GD
Geodynamics

Bastian van den Bout

Bastian van den Bout started his studies in physics and applied mathematics at Utrecht University. During his MSc, he studied soil erosion and land degradation in Ethiopia, followed by an internship at Twente University in soil erosion modelling. In 2016, he joined the faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation to pursue doctoral studies in natural hazards. Here, he focused on understanding the complex interactions that occur when multiple natural hazards occur simultaneously. Examples are earthquake induced landslides, or tropical cyclones inducing combined flooding and debris flows. During his studies, he developed new modelling tools that can analyse and predict such multi-hazard events. As these features, many complex processes, new methods were invented to predict their behaviour numerically. Part of this is in the past years, he was able to apply these methods in places such as Tajikistan and the Caribbean Island Dominica, to provide governments with hazard information crucial for disaster risk reduction. Additionally, the developed methods are now being used by other scientists to study the complexity of natural hazards. In 2020, the dissertation entitled “Integrated physically -based multi-hazard modelling” was awarded a Cum Laude distinction. Currently, he is proud father of two daughters and a son, and is working as a researcher at the University of Twente to find better methods to predict the complex behaviour of natural hazard, and benefit the protection of people at risk.