Summary
Wouter Buytaert is a reader in hydrology and water resources in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. He is an expert on the impact of environmental change on the water cycle and its consequences for water supply and flood and drought risk. His work ranges from hydrological process understanding, to computer simulation, decision-support, the science policy interface, and sustainable development. He is working extensively in tropical and subtropical areas, with a particular interest in the Andes and the Himalayas. His work is funded by a large variety of sources, including but not limited to the UK Research Councils, UK DFID, the European Commission, the European Institute of Technology, UNESCO, Interamerican Development Bank, World Bank, the Belgian Development Cooperation, companies and private donors.
Wouter is also a fellow of the Grantham Institute for Climate Change, UK and a member of the NERC peer review college. He is Editor of the EGU journal Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, and Associate Editor of Computers & Geosciences and Frontiers in Earth Science. He receives frequent invitations to speak in international conferences and meetings, both in an academic and a policy context.
Wouter graduated with an Meng/MSc in Environmental Engineering from the University of Leuven, Belgium in 2000 and obtained a PhD from the same university in 2004. He joined Imperial College in 2009 after positions at Lancaster University and the University of Bristol.
More information on research projects can be found on the group website.
Publications
Journals
Grainger S, Ochoa-Tocachi BF, Antiporta J, et al., 2020, Tailoring infographics on water resources through iterative, user-centered design: A case study in the Peruvian Andes, Water Resources Research, Vol:56, ISSN:0043-1397
Ochoa-Tocachi BF, Buytaert W, 2020, Ancient water harvesting practices can help solve modern problems, The Science Breaker: Science Meets Society, Vol:06
Straatsma M, Droogers P, Hunink J, et al., 2020, Global to regional scale evaluation of adaptation measures to reduce the future water gap, Environmental Modelling & Software, Vol:124, ISSN:1364-8152
Docherty JM, Mao F, Buytaert W, et al., 2020, A framework for understanding water-related multi-hazards in a sustainable development context, Progress in Physical Geography-earth and Environment, ISSN:0309-1333
Conference
Ochoa-Tocachi B, Paul J, Buytaert W, Inclusive hydrology: how to maximize participation and actionable knowledge creation in water resources, Wiley