Nexusing Water, Energy and Food to Increase Resilience in the Cape Town Metropolitan Area

Prof. Dr. Jochen Monstadt

Professor of Governance of Urban Transitions and Chair of Spatial Planning at Utrecht University

Principal Investigator of the WEF project in Cape Town

Jochen Monstadt is professor of Governance of Urban Transitions and holds the Chair of Spatial Planning at the Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning at Utrecht University. His research and teaching interests have revolved around the contingent and place-based transformation patterns of cities and how these are mediated by technical infrastructures (energy, water, wastewater, solid waste, transportation, and ICTs). His specific interest is how the socio-technical design and governance of those critical systems shape the sustainability of cities in the global North and South.

Within the consortium he will contribute his international research expertise on the urban transition and governance of urban infrastructures in East Africa. The project will benefit from his extensive experience in coordinating collaborative research programs, e.g. as the director of an interdisciplinary program on urban infrastructures in Dar es Salaam and Nairobi and co-director of a program on the vulnerability and resilience of critical infrastructures. Beyond his own active involvement in the research, he will supervise the postdoctoral researcher at Utrecht University, and together with Mark Swilling monitor the project management and progress, coordinate the consortium’s collaboration and chair the advisory board.