Wim Douven is Associate Professor in Integrated River Basin Management at IHE Delft in the Integrated Water Systems and Governance department. He has a background in urban and regional planning and holds a PhD in spatial informatics from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands. He joined the institute in 1997.
Wim Douven has wide experience in training and education, multi-disciplinary research, and institutional capacity building in the fields of integrated water and environmental resources management and Integrated River basin Management. Since 20 years he is coordinating and teaching in Master programs, supervising PhD students as well as organising and facilitating international trainings and workshops. He has led various large research projects both in western countries as well as in developing countries, all characterized by their multi-disciplinary nature.
Wim has wide experience in advising water sector organisations and knowledge institutes in designing strategies and implementation plans for institutional capacity building. He is strongly involved in educational innovation and the use of online and blended-learning methods in international education and cooperation with international partners. He is responsible for a number of MoU's with international partners of IHE Delft. His main region of work since 15 years is Asia, in particular South-East Asia and the region of the Mekong River Basin.
Publications
A complete list of publications can be found in Google Scholar.
Other information
Recent and ongoing research projects
Climate change and water: PRoACC
PRoACC is a post-doctoral research program on adaptation to climate change with a special focus on the Mekong River Basin. In Phase 1 8 postdocs from the Mekong region studied different dimensions of climate change adaptation resulting in scientific publications and policy briefs. At the moment Phase 2 is being started up.
See: www.un-ihe.org/Post-Doctoral-Research-Programme-on-Adaptation-to-Climate-Change-PRoACC
Wetlands and river basins: WETwin (finished recently)
The objective of the EU FP7 WETwin project was to enhance the role of wetlands in basin-scale integrated water resources management (IWRM), with the aim of improving the community service functions while conserving good ecological status. IHE Delft led Work Package 4 in which we studied management practices and institutional setting of wetland management in relation to river basins.
See: http://www.wetwin.net/about_introduction.html
Natural resources management and spatial planning: AFROMAISON
This EU FP7 project aims to propose concrete strategies for integrated natural resources management in Africa in order to adapt to the consequences of climate change. IHE Delft leads Workpackage 5 'Spatial planning tools' in which we study the role of spatial planning tools to support integrated natural resources management at the meso scale.
See: http://www.afromaison.net/
Building with nature: Roads and Floods (finished recently)
This project was part of the Delft Cluster theme 'Water as a guiding principle in spatial planning'. We studied the interactions between roads and floods in the Vietnamese and Cambodian Mekong delta. Underlying question was how to plan and design roads that are economically sound and environmentally friendly? Based on the research we developed Best Practice Guidelines for the improvement of road planning and design in the Mekong floodplains of Cambodia and Vietnam.
Recent and ongoing capacity development projects
Institutional capacity building for the Centre of Water Management and Climate Change, Vietnam National University – Ho Chi Minh City
The overall objective of this Nuffic NICHE project is to strengthen capacity of policy making structures in the Mekong Delta to offer adequate solutions on water management and climate change mitigation and adaptation. This objective will be realized through institutional strengthening, training of staff and setting up a supporting research program at the Centre of Water Management and Climate Change (CWMCC) of the Vietnam National University (VNU-HCMC).
Improvement of higher education in water management in view of climate change in Vietnam
Objective of this Nuffic NICHE project is to strengthen the capacity of the Hanoi University of Natural Resources (HUNRE) and the Water Resources University (WRU) at institutional and management level to implement education, research and training and to improve the capacity of their staff in developing and transferring knowledge. Moreover, to strengthen and further develop the education offered in water management in view of climate change at HUNRE and WRU at high-quality standards to meet the needs of the sector in Vietnam.
Strengthening IWRM in Mongolia (finished)
The project aimed to improve the conditions for water resources development and management.
Support was provided both to the Water Authority, line agencies and to the national universities involved in water education. IHE Delft guided three Mongolian universities - National University of Mongolia (NUM), Mongolian University of Science and Technology (MUST) and Mongolian State University of Agriculture (MSAU) - in developing and implementing a joint MSc program on IWRM.
Mekong River Commission IWRM Competency Framework
We supported the Mekong River Commission in developing a module-based IWRM Competency Framework. This framework aims (1) to familiarise the MRC Secretariat, NMCs, Line Agencies and related stakeholders with updated concepts and definitions about IWRM, Transboundary IWRM, competencies, knowledge and capacity development, (2) understand which core Transboundary IWRM competencies are necessary to develop in the MRC context, (3) obtain tools to analyse the current competencies, and (4) identify required competencies for recruitment of staff, career development paths and capacity needs assessments.