About Perry de Louw

Dr Perry de Louw is an expert on groundwater systems and groundwater management and has been working at Deltares and its predecessor TNO since 1995.

He graduated as a physical geographic hydrologist at Utrecht University and received his PhD at the Free University in Amsterdam in 2013 on the topic of saline seepage in deltas.

For his thesis, he used measurements and models to image the saline seepage systems in the deep reclamation areas of the western Netherlands and the thin rainwater lenses in saline seepage areas.

His most significant finding was that seepage (highly concentrated form of seepage through cracks and holes in the sealing aquifer), is the main source of salinisation in deep polders.

Understanding groundwater systems using field measurements, field experiments and groundwater models, diagnosing the issues and then defining integrated and innovative solutions characterise his work as a groundwater expert.

He does this in applied research projects in both the coastal area and the high sandy soils of the Netherlands where problems such as subsidence, salinisation, drought and desiccation of natural areas play a role. In the many applied research projects, he works together with other (research) institutes, Water Boards, Provinces, Ministries, farmers and nature organisations.

Within Deltares, he leads the research programme Sea and Coastal Systems where he is responsible for the research around the so-called small islands states (SIDS) that are very vulnerable to sea level rise, climate change and depletion of fresh (ground) resources. His knowledge of groundwater systems is frequently used abroad for 'water security' issues in countries such as Azerbaijan, Singapore, Colombia and India.

One day a week, he works as a guest researcher at Wageningen University, linking scientific and applied research and supervising several PhD students.