and strategy models for water governance and strategic planning. Leon is working on projects on transformative pathways planning , water allocation and rights , nature-based solutions, evaluation of water partnerships, as well as several other topics.
Teaching includes courses on policy analysis in multi-actor systems, actor and strategy models, and water policy and partnerships, both on-campus as well as online. With colleagues, Leon also developed and teaches an online programme on Water Strategy and Planning jointly offered by IHE Delft and TU Delft. Leon is also one of the co-authors of the textbook Policy Analysis of Multi-Actor Systems.
Leon obtained a PhD degree in Policy Analysis from TU Delft. After his PhD, he worked for a few years for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, before continuing his academic career in Delft since 2006. Leon served a term as Head of the Land and Water Management Department at IHE Delft from 2020 – 2023.
Research Summary
Today’s water sector faces an unprecedented pace and extent of change. Leon’s research looks into dealing with change poses specific questions for policy analysis: How do multiple actors together develop workable policies, plans and implementation arrangements, to address the water challenges that they collectively face? How do actors monitor, evaluate and learn about the effects of water policy, as well as about emerging changes that would require adaptation or transformation of water policy and water institutions?
Water policy adaptation and transformation processes from a multi-actor perspective
Leon highlights the questions, which are central in ongoing international research projects such as Water Transformation Pathways Planning, where a group of international scientists and professionals looks into ongoing transformations, desired and less desired, in different types of water systems, in Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America. He is involved in the project on Water Allocation and Rights which also deals with this question, looking at the water allocation institutions that currently exist to share increasingly scarce water resources in different countries, and how these institutions (could) adapt to rapidly changing circumstances around water availability and water demands. His research on Living Dikes and AGRICOAST looks at the governance dimension of enabling nature-based solutions and climate adaptation innovations in coastal areas.
Methods and approaches for collaborative monitoring, evaluation and learning
Supporting water policy in changing times, also means that policy analysts need to develop better methods to support monitoring, evaluation and learning for multi-actor processes, as key building blocks for adaptation and transformation. Leon’s work on this topic includes for instance the evaluation of water and development partnerships , transdisciplinary learning with stakeholders in the Ganges delta, and evaluation of climate adaptation planning.
Earlier, Leon worked on better methods for (participatory) actor and network analysis, developing so-called actor and strategy models that help policy analysts make sense of the networked environment in which policy making and implementation takes place, and offering approaches for participatory analysis and co-design of policy and institutional arrangement together with actors. This work resulted in a book on Actor and Strategy Models, as well as recent methods such as the “MOTA”-framework and the participatory cooperating-for-added value “Co-Add” method.
Publications
A complete list of publications can be found in Google Scholar.