ir. MT (Matthijs) Wessels
Docent, PromovendusAs a lecturer and researcher, I am motivated to contribute to socially just and sustainable development around water use in urbanising landscapes. All of my teaching activities evolve around topics of water reuse, urban-rural water interactions and the friction between modern ideals and actual day-to-day practices of water use in agriculture. In 2019, I started as a PhD candidate on a research project with Ardhi University (Environmental Engineering group) and Wageningen University (Water Resources Management group and Environmental Policy group). The PhD project contributes to creating an enabling environment that stimulates safe and productive agriculture by understanding how sociotechnical configurations of water reuse in small-scale urban agriculture establish and change. With a case study in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, I study how practices of irrigated urban agriculture emerge and evolve under the ever-changing circumstances of urbanisation.