Duties
Sustainable management of water resources, catchment area planning, multi-objective assessments, flood risk, water course regulation
Subject area
Education and academic titles
Doctor of Science in Technology (multi-objective decision analysis) (2011), Aalto University
Research and expertise
I lead the Water Risks group within the Built Environment Solutions unit and have over 30 years of experience in projects related to multi-objective water resources management and environmental assessments. I have applied Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) to support structured and collaborative planning in more than 30 projects and have conducted research on its use in environmental decision-making during my time as a scientist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag) in 2015–2016. My current research focuses on multi-objective catchment planning, evaluating the multiple benefits of nature-based solutions, and applying systematic, resilience-matrix-based approaches to promote sustainable and climate-resilient water and land use management.
The Water Risks group's tasks include the national development of flood and drought risk management planning as well as expert services in the implementation of the Floods Directive for the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and Regional State Administrative Agencies. Our toolkit includes methods that support interactive design and contribute to overall sustainability assessment and finding acceptable solutions for different parties. We also provide expert services in the development of water regulations and their impact assessment.
Background
From my background education I am a civil engineer. In 2011, I completed my doctoral thesis for Aalto University, Systems Analysis Laboratory. In the thesis, I summarised 20 years experiences of applying Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) in participatory water resources management.
I have been a project manager in many nationally important water resources management projects and participated EU working group which developed guidelines to heavily modified waterbodies. I have organized training courses related to the use of MCDA in environmental planning and decision making in Georgia and Laos.
Past projects
- Comprehensive assessment of climate measures in catchments - with system analysis towards carbon-neutral land use (SysteemiHiili)
- Vitality from the Kainuu Lakes to the Gulf of Bothnia - Oulujoki watershed vision 2035 (ARVOVESI)
- Right tools for the right problems – Improving environmental planning with portfolio decision analysis (PORTRIGHT)
Methods
- Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA)
- Value-focused thinking
- Problem structuring methods
- Resilience matrix (Linkov)