Dries Hegger

Experience

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  Entrada Market Research

  Jan 1999 - Jan 2001

  Interviewer
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  Milieubedrijf 2000+

  Jan 2002 - Jan 2002

  Intern
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  Communicatiebureau de Lynx

  Jan 2003 - Apr 2003

  Project assistant

  Carrying out a research project on energy use in households.

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  Wageningen University

  Mar 2004 - Mar 2010

  My PhD research dealt with transitions in wastewater infrastructures in several Western European countries. These wastewater infrastructures are often criticized for consuming too much water, treating wastewater in an inefficient way and for their failure to reuse and recycle water and nutrients. Furthermore, maintenance of infrastructures is often lagging behind and there are hormone and medicine residues present in the effluent of wastewater treatment plants. From a development perspective it is often argued that the ‘WC-sewage combination’ has become a desirable status symbol for developing countries, and for that reason hampers the development of ‘appropriate’ sanitary infrastructures for the poor. The sustainable transformation of wastewater infrastructures is often portrayed as a choice between centralized and decentralized systems. I aimed, however, to look beyond this dichotomy and looked for ‘modernized mixtures’, win-win situations between both extremes.I carried out a comparative case study analysis of Dutch, German and Swedish pilot projects in which wastewater management technologies are experimented with in a domestic setting. Desk research, participatory observation and interviews with consumers and providers have been used to analyze innovation processes in various eco-villages and other new building areas.My research showed that innovation in wastewater infrastructures is much focused on developing technologies for solving sustainability problems, but that many projects fail to address the question for which problems the new technologies form a solution, how the problems can best be understood and who should play what role in solving the problems. Furthermore, the life-world of the domestic end-user should more often form the starting point: the wishes and demands of end-users concerning convenience, hygiene, esthetics and status provide insight in the opportunities and pitfalls for successful innovation in sanitation. Show less

  • Postdoctoral Researcher at the Environmental Policy Group

    Dec 2007 - Mar 2010

  • Education Coordinator of Mansholt Graduate School of Social Sciences

    Aug 2007 - Mar 2010

  • PhD Researcher at the Environmental Policy Group

    Mar 2004 - Nov 2007
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  Het Wagenings LEEFfestival

  Jan 2007 - now

  Co-organizer
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  Utrecht University

  Aug 2010 - now

  The Water, Climate and Future Deltas hub is a platform for scientists and external stakeholders to jointly work on ensuring the sustainability of our world’s deltas. At the hub, scientific experts from a broad range of disciplines cooperate directly with experts in the field to combine knowledge on natural system functioning with spatial planning, land and water governance and legislative frameworks. This allows for developing resilient delta management strategies, which is urgently needed to sustain the quality of life in these unique ecosystems. Show less TRANS-ADAPT focuses on bottom-up community based initiatives for flood risk management. The project focuses how the institutional conditions for realising such initiatives can be created as well as on identifying action perspectives for actors interested in realising such initiatives. Case studies in The Netherlands, Austria, Ireland and France will be analysed and evaluated and formative scenario analyses will be carried out together with actors involved in the case studies. My role is to coordinate Utrecht University's input in the project. Show less Carrying out a research project on co-production (by scientists and policy makers) of knowledge and the use of co-produced knowledge in research projects on global change and sustainability. The postdoc position is part of the NWO-funded INSPIRATOR project. INSPIRATOR stands for: Integrated analysis of the Science-Policy Interface in Research projects on global change and sustainability: implications for AcTORS involved in the co-production of knowledge. The project is carried out in close collaboration with ICIS-Maastricht. Show less

  • Associate Professor Regional Water and Climate Governance

    Nov 2023 - now

  • Board Member of the Water, Climate and Future Deltas Community

    Apr 2020 - now

  • Assistant Professor Environmental Governance

    Aug 2016 - Oct 2023

  • Coordinator Governance & Societal Transformations Track (BSc Global Sustainability Science)

    Sept 2017 - Aug 2020

  • Programme leader Bachelor Programme Environmental Studies (Milieumaatschappijwetenschappen)

    Sept 2017 - Aug 2020

  • Principal Investigator at the TRANS-ADAPT project on bottom-up initiatives for flood risk management

    Dec 2014 - May 2018

  • Postdoctoral Researcher Flood Risk Governance in Europe

    Sept 2012 - Jul 2016

  • Postdoctoral Researcher Knowledge Co-production

    Aug 2010 - Dec 2013
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  Earth System Governance Project

  May 2011 - now

  Earth System Governance — a global research alliance, is the largest social science research network in the area of governance and global environmental change. I am actively engaged in this network. Among other activities, I am one of the two coordinators of the Research Centre Utrecht of the global alliance of Earth System Governance Research Centres.

  • Senior Research Fellow

    Nov 2016 - now

  • Research fellow

    May 2011 - Nov 2016