Pieter van der Zaag
Prof. Dr ir Pieter van der Zaag is a Professor of Water Resources Management at the IHE Delft Institute for Water Education and at Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands. Pieter was a postdoc researcher and thereafter lecturer and Professor at the University of Zimbabwe from 1993 to 2003. He has special interests in agricultural water management, water allocation issues in catchment areas, andmanagement of transboundary river basins, on which he has published widely. Pieter is fascinated by the dynamic relationship between biophysical and social processes when managing water, and in understanding patterns of cooperation over water. Pieter has a track record of formulating and guiding major interdisciplinary research and capacity building projects, including in Eswatini (Swaziland), Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Kenya, Mexico, Mozambique, Senegal, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Vietnam and Zimbabwe. He is a member of the editorial board of Hydrology and Earth System Sciences. He studied irrigation engineering at Wageningen University, and obtained his PhD degree on a study of irrigation management in Mexico.
Pieter’s research interests include the role of inequality and heterogeneity in enduring water institutions and harnessing water by smallholders from nature-based storage in (semi-)arid regions in Africa, in particular along sand rivers.
Recent publications:
Owusu, A., J. Zatarain Salazar, M. Mul, P. van der Zaag and J. Slinger, 2023. Quantifying the trade-offs in re-operating dams for the environment in the Lower Volta River. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences 27, 2001-2023.
Duker, A.E.C., S. Maseko, M.A. Moyo, B.M Karimba, A. Bolding, P. Prasad, C. de Fraiture and P. van der Zaag, 2023. The changing faces of farmer-led irrigation: Lessons from dynamic irrigation trajectories in Kenya and Zimbabwe. Journal of Development Studies 59 (9), 1317–1336.
Prasad, P., A. Duker, C. de Fraiture and P. van der Zaag, 2023. Irrigation development under uncertainty: a call for adaptive investment pathways. Environmental Science and Policy 140, 104–110.
Bosuben, D.K., U. Wehn and P. van der Zaag, 2022. Lake Victoria water levels declining (2000-2006): the role of absent and uncertain data in a transboundary water controversy. Technical Note. Special Issue “Data and models in transboundary water governance”. Water International.
Chukalla, A.D., M.L. Mul, P. van der Zaag, G. van Halsema, E. Mubaya, E. Muchanga, N. den Besten and P. Karimi. 2022. A framework for irrigation performance assessment using WaPOR data: the case of a sugarcane estate in Mozambique. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences 26, 2759–2778.
Verhagen, J., P. van der Zaag and E. Abraham, 2021. Operational planning of WEF infrastructure: quantifying the value of information sharing and cooperation in the Eastern Nile basin. Environmental Research Letters 16, 085006.