The Netherlands

Martijn de Klerk MSc
Project manager

M. (Martijn) de Klerk (MSc.) is financial manager and flying sensor expert at FutureWater with over six years of working experience in managing and executing international projects in the fields of water management, irrigation and agriculture. He received his master degree in Environmental Sciences at Wageningen University, where he gained broad experience in planning and organizing projects, and worked both as a consultant and scientific researcher. Countries of work experience include Spain, Mozambique, Kenya, Ghana and the Netherlands. Technical activities embrace drone and satellite image processing and interpretation, GIS analysis, and water allocation modelling, both at the level of a single field and an entire river basin.

Over the past years Martijn had a predominant role as project manager of FutureWater’s ThirdEye projects in Mozambique, Kenya and Ghana. In these projects, successful local enterprises were established that provide a low-cost drone service to small- and largescale farmers. The high-resolution drone images, which are made by trained local operators, indicate crop stress, around ten days before it can be detected by the naked eye. This early-warming decision tool gives farmers the possibility to take preventive measures, reducing crop loss and thus increasing yields and farmer’s income.

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Jan van Til MA
Operational Manager

Jan van Til (MA.) is operational manager of HiView. Jan is a BNUC-S certificated pilot of remotely piloted aircrafts (RPAs). Managing several HiView projects has made him an experienced field officer. Jan van Til has been involved in the ThirdEye project as project manager and flying sensor trainer for more than 3 years. Moreover, he has a large expertise as field officer and operational manager at several international projects. Jan combines his HiView activities with his career as musician at ChanteLaVie. Jan: “The current development in Flying Sensors enables HiView to provide data and information at an unprecedented level of quality!”

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Dr. Jonna van Opstal
Senior Water Productivity Expert

Jonna van Opstal (Ph.D.) holds a degree in irrigation engineering and water management. During her doctoral research at Utah State University she focused on evaluating irrigation district performance using field measurements (irrigation evaluations, flux towers), energy balance modelling, and irrigation simulation modelling. Recent major international projects she managed and executed, focus on crop water productivity analysis using open access spatial data. These were both research and capacity building projects in various countries mainly on the African continent and the Middle East. Her ambition is to enhance interactions between science and practitioners in the field of agricultural water management, using innovative spatial analysis tools.

Reinier Koster
Web Developer

Reinier Koster is a hydrologist with nearly 4 years of experience in surface water and geohydrology. Countries of work experience include The Netherlands, Ghana and Egypt. Reinier has advanced skills in hydraulic and hydrological modeling and GIS analysis using a variety of tools (e.g. Sobek2 (1D, 1D-2D), Sobek3, iMOD, Groundwater Vistas, ArcGIS, R, Python). Reinier is currently a consultant / researcher Hydrology at the FutureWater office in Wageningen.

Sam van Til MSc
Technical Expert

After my studies in Architecture at the TUDelft I decided to find an alternative path towards building a better future. With a focus on innovation I founded vanPlestik together with Nout Kooij. Starting small our aim is big. At vanPlestik our aim is to accelerate the plastic recycling practice worldwide. Developing our 3D-printing technology in the Netherlands our aim is to expand into the developing world where the need for affordable, high-quality recycling is huge. He also familiarised himself with all technical aspects of the flying operations and is now our operational manager for the teams in Xai-Xai and Chókwè, also providing training.

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Dr. Peter Droogers
Strategic Advisor

Dr. Peter Droogers is an expert on integrated water resources management at different spatial scales with emphasize on water for food issues, climate change, decision support systems, simulation modeling in combination with data mining and remote sensing. Peter has about 20 years of experience working in The Netherlands and overseas (as a resident in Sri Lanka and Turkey). Non-resident assignments include: Albania, Algeria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Burundi, Cambodia, China, Colombia, Denmark, Ethiopia, France, Gambia, Georgia, Germany, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Mexico, Morocco, Netherlands, Niger, Pakistan, Portugal, Qatar, Rwanda, South Africa, South Sudan, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Thailand, Turkey, Uganda, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, and USA. He has worked at various institutions and companies including Wageningen University (Netherlands), International Irrigation Management Institute (Turkey), International Water Management Institute (Sri Lanka), SEI (Sweden), HiView (Netherlands), and FutureWater (Netherlands). Peter is part-time lecturer at several universities and has written over 200 publications of which 60 appeared in peer-reviewed journals (h-index of 25). He is Editor in Chief of Agricultural Water Management and reviewer for a number of Journals. Peter is external advisor to various projects and institutions including: World Bank, European Commission, FAO and National Science Foundations.

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Gijs Simons MSc
Scientific Advisor

Gijs Simons is a hydrologist and remote sensing expert with over ten years of experience in managing and executing international projects in the field of water resources management. Countries of work experience include Cambodia, Egypt, Ethiopia, Lao PDR, Madagascar, Mali, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nepal, The Netherlands, Philippines, Romania, Spain, Sudan, Uganda, and Vietnam. Gijs has advanced skills in hydrological modelling, satellite image interpretation and GIS analysis using a variety of tools (e.g. SPHY, SWAT, WEAP, InVEST, ArcGIS, QGIS, PCRaster, Python, R, Google Earth Engine) on the full range of spatial scales from a single agricultural field to an entire river basin. Gijs is the lead author and co-author of many publications, both peer-reviewed papers and technical reports. In addition, he has developed and conducted multiple training courses and workshops on remote sensing, GIS and hydrological modelling.

Gijs is currently the managing director of the FutureWater office in Wageningen, as well as a PhD researcher at Delft University of Technology focusing on water (re)use across a river basin on different spatial scales.

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Dr. Johannes Hunink
Business Advisor

Dr. Johannes Hunink is a senior hydrologist with fifteen years of international experience in decision support studies for water resources management. He is experienced in the use of simulation models and remote sensing for the assessment of water-related climate risks, flood and drought mitigation measures, and water-related ecosystem-services. Trained as a computational geographer, he is skilled in integrating large datasets and satellite data into numerical tools to support strategic decision making. Johannes has been project manager and leading analyst in a wide range of research and consultancy projects around the world, including Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bolivia, Cambodia, Chile, Ethiopia, Gabon, Georgia, Indonesia, Kenya, Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan, Laos, Mauritius, Morocco, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Thailand, Uganda, Uzbekistan, Vietnam and Zambia. Currently he is Managing Director of FutureWater´s office in Cartagena, Spain.