About Arjan Wijdeveld

Arjan is chair of the SedNet working group on Sediments in Circular Economy, looking at international examples of beneficial sediment use and legislation frameworks that can stimulate or hamper the use as sediment as resource. He is also member of the CEDA environment-commission, and OSPAR EIHA observer for CEDA.

In 2019 his promotion was on scientific progress in sediment and water quality assessment. He developed and deployed new models to evaluate the chemical status of waterbodies based on realistic exposure risks to organisms.

He was involved when in 2011 the role of geochemistry in the behavior of mining material and mine tailings (oil sands, alum, iron ore) became a major topic. By combining research on the physical properties of the ores with geochemical characterization, a new international shipping standard for the Transportable Moisture Limit (TML) for iron ore was derived an accepted in 2015. The test protocol is currently (2016) extended to test the behavior of aluminum ores during shipping.

Arjan participates in the development of complex chemical numeric models to assess the ecotoxicological risk of heavy metals in surface water and sediments. His knowledge has contributed to the successful participation of Deltares in a variety of EU 6th and 7th Framework programs on ecotoxicological stress (REBECCA, FLOODSITE and MODELKEY) and EU INTERREG programs CEAMaS and SURICATES.

In (2007 – 2010) Arjan was co-pi for a research program in Singapore, the Aquatic Science Centre Pandan (a joint venture between Deltares and the National University of Singapore).