Sharlene Gomes holds the position of Lecturer, Water and Environmental Policy Analysis at IHE Delft. Sharlene is a policy analyst who has worked on water projects across South Asia for the past 10 years. She is passionate about participatory policymaking and ways it can support sustainable, inclusive transformations within cities and urbanizing contexts.
Sharlene’s research examines how institutions (both policies and local practices) shape water, climate, and biodiversity issues in cities/peri-urban areas. Some of her previous work in South Asia includes smart water technology applications and peri-urban water governance. She is currently working on an NWA funded project about integrated climate-nature governance in Dutch urban and peri-urban landscapes. As a transdisciplinary researcher, Sharlene designs interventions to support institutional change with regards to urban and peri-urban challenges. To achieve this, she engages real-world problem owners (e.g. decision-makers, local citizens) in policy analysis, problem structuring, and adaptive planning efforts using context appropriate and innovative mediums like serious games to make them more accessible.
Sharlene was a contributing author on the IPCC's 6th assessment report on climate change: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability (2022) in the ‘Water’ chapter. She currently teaches in the MSc water and sustainable development program at IHE Delft. Prior to joining IHE, Sharlene worked as an Assistant Professor at Leiden University and was previously at Delft University of Technology. Her professional experience includes work in international development, the regulatory industry, and corporate sustainability in the Philippines, Canada, and India respectively. Sharlene obtained her MSc degree from the University of Oxford and has a PhD from Delft University of Technology.
Ongoing projects
- Combatting biodiversity loss and improving climate change resilience through evidence-based, integrated, and adaptive landscape governance in the Netherlands (COMBINED)
- Water Transformation Pathways Planning (TRANS-PATH-PLAN)
Completed projects
- H2O — T2S: Water Transformations to Sustainability in urban fringe areas
- Effectiveness of water adaptation responses in reducing climate related risks: A meta review
- Smart Water Cities Report (2021)
- Shifting Grounds: Institutional transformation, enhancing knowledge and capacity to manage groundwater security in peri-urban Ganges delta systems
Publications
A complete list of publications can be found in Google Scholar.