Affiliation: Utrecht University, NL; University of Bergen, NO
Keywords: Urban & Community Resilience, Climate Change Adaptation, Science-Policy-Society Interfaces, Environmental Governance, Environmental Communication & Visualisation, Policy under Uncertainty, Framing
Full profile:
Dr. Arjan Wardekker has an interdisciplinary background in environmental studies, social science in particular, but with ties to humanities and natural science. He’s affiliated as a Senior Researcher and Project Leader with the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development at Utrecht University (NL), and with the Centre for the Study of the Sciences and the Humanities at University of Bergen (NO). He also has extensive experience working in the science-policy interface, at science-policy boundary organisations such as: PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, RIVM National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, and the Health Council of the Netherlands (Health & Environment Surveillance Committee), where he led and developed scientific advice to the Dutch Cabinet and Parliament.
Currently, Wardekker runs a high profile independent research line on ‘Urban Resilience & Climate Change Adaptation under Uncertainty’. He and his team explore how cities and communities deal with climate-related shocks, disasters, stresses and long term change, and how they imagine and
frame a ‘climate resilient future’. One core interest is in the role of knowledge in societal decision-making: how science, policy and society interact and communicate in the process of building urban resilience and adapting to climate change. This type of work inherently involves a high degree of interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity: working with scientists from many fields, and with policymakers, citizens and other societal actors.
Wardekker’s work resulted so far in nearly 50 peer-reviewed publications, over six million euros in competitive grants from national and international funding agencies, regular invitations to review journal articles, books, and policy advice, as well as regular invited talks and panel memberships at
conferences, symposia and PhD schools. He is a Senior Fellow of the Earth System Governance Project, and was admitted to the Young Academy of Europe in 2021.