From the start of this year onward I, Daan Hulskemper, will be working on the AdaptCoast project as a PhD candidate at Delft University of Technology. My background lies in earth surface processes, and optical and laser remote sensing. After getting my Bachelor’s degree in Earth Sciences at Utrecht University, I did my Master’s at Delft University of Technology, in Geoscience and Remote Sensing. Here I graduated on the detection and classification of surface change dynamics in the point cloud time series acquired at Kijkduin (link). I look forward to further dive into this topic as part of my PhD journey.

My first duty as a PhD candidate will be to further explore methods for automated extraction and characterization of surface change dynamics from point cloud time series, acquired with the permanent laser scanner setups at the various CoastScan locations. Thus, expanding the knowledge and applicability of the data acquired as part of CoastScan. We will also enrich these datasets with LiDAR data acquired with a drone, and possibly other sources. Additionally, I will look into the prediction of topography changes under variations in human and natural forcing; exploring the causalities between the forcings and consequent short-term surface dynamics on the beach.