About Klaas-Jan van Heeringen

Van Heeringen is a hydraulic engineer with a broad experience in both the water quantity and water quality aspects of urban and rural drainage and hydrology, as well as their real-time use in early warning systems. He joined Deltares in 1996 and participated in developing and applying various modeling software packages, with a personal emphasis on hydraulic modeling in combination with Real-Time Control and Water Quality.

His experience abroad includes projects in Egypt (control of El-Salam Irrigation Canal), Taiwan (1D and 2D hydraulic flood simulations), Nepal (management and control of Marchwar Lift Irrigation Project), Cambodia (Mekong River Flood Forecasting) and Indonesia (1D and 2D hydraulic flood simulations). Since 2005, he has been involved in the development of several flood early warning systems, with an increasing focus on the Real-Time Control aspects. In addition, he focusses on improving the cooperation between various water authorities in operational water management in the Netherlands as wells as in a cross-border context between German and Dutch authorities. In the last 5-10 years, his role in projects has become more that of a team leader than just being a specialist. From 2013 to 2015, he was the team-leader of the Hermes project for the Bonneville Power Administration (USA), a project that results into an operational modeling framework for reservoir operators. He was also the project manager of the project to build a new Flood Forecasting and Warning System for the riparian countries in the Sava River Basin, in South Eastern Europe. This system enables the five countries involved to take the right management decisions and implement operational measures to prevent and mitigate severe flood and drought situations on the basis of accurate forecasts of flows and discharges with a long lead time. He led the consortium which combined the best international expertise in flood and drought forecasting and early warning with strong local expertise and good working relationships with national and regional authorities. The system is officially in operation since October 2018, where it had been tested already for more than a year. The system focusses on being much more than an expert tool only: it facilitates the international cooperation between the 10 forecasting organizations.

In the Netherlands, he is the responsible for the development of the operational decision support systems to operate the sluices at Volkerak-Zoommeer en Kanaal Gent-Terneuzen to reduce the salt intrusion. And at some times, he will be flew in at any flood situation to assist operational water managers with his expertise.

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