University of Wageningen, Soil Geography and Landscape Group, The Netherlands

Philip S.J. Minderhoud is specialized in subsidence in deltaic areas. He received a PhD for his dissertation titled: The Sinking Mega delta: Present and future subsidence of the Vietnamese Mekong delta at Utrecht University within the Dutch-Vietnamese Rise and Fall project. During his PhD research (2014-2018) he studied delta subsidence in the Mekong delta by integrating data and methods from various scientific disciplines, including geology, hydrogeology, geotechnical engineering, and remote sensing. As Postdoc within the ‘Water, Climate and Future Deltas’ research hub of Utrecht University (2019-2020) he focused on developing pathways to a sustainable future for subsiding deltas impacted by climate change and high rates of relative sea level rise. As subsidence expert at the Deltares Research Institute he has been involved in a range of applied science projects, several located in Vietnam, translating science on sinking deltas towards policy. Currently, he is a EU Marie-Curie Research Fellow at the University of Padova, Italy in the department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering on the MSCA-IF Project: InSPiRED – Improving Subsidence PREdictions in Delta systems. This project aims to bridge the gap between geosciences and geoengineering and improving our numerical capacities to predict future relative sea-level rise in deltas. He is also Assistant Professor at Wageningen University, Netherlands in the Soil Geography and Landscape group. In his research and lectures he focusses on subsidence in deltas, predicting relative sea-level rise and understanding fundamental delta functioning from a systems perspective including natural and anthropogenic land subsidence.

Bibliography:
  • Shirzaei, M., Freymueller, J., Törnqvist, T.E., Galloway, D.L., Dura, T., Minderhoud, P.S.J., 2021. Measuring, modelling and projecting coastal land subsidence. Nature Reviews Earth and Environment, 2: 40-58.
  • Minderhoud, P.S.J., Middelkoop, H., Erkens, G., Stouthamer, E. (2020). Groundwater extraction may drown mega-delta: Projections of extraction-induced subsidence and elevation of the Mekong delta for the 21th century. Environmental Research Communications.
  • Minderhoud, P.S.J., Coumou, L., Erkens, G., Middelkoop, H., Stouthamer, E. (2019). Mekong delta much lower than previously assumed in sea-level rise impact assessments. Nature Communications, doi:10.1038/s41467-019-11602-1.
  • Minderhoud, P.S.J., Coumou, L., Erban, L., Middelkoop, H., Stouthamer, E., Addink, E.A. (2018). The relation between land use and subsidence in the Vietnamese Mekong delta. Science of the Total Environment, doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.03.372.
  • Minderhoud, P.S.J., Erkens, G., Pham, V.H., Bui, V.T., Erban, L., Kooi, H., Stouthamer, E. (2017). Impacts of 25 years of groundwater extraction on subsidence in the Mekong delta, Vietnam. Environmental Research Letters, 12, doi:10.1088/1748-9326/aa7146.