Dr. Eng. Wolter van der Kooij

Position: Professor
Professorship: Agricultural Water Management
Email: w.van.der.kooij@aeres.nl
Telephone number: +31 64 78 70 058
Social media: LinkedIn

After studying Landscape Design at Wageningen UR, Wolter van der Kooij obtained his doctorate with research in the field of spatial planning and landscape architecture. He has lectured on these subjects at Aeres University of Applied Sciences in Dronten for many years. Subsequently, he became the team leader of various teaching teams, coordinated the graduation phase, was responsible for many accreditations, and became the coordinator of quality management. For many years, he has also been a member of the board of the Nature and Environment Federation Flevoland and the Zuiderzeeland Water Board. Since 2023, he once more involved himself with the board of the Water Board.

In the Agricultural Water Management professorship, Wolter focuses on both the qualitative and the quantitive management of water in rural areas. His objective for this professorship, is to contribute to sustainable agriculture by encouraging (future) farmers to take action. He intends to achieve this by providing them with insight into the effects on the environment of their activities. He plans to provide farmers with the opportunity of regulating the water levels in their own ditches and to raise their level of awareness of the water quality in those ditches. Because of this, he expects that they will adapt the way they work. He also aims to share best practices and to integrate this into the programmes at Aeres. Ultimately, his goal is to bring about positive change. He is convinced that the focus should be on encouraging farmers to act positively instead of punishing them for negative behaviour.