Assistant Professor Redesigning Deltas

The successful candidate will join the Redesigning Deltas programme (www.redesigningdeltas.org ) at the Department of Urbanism, funded by the Sector Plan Design Engineering Sciences. Urbanized delta landscapes are among the most challenging urban regions in the world considering their vulnerability to flooding, rapid urbanization, land subsidence, salinization and, increasingly, changing environmental conditions as a result of climate change. The threat of water comes from flood risks of rivers, rising sea levels, and extreme rainfall. And at the same time draughts during increasingly hot summers provide challenges due to declining groundwater tables that pose a threat to building foundations and ecological systems. Addressing the complexity of urban deltas needs integrated solutions and transformative approaches that create new opportunities for improving the quality of life for all. Based on the Delft Approach to urban and landscape design, the Redesigning Deltas programme will address the current status and future challenges of our deltas, centred on knowledge-based design approaches to jointly identify long-term transformative pathways that guide short-term design interventions to sustainable and socially inclusive and fair deltas.

This new Tenure Track Assistant Professor post is an exciting opportunity to co-develop and contribute to the teaching and research program of the Department of Urbanism, with a focus on the Redesigning Deltas programme. We are seeking applications from candidates with an interest in the interactions between spatial design, critical design thinking, and cross-disciplinary studies to come to an approach for questioning, understanding and changing socio-ecological relations shaping delta futures. We are specifically looking for candidates who can apply a research by design approach to identify and investigate the possible spatial impact of the energy transition (and infrastructure systems interdependencies) on the intervention and delta management strategies for urbanising deltas, while taking into account increasing climate extremes in the long term. This process design is not a blueprint for solutions, but an instrument for the development of new perspectives for the future of urban deltas.

The candidate is expected to set up an independent research line within the Redesigning Deltas programme and to establish strong links with urban design and urban and regional planning. The candidate is also expected to co-supervise PhD students, and publish research in high-impact peer reviewed journals. The successful candidate will actively acquire funding (from national and European Research Councils, Horizon Europe, or comparable) for research projects and lead and carry out collaborative projects with colleagues. The candidate will contribute to the teaching programme of the faculty, develop own teaching material and courses, supervise students on all levels of university education, and acquire University Teaching Qualifications within an agreed period.