Motivatie Jorn de Vos

This captures the essence of the RainOasis EngD project — reimagining rainwater as a resource to boost urban liveability and climate resilience. Though rainwater reuse dates back to the Neolithic era, modern cities are built to drain, not retain. As droughts and heatwaves intensify, Amsterdam stands out with its ‘radical greening’ approach — transforming streets, roofs, and squares into living systems that cool the city, boost biodiversity, and improve social wellbeing. Yet, economic and regulatory barriers still slow the innovation needed to secure the long-term resilience and effectiveness of this approach. 

This is where RainOasis makes the difference: turning data into direction. By translating model-based insights into practical, long-term guidelines that do not just show but also convince policymakers why adapting urban greening and irrigation practices is essential for liveability and climate resilience.

While similar studies address only parts of the puzzle – such as vegetation water demand or urban storage options – RainOasis integrates these at city scale and explores future scenarios. By combining soil and vegetation types, meteorological data, and present urban green infrastructure, the model delivers spatial and temporal insights on when, where, and how much irrigation is needed to prevent wilting or to maximise evapotranspiration and its ecosystem benefits. The concept of seasonal overarching.

Project-long and intense collaboration and co-creation with the client (Gemeente Amsterdam), knowledge holders (AMS Institute, WUR, and TUDelft) and industry (H2OWaternetwerk, Sensoterra) ensured both the scientific robustness and practical relevance of RainOasis. The foundation of the client network lied within the advisory panel, with which bi-monthly updates and meetings were held to discuss progress and cocreate the model and its focus. Thanks to this panel and numerous expert interviews, the model’s insights were distilled into its most valuable design output: the urban drought and green policy brief. 

To me, the policy brief embodies the essence of the EngD programme: creating societal impact through scientific design. It highlights that urban drought and green vitality must be integral to all future climate adaptation measures. It is partly due to this policy brief and my project that Amsterdam now has a dedicated urban drought climate team and is taking this policy note into consideration for future regulation development. 

Within RainOasis, innovation and impact are driven by strong collaboration. RainOasis deserves the KIVI EngD Award because it goes beyond mere academic progression — turning scientific insight into actionable strategies for policymakers and practitioners. It exemplifies how future cities can be designed to anticipate, adapt to, and thrive under the growing pressures of climate change water storage shows how rainwater harvested in wet periods can be buffered and stored to meet much of the irrigation demand during prolonged dry spells, depending on future climate change development.