Department of Environment

dr. Hendrik Wouters

Hendrik Wouters is specialized in urban-climate model development, climate and land-atmosphere interactions and global-to-local impacts of climate-change.

Hendrik WoutersBio

Climate scientist with a specific interest in the relation between urbanization, climate-change and local extremes, including heavy precipitation, heat waves, and drought propagation. I am currently a post-doctoral researcher on the ERC research project DRY–2–DRY on the investigation of drivers of drought propagation in the Research team: Hydrology and Climate. I obtained my master degree in physics at Ghent University. After following a post-graduate training in weather and climate modelling (also at Ghent), I started my doctoral research in urban climate and air quality modelling at the KU Leuven in collaboration with the Flemish Institute of Technological Research (VITO). I am the main developer of TERRA_URB, the urban canopy land-surface scheme of the COSMO atmospheric model. TERRA_URB is being used in many projects for urban climate modelling and urban weather forecasting inside and outside of Europe. I am co-chair of the EGU urban-climate session since 2014 and coordinator of the Urban Model Intercomparison Project of the CLM community. After obtaining my PhD in Science at KU Leuven, contributed to several research and governmental projects of high-resolution climate downscaling (MACCBET, CORDEX.be) and climate adaptation (DKA). I was the leading force behind the detailed future urban heat-stress scenarios for Belgium published as one of the key outcomes in the Climate Report of the Flanders Environment Agency.  

Contact

Address: Coupure links 653 - Room A2.010

               9000 Ghent, Belgium

Phone: +32 9 264 61 40

E-mail:

Trajectory (full CV here)

  • 2017 - Present: Post-doctoral research fellow – UGent
  • 2014 - Present: Post-doctoral research fellow – KU Leuven
  • 2015 - 2015: Academic Staff - UGent
  • 2010 - 2014: PhD. In Exact Sciences – KU Leuven + VITO
  • 2009 - 2010: Postgraduate Weather and Climate Modelling – Faculty of Sciences, UGent
  • 2006 - 2008: Msc. In Physics – Faculty of science, UGent

Recent and ongoing projects

  • DRY–2–DRY (ERC) – Do droughts self-propagate and self-intensify? (2017–2022)
  • REACT, Remote sensing for Epidemiology in African cities (2016 - 2017)
  • CORDEX.be – COordinated Regional Climate Downscaling EXperiment and beyond (2015 – 2017)
  • AEROCLOUD – How do aerosols and clouds affect the East Antarctic climate?

Selected publications (complete list here)

  • Wouters, H., Demuzere, M., Blahak, U., Fortuniak, K., Maiheu, B., Camps, J., Tielemans, D., Van Lipzig, N. (2016). The efficient urban canopy dependency parametrization (SURY) v1.0 for atmospheric modelling: description and application with the COSMO-CLM model for a Belgian summer. Geoscientific Model Development, 9(9), 3027-3054 (IF most recent : 3.55) Wouters_etal_GMD_2016_SURY-program.pdf Wouters_etal_GMD_2016.pdf
  • Trusilova, K., Schubert, S., Wouters, H., Früh, B., Grossman-Clarcke, S., Demuzere, M., Becker, P. (2016). The urban land use in the COSMO-CLM model: a comparison of three parameterizations for Berlin. Meteorologische Zeitschrift, 25(2), 231-244 (IF most recent : 1.91) Trusilova_etal_MZ_2015.pdf
  • Wouters, H., Demuzere, M., De Ridder, K., Van Lipzig, N. (2015). The impact of impervious water-storage parametrization on urban climate modelling. Urban Climate, 11, 24-50 Wouters_etal_UC_2015.pdf
  • Demuzere, M., Coutts, A., Göhler, M., Broadbent, A., Wouters, H., Van Lipzig, N., Gerbet, L. (2014). The implementation of biofiltration systems, rainwater tanks and urban irrigation in a single-layer urban canopy model. Urban Climate, 10(1), 148-170 Demuzere_etal_UC_2014.pdf
  • Wouters, H., De Ridder, K., Van Lipzig, N., Demuzere, M., Lauwaet, D. (2013). The diurnal evolution of the urban heat island of Paris: a model-based case study during Summer 2006. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 13, 8525-8541 (IF publication year : 5.3) (IF most recent : 5.11) Wouters_etal_ACP_2013.pdf
  • Wouters, H., De Ridder, K., Van Lipzig, N. (2012). Comprehensive Parametrization of Surface-Layer Transfer Coefficients for Use in Atmospheric Numerical Models. Boundary-Layer Meteorology, 145(3), 539-550 (IF publication year : 2.29) (IF most recent : 2.46) Wouters_etal_BLM_2012.pdf
  • De Ridder K., Maiheu B., Wouters H. & van Lipzig N. (2015), Indicatoren van het stedelijk hitte-eiland in Vlaanderen, study commissioned by the Flanders Environment Agency, MIRA, MIRA/2015/05, VITO and KU Leuven [scientific report on heat island effect - Dutch report with abstract in English]
  • Brouwers J., Peeters B., Van Steertegem, M., van Lipzig N., Wouters H., Beullens J., Demuzere M., Willems P., De Ridder K., Maiheu B., De Troch R., Termonia P.,Vansteenkiste Th., Craninx M., Maeten, W., Defloor W., Cauwenberghs K. (2015.MIRA Climate Report 2015, about observed and future climate changes in Flanders and Belgium. Flanders Environment Agency in collaboration with KU Leuven, VITO and RMI. Aalst, Belgium, 147 pages. VMM_2017_ClimateReport