Joshua Kiesel is a postdoctoral researcher at the department of Water and Climate Risk of the Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM) at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.
His research is focussing on coastal flood modelling and exploring the potential and effectiveness of nature-based solutions to mitigate increasing flood risk due to climate change. In his last project, Joshua used hydrodynamic modelling on local to regional scales to explore how both conventional and nature-based adaptation solutions can help reduce coastal flooding. Joshua’s interest in the interactions between coastal restoration and hydrodynamics goes back to the time of his PhD. In his thesis, he investigated how the managed realignment of sea defences can be designed more effectively to better contribute to coastal protection and the (re)establishment of more natural shorelines.
At IVM, Joshua is working in the Horizon Europe project “Knowing”, where he expands upon his coastal flooding research by incorporating compound events through the utilization of state-of-the-art hydrodynamic models. Within the project, he further examines the interactions and trade-offs between adaptation measures to combat flooding and climate mitigation objectives.
Expertise
Coastal flooding, hydrodynamic modeling, sea level rise, adaptation, nature-based solutions, coastal ecosystems, coastal restoration.
Education
2021: PhD in Coastal Geography, Kiel University, Germany.
2016: Master of Science in Environmental Management, Kiel University, Germany.
2013: Bachelor of Science in Geography, Kiel University, Germany.
