Activities
๐๐ฒ๐ฆ๐ฉ๐จ๐ฌ๐ข๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐๐๐ญ๐๐ซ ๐๐๐ฌ๐ญ๐ฌ & ๐ ๐ฎ๐ญ๐ฎ๐ซ๐ฌ: (๐ข๐ง)๐ฌ๐๐๐ฎ๐ซ๐ข๐ง๐ ๐ฐ๐๐ญ๐๐ซ ๐ข๐ง ๐ญ๐ข๐ฆ๐๐ฌ ๐จ๐ ๐๐ซ๐จ๐ฎ๐ ๐ก๐ญ
On 30 September, VU Amsterdam โ PerfectSTORM and Coping with Drought research groups hosted a symposium that sparked rich conversations on how societies have lived with, understand, and respond to drought. Plenary talks explored environmental injustices surrounding water access and use during droughts, as well as the historical dimensions shaping how we perceive and manage scarcity. Case studies from the Peruvian Amazon, Kitui County (Kenya), and the Netherlands highlighted both the diversity and interconnectedness of drought experiences across different contexts and cultures. In addition to the plenary sessions, 10 poster presentations offered fresh perspectives on water sources, uses, and governanceโrevealingโฆ
Dialogues and travelling suitcase in Lima, Peru
——— ๐๐ถ๐ฎ๐น๐ผ๐ด๐๐ฒ ๐๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ถ๐ฒ๐ ๐ถ๐ป ๐๐ถ๐บ๐ฎ, ๐ฃ๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ ———– “๐๐ฆ๐ฒ๐ถรญ๐ข๐ด ๐ฆ ๐๐ฏ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ข๐ค๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ด ๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐๐ฆ๐ณรบ: ๐๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ค๐ต๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ฐ ๐ญ๐ข ๐ค๐ช๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ค๐ช๐ข ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ญ ๐ข๐จ๐ถ๐ข ๐บ ๐ญ๐ข๐ด ๐ฉ๐ช๐ด๐ต๐ฐ๐ณ๐ช๐ข๐ด ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ญ ๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ๐ณ๐ช๐ต๐ฐ๐ณ๐ช๐ฐ” Weโre thrilled to share highlights from our hybrid dialogue series held in Lima on May 28โ29, where researchers, policymakers, and community members came together to reflect on droughts and floods in Peru. These conversations are part of our research outreach to build connections across sectors and explore the socio-hydrological dynamics shaping the country. This dialogue series is part of our PerfectSTORM research outreach where we gather stakeholders from different academic institutions, government ministries, and non-government organizations. By sharingโฆ
Call for speakers – Symposium Water Pasts & Futures: (In)securing water in times of drought
We are very happy to invite you to our hybridย dialogue series in Lima, Peru โย Sequรญas e Inundaciones en Perรบ: Conectando la ciencia del agua y las historias del territorio.ย The dialogue sessions will be on 28 and 29 May, 16:00-17:30 CET. You can register through thisย link. This dialogue series is part of our research outreach where we gather stakeholders from different academic institutions, government ministries, and non-government organizations. By sharing research results and engaging in multi-stakeholder dialogues, we hope to inspire new collaborations among the stakeholders who can expand the work on exploring sociohydrological dynamics and hydro-social entanglements in different partsโฆ
New paper out!
โ by Ruben Weesie โ New paper out! ๐ Our latest research dives into the lived experiences of droughts and floods in dryland Kenya. Based on four months of storytelling with hundreds of farmers, we reveal how drought has become the “new normal,” while floods grow more intense and destructive. When floods end droughts, they trigger ripple effects that shape the next droughtโposing major challenges for adaptation. โกRead the full paper here! ๐โฌ๏ธ
From Kitui and Iquitos, we ask: how can we secure safe drinking water?
From Kitui and Iquitos, we ask: How can we secure safe drinking water?by Heidi D. Mendoza โWhat is the Kamba word for flood?โ we asked our collaborators in Kitui, and they started discussing among themselves. They gave us several translations such as kutula kwa kiwu (breaking the banks of the river), muvingo (floods), and mbua mbingi (floods). They told us that they use different words for flood depending on how the event affects them. When Ruben conducted his fieldwork in 2022, he was confronted with a question from community members, โWhat is a flood?โ In a semi-arid landscape like Kituiโฆ
Project visit Kenya
PerfectSTORM team (Dr Anne van Loon, Dr Marlies Barendrecht, Ruben Weesie, Danai Kontou, Heidi Mendoza, Dini Vermaat) with Africa Wood Grow team (Daniel Muvali, Victor Ochieng, Brian), Naaman Kilonzo (research assistant), and camera crew. Kenya, February 2025. We finally returned to Kenya to have a great two weeks of workshops! We exchanged our research results on drought & floods in Kitui, and engaged in exciting futuring excercises with agro-pastoralists, scientists, NGOs, and policy makers. First, we ventured back to the drylands of Kitui. Here, we discussed our research findings with the agro-pastoralists whom had shared their life experiences with droughtsโฆ
IVM award for quirkiest media appearance of 2024
— by Anne — December 2024 – At the IVM Christmas party, the PerfectSTORM team won the JWC Peereboom award for the quirkiest media appearance of the year! We received the price for an article in the Slovenian Delo newspaper: https://www.delo.si/novice/znanoteh/verizne-posledice-podnebne-krize Which was based on an interview with the EU media team: https://projects.research-and-innovation.ec.europa.eu/en/horizon-magazine/uncovering-ripple-effects-climate-crisis
Visit project partners UTEC Peru
Visit project partners UTEC Peru — by Alessia, Heidi, Dian & Anne — December 2024 – Our project partners from UTEC – Universidad de Ingenierรญa y Tecnologรญa, Lima visited IVM for two weeks in December. With Pedro Rau, Adriana Rojas Castro, and Andrรฉs Fernando Figueroa Curo we were diving into drought in the Andes, exploring Adrianaโs research on drought paradoxes in rural communities and Andresโ work on drought propagation in the Rimac basin. And of course we also did some nice social activities. Project dinner with both teams (Lima & Amsterdam) Adriana Rojas Castro presented her PerfectSTORM work in theโฆ
From the Amazon to the Andes: tracing water
From the Amazon to the Andes: tracing water — by Alessia & Heidi — June 2024: Over two intense weeks of fieldwork, we travelled with our amazing research assistants, Elsa Izaguirre and Bruno Gonzalo, and the UTEC research team, from the humid Amazon lowlands to the towering Andes. Tracing the rivers in reverse, we passed through diverse landscapes: from lush floodplains to high-altitude valleys, gathering stories of drought and floods and learning how shifting water patterns are transforming lives across these regions. Bajo Belen โ Heidi Mendoza and Elsa Izaguirre interviewing a group of fishermen Bajo Belรฉn โ The waterโฆ
PerfectSTORM’s Attendance at the EGU Conference 2024
From April 14 to 19, 2024, the General Assembly of the European Geosciences Union (EGU) took place in Vienna, Austria. Anne Van Loon, Marlies Barendrecht, and Alessia Matano represented the PerfectSTORM research group, presenting their work on the complex relationships between drought and flooding. On the Drought-Flood Conundrum: Do Droughts Cause More or Less Flooding? Anne gave a keynote presentation exploring whether drought leads to more or less flooding. This conundrum is rooted in two contrasting hydrological theories: Anne’s presentation, based on scientific literature, global data, qualitative case studies, and media reports, explored these opposing views. She highlighted the importanceโฆ
Funding
PerfectSTORM has received funding from the European Unionโs Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement number ERC-2020-StG 948601
Contact
Instituut voor Milieuvraagstukken (IVM) /
Institute for Environmental Studies
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
De Boelelaan 1111, 1081 HV Amsterdam
The Netherlands
PerfectSTORM 