Shape Africa’s peri-urban water futures—join TU Delft’s CaSS PhD integrating urbanism, planning, governance and engineering to advance resilient water infrastructures.
Peri-urban regions — the fast-growing zones at the edge of African cities — often fall between formal urban planning and rural infrastructure systems. As a PhD researcher, you will examine how decentralised water infrastructure (e.g. community-led or low-tech solutions) can be integrated into broader planning and governance systems, and under what institutional conditions these alternatives thrive. You will contribute to critical debates on spatial justice, infrastructure governance, and climate adaptation.
This position is inherently multi/transdisciplinary. You will be embedded in both the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences and the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment. Your supervisory team includes Dr. Roberto Rocco, Dr Job van der Werf, and Dr. Edo Abraham. You will collaborate closely with three other PhDs within the CaSS Water Security Flagship, each focusing on complementary aspects of climate-related water challenges. You will also engage with stakeholders such as planning authorities, utilities, NGOs, and community groups through workshops and dialogue sessions, ensuring that your findings translate into real-world policy impact.
This PhD position is part of the interdisciplinary Climate Safety & Security centre (CaSS) at TU Delft | Campus The Hague. This centre runs an ambitious and comprehensive programme that considers climate change and stability in an integrated manner, with focus on human security, security of supply of fundamental needs (water, food) and essential resources (energy, critical materials). The PhD-student will contribute to the flagship water security within CaSS. The successful candidate will work 1 day/week at Campus The Hague and will have the opportunity to collaborate with researchers from across TU Delft, as well as policy makers from (national) governments and (inter)national organisations in The Hague and beyond.
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