A resilience view on engineering is vital, it is a guarantee of our future. The frequency and severity of extreme events are rising due to climate change and unprecedented urbanization pace, with interdependencies of critical infrastructure and technology. It is time to acknowledge that we cannot prevent technological and natural risks entirely. We have to learn to live with them and to build a capacity to absorb and become stronger when facing a shock.
My research line focuses on exploring how changes in systems’ elements and interactions among them on micro level may lead to critical transitions, regime shifts, on the macro level in complex adaptive human-environment systems. My research group applies computer simulation models to study how individuals and communities can contribute to climate mitigation and foster climate adaptation. For example, the core of my ERC project is in using advanced simulation tools and innovative methods of behavioral data collection through mobile apps to study climate change adaptation decisions in coastal cities, larger socioeconomic impacts of disasters and emergence of resilience across scales. I am happy to collaborate with colleagues at the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (PBL), as well as across the world (UK, USA, China, Spain, Italy).
I am excited about the interdisciplinary expertise that the Centre brings together, with about fifty scientists from twelve faculties across 4TU. With such an excellent team we have the ambition to become a world leading knowledge Centre on resilience engineering and to shape the international discourse in the field. As part of the Steering Group, I want to do more than just contribute academically. The success of the Centre relies on the value it can bring to its members, the new tenure trackers, the synergies among existing researchers, and most importantly societal benefits from collaborations between industry, policy-makers and academia.