Daphne van der Wal is full Professor of Spatial Water Quality and Aquatic Systems in the Department of Water Resources, Faculty of Geo-Information and Earth Observation (ITC) of University of Twente, Enschede. In addition, she is senior scientist at NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, in the Department of Estuarine and Delta Systems, Yerseke. 

Her background is in physical geography. She obtained her PhD in 1999 from the University of Amsterdam, and was a postdoctoral research fellow from 1 Oct 1999 until 1 Jan 2002 at Royal Holloway, University of London. In Mar 2002, she joined the former Centre for Estuarine and Marine Ecology in Yerseke, since 2012 part of NIOZ.

Daphne van der Wal is an expert in earth observation of coastal, estuarine, and delta systems. Using earth observation, her main interest is in understanding the functioning of aquatic systems, with focus on the physical processes in the coastal zone and their interaction with biology. Topics also include the response of aquatic systems to climate change and human impact, as well as risks (e.g., flooding) and services (e.g., nature-based flood risk reduction) of the coastal zone.

Approaches include satellite, airborne and near-surface remote sensing in the optical, radar/SAR, and TIR domain, combined with statistical modelling, use of radiative transfer models, and big data analyses.

Key qualifications: Remote sensing, geo-information, spatial patterns, time-series analyses, coastal processes, river-sea interactions, water quality, wetlands, bio-geomorphology, morphology, sediment dynamics, aeolian dynamics, nature-based solutions